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THE 

• 

WORKS 


OF       * 


SIR  WALTER  RALEGH,  KT. 

NOW  FIRST  COLLECTED  : 

TO  WHICH  ARE  PREFIXED 

THE  LIVES  OF  THE  AUTHOR, 

BY  OLDYS  AND  BIRCH. 


IN   EIGHT  VOLUMES. 


VOL.  IV. 
HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD. 

BOOK  II.  CHAP.  13,  5.—  28. 


b  ^ 


OXFORD,  •% 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS. 

MDCCCXXIX. 


PR 
2. 

Pit 


THE   FIRST   PART 


OF  THE 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


WORLD: 

ENTREATING  OF  THE 

TIMES   FROM  THE   BIRTH   OF  ABRAHAM  TO   THE 
DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  OF  SOLOMON. 


BOOK  II.  CONTINUED. 


CHAP.  XIII. 

Of  the  memorable  things  that  happened  in  the  world  from 
the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  war  of  Troy;  which  was  about 
the  time  qfJephtha. 

^ 

SECT.  V. 

Of  Gideon,  and  of  Dadalus,  Sphinx,  Minos,  and  others  that  lived 
in  this  age. 

JL/EBORA  and  Barac  being  dead,  the  Midianites,  assisted 
by  the  Amalekites,  infested  Israel.  For  when  under  a  judge 
who  had  held  them  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  they  had 
enjoyed  any  quiet  or  prosperity,  the  judge  was  no  sooner 
dead,  than  they  turned  to  their  former  impious  idolatry. 
Therefore  now  the  neighbouring  nations  did  so  master  them 
in  a  short  time,  (the  hand  of  God  being  withheld  from  their 
defence,)  as  to  save  themselves  they  P  crept  into  caves  of 

P  Judg.  vi. 
RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  D  d 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  mountains,  and  other  the  like  places  of  hardest  access ; 
their  enemies  possessing  all  the  plains  and  fruitful  valleys ; 
and  in  harvest  time  by  themselves,  and  the  multitude  of 
their  cattle,  destroying  all  that  grew  up,  covering  the  fields 
as  thick  as  grasshoppers;  which  servitude  lasted  seven 

years. 

Then  the  Lord  by  his  angel  stirred  up  q  Gideon  the  son 
of  Joash,  afterwards  called  Jerubbaal;  whose  fear  and  un 
willingness,  and  how  it  pleased  God  to  hearten  him  in  his 
enterprise,  it  is  both  largely  and  precisely  set  down  in  the 
holy  scriptures:  as  also  how  it  pleased  God  by  a  few  select 
persons,  rnamely  300  out  of  32,000  men,  to  make  them 
know  that  he  only  was  the  Lord  of  hosts.  Each  of  these 
300,  by  Gideon's  appointment,  carried  a  trumpet,  and  light 
in  a  pitcher,  instruments  of  more  terror  than  force,  with 
which  he  gave  the  great  army  of  their  enemies  an  alarum ; 
who  hearing  so  loud  a  noise,  and  seeing  (at  the  crack  of  so 
many  pitchers  broken)  so  many  lights  about  them,  esteeming 
the  army  of  Israel  to  be  infinite,  and  strucken  with  a  sudden 
fear,  they  all  fled  without  a  stroke  stricken ;  and  were 
slaughtered  in  great  numbers,  two  of  their  princes  being 
made  prisoners  and  slain.  In  his  return,  the  Ephraimites 
began  to  quarrel  with  Gideon,  because  he  made  war  with 
out  their  assistance,  being  then  greedy  of  glory,  the  victory 
being  gotten  ;  who,  if  Gideon  had  failed,  and  fallen  in  the 
enterprise,  would  no  doubt  have  held  themselves  happy  by 
being  neglected.  But  Gideon  appeasing  them  with  a  mild 
answer,  followed  after  the  enemy,  in  which  pursuit  being 
tired  with  travel,  and  weary  even  with  the  slaughtering  of 
his  enemies,  he  desired  relief  from  the  inhabitants  of  Suc- 
coth,  to  the  end  that  (his  men  being  refreshed)  he  might 
overtake  the  other  two  kings  of  the  Midianites,  which  had 
saved  themselves  by  flight.  For  they  were  four  princes  of 
the  nations  which  had  invaded  and  wasted  Israel ;  to  wit, 
Oreb  and  Zeeb,  which  were  taken  already,  and  Zebah  and 
Salmunna,  which  fled. 

Gideon  being  denied  by  them  of  Succoth,  sought  the  like 

.  r  judges  vi<  and  yii% 


CHAP.  xiir.  OF  THE  WORLD.  403 

relief  from  the  inhabitants  of  Penuel,  who  in  like  sort  re 
fused  to  succour  him.  To  both  of  these  places  he  threatened 
therefore  the  revenge,  which  in  his  return  from  the  prosecution 
of  the  other  two  princes  he  performed ;  to  wit,  that  he  would 
tear  the  flesh  of  those  of  Succoth  with  thorns  and  briers, 
and  destroy  the  inhabitants  and  city  of  Penuel.  Now  why 
the  people  of  these  two  cities  should  refuse  relief  to  their 
brethren  the  Israelites,  especially  after  so  great  a  victory,  if 
I  may  presume  to  make  conjecture,  it  seems  likely,  first,  that 
those  cities  set  over  Jordan,  and  in  the  way  of  all  invasions 
to  be  made  by  the  Moabites,  and  Ammonites,  and  Midian- 
ites  into  Israel,  had  either  made  their  own  peace  with  those 
nations,  and  were  not  spoiled  by  them  ;  or  else  they  know 
ing  that  Zeba  and  Salmunna  were  escaped  with  a  great  part 
of  their  army,  might  fear  their  revenge  in  the  future.  Se 
condly,  it  may  be  laid  to  the  condition  and  dispositions  of 
these  men,  as  it  is  not  rare  to  find  of  the  like  humour  in  all 
ages.  For  there  are  multitudes  of  men,  especially  of  those 
which  follow  the  war,  that  both  envy  and  malign  others,  if 
they  perform  any  praiseworthy  actions  for  the  honour  and 
safety  of  their  own  country,  though  themselves  may  lie  as 
sured  to  bear  a  part  of  the  smart  of  contrary  success.  And 
such  malicious  hearts  can  rather  be  contented  that  their 
prince  and  country  should  suffer  hazard,  and  want,  than  that 
such  men  as  they  mislike  should  be  the  authors  or  actors  of 
any  glory  or  good  to  either. 

Now  Gideon,  how  or  wheresoever  it  were  that  he  re 
freshed  himself  and  his  weary  and  hungry  soldiers,  yet  he 
followed  the  opportunity,  and  pursued  his  former  victory  to 
the  uttermost :  and  finding  Zeba  and  Salmunna  in  s  Karkor, 
(suspecting  no  further  attempt  upon  them,)  he  again  sur 
prised  them,  and  slaughtered  those  15,000  remaining ;  hav 
ing  put  to  the  sword  in  the  former  attempt  120,000,  and 
withal  he  took  Zeba  and  Salmunna  prisoners;  whom,  be- 
-cause  themselves  had  executed  Gideon's  brethren  before  at 
Tabor,  he  caused  to  be  slain ;  or  (as  it  is  written)  at  their 
own  request  slew  them  with  his  own  hands :  his  son,  whom 
*  A  place  in  Basan,  as  it  is  thought,  Judg.  viii.  10. 
Dd  2 


404  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

he  first  commanded  to  do  it,  refusing  it ;  and  in  his  return 
from  the  consummation  of  this  marvellous  victory,  he  took 
revenge  of  the  elders  of  Succoth  and  of  the  citizens  of  Pe- 
nuel ;  forgiving  no  offence  committed  against  him,  either  by 
strangers  or  by  his  brethren  the  Israelites.  But  such  mercy 
as  he  shewed  to  others,  his  own  children  found  soon  after 
his  death,  according  to  that  which  hath  been  said  before. 
The  debts  of  cruelty  and  mercy  are  never  left  unsatisfied ; 
for  as  he  slew  the  seventy  elders  of  Succoth  with  great  and 
unusual  torments,  so  were  his  own  seventy  sons,  all  but  one, 
murdered  by  his  own  bastard  Abimelech.  The  like  analogy 
is  observed  by  the  rabbins,  in  the  greatest  of  the  plagues 
which  God  brought  upon  the  Egyptians,  who  having  caused 
the  male  children  of  the  Hebrews  to  be  slain,  others  of  them 
to  be  cast  into  the  river  and  drowned ;  God  rewarded  them 
even  with  the  like  measure,  destroying  their  own  firstborn 
by  his  angel,  and  drowning  Pharaoh  and  his  army  in  the 
Red  sea.  And  hereof  a  world  of  examples  might  be  given, 
both  out  of  the  scriptures  and  other  histories. 

In  the  end,  so  much  did  the  people  reverence  Gideon  in 
the  present  for  this  victory,  and  their  own  deliverance,  as 
they  offered  him  the  sovereignty  over  them,  and  to  establish 
him  in  the  government;  which  he  refused,  answering,  / 
will  not  reign  over  you,  neither  shall  my  child  reign  over 
you,  but  the  Lord  shall  &c.  But  he  desired  the  people, 
that  they  would  bestow  on  him  the  golden  earrings  which 
every  man  had  gotten.  For  the  Ismaelites,  neighbours, 
and  mixed  with  the  Midianites,  used  to  wear  them:  the 
weight  of  all  which  was  a  thousand  and  seven  hundred 
shekels  of  gold,  which  makes  of  ours  2380  pounds,  if  we 
follow  the  account  of  the  shekel  vulgar.  And  because  he 
converted  that  gold  into  an  u  ephod,  a  garment  of  gold, 
blue  silk,  purple,  scarlet,  and  fine  linen,  belonging  to  the 
high  priest  only,  and  set  up  the  same  in  his  own  city  of 
Ophra,  or  Ephra,  which  drew  Israel  to  idolatry,  the  same 
was  the  destruction  of  Gideon  and  his  house. 

There  was  another  kind  of  ephod  besides  this  of  the  high 

tt  Exod.  xxviii.  Judg.  viii.  28. 


CHAP.  xiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  405 

priests  which  the  Levites  used,  and  so  did  David  when  he 
danced  before  the  ark,  and  Samuel  while  he  was  yet  young, 
which  was  made  of  linen  only. 

Now  if  any  man  demand  how  it  was  possible  for  Gideon 
with  300  men  to  destroy  120,000  of  their  enemies,  and  after 
ward  15,000  which  remained,  we  may  remember,  that  al 
though  Gideon  with  300  gave  the  first  alarm,  and  put  the 
Midianites  in  rout  and  disorder,  yet  all  the  rest  of  the  army 
came  into  the  slaughter  and  pursuit. ;  for  it  is  written,  x  That 
the  men  of  Israel  being  gathered  together  out  of  Nephtali, 
and  out  of  Asher,  and  out  ofManasse,  pursued  after  the 
Midianites :  for  this  army  Gideon  left  in  the  tents  behind 
him,  when  lie  went  down  to  view  the  army  of  his  enemies, 
who  with  the  noise  of  his  300  trumpets  came  after  him  to 
the  execution. 

There  lived  with  Gideon  JSgeus  the  son  of  Pandion, 
who  reigned  in  Athens;  Euristheus  king  of  Mycenae;  Atreus 
and  Thyestes,  the  sons  of  Pelops,  who  bare  dominion  over  a 
great  part  of  Peloponnesus ;  and  after  the  death  of  Euris 
theus  the  kingdom  of  Mycenae  fell  into  the  hand  of  Atreus. 
This  is  that  Atreus,  who,  holding  his  brother  in  jealousy,  as 
an  attempter  both  of  his  wife  and  crown,  slew  the  children 
of  Thyestes,  and  causing  their  flesh  to  be  dressed,  did  there 
with  feast  their  father.  But  this  cruelty  was  not  unre- 
venged.  For  both  Atreus  and  his  son  Agamemnon  were 
slain  by  a  base  son  of  Thyestes,  yea  the  grandchildren  and 
all  the  lineage  of  Atreus  died  by  the  same  sword. 

In  Gideon's  time  also  those  things  were  supposed  to  have 
been  done  which  are  written  of  Daedalus  and  Icarus.  Dae 
dalus,  they  say,  having  slain  his  nephew  Attalus,  fled  to  Mi 
nos,  king  of  Crete,  for  succour,  where  for  his  excellent  work 
manship  he  was  greatly  esteemed,  having  made  for  Minos  a 
labyrinth  like  unto  that  of  Egypt.  Afterwards  he  was  said 
to  have  framed  an  artificial  cow  for  Pasiphae  the  queen,  that 
she,  being  in  love  with  a  fair  bull,  might  by  putting  herself 
into  the  cow  satisfy  her  lust,  a  thing  no  less  unnatural  than 
incredible,  had  not  that  shameless  emperor  Domitian  ex- 

x  Judges  vii.  23. 


406  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

hibited  the  like  beastly  spectacle  openly  before  the  people  of 
Rome  in  his  amphitheatre,  on  purpose  as  may  seem  to  verify 
the  old  fable.  For  so  it  appears  by  those  verses  of  Martial., 
wherein  the  flattering  poet  magnifieth  the  abominable  show 
as  a  goodly  pageant  in  those  vicious  times : 

Junctam  Pasiphaen  Dictceo,  credite,  tauro 

Vidimus ;  accepit  fabula  priscafidem. 
Nee  se  miretur,  Casar,  longava  vetustas: 

Quicquid  fama  canit,  ddnat  arena  tibi. 

But  concerning  that  which  is  reported  of  Pasiphae,  Ser- 
vius  makes  a  less  unhonest  construction  of  it,  thinking  that 
Daedalus  was  of  her  counsel,  and  her  pander  for  the  enticing 
of  a  secretary  of  Minos  called  Taurus,  which  signifieth  a 
bull,  who  begat  her  with  child,  and  that  she  being  deli 
vered  of  two  sons,  the  one  resembling  Taurus,  the  other  her 
husband  Minos,  it-  was  feigned  that  she  was  delivered  of  the 
monster  Minotaur,  half  a  man  and  half  a  bull.  But  this 
practice  being  discovered,  and  Daedalus  appointed  to  be 
slain,  he  fled  out  of  Crete  to  Cocalus,  king  of  Sicily ;  in 
which  passage  he  made  such  expedition,  as  it  was  feigned 
that  he  fashioned  wings  for  himself  and  his  son  to  transport 
them.  For  whereas  Minos  pursued  him  with  boats,  which 
had  oars  only,  Daedalus  framed  sails  both  for  his  own  boat 
and  for  his  sons,  by  which  he  outwent  those  that  had  him 
in  chase.  Upon  which  new  invention  Icarus  bearing  him 
self  overbold,  was  overborne  and  drowned. 

It  is  also  written  of  Daedalus,  that  he  made  images  that 
could  move  themselves  and  go,  because  he  carved  them  with 
legs,  arms,  and  hands;  whereas  those  that  preceded  him 
could  only  present  the  body  and  head  of  those  men  whom 
they  cared  to  counterfeit;  and  yet  the  workmanship  was 
esteemed  very  rare.  But  Plutarch,  who  had  seen  some  of 
those  that  were  called  the  images  of  Daedalus,  found  them 
exceeding  rude. 

With  y  Gideon  also  flourished  Linus  the  Theban,  the  son 
of  Apollo  and  Terpsichore,  who  instructed  Thamaris,  Or- 
y  Herind.  Plat.  Paus.  1.  9. 


CHAP.  xiri.  OF  THE  WORLD.  407 

pheus,  and  Hercules.  He  wrate  of  the  creation,  of  the  sun 
and  moon's  course,  and  of  the  generation  of  living  crea 
tures  ;  but  in  the  end  he  was  slain  by  Hercules,  his  scholar, 
with  his  own  harp. 

Again,  in  this  age  those  things  spoken  of  z  Sphinx  and 
CEdipus  are  thought  to  have  been  performed.  This  Sphinx 
being  a  great  robber  by  sea  and  land,  was  by  the  Corinthian 
army,  led  by  CEdipus,  overcome.  But  that  which  was 
written  of  her  propounding  of  riddles  to  those  whom  she 
mastered,  was  meant  by  the  rocky  and  inaccessible  moun 
tain  near  Thebes  which  she  defended,  and  by  CEdipus  dis 
solving  her  problem,  his  victory  over  her.  She  was  painted 
with  wings,  because  exceeding  swift,  and  with  the  body  of  a 
lion  for  her  cruelty.  But  that  which  Palaephatus  reports  of 
Sphinx  were  more  probable,  did  not  the  time  disprove  it ; 
for  he  calls  her  an  Amazonite,  and  the  wife  of  Cadmus; 
who  whenv  by  her  help  he  had  cast  Draco  out  of  Thebes, 
(neglecting  her,)  he  married  the  sister  of  Draco,  which  Sphinx 
taking  in  despiteful  part,  with  her  own  troop  she  held  the 
mountain  by  Thebes,  from  whence  she  continued  a  sharp 
war  upon  the  Thebans,  till  by  CEdipus  overthrown.  About 
this  time  did  Minos  thrust  his  brother  out  of  Crete,  and 
held  sharp  war  with  the  Megarians  and  Athenians,  because 
his  son  Androgeus  was  slain  by  them.  He  possessed  him 
self  of  Megara  by  the  treason  of  Scylla,  daughter  of  Nisus 
the  king.  He  was  long  master  of  the  sea,  and  brought  the 
Athenians  to  the  tribute  of  delivering  him  every  year  seven 
of  their  sons ;  which  tribute  Theseus  released,  as  shall  be 
shewed  when  I  come  to  the  time  of  the  next  judge  Thola. 
In  the  end  he  was  slain  at  a  Camerinus,  or  Camicus,  in  Si- 
cilia,  by  Cocalus  the  king,  while  he  pursued  Daedalus ;  and 
was  esteemed  by  some  to  be  the  first  lawgiver  to  those 
islands. 

To  this  time  are  referred  many  deeds  of  Hercules,  as  the 

killing  of  Antaeus  the  giant,  who  was  said  to  have  sixty  and 

odd  cubits  of  length  ;  which  though  Plutarch  doth  confirm, 

reporting  that  there  was  such  a  body  found  by  Sertorius  the 

*  Strab.  1.6.  a  Arist.  Pol.  i. 

Dd4 


408  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Roman  in  Libya,  where  Hercules  slew  Antaeus,  yet  for  my 
self  I  think  it  but  a  loud  lie.  That  Antaeus  was  of  great 
strength,  and  a  cunning  wrestler,  bEusebius  affirmeth ; 
and  because  he  cast  so  many  men  to  the  ground,  he  was 
feigned  to  be  the  son  of  the  earth.  Pliny  saith,  that  he  in 
habited  near  the  gardens  Hesperides  in  Mauritania.  c  St. 
Augustine  affirms,  that  this  Hercules  was  not  of  Greece,  but 
of  Libya ;  and  the  Hydra  also  which  he  overcame  Plato  ex- 
poundeth  to  be  a  subtle  sophister. 

SECT.  VI. 

Of  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts. 

ABOUT  the  eleventh  year  of  Gideon  was  that  famous 
expedition  of  the  Argonauts,  of  which  many  fabulous  dis 
courses  have  been  written,  the  sum  of  which  is  this. 

Pelias  the  son  of  Neptune,  brother  by  the  mother's  side 
to  JEson,  who  was  Jason's  father,  reigning  in  lolchos,  a  town 
of  Thessaly,  was  warned  by  the  oracle  of  Apollo  to  take 
heed  of  him  that  ware  but  one  shoe.  This  Pelias  after 
wards  sacrificing  to  Neptune,  invited  Jason  to  him,  who 
coming  hastily,  lost  one  shoe  in  passing  over  a  brook : 
whereupon  Pelias  demanded  of  him  what  course  he  would 
take  (supposing  he  were  able)  against  one  of  whom  an  oracle 
should  advise  him  to  take  heed  ?  To  which  question,  when 
Jason  had  briefly  answered,  that  he  would  send  him  to  Col- 
chos,  to  fetch  the  golden  fleece,  Pelias  immediately  com 
manded  him  to  undertake  that  service.  Therefore  Jason 
prepared  for  the  voyage,  having  a  ship  built  by  Argus,  the 
son  of  Phryxus,  by  the  counsel  of  Pallas,  wherein  he  pro 
cured  all  the  bravest  men  of  Greece  to  sail  with  him ;  as 
Typhis  the  master  of  the  ship,  Orpheus  the  famous  poet, 
Castor  and  Pollux  the  sons  of  Tyndarus,  Telamon  and  Pe- 
leus,  sons  of  ^acus,  and  fathers  of  Ajax  and  Achilles;  Her 
cules  and  Theseus;  Zetes  and  Calais,  the  two  winged  sons  of 
Boreas;  Amphiaraus  the  great  soothsayer,  Meleager  of  Caly- 
don,  that  slew  the  great  wUd  boar,  Ascalaphus  and  lalme- 
nus>  or  Almenus,  the  sons  'of  Mars,  who  were  afterwards  at 

"  Euseb.  in  Chr.  c  Aug.  de  Civitat(J  ^  , 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  409 

the  last  war  of  Troy  5  Laertes  the  father  of  Ulysses,  Ata- 
lanta  a  warlike  virgin,  Idas  and  Lynceus  the  sons  of  Apha- 
reus,  who  afterwards  in  fight  with  Castor  and  Pollux  slew 
Castor  and  wounded  Pollux,  but  were  slain  themselves; 
Lynceus  by  Pollux,  Idas  by  Jupiter  with  lightning. 

These  and  many  other  went  with  Jason  in  the  ship  Argo; 
in  whose  prow  was  a  table  of  the  beech  of  Dodona,  which 
could  speak.  They  arrived  first  at  Lemnos ;  the  women  of 
which  island  having  slain  all  the  males,  purposing  to  lead  an 
Amazonian  life,  were  nevertheless  contented  to  take  their 
pleasure  of  the  Argonauts.  Hence  they  came  to  the  coun 
try  about  Cyzicus,  where  dwelt  a  people  called  Doliones, 
over  whom  then  reigned  one  Cyzicus,  who  entertained  them 
friendly ;  but  it  so  fell  out,  that  loosing  thence  by  night, 
they  were  driven  by  contrary  winds  back  into  his  port,  nei 
ther  knowing  that  it  was  the  same  haven,  nor  being  known 
by  the  Doliones  to  be  the  same  men ;  but  rather  taken  for 
some  of  their  bordering  enemies,  by  which  means  they  fell 
to  blows,  insomuch  that  the  Argonauts  slew  the  most  part 
of  the  Doliones,  together  with  their  king  Cyzicus ;  which 
when  by  daylight  they  perceived,  with  many  tears  they 
solemnized  his  funeral.  Then  departed  they  again,  and 
arrived  shortly  in  Mysia,  where  they  left  Hercules,  and  Po 
lyphemus,  the  son  of  Elates,  who  went  to  seek  Hylas  the 
darling  of  Hercules,  that  was  ravished  by  the  nymphs. 

Polyphemus  built  a  town  in  Mysia,  called  Cios,  wherein 
he  reigned.  Hercules  returned  to  Argos :  from  Mysia  the 
Argonauts  sailed  into  Bithynia,  which  then  was  peopled  by 
the  Bebryces,  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country,  over 
whom  Amycus,  the  son  of  Neptune,  was  then  king.  He 
being  a  strong  man,  compelled  all  strangers  to  fight  with  him 
at  whirlbats,  in  which  kind  of  fight  he  had  slain  many,  and 
was  now  himself  slain  by  Pollux.  The  Bebryces,  in  revenge 
of  his  death,  flew  all  upon  Pollux ;  but  his  companions  res 
cued  him,  with  great  slaughter  of  the  people.  They  sailed 
from  hence  to  Salmydessus,  a  town  in  Thrace,  (perhaps  of 
Thracia  Adriatica,)  wherein  Phineus  a  soothsayer  dwelt, 
who  was  blind,  and  vexed  with  the  harpies.  The  har- 


410  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

pies  were  said  to  be  a  kind  of  birds,  which  had  the  faces  of 
women,  and  foul  long  claws,  very  filthy  creatures,  which 
when  the  table  was  furnished  for  Phineus  came  flying  in, 
and  devouring  or  carrying  away  the  greater  part  of  the  vic 
tuals,  did  so  defile  the  rest,  that  they  could  not  be  endured. 
When  therefore  the  Argonauts  craved  his  advice  and  direc 
tion  for  their  voyage,  You  shall  do  well,  quoth  he,  first  of 
all  to  deliver  me  from  the  harpies,  and  then  afterwards  to 
ask  my  counsel.  Whereupon  they  caused  the  table  to  be 
covered,  and  meat  set  on ;  which  was  no  sooner  set  down, 
than  that  presently  in  came  the  harpies,  and  played  their 
accustomed  pranks;  when  Zetes  and  Calais,  the  winged 
young  men,  saw  this,  they  drew  their  swords,  and  pursued 
them  through  the  air ;  some  say,  that  both  the  harpies  and 
the  young  men  died  of  weariness  in  the  flight  and  pursuit. 
But  Apollonius  saith,  that  the  harpies  did  covenant  with 
the  youths  to  do  no  more  harm  to  Phineus,  and  were  there 
upon  dismissed.  For  this  good  turn  Phineus  gave  them  in 
formations  of  the  way,  and  advertised  them  withal  of  the 
dangerous  rocks,  called  Symplegades,  which  by  force  of 
winds  running  together  did  shut  up  the  passage ;  wherefore 
he  willed  them  to  put  a  pigeon  before  them  into  the  passage, 
and  if  that  passed  safe,  then  to  adventure  after  her ;  if  not, 
then  by  no  means  to  hazard  themselves  in  vain.  They  did 
so,  and  perceiving  that  the  pigeon  had  only  lost  a  piece  of 
her  tail,  they  observed  the  next  opening  of  the  rocks,  and 
then  rowing  with  all  their  might  passed  through  safe,  only 
the  end  of  the  poop  was  bruised. 

From  thenceforward  (as  the  tale  goeth)  the  Symplegades 
have  stood  still ;  for  the  gods,  say  they,  had  decreed,  that 
after  the  passage  of  a  ship  they  should  be  fixed.  Thence 
the  Argonauts  came  to  the  Mariandyni,  a  people  inhabiting 
about  the  mouth  of  the  river  Parthenius,  where  Lycus  the 
king  entertained  them  courteously.  Here  Idmon,  a  sooth 
sayer  of  their  company,  was  slain  by  a  wild  boar  ;  also  here 
Typhis  died,  and  Ancaeus  undertook  to  steer  the  ship.  So 
they  passed  by  the  river  Thermodon  and  mount  Caucasus, 
and  came  to  the  river  Phasis,  which  runs  through  the  land  of 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  411 

Colchos.  When  they  were  entered  the  haven,  Jason  went  to 
^Eetes  the  king  of  Colchos,  and  told  him  the  commandment 
of  Pelias,  and  cause  of  his  coming ;  desiring  him  to  deliver 
the  golden  fleece,  which  Metes,  as  the  fable  goeth,  promised 
to  do,  if  he  alone  would  yoke  together  two  brasen-hoofed 
bulls,  and  ploughing  the  ground  with  them  sow  dragon's 
teeth,  which  Minerva  had  given  to  him,  being  part  of  those 
which  Cadmus  did  sow  at  Thebes.  These  bulls  were  great 
and  fierce,  and  breathed  out  fire :  Vulcan  had  given  them 
to  ^Eetes. 

Whilst  Jason  was  in  a  great  perplexity  about  this  task, 
Medea,  the  daughter  of  JSetes,  fell  into  a  most  vehement 
love  of  him,  so  far  forth,  that  being  excellent  in  magic,  she 
came  privily  to  him,  promising  her  help,  if  he  would  assure 
her  of  his  marriage.  To  this  Jason  agreed,  and  confirmed 
his  promise  by  oath.  Then  gave  she  to  him  a  medicine, 
wherewith  she  bade  him  to  anoint  both  his  body  and  his 
armour,  which  would  preserve  him  from  their  violence ; 
further  she  told  him,  that  armed  men  would  arise  out  from  the 
ground,  from  the  teeth  which  he  should  sow,  and  set  upon 
him.  To  remedy  which  inconvenience,  she  bade  him  throw 
stones  amongst  them  as  soon  as  they  came  up  thick,  where 
upon  they  would  fall  together  to  blows,  in  such  wise  that  he 
might  easily  slay  them.  Jason  followed  her  counsel;  whereto 
when  the  event  had  answered,  he  again  demanded  the  fleece. 
But  JLetes  was  so  far  from  approving  such  his  desire,  that 
he  devised  how  to  destroy  the  Argonauts,  and  burn  their 
ship  ;  which  Medea  perceiving,  went  to  Jason,  and  brought 
him  by  night  to  the  fleece,  which  hung  upon  an  oak  in  the 
grove  of  Mars,  where  they  say  it  was  kept  by  a  dragon  that 
never  slept.  This  dragon  was  by  the  magic  of  Medea  cast 
into  a  sleep ;  so  taking  away  the  golden  fleece,  she  went 
with  Jason  into  the  ship  Argo,  having  with  her  her  brother 
Absyrtus. 

^Eetes  understanding  the  practices  of  Medea,  provided  to 
pursue  the  ship ;  whom  when  Medea  perceived  to  be  at 
hand,  she  slew  her  brother,  and  cutting  him  in  pieces,  she 
scattered,  his  limbs  in  divers  places ;  of  which  ^Eetes  finding 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

some,  was  fain  to  seek  out  the  rest,  and  suffer  his  daughter 
to  pass:  the  parts  of  his  son  he  buried  in  a  place  which 
thereupon  he  called  Tomi ;  the  Greek  word  signified  <te- 
gion.  Afterwards  he  sent  many  of  his  subjects  to  seek  the 
ship  Argo,  threatening  that  if  they  brought  not  back  Me- 
dea,  they  should  suffer  in  her  stead.  In  the  mean  while  the 
Argonauts  were  driven  about  the  seas,  and  were  come  to 
the  river  Eridanus,  which  is  Po  in  Italy. 

Jupiter  offended  with  the  slaughter  of  Absyrtus  vexed 
them  with  a  great  tempest,  and  carried  them  they  knew  not 
whither.  When  they  came  to  the  islands  Absyrtides,  there 
the  ship  Argo  (that  there  might  want  no  incredible  thing 
in  this  fable)  spake  to  them,  and  said,  that  the  anger  of  Ju 
piter  should  not  cease  till  they  came  to  Ausonia,  and  were 
cleansed  by  Circe  from  the  murder  of  Absyrtus.  Now  they 
thereupon  sailing  between  the  coasts  of  Libya  and  Gallia, 
and  passing  through  the  sea  of  Sardinia,  and  along  the 
coast  of  Hetruria,  came  to  the  isle  of  ^Eea,  wherein  Circe 
dwelt,  who  cleansed  them.  Thence  they  sailed  by  the  coast 
of  the  Sirens,  who  sang  to  allure  them  into  danger ;  but 
Orpheus  on  the  other  side  sang  so  well,  that  he  stayed  them. 
Only  Butes  swam  out  unto  them,  whom  Venus  ravished, 
and  carried  to  Lilybaeum  in  Sicily  to  dwell. 

Having  passed  the  Sirens,  they  came  between  Scylla  and 
Charybdis,  and  the  straggling  rocks  which  seemed  to  cast 
out  great  store  of  flames  and  smoke.  But  Thetis  and  the 
Nereides  conveyed  them  safe  through  at  the  appointment  of 
Juno.  So  they  coasted  Sicily,  where  the  beeves  of  the  sun 
were,  and  touched  at  Corcyra,  the  island  of  the  Phaeaces, 
where  king  Alcinous  reigned.  Meanwhile  the  men  of  Col- 
chos,  that  had  been  sent  by  Metes  in  quest  of  the  ship  Argo, 
hearing  no  news  of  it,  and  fearing  his  anger  if  they  fulfilled 
not  his  will,  betook  themselves  to  new  habitations  ;  some  of 
them  dwelt  in  the  mountains  of  Corcyra,  others  in  the  islands 
Absyrtides,  and  some  coming  to  the  Phseaces,  there  found 
the  ship  Argo,  and  demanded  Medea  of  Alcinous;  where 
to  Alcinous  made  answer,  that  if  she  were  not  Jason's 
wife  they  should  have  her,  but  if  she  were  already  mar- 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  413 

ried,  he  would  not  take  her  from  her  husband.  Arete,  the 
wife  of  Alcinous,  hearing  this,  married  them :  wherefore 
they  of  Colchos  not  daring  to  return  home,  stayed  with  the 
Phseaces;  so  the  Argonauts  departed  thence,  and  after  a 
while  came  to  Crete.  In  this  island  Minos  reigned,  who 
had  a  man  of  brass  given  to  him  (as  some  of  the  fablers 
say)  by  Vulcan.  This  man  had  one  vein  in  his  body  reach 
ing  from  the  neck  to  the  heel,  the  end  whereof  was  closed 
up  with  a  brasen  nail;  his  name  was  Talus;  his  custom 
was  to  run  thrice  a  day  about  the  island  for  the  defence  of 
it.  When  he  saw  the  ship  Argo  pass  by,  he  threw  stones 
at  it;  but  Medea  with  her  magic  destroyed  him.  Some 
say,  that  she  slew  him  by  potions,  which  made  him  mad ; 
others,  that  promising  to  make  him  immortal,  she  drew  out 
the  nail  that  stopped  his  vein,  by  which  means  all  his  blood 
ran  out,  and  he  died ;  others  there  are,  that  say  he  was  slain 
by  Paean,  who  wounded  him  with  an  arrow  in  the  heel. 
From  hence  the  Argonauts  sailed  to  JEgina,  where  they 
were  fain  to  fight  for  fresh  water.  And  lastly,  from  ^Egina 
they  sailed  by  Eubcea  and  Locris  home  to  lolchos,  where 
they  arrived,  having  spent  four  whole  months  in  the  expe 
dition. 

Some  there  are,  that  by  this  journey  of  Jason  understand 
the  mystery  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  called  the  golden 
fleece;  to  which  also  other  superfine  chymists  draw  the 
twelve  labours  of  Hercules.  Suidas  thinks,  that  by  the 
golden  fleece  was  meant  a  book  of  parchment,  which  is 
of  sheep's  skin,  and  therefore  called  golden,  because  it  was 
taught  therein  how  other  metals  might  be  transmuted. 
Others  would  signify  by  Jason,  wisdom  and  moderation, 
which  overcometh  all  perils;  but  that  which  is  most  pro 
bable  is  the  opinion  of  Dercilus,  that  the  story  of  such  a 
passage  was  true,  and  that  Jason  with  the  rest  went  indeed 
to  rob  Colchos,  to  which  they  might  arrive  by  boat.  For 
not  far  from  Caucasus  there  are  certain  steep  falling  tor 
rents,  which  wash  down  many  grains  of  gold,  as  in  many 
other  parts  of  the  world ;  and  the  people  there  inhabiting 
use  to  set  many  fleeces  of  wool  in  those  descents  of  waters, 


414  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

in  which  the  grains  of  gold  remain,  and  the  water  passeth 
through ;  which  Strabo  witnesseth  to  be  true.  The  many 
rocks,  straits,  sands,  and  currents,  in  the  passage  between 
Greece  and  the  bottom  of  Pontus,  are  poetically  converted 
into  those  fiery  bulls,  the  armed  men  rising  out  of  the 
ground,  the  dragon  cast  asleep,  and  the  like.  The  man  of 
brass,  the  Sirens,  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  were  other  hazards 
and  adventures  which  they  fell  into  in  the  Mediterranean 
sea,  disguised,  as  the  rest,  by  Orpheus,  under  poetical  mo 
rals  ;  all  which  Homer  afterwards  used  (the  man  of  brass 
excepted)  in  the  description  of  Ulysses's  travels  on  the  same 
inland  seas. 

SECT.  VII. 

Of  Abimelech,  Tholah,  and  Jair,  and  of  the  Lapitha,  and  of  The 
seus,  Hippolytus,  &c. 

AFTER  the  death  of  Gideon,  Abimelech  his  base  son,  be 
gotten  on  a  concubine  of  the  Sechemites,  remembering  what 
offers  had  been  made  to  his  father  by  the  people,  who  de 
sired  to  make  him  and  his  their  perpetual  princes,  and,  as 
it  seemeth,  supposing  (notwithstanding  his  father's  religious 
modesty)  that  some  of  his  brethren  might  take  on  them  the 
sovereignty,  practised  with  the  inhabitants  of  Sechem  (of 
which  his  mother  was  native)  to  make  election  of  himself, 
who  being  easily  moved  with  the  glory  to  have  a  king  of 
their  own,  readily  condescended ;  and  the  better  to  enable 
Abimelech,  they  borrowed  d  seventy  pieces  of  silver  of  their 
idol  Baalberith,  with  which  treasure  he  hired  a  company  of 
loose  and  desperate  vagabonds  to  assist  his  first  detestable 
enterprise,  to  wit,  the  slaughter  of  his  seventy  brethren,  the 
sons  of  Gideon,  begotten  on  his  wives,  of  which  he  had 
many;  of  all  which  none  escaped  but  e  Jotham  the  youngest, 
who  hid  himself  from  his  present  fury ;  all  which  he  exe 
cuted  on  one  stone,  a  cruelty  exceeding  all  that  hath  been 
written  of  in  any  age.  Such  is  human  ambition,  a  monster 
that  neither  feareth  God,  (though  all  powerful,  and  whose 
revenges  are  without  date  and  for  everlasting,)  neither  hath 
t  respect  to  nature,  which  laboureth  the  preservation  of 
d  Judges  ix.  4.  .  judges  ix.  ^ 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  415 

every  being ;  but  it  rageth  also  against  her,  though  gar 
nished  with  beauty  which  never  dieth,  and  with  love  that 
hath  no  end.  All  other  passions  and  affections,  by  which 
the  souls  of  men  are  tormented,  are  by  their  contraries  often 
times  resisted  or  qualified.  But  ambition,  which  begetteth 
every  vice,  and  is  itself  the  child  and  darling  of  Satan,  look- 
eth  only  towards  the  ends  by  itself  set  down,  forgetting 
nothing  (how  fearful  and  inhuman  soever)  which  may  serve 
it ;  remembering  nothing,  whatsoever  justice,  piety,  right,  or 
religion  can  offer  and  allege,  on  the  contrary.  It  ascribeth 
the  lamentable  effects  of  like  attempts  to  the  error  or  weak 
ness  of  the  undertakers,  and  rather  praiseth  the  adventure 
than  feareth  the  like  success.  It  was  the  first  sin  that  the 
world  had,  and  began  in  angels ;  for  which  they  were  cast 
into  hell,  without  hope  of  redemption.  It  was  more  an 
cient  than  man,  and  therefore  no  part  of  his  natural  corrup 
tion.  The  punishment  also  preceded  his  creation  ;  yet  hath 
the  Devil,  which  felt  the  smart  thereof,  taught  him  to  for 
get  the  one,  as  out  of  date,  and  to  practise  the  other,  as  be 
fitting  every  age  and  man's  condition. 

Jotham,  the  youngest  of  Gideon's  sons,  having  escaped 
the  present  peril,  sought  by  his  best  persuasions  to  alienate 
the  Sechemites  from  the  assisting  of  this  merciless  tyrant, 
letting  them  know,  that  those  which  were  virtuous,  and 
whom  reason  and  religion  had  taught  the  safe  and  happy 
estate  of  moderate  subjection,  had  refused  to  receive,  as  un 
lawful,  what  others  had  not  power  to  give  without  direction 
from  the  King  of  kings ;  who  from  the  beginning  (as  to  his 
own  peculiar  people)  had  appointed  them,  by  whom  and 
how  to  be  governed.  This  he  taught  them  by  the  olive, 
which  contented  itself  with  its  fatness,  the  fig-tree  with 
sweetness,  and  the  vine  with  the  good  juice  it  had;  the 
bramble  only,  who  was  most  base,  cut  down  all  the  rest, 
and  accepted  the  sovereignty.  He  also  foretold  them  by  a 
prophetical  spirit  what  should  befall  them  in  the  end,  and 
how  a  fire  should  come  out  of  the  bramble  and  consume  the 
cedars  of  Libanon. 

Now  (as  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  call  those  men  back  whom 


416  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

rage  without  right  led  on)  Gaal  the  son  of  Ebed  withdrew 
the  citizens  of  Sechem  from  the  service  of  Abimelech ;  who 
therefore,  after  some  assaults,  entered  the  place,  and  mas 
tered  it;  and  in  conclusion  fired  the  town,  wherein  their 
idol  Baalberith  was  worshipped,  and  put  all  the  people  of 
all  sorts  to  the  slaughter.  Lastly,  in  the  assault  of  the 
castle  or  tower  of  Teber,  himself  was  wounded  in  the  head 
with  a  stone  thrown  over  the  wall  by  a  woman;  and  find 
ing  himself  mortally  bruised,  he  commanded  his  own  page 
to  pierce  his  body,  thereby  to  avoid  the  dishonour  of  being 
slain  by  so  feeble  a  hand. 

While  Abimelech  usurped  the  government,  the  Lapithae 
and  Centaurs  made  war  against  the  Thebans.  These  na 
tions  were  descended  of  Apollo,  and  were  the  first  in  those 
parts  that  devised  to  manage  horses,  to  bridle  and  to  sit 
them :  insomuch,  as  when  they  first  came  down  from  the 
mountains  of  Pindus  into  the  plains,  those  which  had  never 
seen  horsemen  before,  thought  them  creatures  compounded 
of  men  and  horses :  so  did  the  f  Mexicans,  when  Ferdinand o 
Cortes  the  Spaniard  first  invaded  that  empire. 

After  the  death  of  Abimelech,  Thola  of  Issachar  governed 
Israel  23  years,  and  after  him  Jair  the  Gileadite  22  years, 
who  seemeth  to  be  descended  of  Jair  the  son  of  Manasse, 
who  in  Moses's  time  conquered  a  great  part  of  Gilead,  and 
called  the  same  after  his  own  name,  s  Habeth  Jair.  For  to 
this  Jair  there  remained  h  thirty  of  those  cities  which  his  an 
cestor  had  recovered  from  the  Amorites.  Of  these  judges 
because  there  is  nothing  else  written,  it  is  an  argument  that 
during  all  their  times  Israel  lived  without  disturbance  and 
in  peace. 

When  Jair  judged  Israel,  Priamus  began  to  reign  in 
Troy,  who,  at  such  time  as  Hercules  sacked  Ilium,  was 
carried  away  captive  with  his  sister  Hesione  into  Greece, 
and  being  afterwards  redeemed  for  ransom,  he  rebuilt  and 
greatly  strengthened  and  adorned  Troy;  and  so  far  en 
larged  his  dominions,  as  he  became  the  supreme  lord  in 

1  Palaephatus,  1. 1.  de  Incredib.  »»  Judges  x 

*  Deut.iii.i4.  Numb.  xii.4I. 


CHAP.  xiii.         OF  I;HE  WORLD.  417 

effect  of  all  Asia  the  Less.  He  married  Hecuba,  the  daugh 
ter  of  Cisseus,  king  of  Thrace,  and  had  in  all  (saith  '  Cicero) 
fifty  sons,  whereof  seventeen  by  Hecuba,  of  whom  Paris 
was  one ;  who,  attempting  to  recover  his  aunt  Hesione,  took 
Helena,  the  wife  of  Menelaus,  the  cause  of  the  war  which 
followed. 

Theseus,  the  tenth  king  of  Athens,  began  likewise  to  reign 
in  the  beginning  of  Jair :  some  writers  call  him  the  son  of 
Neptune  and  JEthra;  but  Plutarch,  in  the  story  of  his  life, 
finds  him  begotten  by  JEgeus,  of  whom  the  Grecian  sea  be 
tween  it  and  Asia  the  Less  took  name.  For  when  Minos 
had  mastered  the  Athenians  so  far,  as  he  forced  them  to 
pay  him  seven  of  their  sons  every  year  for  tribute,  whom 
he  enclosed  within  a  labyrinth,  to  be  devoured  by  the  mon 
ster  Minotaur;  because  belike  the  sons  of  Taurus,  which 
he  begat  on  Pasiphae  the  queen,  had  the  charge  of  them ; 
among  these  seven  Theseus  thrust  himself,  not  doubting  by 
his  valour  to  deliver  the  rest,  and  to  free  his  country  of 
that  slavery  occasioned  for  the  death  of  Androgeus,  Minos's 
son. 

And  having  possessed  himself  of  Ariadne's  affection,  who 
was  Minos's  daughter,  he  received  from  her  a  bottom  of 
thread,  by  which  he  conducted  himself  through  all  the 
crooked  and  inextricable  turnings  of  the  labyrinth,  made 
in  all  like  that  of  the  city  of  crocodiles  in  Egypt ;  by  mean 
whereof,  having  slain  Minotaur,  he  found  a  ready  way  to 
return.  But  whereas  his  father  ./Egeus  had  given  order, 
that  if  he  came  back  with  victory  and  in  safety  he  should 
use  a  white  sail  in  sign  thereof,  and  not  that  mournful  black 
sail  under  which  they  left  the  port  of  Athens;  this  in 
struction  being  either  forgotten  or  neglected,  JEgeus  de 
scrying  the  ship  of  Theseus  with  a  black  sail,  cast  himself 
over  the  rocks  into  the  sea,  afterward  called  of  his  name 
JEgeum. 

One  of  the  first  famous  acts  of  Theseus  was  the  killing  of 
Scyron,  who  kept  a  passage  between  Megara  and  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  isthmus,  and  threw  all  whom  he  mastered  into 
'  In  Tusc. 

KALEGH,   HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  E  e 


41g  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  sea- from  the  high  rocks.     Afterward  he  did  the  like 
to  Cercyon  by  wrestling,  who  used  by  that  art  to  kill  others. 
He  also  rid  the  country  of  Procrustes,  who  used  to  bend 
down  the  strong  limbs  of  two  trees,  and  fastened  by  cords 
such  as  he  took,  part  of  them  to  one  and  part  to  the  other 
bough,  and  by  their  springing  back  tare  them  asunder.     So 
did  he  root  out  Periphetes,  and  other  mischievous  thieves 
and  murderers.     He  overthrew  the  army  of  the  Amazons, 
who,  after  many  victories  and  vastations,  entered  the  terri 
tory  of  Athens.     Theseus,  having  taken  their  queen  Hip- 
poly  ta  prisoner,  begat  on  her  Hippolytus ;  with  whom  af 
terward  his  mother-in-law  Phgedra  falling  in  love,  and  he 
refusing  to  abuse  his  father's  bed,  Phaedra  persuaded  The 
seus  that  his  son  offered  to  force  her;   after  which  it  is 
feigned,  that  Theseus  besought  Neptune  to  revenge  this 
wrong  of  his  son's  by  some  violent  death.    Neptune,  taking 
a  time  of  advantage,  sent  out  his  sea-calves,  as  Hippolytus 
passed  by  the  sea-shore,  and  so  affrighted  his  horses,  as 
casting  the  coach  over,  he  was  (by  being  entangled  therein) 
torn  in  pieces;    which  miserable  and  undeserved  destiny 
when  Phaedra  had  heard  of,  she  strangled  herself.  After  which 
it  is  feigned,  that  Diana  entreated  ^Esculapius  to  set  Hippo- 
lytus's  pieces  together,  and  to  restore  him  to  life;   which 
done,  because  he  was  chaste,  she  led  him  with  her  into 
Italy,  to  accompany  her  in  her  hunting  and  field  sports. 

It  is  probable  that  Hippolytus,  when  his  father  sought 
his  life,  thinking  to  escape  by  sea,  was  affronted  thereat, 
and  received  many  wounds  in  forcing  his  passage  and  escape, 
which  wounds  ^Esculapius,  to  wit,  some  skilful  physician  or 
chirurgeon,  healed  again ;  after  which  he  passed  into  Italy, 
where  he  lived  with  Diana,  that  is,  the  life  of  a  hunter,  in 
which  he  most  delighted.  But  of  these  ancient  profane 
stories,  Plutarch  saith  well,  that  as  cosmographers  in  their 
descriptions  of  the  world,  where  they  find  many  vast  places, 
whereof  they  know  nothing,  fill  the  same  with  strange  beasts, 
birds,  and  fishes,  and  with  mathematical  lines;  so  do  the 
Grecian  historians  and  poets  embroider  and  intermix  the 
tales  of  ancient  times  with  a  world  of  fictions  and  fabulous 


CHAP.  xiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  419 

discourses.  True  it  is,  that  Theseus  did  many  great  things 
in  imitation  of  Hercules,  whom  he  made  his  pattern,  and 
was  the  first  that  gathered  the  Athenians  from  being  dis 
persed  in  thin  and  ragged  villages :  in  recompense  whereof, 
and  for  devising  them  laws  to  live  under,  and  in  order,  he 
was,  by  the  beggarly,  mutable,  and  ungrateful  multitude, 
in  the  end  banished  :  some  say  per  ostracismum,  by  the  law 
of  lots,  or  names  written  on  shells,  which  was  a  device  of 
his  own. 

He  stole  Helen  (as  they  say)  when  she  was  fifteen  years 
old,  from  Aphidna,  which  city  Castor  and  Pollux  over 
turned,  when  they  followed  after  Theseus  to  recover  their 
sister.  k  Erasistratus  and  Pausanias  write,  that  Theseus 
begat  her  with  child  at  Argos,  where  she  erected  a  temple 
to  Lucina;  but  her  age  makes  that  tale  unlikely  to  be  true; 
and  so  doth  Ovid,  Non  tamen  ex  facto  fructum  tulit  ille 
petitum,  &c.  The  rape  ^usebius  finds  in  the  first  of  m  Jair, 
who  governed  Israel  twenty-two  years,  to  whom  succeeded 
Jephta,  or  Jepte,  six  years,  to  whom  Ibzan,  who  ruled  seven 
years,  and  then  Habdon  eight  years;  in  whose  time  was 
the  fall  of  Troy.  So  as,  if  Theseus  had  a  child  by  her  in 
the  first  of  Jair,  (at  which  time  we  must  count  her  no  less 
than  fifteen  year  old;  for  the  women  did  not  commonly 
begin  so  young  as  they  do  now,)  she  was  then  at  least  fifty- 
two  year  old  'at  the  destruction  of  Troy ;  and  when  she 
was  stolen  by  Paris,  thirty-eight;  but  herein  the  chrono- 
logers  do  not  agree.  Yet  "Eusebius  and  Bunting,  with 
Halicarnasseus,  do  in  effect  consent  that  the  city  was  en 
tered  and  burnt  in  the  first  year  of  Demophoon,  king  of 
Athens,  the  successor  of  Mnestheus,  the  successor  of  The 
seus,  seventeen  days  before  the  summer  tropic ;  and  that 
about  the  llth  of  September  following  the  Trojans  crossed 
the  Hellespont  into  Thrace,  and  wintered  there;  and  in 
the  next  spring,  that  they  navigated  into  Sicilia,  where  win 
tering  the  second  year,  the  next  summer  they  arrived  at 

k  Strah.  1.  9.  Paus.  in  Con.  "  Bunt.  Chron.  Euseb.  Chron.  Hal. 

1  In  Epist.  Helen.  1. 1. 

111  Judges  x.  3. 


420  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Laurentum,  and  builded  Lavinium.  But  °St.  Augustine 
hath  it  otherwise,  that  when  Polyphides  governed  Sicyon, 
Mnestheus  Athens,  Tautanes  Assyria,  Habdon  Israel,  then 
jEneas  arrived  in  Italy,  transporting  with  him  in  twenty 
ships  the  remainder  of  the  Trojans;  but  the  difference  is 
not  great :  and  hereof  more  at  large  in  the  story  of  Troy  at 

hand. 

In  Siqyonia,  Phsestus,  the  two  and  twentieth  king,  reigned 
eight  years,  beginning  by  the  common  account  in  the  time 
of  Thola.  His  successors,  Adrastus,  who  reigned  four  years, 
and  Polyphides,  who  reigned  thirteen,  are  accounted  to  the 
time  of  Jair;  so  is  also  Mnestheus,  king  of  Athens,  and 
Atreus,  who  held  a  great  part  of  Peloponnesus.  In  Assyria, 
during  the  government  of  these  two  peaceable  judges,  Mi- 
treus,  and  after  him  Tautanes,  reigned.  In  Egypt,  Ame- 
nophis,  the  son  of  Ramses,  and  afterwards  Annemenes. 

SECT.  VIII. 

Of  the  war  of  Thebes,  which  was  in  this  age. 
IN  this  age  was  the  war  of  Thebes,  the  most  ancient  that 
ever  Greek  poet  or  historian  wrote  of.  Wherefore  the  Ro 
man  poet  Lucretius,  affirming  (as  the  Epicures  in  this  point 
held  truly  against  the  Peripatetics)  that  the  world  had  a 
beginning,  urgeth  them  with  this  objection. 

Si  nullafuit  genitalis  origo 

Rerumque  et  mundi,  semperque  aternafuere ; 
Cur  supra  bellum  Thebanum,  etfunera  Trojce, 
Non  alias  alii  quoque  res  cecinere  poetce  ? 
If  all  this  world  had  no  original, 
But  things  have  ever  been  as  now  they  are : 
Before  the  siege  of  Thebes,  or  Troy's  last  fall, 
Why  did  no  poet  sing  some  elder  war  ? 

It  is  true,  that  in  these  times  Greece  was  very  savage,  the 
inhabitants  being  often  chased  from  place  to  place  by  the 
captains  of  greater  tribes ;  and  no  man  thinking  the  ground 
whereon  he  dwelt  his  own  longer  than  he  could  hold  it  by 
strong  hand.  Wherefore  merchandise  and  other  intercourse 
0  Aug.  de  Civitate  Dei,  1. 18.  c.  19, 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  421 

they  used  little,  neither  did  they  plant  many  trees,  or  sow 
more  corn  than  was  necessary  for  their  sustenance.  Money 
they  had  little  or  none ;  for  it  is  thought  that  the  name  of 
money  was  not  heard  in  Greece  when  Homer  did  write, 
who  measures  the  value  of  gold  and  brass  by  the  worth  in 
cattle;  saying,  that  the  golden  armour  of  Glaucus  was 
worth  100  beeves,  and  the  copper  armour  of  Diomedes 
worth  nine. 

Robberies  by  land  and  sea  were  common,  and  without 
shame ;  and  to  steal  horses  or  kine  was  the  usual  exercise' 
of  their  great  men.  Their  towns  were  not  many,  whereof 
those  that  were  walled  were  very  few,  and  not  great.  For 
Mycenae,  the  principal  city  in  Peloponnesus,  was  a  very 
little  thing,  and  it  may  well  be  thought  that  the  rest  were 
proportionable.  Briefly,  Greece  was  then  in  her  infancy; 
and  though  in  some  small  towns  of  that  half  isle  of  Pelo 
ponnesus,  the  inhabitants  might  have  enjoyed  quietness 
within  their  narrow  bounds ;  as  likewise  did  the  Athenians, 
because  their  country  was  so  barren  that  none  did  care  to 
take  it  from  them ;  yet  that  the  land  in  general  was  very 
rude,  it  will  easily  appear  to  such  as  consider  what  Thucy- 
dides,  the  greatest  of  their  historians,  hath  written  to  this 
effect,  in  the  preface  to  his  history.  Wherefore,  as  in  these 
latter  times,  idle  chroniclers  use,  when  they  want  good  mat 
ter,  to  fill  whole  books  with  reports  of  great  frosts  or  dry 
summers,  and  other  such  things  which  no  man  cares  to 
read ;  so  did  they  who  spake  of  Greece  in  her  beginnings 
remember  only  the  great  floods  which  were  in  the  times 
of  Ogyges  and  Deucalion,  or  else  rehearse  fables  of  men 
changed  into  birds,  of  strange  monsters,  of  adultery  com 
mitted  by  their  gods,  and  the  mighty  men  which  they  be 
gat  ;  without  writing  ought  that  savoured  of  humanity,  be 
fore  the  time  of  the  war  of  Thebes;  the  brief  whereof  is 
this. 

CEdipus,  the  son  of  Laius  king  of  Thebes,  having  been 
cast  forth  when  he  was  an  infant,  because  an  oracle  foretold 
what  evil  should  come  to  pass  by  him,  did  afterwards,  in  a 
narrow  passage  contending  for  the  way,  slay  his  own  father, 

E  e  3 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

not  knowing,  either  then  or  long  after,  who  he  was     After- 
ward  he  became  king  of  Thebes,  by  marriage  of  the  queen 
Jocasta,  called  by  Homer,  Od.  11.  Epicaste ;  on  whom,  not 
knowing  her  to  be  his  mother,  he  begat  two  sons,  Eteocles 
and  Polynices.     But  when  in  process  of  time,  finding  out 
by  -ood  circumstances  who  were  his  parents,  he  understood 
the  grievous  murder  and  incest  he  had  committed,  he  tore 
out  his  own  eyes  for  grief,  and  left  the  city.     His  wife  and 
mother  did  hang  herself.     Some  say  that  CEdipus  having 
his  eyes  pulled  out,  was  expelled  Thebes,  bitterly  cursing 
his  sons,  because  they  suffered  their  father  to  be  cast  out 
of  the  town,  and  aided  him  not.     Howsoever  it  were,  his 
two  sons  made  this  agreement,  that  the  one  of  them  should 
reign  one  year,  and  the  other  another  year,  and  so  by  course 
rule  interchangeably;    but   this  appointment   was  ill  ob 
served.     For  when  Polynices  had,  after  a  year's  govern 
ment,  resigned  the  kingdom  to  his  brother,  or  (according 
to  others)  when  Eteocles  had  reigned  the  first  year,  he  re 
fused  to  give  over  the  rule  to  Polynices.     Hereupon  Po 
lynices  fled  unto  Argos,  where  Adrastus,  the  son  of  Ta- 
laus,  then  reigned,  unto  whose  palace  coming  by  night,  he 
was  driven  to  seek  lodging  in  an  outhouse  on  the  back 
side. 

There  he  met  with  Tydeus,  the  son  of  (Eneus,  who  was 
fled  from  Calydon ;  with  whom,  striving  about  their  lodg 
ing,  he  fell  to  blows.     Adrastus  hearing  the  noise  came 
forth,  and  took  up  the  quarrel.     At  which  time  perceiving 
in  the  shield  of  Tydeus  a  boar,  in  that  of  Polynices  a  lion, 
he  remembered  an  old  oracle,  by  which  he  was  advised  to 
give  his  two  daughters  in  marriage  to  a  lion  and  a  boar ; 
and  accordingly  he  did  bestow  his  daughter  Argia  upon 
Tydeus,  and  Deipyle  upon  Polynices,  promising  to  restore 
them  both  to  their  countries.     To  this  purpose  levying  an 
army,  and  assembling  as  many  valiant  captains  as  he  could 
draw  to  follow  him,  he  was  desirous,  among  others,  to  carry 
Amphiaraus,  the  son  of  Oicleus,  a  great  soothsayer  and  a 
valiant  man,  along  with  him.     But  Amphiaraus,  who  is 
said  to  have  foreseen  all  things,  knowing  well  that  none  of 


CHAP.  xiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  423 

the  captains  should  escape,  save  only  Adrastus,  did  both 
utterly  refuse  to  be  one  in  that  expedition,  and  persuaded 
others  to  stay  at  home.  Polynices  therefore  dealt  with  Eri- 
phyle,  the  wife  of  Amphiaraus,  offering  unto  her  a  very  fair 
bracelet,  upon  condition  that  she  should  cause  her  husband 
to  assist  him.  The  soothsayer,  knowing  what  should  work 
his  destiny,  forbade  his  wife  to  take  any  gift  of  Polynices. 
But  the  bracelet  was  in  her  eyes  so  precious  a  jewel,  that 
she  could  not  refuse  it.  Therefore,  whereas  a  great  con 
troversy  between  Amphiaraus  and  Adrastus  was  by  way  of 
compromise  put  unto  the  decision  of  Eryphile,  either  of 
them  being  bound  by  solemn  oath  to  stand  to  her  appoint 
ment  :  she  ordered  the  matter  so  as  a  woman  should,  that 
loved  a  bracelet  better  than  her  husband.  He  now  finding 
that  it  was  more  easy  to  foresee  than  avoid  destiny,  sought 
such  comfort  as  revenge  might  afford ;  giving  in  charge  to 
his  sons,  that  when  they  came  to  full  age  they  should  kill 
their  mother,  and  make  strong  war  upon  the  Thebans. 

Now  had  Adrastus  assembled  all  his  forces,  of  which  the 
seven  chief  leaders  were,  himself,  Amphiaraus,  Capaneus, 
and  Hippomedon,  (instead  of  whom  some  name  Mecisteus,); 
all  Argives,  with  Polynices  the  Theban,  Tydeus  the  ^Eto- 
lian,  and  Parthenopseus  the  Arcadian,  son  of  Meleager  and 
Atalanta.  When  the  army  came  to  the  Nemaean  wood, 
they  met  a  woman,  whom  they  desired  to  help  them  to 
some  water;  she  having  a  child  in  her  arms,  laid  it  down, 
and  led  the  Argives  to  a  spring;  but  ere  she  returned,  a 
serpent  had  slain  the  child.  This  woman  was  Hypsipyle, 
the  daughter  of  Thoas  the  Lemnian,  whom  she  would  have 
saved  when  the  women  of  the  isle  slew  all  the  males  by  con 
spiracy,  intending  to  lead  an  Amazonian  life.  For  such  her 
piety,  the  Lemnian  wives  did  sell  her  to  pirates,  and  the 
pirates  to  Lycurgus,  lord  of  the  country  about  Nema?a, 
whose  young  son  Opheltes,  or  Archemorus,  she  did  nurse, 
and  lost,  as  is  shewed  before.  When  upon  the  child^s  death 
she  hid  herself  for  fear  of  her  master,  Amphiaraus  told  her 
sons  where  they  should  find  her ;  and  the  Argives  did  both 
kill  the  serpent  which  had  slain  the  child,  and  iu  memory 

E  e  4 


424  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

of  the  chance  did  institute  solemn  funeral  games  called  Ne- 
msean,  wherein  Adrastus  won  the  prize  with  his  swift  horse 
Arion,  Tydeus  with  whirlbats,  Amphiaraus  at  running  and 
quoiting,  Polynices  at  wrestling,  Parthenopaeus  at  shooting, 
and  one  Laodocus  in  darting.  This  was  the  first  institution 
of  the  Nemsean  games,  which  continued  after  famous  in 
Greece  for  very  many  ages.  There  are  who  think  that  they 
were  ordained  in  honour  of  one  Opheltus,  a  Lacedaemonian; 
some  say  by  Hercules,  when  he  had  slain  the  Nemaean  lion ; 
but  the  common  opinion  agrees  with  that  which  is  here  set 
down. 

From  Nemsea,  the  Argives  marching  onwards  arrived  at 
Citheron,  whence  Tydeus  was  by  them  sent  ambassador  to 
Thebes,  to  require  of  Eteocles  the  performance  of  covenants 
between  him  and  Polynices.  This  message  was  nothing 
agreeable  to  Eteocles,  who  was  thoroughly  resolved  to  hold 
what  he  had  as  long  as  he  could :  which  Tydeus  perceiving, 
and  intending  partly  to  get  honour,  partly  to  try  what  mettle 
was  in  the  Thebans,  he  made  many  challenges,  and  obtained 
victory  in  all  of  them,  not  without  much  envy  and  malice  of 
the  people,  who  laid  fifty  men  in  ambush  to  intercept  him 
at  his  return  to  the  army ;  of  which  fifty  he  slew  all  but  one, 
whom  he  sent  back  to  the  city,  as  a  reporter  and  witness  of 
his  valour.  When  the  Argives  understood  how  resolved 
Eteocles  was,  they  presented  themselves ,  before  the  city, 
and  encamped  round  about  it.  Thebes  is  said  to  have  had 
at  that  time  seven  gates,  which  belike  stood  not  far  asunder, 
seeing  that  the  Argives  (who  afterward,  when  they  were  very 
far  stronger,  could  scarce  muster  up  more  thousands  than 
Thebes  had  gates)  did  compass  the  town.  Adrastus  quar 
tered  before  the  gate  Homoloides,  Capaneus  before  the  Ogy- 
gean,  Tydeus  before  Crenis,  Amphiaraus  at  Proetis,  Hip- 
pomedon  at  Anchais,  Parthenopaeus  at  Electra,  and  Poly 
nices  at  Hypsista.  In  the  mean  season,  Eteocles,  having 
armed  his  men,  and  appointed  commanders  unto  them,  took 
advice  of  Tiresias  the  soothsayer,  who  promised  victory  to 
the  Thebans,  if  Menaecius,  the  son  of  Creon,  a  principal 
man  of  the  city,  would  vow  himself  to  be  slain  in  honour  of 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  425 

Mars  the  god  of  war.  So  full  of  malice  and  pride  is  the 
Devil,  and  so  envious  at  his  Creator's  glory,  that  he  not 
only  challengeth  honours  due  to  God  alone,  as  oblations 
and  sacrifices,  with  all  divine  worship,  but  commandeth  us 
to  offer  ourselves  and  our  children  unto  him,  when  he  hath 
sufficiently  clouded  men's  understanding,  and  bewitched 
their  wills  with  ignorance  and  blind  devotion.  And  such 
abominable  sacrifice  of  men,  maids,  and  children  hath  he 
exacted  of  the  Syrians,  Carthaginians,  Gauls,  Germans, 
Cyprians,  Egyptians,  and  of  many  other,  if  not  of  all  na 
tions,  when  through  ignorance  or  fear  they  were  most  filled 
with  superstition.  But  as  they  grew  more  wise,  so  did  he 
wax  less  impudent  in  cunning,  though  not  less  malicious 
in  desiring  the  continuance  of  such  barbarous  inhumanity. 
For  king  Diphilus  in  Cyprus,  without  advice  of  any  oracle, 
made  the  idol  of  that  country  rest  contented  with  an  ox  in 
stead  of  a  man.  Tiberius  forbade  human  sacrifices  in  Afric ; 
and  crucified  the  priests  in  the  groves  where  they  had  prac 
tised  them.  Hercules  taught  the  Italians  to  drown  men  of 
hay  instead  of  the  living;  yet  among  the  savages  in  the 
West  Indies  these  cruel  offerings  have  been  practised  of 
late  ages ;  which  as  it  is  a  sufficient  argument  that  Satan's 
malice  is  only  covered  and  hidden  by  this  subtlety  among 
civil  people,  so  may  it  serve  as  a  probable  conjecture  of  the 
barbarisms  then  reigning  in  Greece.  For  Mensecius,  as 
soon  as  he  understood  that  his  death  might  purchase  vic 
tory  to  his  people,  bestowed  himself  (as  he  thought)  upon 
Mars,  killing  himself  before  the  gates  of  the  city.  Then 
was  a  battle  fought,  wherein  the  Argives  prevailed  so  far  at 
the  first,  that  Capaneus,  advancing  ladders  to  the  walls,  got 
up  upon  the  rampart;  whence,  when  he  fell,  or  was  cast 
down,  or  (as  writers  have  it)  was  stricken  down  by  Jupiter 
with  a  thunderbolt,  the  Argives  fled.  Many  on  each  part 
were  slain  in  this  battle,  which  caused  both  sides  to  desire 
that  Eteocles  and  Polynices  might  try  out  the  quarrel  in 
single  fight ;  where  the  two  brethren  accordingly  slew  each 
other. 

Another  battle  was  fought  after  their  death,  wherein  the 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

sons  of  Astacus  behaved  themselves  very  valiantly :  Isma- 
rus,  one  of  the  sons,  slew  Hippomedon.  which  was  one  of 
the  seven  princes;  Parthenopaeus,  being  another  of  the 
seven,  (who  was  said  to  have  been  so  fair  that  none  would 
hurt  him  when  his  face  was  bare,)  was  slain  by  Amphidicus, 
or,  as  some  say,  by  Periclymenus,  the  son  of  Neptune ;  and 
the  valiant  Tydeus  by  Menalippus ;  yet  ere  Tydeus  died, 
the  head  of  Menalippus  was  brought  unto  him  by  Amphia- 
raus,  which  he  cruelly  tore  open,  and  swallowed  up  the 
brains.  Upon  which  fact,  it  is  said,  that  Pallas,  who  had 
brought  from  Jupiter  such  remedy  for  his  wound  as  should 
have  made  him  immortal,  refused  to  bestow  it  upon  him  ; 
whereby  perhaps  was  meant,  that  his  honour,  which  might 
have  continued  immortal,  did  perish  through  the  beastly 
rage  that  he  shewed  at  his  death. 

The  host  of  the  Argives  being  wholly  discomfited,  Adras- 
tus  and  Amphiaraus  fled ;  of  whom  Amphiaraus  is  said  to 
have  been  swallowed  quick  into  the  earth,  near  to  the  river 
Ismenus,  together  with  his  chariot,  and  so  lost  out  of  men's 
sight,  being  peradventure  overwhelmed  with  dead  carcasses 
or  drowned  in  the  river,  and  his  body  never  found,  nor 
greatly  sought  for.  Adrastus  escaped  on  his  good  horse 
Arion,  and  came  to  Athens;  where  sitting  at  an  altar,  called 
the  altar  of  mercy,  he  made  supplication  for  their  aid  to  re 
cover  their  bodies.  For  Creon  having  obtained  the  govern 
ment  of  Thebes,  after  the  death  of  Eteocles,  would  not 
suffer  the  bodies  of  the  Argives  to  be  buried ;  but  caused 
Antigone,  the  only  daughter  then  living  of  CEdipus,  to  be 
buried  quick,  because  she  had  sought  out  and  buried  the 
body  of  her  brother  Polynices;  contrary  to  Creon's  edict. 
The  Athenians  condescending  to  the  request  of  Adrastus, 
did  send  forth  an  army  under  the  conduct  of  Theseus,  which 
took  Thebes,  and  restored  the  bodies  of  the  Argives  to  se 
pulchre  ;  at  which  time  Evadne,  the  wife  of  Capaneus,  threw 
herself  into  the  funeral  fire,  and  was  burnt  willingly  with 
her  husband.  But  it  little  contented  the  sons  of  those  cap 
tains  which  were  slain  at  Thebes,  that  any  less  revenge 
should  be  taken  of  their  fathers'  death  than  the  ruin  of  the 


CHAP.  xni.  OF  THE  WORLD.  427 


city  ;  wherefore  ten  years  after  having  levied  forces, 
aleus  the  son  of  Adrastus,  Diomedes  of  Tydeus,  Promachus 
of  Parthenopaeus,  Sthenelus  of  Capaneus,  Thersander  of 
Polynices,  and  Euripylus  of  'Mecisteus,  marched  thither 
under  the  conduct  of  Alcmaeon  the  son  of  Amphiaraus  ; 
with  whom  also  went  his  brother  Amphiloctus.  Apollo 
promised  victory  if  Alcmaeon  were  their  captain,  whom  af 
terward  by  another  oracle  he  commanded  to  kill  his  own 
mother. 

When  they  came  to  the  city,  they  were  encountered  by 
Laodamas  the  son  of  Eteocles,  then  king  of  the  Thebans, 
(for  Creon  was  only  tutor  to  Laodamas,)  who  though  he 
did  valiantly  in  the  battle,  and  slew  JEgialeus,  yet  was  he 
put  to  the  worst,  and  driven  to  fly,  or  (according  to  Apol- 
lodorus)  slain  by  Alcmaeon.  After  this  disaster  the  citi 
zens  began  to  desire  composition  ;  but  in  the  mean  time 
they  conveyed  themselves  with  their  wives  and  children 
away  from  thence  by  night,  and  so  began  to  wander  up  and 
down,  till  at  length  they  built  the  town  called  Estisea. 
The  Argives,  when  they  perceived  that  their  enemies  had 
quitted  the  town,  entering  into  it,  sacked  it,  threw  down  the 
walls,  and  laid  it  waste  ;  howbeit  it  is  reported  by  some, 
that  the  town  was  saved  by  Thersander,  the  son  of  Poly 
nices,  who,  causing  the  citizens  to  return,  did  there  reign 
over  them.  That  he  saved  the  city  from  utter  destruction, 
it  is  very  likely,  for  he  reigned  there,  and  led  the  Thebans 
to  the  war  of  Troy,  which  very  shortly  after  ensued. 

SECT.  IX. 

Of  Jephta,  and  how  the  three  hundred  years  which  he  speaketh  of, 

Judg.  xi.  28,  are  to  be  reconciled  with  the  places,  Acts  xiii.  20. 

i  Kings  vi.  i  ;  together  with  some  other  things  touching  chrono 

logy  about  these  times. 

AFTER  the  death  of  Jair,  (near  about  whose  times 
these  things  happened  in  Greece,  and  during  whose  govern 
ment,  and  that  of  Thola,  Israel  lived  in  peace  and  in  order,) 
they  revolted  again  from  the  law  and  service  of  God,  and 
became  more  wicked  and  idolatrous  than  ever.  For  where- 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

as  in  the  former  times  they  worshipped  PBaal  and  Asteroth, 
they  now  became  followers  of  all  the  heathen  nations  ad 
joining,  and  embraced  the  idols  of  the  Aramites,  of  the 
Zidonians,  Moabites,  and  Ammonites ;  with  those  of  the 
Philistines.  And  as  before  it  pleased  God  to  correct  them 
by  the  Aramites,  by  the  Amalekites,  and  Midianites;  so 
now  he  scourged  them  by  the  1  Ammonites,  and  afterward 
by  the  Philistines. 

Now  among  the  Israelites,  those  of  Gilead  being  most 
oppressed,  because  they  bordered  upon  the  Ammonites, 
they  were  enforced  to  seek  Jephta,  whom  they  had  formerly 
despised  and  cast  from  them,  because  he  was  base  born; 
but  he  (notwithstanding  those  former  injuries)  participating 
more  of  godly  compassion  than  of  devilish  hatred  and  re 
venge,  was  content  to  lead  the  Gileadites  to  the  war,  upon 
condition  that  they  should  establish  him  their  governor 
after  victory.  And  when  he  had  disputed  with  Ammon 
for  the  land,  disproved  Ammon's  right,  and  fortified  the 
title  of  Israel  by  many  arguments,  the  same  prevailing  no 
thing,  he  began  the  war ;  and  being  strengthened  by  God, 
overthrew  them ;  and  did  not  only  beat  them  out  of  the 
plains,  but  forced  them  over  the  mountains  of  Arabia,  even 
to  rMinnith,  and  Abel  of  the  vineyards,  cities  expressed 
heretofore  in  the  description  of  the  Holy  Land.  After 
which  victory,  it  is  said  that  he  performed  the  vain  vow 
which  he  made,  to  sacrifice  the  first  living  creature  he  en 
countered  coming  out  of  his  house  to  meet  him ;  which 
happened  to  be  his  own  daughter,  and  only  child,  who  with 
all  patience  submitted  herself,  and  only  desired  two  months 
time  to  bewail  her  virginity  on  the  mountains  of  Gilead, 
because  in  her  the  issues  of  her  father  ended ;  but  the  other 
opinion,  that  she  was  not  offered,  is  more  probable,  which 
s  Borraus  and  others  prove  sufficiently. 

After  these  things  the  children  of  Israel,  of  the  tribe  of 
Ephraim,  either  envious  of  Jephta's  victory,  or  otherwise 

*  Jjdg-  x'  which  year  Jephta  began,  Judg.  xi. 
t   «  The  persecution  of  the  Ammou-          r  ju^  xi  „ 
?tes  lasted  eighteen  years,  and  ended          •  Borf  in  Judff 
in  the  year  of  the  world  2820,  in 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD. 

making  way  to  their  future  calamity,  and  to  the  most 
grievous  slavery  that  ever  Israel  suffered,  quarrelled  with 
Jephta,  that  they  were  not  called  to  the  war,  as  before- 
time  they  had  contested  with  Gideon.  Jephta  hereupon 
enforced  to  defend  himself  against  their  fury,  in  the  en- 
counter  slew  of  them  *  42,000,  which  so  weakened  the  body 
of  the  land,  as  the  Philistines  had  an  easy  conquest  of  them 
all  not  long  after :  Jephta,  after  he  had  judged  Israel  six 
years,  died  ;  to  whom  succeeded  Ibzan,  who  ruled  seven 
years ;  after  him  Elon  was  their  judge  ten  years  ;  in  all 
which  time  Israel  had  peace.  Eusebius  finds  not  Elon, 
whom  he  calleth  Adon;  for  in  the  Septuagint,  approved  in 
his  time,  this  judge  was  omitted. 

Now  before  I  go  on  with  the  rest,  it  shall  be  necessary 
upon  the  occasion  of  Jephta's  account  of  the  times,  Judg. 
xi.  28.  (where  he  says  that  Israel  had  then  possessed  the 
east  side  of  Jordan  300  years,)  to  speak  somewhat  of  the 
times  of  the  judges,  and  of  the  differing  opinions  among 
the  divines  and  chronologers ;  there  being  found  three 
places  of  scripture,  touching  this  point,  seeming  repugnant, 
or  disagreeing :  the  first  is  in  this  dispute  between  Jephta 
and  Ammon,  for  the  right  and  possession  of  Gilead ;  the 
second  is  that  of  St.  Paul,  Acts  xiii ;  the  third  that  which 
is  in  the  first  of  Kings.  Jephta  here  challengeth  the  pos 
session  of  Gilead  for  300  years :  St.  Paul  giveth  to  the 
judges,  as  it  seems,  from  the  end  of  Joshua  to  the  last  of 
Heli,  450  years.  In  the  first  of  Kings  it  is  taught  that, 
from  the  departing  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  to  the  found 
ation  of  Solomon's  temple,  there  were  consumed  480 
years.  To  the  first,  Beroaldus  findeth  Jephta's  300  years 
to  be  but  266  years,  to  wit,  eighteen  of  Joshua,  forty 
of  Othoniel,  eighty  of  Aod  and  Samgar,  forty  of  Debo 
rah,  forty  of  Gideon,  three  of  Abimelech,  twenty-three 
of  Thola,  and  twenty-two  of  Jair;  but  Jephta  (saith  Be 
roaldus)  uputteth  or  proposeth  a  certain  number  for  an 
uncertain :  Sic  ut  dicat  annum  agi  prope  trecentesimum, 
ex  quo  nullus  litem  ea  de  re  moverit  Israeli;  "  So  he 

1  Judg.  xii.  "  Id  facit  numero  certo  pro  incerto  proposito. 


430  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

«  speaketh,"  saith  he,  «  as  meaning,  that  then  it  was  about 
«  or  well  nigh  the  three  hundredth  year  since  Israel  pos- 
«  sessed  those  countries,  no  man  making  question  of  their 
«  right."  Codoman,  on  the  contrary,  finds  more  years  than 
Jephta  named  by  sixty-five,  to  wit,  365,  whereof  seventy- 
one  were  spent  in  Israel's  captivity,  at  several  times,  of 
which  (as  Codoman  thinketh)  Jephta  forbare  to  repeat  the 
whole  sum,  or  any  great  part,  lest  the  Ammonite  should 
have  justly  objected  that  seventy-one  of  those  years  the 
Israelites  were  in  captivity  and  vassals  to  their  neighbour 
princes,  and  therefore,  knowing  that  to  name  300  years  it 
was  enough  for  prescription,  he  omitted  the  rest. 

To  justify  this  account  of  365  years,  besides  the  seventy- 
one  years  of  captivity  or  affliction  to  be  added  to  Beroal- 
dus's  266,  he  addeth  also  twenty-eight  years  more,  and  so 
maketh  up  the  sum  of  365.     These  twenty-eight  years  he 
findeth  out  thus;  twenty  years  he  gives  to  the  seniors  be 
tween  Joshua  and  Othoniel ;  and  where  Beroaldus  alloweth 
but  eighteen  years  to  Joshua's  government,  Codoman  ac 
counts  that  his  rule  lasted  twenty-six  according  to  Jose- 
phus ;  whereas  St.  Augustine  and  Eusebius  give  him  twen 
ty-seven,  Melanchton  thirty-two.     The  truth  is,  that  this 
addition  of  twenty-eight  years  is  far  more  doubtful  than 
the  other  of  seventy-one.     But  though  we  admit  not  of 
this  addition,  yet  by  accounting  of  some  part  of  the  years  of 
affliction,  (to  wit,  thirty-four  years  of  the  seventy-one,)  if  we 
add  them  to  the  266  years  of  Beroaldus,  which  reckoneth 
none  of  these,  we  have  the  just  number  of  300  years.    Nei 
ther  is  it  strange  that  Jephta  should  leave  out  more  than 
half  of  these  years  of  affliction ;    seeing,  as  it  is  already 
said,  the  Ammonites  might  except  against  these  seventy-one 
years,  and  say,  that  during  these  years,  or  at  least  a  good 
part  of  them,  the  Israelites  had  no  quiet  possession  of  the 
countries  in  question.     Martin  Luther  is  the  author  of  a 
third  opinion,  making   those   300   years   remembered   by 
Jephta,  to  be  306,  which  odd  years,  saith  he,  Jephta  omit- 
teth.  But  because  the  years  of  every  judge,  as  they  reigned, 
cannot  make  up  this  number  of  306,  but  do  only  compound 


CHAP.  xiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  431 

266,  therefore  doth  Luther  add  to  this  number  the  whole 
time  which  Moses  spent  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia  Petraea ; 
which  forty  years  of  Moses,  added  to  the  number  which 
Beroaldus  findeth  of  266,  make  indeed  306. 

But  I  see  nothing  in  the  text  to  warrant  Luther's  judg 
ment  herein  ;  for,  in  the  dispute  between  Jephta  and  Am- 
mon  for  the  land  of  Gilead,  it  is  written  in  the  person  of 
Ammon  in  these  words;  v Because  Israel  took  my  land, 
when  they  came  up  Jrom  Egypt,  from  Arnon  unto  Jaboc, 
&c.  now  therefore  restore  those  lands  quietly,  or  in  peace. 
So  by  this  place  it  is  plain,  that  the  time  is  not  to  be  ac 
counted  from  Moseses  departure  out  of  Egypt,  but  from 
the  time  that  the  land  was  possessed.  For  it  is  said,  Quia 
cepit  Israel  terram  meam;  "  Because  Israel  took  my  land;" 
and  therefore  the  beginning  of  this  account  is  to  be  referred 
to  the  time  of  the  taking,  which  Jephta's  answer  also  con- 
firmeth  in  these  words;  x  When  Israel  dwelt  in  Heshbon 
and  in  her  towns,  and  in  Aroer  and  in  her  towns,  and  in 
all  the  cities  that  are  by  the  coast  of  Arnon  300  years : 
why  did  ye  not  then  recover  them  in  that  space  ?  So  as 
this  place  speaks  it  directly,  that  Israel  had  inhabited  and 
dwelt  in  the  cities  of  Gilead  300  years ;  and  therefore  to 
account  the  times  from  the  hopes  or  intents,  that  Israel  had 
to  possess  it,  it  seemeth  somewhat  strained  to  me ;  for  we 
do  not  use  to  reckon  the  time  of  our  conquests  in  France, 
from  our  princes'  intents  or  purposes,  but  from  their  victo 
ries  and  possessions. 

Junius  nevertheless  likes  the  opinion  of  Luther,  and 
says,  that  this  time  of  300  years  hath  reference,  and  is  to 
take  beginning  from  the  first  of  Jephta's  narration ;  when 
he  makes  a  brief  repetition  of  Moses's  whole  journey,  to 
wit,  at  the  16th  verse  of  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Judges  in 
our  translation,  in  these  words  ;  y  But  when  Israel  came  up 
Jrom  Egypt,  &c.  And  therefore  Moses's  forty  years  (as 
he  thinks)  are  to  be  accounted,  which  make  the  number  of 
305  years  ;  and  not  only  the  time  in  which  Israel  possessed 
Gilead,  according  to  the  text,  and  Jephta's  own  words,  of 

v  Judg.  xi.  13.         *  Jndg.  xi.  26.         y  Junius  in  the  nth  of  Judg.  note. 


432  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

which  I  leave  the  judgment  to  others;  to  whom  also  I  leave 
to  judge,  whether  we  may  not  begin  the  480  years  from 
the  deliverance  out  of  Egypt  to  the  temple,  even  from  the 
first  departure  out  of  Egypt,  and  yet  find  a  more  probable 
reconciliation  of  St.  Paul's  and  Jephta's  account  with  this 
reckoning,  than  any  of  those  that  as  yet  have  been  signi 
fied.  For  first,  touching  Jephta's  300  years  of  possession 
of  the  east  side  of  Jordan,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  for 
a  good  while  before  the  Israelites  possessed  it,  Sehon  and 
Og  had  dispossessed  Moab  and  Ammon  thereof;  so  that 
when  the  Israelites  had  conquered  Sehon  and  Og,  the  right 
of  possession  which  they  had,  passed  to  Israel ;  and  so 
Jephta  might  say,  that  they  had  possessed  those  countries 
300  years,  reckoning  266  years  of  their  own  possession, 
and  the  rest  of  the  possession  of  the  two  kings  Sehon  and 
Og,  whose  right  the  Israelites  had  by  the  law  of  conquest. 

The  second  place  disputed  is  this  of  St.  Paul,  Acts  xiii. 
that  from  the  end  of  z  Joshua  to  the  beginning  of  Samuel 
there  passed  450  years.  And  this  place  Luther  under- 
standeth  also  besides  the  letter,  as  I  find  his  opinion  cited 
by  Functius  Krentsemius  and  Beza,  for  I  have  not  read 
his  commentaries.  For  he  accounteth  from  the  death  of 
Moses  to  the  last  year  of  Heli  but  357  years ;  and  this  he 
doth,  the  better  to  approve  the  times  from  the  egression  out 
of  Egypt  to  the  building  of  the  temple,  which  in  1  Kings  vi. 
is  said  to  be  480  years. 

Now  forasmuch  as  St.  Paul  (as  it  seems)  finds  450 
years  from  the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  last  of  Heli,  and 
leaves  but  thirty  years  for  Saul  and  Samuel,  who  governed 
forty,  for  David  who  ruled  forty,  and  for  Salomon  who 
ware  the  crown  three  whole  years  ere  the  foundation  of  the 
temple  was  laid ;  therefore  Luther  takes  it,  that  there  was 
error  in  the  scribe  who  wrate  out  this  piece  of  scripture 
of  St.  Paul,  to  wit,  a  Then  afterward  he  gave  unto  them 
judges  about  450  years,  unto  the  time  of  Samuel  the  pro- 

z  Read  the  24th  of  Joshua,  and  the  Acts,  ver.  20 
2  Judg.  vii.  Fund.  Chron.  fol.  4.  Beza  •  Acts  xiii.  20  ' 
in  his  Annotations  upon  the  i3th  of 


CHAP.  xin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  433 

phet;  the  words  then  afterwards  being  clearly  referred  to 
the  death  or  after  the  death  of  Joshua,  as  shall  be  here 
after  proved.  But  where  St.  Luke,  rehearsing  the  words 
of  St.  Paul,  wrate  350  years,  (saith  Luther,)  the  scribe  in 
the  transcription  being  deceived  by  the  affinity  of  those 
two  Greek  words,  whereof  the  one  signifieth  300,  and  the 
other  400,  wrate  tetracosiois  for  triacosiois,  400  years  for 
300  years,  and  450  for  350.  This  he  seeketh  to  strengthen 
by  many  arguments  ;  to  which  opinion  Beza,  in  his  great 
annotations,  adhereth.  A  contrary  judgment  to  this  hath 
Codoman ;  where  Luther  and  Beza  begin  at  Moses's  death, 
he  takes  his  account  from  the  death  of  Joshua,  and  from 
thence  to  the  beginning  of  Samuel  he  makes  430  years,  to 
wit,  of  the  judges  (not  reckoning  Samson's  years)  319, 
and  of  years  of  servitude  and  affliction  under  strangers  111. 
The  reason  why  he  doth  not  reckon  Samson's  twenty 
years  is,  because  he  thinks  that  they  were  part  of  the  forty 
years  in  which  the  Philistines  are  said  to  have  oppressed 
Israel.  For  it  4s  plain,  that  during  all  b  Samson's  time 
they  were  lords  over  Israel.  So  then  of  the  judges,  besides 
the  111  years  of  servitude,  Codoman  reckoneth  (as  I  have 
said)  319  years,  which  two  sums  put  together  make  430 
years;  and  whereas  St.  Paul  nameth  450  years,  he  finds 
twenty  years  to  make  up  St.  Paul's  number,  to  have  been 
spent  after  the  death  of  Joshua  by  the  seniors,  before  the 
captivity  of  Chushan  or  the  election  of  Othoniel ;  which 
twenty  years  added  to  430  make  450,  according  to  St. 
Paul.  To  approve  this  time  of  the  elders  he  citeth  two  places 
of  scriptures,  namely,  the  24th  of  Joshua,  and  the  2nd  of 
Judges,  in  each  of  which  places  it  is  written,  that  Israel 
served  the  Lord  all  the  days  of  Joshua,  and  all  the  days  of 
the  elders  that  over-lived  Joshua,  so  as  to  these  times  of  the 
elders  Codoman  giveth  twenty  years,  which  make  as  be 
fore  450,  according  to  St.  Paul.  Neither- would  it  breed 
any  great  difficulty  in  this  opinion,  if  here  also  the  twenty 
years  of  the  seniors,  between  Joshua  and  Othoniel,  should 
be  denied.  For  they  which  deny  these  years, '  and  make 

b  Judg.  xiii.  xv.  II. 
RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  F  f 


434 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 


Othoniel's  forty  to  begin  presently  upon  the  death  of  Jo 
shua,  as  in  the  beginning  of  this  reckoning  they  have  twenty 
years  less  than  Codoman,  so  towards  the  end  of  it  (when 
they  reckon  the  years  of  affliction  apart  from  the  years  of 
the  judges)  in  the  number  of  Samson's  years,  and  of  the 
forty  years  of  the  Philistines  oppressing  the  Israelites,  they 
have  twenty  years  more  than  Codoman.  For  they  reckon 
these  forty  years  of  oppression  all  of  them  apart  from 
Samson's  twenty;  but  Codoman,  as  is  said,  makes  Sam 
son's  twenty  to  be  the  one  half  of  the  forty  of  the  Philis 
tines1  oppressions  ;  so  that  if  the  twenty  years  of  the  seniors 
be  not  allowed  to  Codoman,  then  he  may  reckon  (as  the 
letter  of  the  text  seems  to  enforce)  that  the  Philistines  in  an 
interregnum,  before  Samson  judged  Israel,  vexed  the 
Israelites  forty  years,  besides  the  twenty  while  Samson 
was  their  judge,  and  so  the  reckoning  will  come  to  450 
years  between  the  end  of  Joshua  and  the  beginning  of  Sa 
muel,  though  we  admit  not  of  any  interregnum  of  the  se 
niors  between  Joshua  and  Othoriiel:  for  if  the  times  of 
their  affliction  be  summed,  they  make  111  years,  to  which 
if  we  add  the  years  of  the  judges,  which  are  389,  we  have 
the  just  sum  of  450.  And  this  computation,  either  one 
way  or  other,  may  seem  to  be  much  more  probable,  than 
theirs  that  correct  the  text,  although  we  should  admit  of 
their  correction  thereof,  and  read  with  them  350  for  450. 
For  whereas  they  conceive  that  this  time  of  350  years  is  to 
begin  immediately,  or  soon  after  the  death  of  Moses ;  cer 
tainly  the  place  of  St.  Paul  doth  evidently  teach  the  con 
trary,  though  it  be  received  for  true,  that  there  was  vitium 
scriptoris  in  the  rest.  For  these  be  St.  Paul's  words; 
And  about  the  time  of  forty  years,  God  suffered  their  man 
ners  in  the  wilderness ;  and  he  destroyed  seven  nations  in 
the  land  of  Canaan,  and  divided  their  land  to  them  by  lot. 
Then  afterward  he  gave  unto  them  judges  about  450 
years,  unto  the  time  of  Samuel  the  prophet.  So  as  first  in 
the  18th  verse  he  speaketh  of  Moses,  and  of  his  years  spent 
in  the  wilderness,  then  in  the  19th  verse  he  cometh  to  the 
acts  of  Joshua ;  which  were,  that  he  destroyed  seven  nations 


CHAP.  xni.  OF  THE  WORLD.  435 

in  the  land  of  c  Canaan,  and  divided  their  land  to  them  by 
lot.  In  the  20th  verse  it  folio weth,  Then  afterwards  he 
gave  them  judges  about  450  years,  &c.  And  therefore  to 
reckon  from  the  death  of  Moses  is  wide  of  St.  Paul's  mean 
ing,  so  far  as  my  weak  understanding  can  pierce  it.  The 
only  inconvenience  of  any  weight  in  the  opinion  of  Codo- 
man,  touching  this  place  in  the  Acts,  is,  that  it  seems  irre- 
concileable  with  the  account,  1  Kings  vi.  11.  For  if  indeed 
there  were  spent  450  years  between  the  end  of  Joshua  and 
the  beginning  of  Samuel,  certainly  there  must  needs  be 
much  more  than  480  years  between  the  beginning  of  the 
Israelites  journeying  from  Egypt,  and  the  foundation  of 
the  temple  by  Salomon.  To  this  difficulty  Codoman  an- 
swereth,  that  these  480  years,  1  Kings  vi.  1,  must  begin  to 
be  reckoned,  not  in  the  beginning,  but  in  the  ending  of 
their  journeying  from  Egypt,  which  he  makes  to  be  twen 
ty-five  years  after  the  beginning  of  Othoniel's  government ; 
from  whence  if  we  cast  the  years  of  the  judges  with  the 
years  of  servitude,  (which  sums,  according  to  his  account,  of 
which  we  have  already  spoken,  make  397  years,)  and  so  to 
these  years  add  the  forty  of  Samuel  and  Saul,  and  the  forty 
of  David,  and  the  three  of  Salomon,  we  shall  have  the  just 
sum  of  480  years.  Neither  is  it  hard,  saith  he,  that  the 
annus  egressionis,  1  Reg.  vi.  1,  should  be  understood 
egressionis  non  incipientis  sed  Jinitce,  the  year  of  their 
coming  out  of  Egypt,  (for  so  it  is  in  the  original,)  or  the 
year  after  they  came  out  of  Egypt,  may  well  be  understood 
for  the  year  after  they  were  come  out  thence,  that  is,  after 
they  had  ended  their  wandering  from  thence.  For  so  we 
find  that  things,  which  were  done  forty  years  after  they  had 
set  foot  out  of  Egypt,  are  said  to  have  been  done  in  their 
going  out  of  Egypt,  as  Psalm  cxiv.  When  Israel  came  out 
of  Egypt,  Jordan  was  driven  back.  And  Deut.  iv.  45. 
These  are  the  testimonies  which  Moses  spake  when  they 
came  out  of  Egypt.  And  thus  far  it  seems  we  may  very 
well  agree  with  Codoman  for  the  interpretation  of  the 
word  ab  exitu,  to  be  as  much  as  quum  exivis&ent,  oc  ab 

1  Josh.  xiv.  i. 

rf* 


436 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 


exitu  finite:  for  if  Junius,  Deut.  iv.  45,  do  well  read  quum 
exiwssent  for  in  exitu,  as  it  seems  that  herein  he  doth 
well,  why  may  not  we  also,  to  avoid  contradiction  in  the 
scripture,  expound  ab  exitu  to  be  postquam  exivissent? 

The  next  point  to  be  cleared  is,  how  their  journeying 
should  be  said  not  to  have  had  end  until  the  twenty-fifth 
year  after  the  victory  of  Othoniel.  To  this  Codoman  an- 
swereth,  that  then  it  had  no  end  till  when  all  the  tribes  had 
obtained  their  portions,  which  happened  not  until  this  time; 
at  which  time  the  Danites  at  length  seated  themselves,  as  it 
is  declared,  Judg.  xviii ;  for  doubtless  to  this  time  the  ex 
pedition  may  most  conveniently  be  referred.  And  thus, 
without  any  great  inconvenience  to  him  appearing,  dotli 
Codoman  reconcile  the  account  of  Jephta,  Judg.  xviii.  1, 
and  St.  Paul,  with  that  in  1  Kings  vi.  Now  whereas  it  is 
said,  that  the  expedition  of  the  Danites  was  when  there 
was  no  king  in  Israel ;  to  this  Codoman  answereth,  that  it 
is  not  necessary  that  we  should  suppose  that  Othoniel  lived 
all  those  forty  years  of  rest,  of  which  Judg.  iii.  11.  So 
that  by  the  twenty-five  years  after  his  victory,  either  he 
might  have  been  dead,  or  at  least,  as  Gideon  did,  he  might 
have  refused  all  sovereignty;  and  so  either  way  it  might 
truly  be  said,  that  at  this  time  (to  wit,  the  twenty-fifth  year 
after  Othoniel's  victory)  there  was  no  king  in  Israel.  This 
opinion  of  Codoman,  if  it  were  as  consonant  to  other  chro- 
nologers  grounding  their  opinions  on  the  plain  text  where 
it  is  indisputable,  as  it  is  in  itself  round  enough  and  coherent, 
might  perhaps  be  received  as  good ;  especially  considering 
that  the  speeches  of  St.  Paul  have  not  otherwise  found  any 
interpretation,  maintaining  them  as  absolutely  true,  in  such 
manner  as  they  sound  and  are  set  down.  But  seeing  that 
he  wanteth  all  help  of  authority,  we  may  justly  suspect  the 
supposition  whereupon  his  opinion  is  grounded;  it  being 
such  as  the  consent  of  many  authors  would  hardly  suffice 
to  make  very  probable.  For  who  hath  told  Codoman  that 
the  conquest  of  Laish,  by  the  tribe  of  Dan,  was  performed 
in  the  five  and  twentieth  year  of  Othoniel  ?  Or  what  other 
probability  hath  he  than  his  own  conjecture,  to  shew  that 


CHAP.  xni.  OF  THE  WORLD.  437 

Othoniel  did  so  renounce  the  office  of  a  judge  after  five  and 
twenty  years,  that  it  might  then  be  truly  said  there  was  no 
king  in  Israel,  but  every  mem  did  that  which  was  good  in 
his  own  eyes. 

Now  concerning  the  rehearsal  of  the  law  by  Moses,  and 
the  stopping  of  Jordan,  they  might  indeed  be  properly  said 
to  have  been  when  Israel  came  out  of  Egypt ;  like  as  we 
say,  that  king  Edward  I.  was  crowned  when  he  came  out 
of  the  Holy  Land ;  for  so  all  journeys,  with  their  accidents, 
commonly  take  name  from  the  place  either  whence  or 
whither  they  tend.  But  I  think  he  can  find  no  such  phrase 
of  speech  in  scripture,  as  limiteth  a  journey  by  an  accident, 
or  saith,  by  converting  the  proposition,  when  Jordan  was 
turning  back,  Israel  came  out  of  Egypt.  Indeed  most  un- 
proper  it  were  to  give  date  unto  actions  commenced  long 
after,  from  an  expedition  finished  long  before ;  namely,  to 
say,  that  king  Edward,  at  his  arrival  out  of  Palaestina,  did 
win  Scotland,  or  died  at  Carlisle.  How  may  we  then  be 
lieve  that  enterprise,  performed  so  many  years  after  the  di 
vision  of  the  land,  (which  followed  the  conquest  at  the  jour 
ney's  end,)  should  be  said  to  have  been  at  the  time  of  the 
departure  out  of  Egypt?  Or  who  will  not  think  it  most 
strange,  that  the  most  notable  account  of  time,  serving  as 
the  only  guide  for  certain  ages  in  sacred  chronology,  should 
not  take  name  and  beginning  from  that  illustrious  deliver 
ance  out  of  Egypt  rehearsed  often  by  God  himself  among 
the  principal  of  his  benefits  to  Israel,  whereof  the  very  day 
and  month  are  recorded  in  scripture,  (as  likewise  are  the 
year  and  month  wherein  it  expired,)  and  the  form  of  the 
year  upon  that  occasion  changed ;  but  should  have  refer 
ence  to  the  surprising  of  a  town  by  600  men,  that  robbed  a 
chapel  by  the  way,  and  stole  from  thence  idols  to  be  their 
guides,  as  not  going  to  work  in  God's  name  ?  For  this  ac 
cident,  whereupon  Codoman  buildeth,  hath  either  no  time 
given  to  it,  or  a  time  far  different  from  that  which  he  sup- 
poseth,  and  is  indeed  rather  by  him  placed  in  such  a  year, 
because  it  best  stood  with  his  interpretation  so  to  have  it, 
than  for  any  certainty  or  likelihood  of  the  tiling  itself. 

Ff3 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Wherefore  we  may  best  agree  with  such  as  affirm,  that 
the  apostle  St.  Paul  did  not  herein  labour  to  set  down  the 
course  of  time  exactly,  (a  thing  no  way  concerning  his  pur 
pose,)  but  only  to  shew  that  God,  who  had  chosen  Israel  to 
be  his  people,  delivered  them  out  of  bondage,  and  ruled 
them  by  judges  and  prophets  unto  the  time  of  Saul;  did 
raise  up  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  out  of  the  seed  of  David 
the  king,  in  whose  succession  the  crown  was  established, 
and  promise  made  of  a  kingdom  that  should  have  no  end. 
Now  in  rehearsing  briefly  thus  much,  which  tended  as  a 
preface  to  the  declaration  following,  (wherein  he  sheweth 
Christ  to  have  been  the  true  Messias,)  the  apostle  was  so 
far  from  labouring  to  make  an  exact  calculation  of  time, 
(the  history  being  so  well  known,  and  believed  of  the  Jews 
to  whom  he  preached,)  that  he  spake  as  it  were  at  large  of 
the  forty  years  consumed  in  the  wilderness,  whereof  no 
man  doubted ;  saying,  that  God  suffered  their  manners  in 
the  wilderness  about  forty  years.  In  like  manner  he  pro 
ceeded,  saying,  that  from  the  division  of  the  land  unto  the 
days  of  Samuel  the  prophet,  in  whose  time  they  required  to 
have  a  king,  there  passed  about  450  years.  Neither  did  he 
stand  to  tell  them,  that  111  years  of  bondage,  mentioned  in 
this  middle  while,  were  by  exact  computation  to  be  included 
within  the  339  years  of  the  judges ;  for  this  had  been  an 
impertinent  digression  from  the  argument  which  he  had  in 
hand.  Wherefore  it  is  a  work  not  so  needful  as  laborious, 
to  search  out  of  this  place  that  which  the  apostle  did  not 
here  intend  to  teach,  when  the  sum  of  480  years  is  so  ex 
pressly  and  purposely  set  down. 

Now  that  the  words  of  St.  Paul  (if  there  be  no  fault  in 
the  copy  through  error  of  some  scribe)  are  not  so  curiously 
to  be  examined  in  matter  of  chronology,  but  must  be  taken 
as  having  reference  to  the'  memory  and  apprehension  of  the 
vulgar,  it  is  evident  by  his  ascribing  in  the  same  place  forty 
years  to  the  reign  of  Saul ;  whereas  it  is  manifest,  that 
those  years  were  divided  between  Saul  and  Samuel,  yea, 
that  far  the  greater  part  of  them  were  spent  under  the  go 
vernment  of  the  prophet,  howsoever  they  are  here  included 


CHAP.  xiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  439 

in  the  reign  of  the  king.  As  for  those,  that  with  so  much 
cunning  forsake  the  general  opinion,  when  it  favoureth  not 
such  exposition  as  they  bring  out  of  a  good  mind  to  help 
where  the  need  is  not  over  great,  I  had  rather  commend 
their  diligence,  than  follow  their  example.  The  words  of 
St.  Paul  were  sufficiently  justified  by  Beroaldus,  as  having 
reference  to  a  common  opinion  among  the  scribes  in  those 
days,  that  the  111  years  of  servitude  were  to  be  reckoned 
apart  from  the  339  years  ascribed  to  the  judges  ;  which  ac 
count  the  apostle  would  not  in  this  place  stand  to  contra 
dict,  but  rather  chose  to  speak  as  the  vulgar,  qualifying  it 
with  a  quasi,  where  he  saith.  Quasi  quadringentis  et  quin- 
quaginta  annis;  "  As  it  were  four  hundred  and  fifty  years." 
But  Codoman  being  not  thus  contented,  would  needs  have 
it  to  be  so  indeed ;  and  therefore  disjoins  the  members  to 
make  the  account  even.  In  so  doing  he  dasheth  himself 
against  a  notable  text;  whereupon  all  authors  have  builded, 
(as  well  they  might  and  ought,)  that  purposely  and  precisely 
doth  cast  up  the  years  from  the  departure  out  of  Egypt, 
unto  the  building  of  Salomon's  temple,  not  omitting  the 
very  month  itself. 

Now  (as  commonly  the  first  apprehensions  are  strongest) 
having  already  given  faith  to  his  own  interpretation  of  St. 
Paul,  he  thinketh  it  more  needful  to  find  some  new  expo 
sition  for  that,  which  is  of  itself  most  plain,  than  to  examine 
his  own  conjecture,  upon  a  place  that  is  full  of  controversy. 
Thus  by  expounding,  after  a  strange  method,  that  which  is 
manifest  by  that  which  is  obscure,  he  loseth  himself  in 
those  ways  wherein  before  him  never  man  walked.  Surely 
if  one  should  urge  him  to  give  reason  of  these  new  opinions, 
he  must  needs  answer,  that  Othoniel  could  not  govern  above 
twenty-five  years,  because  then  was  the  taking  of  Laish,  at 
which  time  there  was  no  Icing  in  Israel:  that  the  Danites 
must  needs  have  taken  Laish  at  that  time,  because  else  we 
could  not  reckon  backwards  from  the  foundation  of  the  tem 
ple,  to  any  action  that  might  be  termed  the  coming  of  Israel 
out  of  Egypt,  without  excluding  the  years  of  servitude; 
and  that  the  years  of  servitude  must  needs  be  included,  for 

rf4 


440  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

that  otherwise  he  himself  should  have  spent  his  time  vainly, 
in  seeking  to  pleasure  St.  Paul  with  an  exposition.  Whe 
ther  this  ground  be  strong  enough  to  uphold  a  paradox,  I 
leave  it  to  the  decision  of  any  judicious  reader. 

And  now  to  proceed  in  our  story.  To  the  time  of  Jephta 
are  referred  the  death  of  Hercules,  the  rape  of  Helen  by 
Paris,  and  the  provisions  which  her  husband  Menelaus, 
reigning  then  in  Sparta,  and  his  brother  Agamemnon,  king 
of  Mycena?,  made  for  her  recovery.  Others  refer  this  rape 
of  Helen  to  the  fourth  year  of  Ibzan;  from  which  time,  if 
the  war  of  Troy  (as  they  suppose)  did  not  begin  till  the 
third  of  Ailon,  or  Elon,  yet  the  Greeks  had  six  years  to 
prepare  themselves;  the  rule  holding  not  true  in  this  war, 
Longa  prceparatio  belli  celerem  affert  mctoriam  ;  "  That  a 
"  long  preparation  begets  a  speedy  victory;"  for  the  Greeks 
consumed  ten  years  in  the  attempt ;  and  Troy,  as  it  seems, 
was  entered,  sacked,  and  burnt  in  the  third  year  of  Hab- 
don. 

Three  years  after  Troy  was  taken,  which  was  in  the  sixth 
year  of  Habdon,  JEneas  arrived  in  Italy.     Habdon,  in  the 
eighth  year  of  his  rule,  died,  after  he  had  been  the  father  of 
forty  sons  and  thirty  grandchildren.    And  whereas  it  is  sup 
posed,  that  the  forty  years  of  Israel's  oppression  by  the  Phi 
listines  (of  which  Judg.  xiii.  1.)  took  beginning  from  the 
ninth  year  of  Jair,  and  ended  with  the  last  of  Habdon;   I 
see  no  great  reason  for  that  opinion.    For  Ephraim  had  had 
little  cause  of  quarrel  against  Jephta,  for  not  calling  them  to 
war  over  Jordan,  if  the  Philistines  had  held  them  in  servi 
tude  in  their  own  territories ;  and  if  Ephraim  could  have 
brought  42,000  armed  men  into  the  field,  it  is  not  likely 
that  they  were  then  oppressed ;  and  had  it  been  true  that 
they  were,  who  will  doubt  but  that  they  would  rather  have 
fought  against  the  Philistines,  with  so  powerful  an  army,  for 
their  own  deliverance,  than  against  their  own  brethren  the 
Israelites  ?  But  Ammon  being  overthrown,  it  seemed  at  that 
time  that  they  feared  no  other  enemy.    And  therefore  these 
forty  years  must  either  be  supplied  elsewhere,  as  in  the 
time  of  Samson,  and  afterward ;  or  else  they  must  be  re- 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  441 

ferred  to  the  interregnum  between  the  death  of  Habdon 
and  the  deliverance  of  Israel  by  Samson,  such  as  it  was. 


CHAP.   XIV. 

Of  the  war  of  Tray. 

SECT.   I. 

Of  the  genealogy  of  the  kings  of  Troy,  with  a  note  touching  the 
ancient  poets  how  they  have  observed  historical  truth. 

J.  HE  war  at  Troy,  with  other  stories  hereupon  depending, 
(because  the  ruin  of  this  city  by  most  chronologers  is  found 
in  the  time  of  Habdon,  judge  of  Israel,  whom  in  the  last 
place  I  have  mentioned,)  I  rather  choose  here  to  entreat  of 
in  one  entire  narration,  beginning  with  the  lineal  descent  of 
their  princes,  than  to  break  the  story  into  pieces,  by  re 
hearsing  apart  in  divers  years  the  diversity  of  occurrents. 

The  history  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Troy  is  uncertain,  in 
regard  both  of  their  original  and  of  their  continuance.  It 
is  commonly  held  that  Teucer  and  Dardanus  were  the  two 
founders  of  that  kingdom.  This  is  the  opinion  of  Virgil ; 
which  if  he  (as  Reineccius  thinks)  took  from  Berosus,  it  is 
the  more  probable  :  if  Annius  borrowed  it  from  him,  then  it 
rests  upon  the  authority  of  Virgil,  who  saith  thus : 

d  Creta  Jovis  magni  medio  jacet  insula  panto-: 
Mons  Idceus  ubi,  et  gentis  cunabula  nostrte. 
Centum  urbes  habitant  magnas,  uberrima  regna  : 
Maximus  unde  pater  (si  rite  audita  recorder) 
Teucrus  Rhceteas  primum  est  advectus  ad  oras  : 
Optavitque  locum  regno.    Nondum  Ilium  et  arces 
Pergamete  steterant ;  habitabant  vallibus  imis. 
Hinc  mater  cultrix  Cybela,  Corybantiaque  cera, 
Idceumque  nemus. 

In  the  main  sea  the  isle  of  Crete  doth  lie ; 
Where  Jove  was  born,  thence  is  our  progeny. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  ir. 

There  is  mount  Ida  :  there  in  fruitful  land 

An  hundred  great  and  goodly  cities  stand. 

Thence  (if  I  follow  not  mistaken  fame) 

Teucer  the  eldest  of  our  grandsires  came 

To  the  Rhoetean  shores  ;  and  reigned  there 

Ere  yet  fair  Ilion  was  built,  and  ere 

The  towers  of  Troy ;  their  dwellingplace  they  sought 

In  lowest  vales.     Hence  Cybel's  rights  were  brought : 

Hence  Corybantian  cymbals  did  remove  ; 

And  hence  the  name  of  our  Idsean  grove. 

Thus  it  seems  by  Virgil,  who  followed  surely  good  au 
thority,  that  Teucer  first  gave  name  to  that  country,  wherein 
he  reigned  ere  Troy  was  built  by  Dardanus ;  of  which 
Dardanus  in  the  same  book  he  speaks  thus : 

Est  locus  Hesperiam  Grail  cognomine  dicunt  : 
Terra  antiqua,  potens  armis  atque  ubere  gleba. 
CEnotrii  coluere  viri:  nuncfama,  minor  es 
Italiam  dlxlsse,  duels  de  nomine,  gentem. 
HtE  nobls  propri(B  sedes,  hlnc  Dardanus  ortus  : 
laslusque  pater,  genus  a  quo  prlnclpe  nostrum. 

Hesperia  the  Grecians  call  the  place ; 
An  ancient  fruitful  land,  a  warlike  race. 
GEnotrians  held  it,  now  the  latter  progeny 
Gives  it  their  captain's  name,  and  calls  it  Italy. 
This  seat  belongs  to  us,  hence  Dardanus, 
Hence  came  the  author  of  our  stock,  lasius. 

e  Atque  equldem  memlni  (fama  est  obscurlor  annis) 
Auruncos  Itaferre  senes,  his  ortus  ut  agrls 
Dardanus  Idceas  Phrygia  penetravlt  ad  urbes, 
Threiclamque  Samum,  qua  nunc  Samothraclafertur. 
Hlnc  ilium  Corytl  Tyrrhend  ab  sede  profectum 
Aurea  nunc  sollo  &tellantls  regla  ccell 
Acciplty  &c. 

Some  old  Auruncans,  I  remember  well, 

(Though  time  have  made  the  fame  obscure)  would  tell 

c  vEneid.  1.  7, 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  443 

Of  Dardanus,  how  born  in  Italy  ; 

From  hence  he  into  Phrygia  did  fly. 

And  leaving  Tuscaine  (where  he  erst  had  place) 

With  Corytus  did  sail  to  Samothrace ; 

But  now  enthronised  he  sits  on  high, 

In  golden  palace  of  the  starry  sky. 

But  contrary  to  this,  and  to  so  many  authors,  approving 
and  confirming  it,  Reineccius  thinks  that  these  names,  Troes, 
Teucri,  and  Thraces,  are  derived  from  Tiras,  or  Thiras, 
the  son  of  Japhet;  and  that  the  Dardanians,  Mysians,  and 
Ascanians,  mixed  with  the  Trojans,  were  German  nations, 
descended  from  Ashkenaz,  the  son  of  Gomer ;  of  whom  the 
country,  lake,  and  river  of  Ascanius  in  Asia  took  name. 
That  Ashkenaz  gave  name  to  those  places  and  people,  it  is 
not  unlikely ;  neither  is  it  unlikely  that  the  Ascanii,  Dar- 
dani,  and  many  others,  did  in  aftertimes  pass  into  Europe ; 
that  the  name  of  Teucer  came  of  Tiras  the  conjecture  is 
somewhat  hard.  Concerning  Teucer,  whereas  Halicarnas- 
seus  makes  him  an  Athenian,  I  find  none  that  follow  him  in 
the  same  opinion.  Virgil  (as  is  before  shewed)  reporteth  him 
to  be  of  Crete,  whose  authority  is  the  more  to  be  regarded, 
because  he  had  good  means  to  find  the  truth,  which  it  is 
probable  that  he  carefully  sought,  and  in  this  did  follow ; 
seeing  it  no  way  concerned  Augustus,  (whom  other  whiles 
he  did  flatter,)  whether  Teucer  were  of  Crete  or  no.  Reinec 
cius  doth  rather  embrace  the  opinion  of  Diodorus  and  others, 
that  think  him  a  Phrygian,  by  which  report  he  was  the  son 
of  Scamander  and  Ida,  lord  of  the  country,  not  founder  of 
the  city;  and  his  daughter  or  niece  Batia,  was  the  second 
wife  of  Dardanus,  founder  of  Troy.  Reineccius  further 
thinks,  that  Atlas  reigned  in  Samothracia,  and  gave  his 
daughter  Electra  to  Corytus,  or  Coritus;  and  that  these 
were  parents  to  Chryse,  first  wife  to  Dardanus.  Virgil 
holds  otherwise,  and  the  common  tradition  of  poets  makes 
Dardanus  the  son  of  Electra  by  Jupiter,  which  Electra  was 
the  daughter  of  Atlas,  and  wife  to  Coritus  king  of  Hetruria, 
to  whom  she  bare  Jasius.  Annius  out  of  his  Berosus  finds 


444  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  name  of  Camboblascon,  to  whom  he  gives  the  addition 
of  Coritus,  as  a  title  of  dignity,  making  him  father  of  Dar- 
danus  and  Jasius ;  and  further  telling  us  very  particularly 
of  the  faction  between  these  brethren,  which  grew  to  such 
heat,  that  finally  Dardanus  killed  his  brother,  and  thereupon 
fled  into  Samothrace.  The  obscurity  of  the  history  gives 
leave  to  Annius  of  saying  what  he  list.  I  that  love  not  to 
use  such  liberty,  will  forbear  to  determine  any  thing  herein. 
But  if  Dardanus  were  the  son  of  Jupiter,  it  must  have  been 
of  some  elder  Jupiter  than  the  father  of  those  that  lived 
about  the  war  of  Troy.  So  it  is  likewise  probable,  that 
Atlas,  the  father  of  Electra,  was  rather  an  Italian  than 
an  African,  which  also  is  the  opinion  of  fBoccace.  For 
(as  hath  often  been  said)  there  were  many  Jupiters,  and 
many  of  almost  every  name  of  the  gods ;  but  it  was  the 
custom  to  ascribe  to  some  one  the  acts  of  the  rest,  with  all 
belonging  to  them.  Therefore  I  will  not  greatly  trouble 
myself  with  making  any  narrow  search  into  these  fabulous 
antiquities,  but  set  down  the  pedigree  according  to  the  ge 
neral  fame ;  allowing  to  Teucer  such  parents  as  Diodorus 
gives,  because  others  give  him  none,  and  carrying  the  line  of 
Dardanus  in  manner  following : 

f  Boccace  de  Gen.  Deor.  1.  4.  c.  31. 


CHAP.  XIV. 


OF  THE  WORLD. 


445 


w  yl   na.    )  I  mis  ytmacliej  (  tes  y 


446  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Concerning  the  beginning  and  continuance  of  the  Tro 
jan  kingdom,  with  the  length  of  every  king's  reign,  I  have 
chosen  good  authors  to  be  my  guides ;  that  in  a  history, 
whereon  depends  the  most  ancient  computation  of  times 
among  the  Greeks,  I  might  not  follow  uncertainties,  ill  co 
hering  with  the  consent  of  writers,  and  general  passage  of 
things  elsewhere  done.  And  first  for  the  destruction  of 
Troy,  which  was  of  greater  note  than  any  accident  befalling 
that  city  whilst  it  stood,  it  is  reckoned  by  sDiodorus  to  be 
780  years  more  ancient  than  the  beginning  of  the  94th  olym 
piad.  Whereas  therefore  372  did  pass  between  the  beginning 
of  the  olympiads  and  the  first  year  of  the  94th,  it  is  mani 
fest  that  the  remainder  of  780  years,  that  is,  408  years,  went 
between  the  destruction  of  Troy  and  the  first  institution  of 
those  games  by  Iphitus,  if  the  authority  of  h  Diodorus  be 
good  proof ;  who  elsewhere  tells  us,  that  the  return  of  the 
Heraclidse,  which  was  eighty  years  after  the  fall  of  Troy, 
was  328  years  before  the  first  olympiad. 

Hereunto  agrees  the  authority  of  iDionysius  Halicar- 
nasseus,  who  placing  the  foundation  of  Rome  in  the  first  of 
the  seventh  olympiad,  that  is,  four  and  twenty  years  after  the 
beginning  of  those  games,  accounts  it  432  later  than  the  fall 
of  Troy.  k  Solinus  in  express  words  makes  the  institution 
of  the  olympiads  by  Iphitus,  whom  he  calleth  Iphiclus, 
408  years  later  than  the  destruction  of  Troy.  The  sum  is 
easily  collected  by  necessary  inference  out  of  divers  other 
places  in  the  same  book.  Hereunto  doth  !  Eusebius,  reckon 
ing  exclusively,  agree :  and  Eratosthenes  (as  he  is  cited  by 
m  Clemens  Alexandrinus)  makes  up  out  of  many  particu 
lars  the  same  total  sum,  wanting  but  one  year,  as  reckon 
ing  likewise  exclusively. 

The  other  collections  of  divers  writers  that  are  cited  by 
Clemens  in  the  same  place,  do  neither  cohere  any  way,  nor 
depend  upon  any  collateral  history,  by  which  they  may  be 
verified. 

s  Diod.  1.  14.  i  Euseb.  de   Praep.  Evang.  1.    10. 

h  Diod.  in  Praef.  c.  3. 

1  Dionys.  Halic.  Antiq.  1.  2.  m  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  1.  i. 

k  Solin.  Polyhist.  c.  2. 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  447 

The  destruction  of  Troy  being  in  the  year  before  the 
olympiads  four  hundred  and  eight,  we  must  seek  the  conti 
nuance  of  that,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  out  of  Euse- 
bius,  who  leads  us  from  Dardanus  onwards  through  the 
reigns  of  four  kings,  by  the  space  of  two  hundred  and  five 
and  twenty  years ;  and  after  of  Priamus,  with  whom  also  at 
length  it  ended.  As  for  the  time  which  passed  under  Lao- 
medon,  we  are  fain  to  do  as  others  have  done  before  us, 
and  take  it  upon  trust  from  Annius's  authors;  believing 
Manetho  so  much  the  rather,  for  that  in  his  account  of  the 
former  king's  reigns,  and  of  Priamus,  he  is  found  to  agree 
with  Eusebius,  which  may  give  us  leave  to  think  that  An- 
nius  hath  not  herein  corrupted  him.  But  in  this  point  we 
need  not  to  be  very  scrupulous :  for  seeing  that  no  history 
or  account  of  time  depends  upon  the  reigns  of  the  former 
kings,  but  only  upon  the  ruin  of  the  city  under  Priamus,  it 
may  suffice  that  we  are  careful  to  place  that  memorable  ac 
cident  in  the  due  year. 

True  it  is,  that  some  objections,  appearing  weighty,  may 
be  alleged  in  maintenance  of  different  computations,  which, 
with  the  answers,  I  purposely  omit,  as  not  willing  to  dispute 
of  those  years  wherein  the  Greeks  knew  no  good  form  of  a 
year;  but  rather  to  make  narration  of  the  actions  which 
were  memorable,  and  acknowledged  by  all  writers,  whereof 
this  destruction  of  Troy  was  one  of  the  most  renowned. 

The  first  enterprise  that  was  undertaken  by  general  con 
sent  of  all  Greece,  was  the  last  war  of  Troy,  which  hath 
been  famous  even  to  this  day  for  the  numbers  of  princes 
and  valiant  commanders  there  assembled  ;  the  great  battles 
fought  with  variable  success ;  the  long  endurance  of  the 
siege ;  the  destruction  of  that  great  city  ;  and  the  many  co 
lonies  planted  in  sundry  countries,  as  well  by  the  remainder 
of  the  Trojans,  as  by  the  victorious  Greeks  after  their  un 
fortunate  return.  All  which  things,  with  innumerable  cir 
cumstances  of  especial  note,  have  been  delivered  unto  poste 
rity  by  the  excellent  wits  of  many  writers,  especially  by  the 
poems  of  that  great  Homer,  whose  verses  have  given  im 
mortality  to  the  action,  which  might  else  perhaps  have  been 


448  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

buried  in  oblivion,  among  other  worthy  deeds  done  both  be 
fore  and  since  that  time.  For  it  is  true  which  Horace 
saith: 

Vixere  fortes  ante  Agamemnona 

Multi,  sed  omnes  illachrimabiles 
Urgentur,  ignotique  longa 
Node  :  carent  quia  vate  sacro. 

Many  by  valour  have  deserv'd  renown 
Ere  Agamemnon :  yet  lie  all  opprest 

Under  long  night,  unwept  for  and  unknown  : 
For  with  no  sacred  poet  were  they  blest. 

Yet  so  it  is,  that  whilst  these  writers  have  with  strange 
fables,  or  (to  speak  the  best  of  them)  with  allegories  far 
strained,  gone  about  to  enlarge  the  commendations  of  those 
noble  undertakers;  they  have  both  drawn  into  suspicion 
that  great  virtue  which  they  sought  to  adorn,  and  filled 
after-ages  with  almost  as  much  ignorance  of  the  history,  as 
admiration  of  the  persons.  Wherefore  it  is  expedient  that 
we  seek  for  the  knowledge  of  such  actions  in  histories; 
learning  their  qualities  who  did  manage  them,  of  poets,  in 
whose  works  are  both  profit  and  delight,  yet  small  profit  to 
those  which  are  delighted  overmuch  ;  but  such  as  can  either 
interpret  their  fables,  or  separate  them  from  the  naked 
truth,  shall  find  matter  in  poems  not  unworthy  to  be  re 
garded  of  historians.  For  those  things  excepted  which  are 
gathered  out  of  Homer,  there  is  very  little,  and  not  without 
much  disagreement  of  authors,  written  of  this  great  war. 
All  writers  consent  with  Homer,  that  the  rape  of  Helen  by 
Paris,  the  son  of  Priamus,  was  the  cause  of  taking  arms ; 
but  how  he  was  hereunto  emboldened,  it  is  doubtful. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  the  rape  of  Helen;  and  strength  of  both  sides  for  the  war. 

HERODOTUS  fetcheth  the  cause  of  this  rape  from  very 
far,  saying,  that  whereas  the  Phoenicians  had  ravished  lo, 
and  carried  her  into  Egypt;  the  Greeks,  to  be  revenged  on 
the  barbarians,  did  first  ravish  Europa,  whom  they  brought 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  449 

out  of  Phoenicia  into  Creta,  and  afterward  Medea,  whom 
they  fetched  from  Colchos,  denying  to  restore  her  to  her 
father,  till  such  time  as  they  might  be  satisfied  for  the  rape 
of  lo.  By  these  deeds  of  the  Greeks,  Paris  (as  the  same 
Herodotus  affirms)  was  emboldened  to.  do  the  like,  not 
fearing  such  revenge  as  ensued.  But  all  this  narration  seems 
frivolous.  For  what  had  the  king  of  Colchos  to  do  with 
the  injury  of  the  Phoenicians  ?  or  how  could  the  Greeks,  as 
in  revenge  of  lo,  plead  any  quarrel  against  him,  that  never 
had  heard  the  name  of  Phoenicians  ?  Thucydides,  a  writer 
of  unquestionable  sincerity,  maketh  it  plain,  that  the  name 
of  barbarians  was  not  used  at  all  in  Homer's  time,  which 
was  long  after  the  war  of  Troy  ;  and  that  the  Greeks  them 
selves  were  not  then  called  all  by  one  name  Hellenes,  as 
afterwards.  So  that  it  were  unreasonable  to  think,  that 
they  should  have  sought  revenge  upon  all  nations  as  barba 
rous,  for  the  injury  received  by  one ;  or  that  all  people  else 
should  have  esteemed  of  the  Greeks,  as  of  a  people  opposed 
to  all  the  world ;  and  that  even  then,  when  as  the  Greeks 
had  not  yet  one  common  name  among  themselves.  Others 
with  more  probability  say,  that  the  rape  of  Helen  was  to 
procure  the  redelivery  of  Hesione,  king  Priam  us's  sister, 
taken  formerly  by  Hercules,  and  given  to  Telamon.  This 
may  have  been  true.  For  Telamon,  as  it  seems,  was  a  cruel 
man,  seeing  his  own  son  Teucer  durst  not  come  in  his  sight, 
after  the  war  of  Troy,  but  fled  into  Cypris,  only  because 
his  brother  Ajax  (which  Teucer  could  not  remedy)  had 
slain  himself.  Yet,  were  it  so  that  Hesione  was  ill  en 
treated  by  Telamon,  it  was  not  therefore  likely  that  Pria- 
mus  her  brother  would  seek  to  take  her  from  her  husband, 
with  whom  she  had  lived  about  thirty  years,  and  to  whom 
she  had  borne  children,  which  were  to  succeed  in  his  domin 
ion.  Whereupon  I  think  that  Paris  had  no  regard  either 
to  the  rape  of  Europa,  Medea,  or  Hesione ;  but  was  merely 
incited  by  Venus,  that  is,  by  his  lust,  to  do  that  which  in 
those  days  was  very  common.  For  not  only  Greeks  from 
barbarians,  and  barbarians  from  Greeks,  as  Herodotus  dis- 
coursfeth,  but  all  people  were  accustomed  to  steal  women  and 

RALEGH,  HIST.   WORLD.   VOL.   II.  G  g 


450  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

cattle,  if  they  could  by  strong  hand  or  power  get  them ; 
and  having  stolen  them,  either,  to  sell  them  away  in.  some 
far  country,  or  keep  them  to  their  own  use.  So  did  The 
seus  and  Pirithous  attempt  Proserpina;  and  so  did  Theseus 
(long  before  Paris)  ravish  Helen.  And  these  practices,  as 
it  appears  in  Thucydides,  wece  so  common,  that  none  durst 
inhabit  near  unto  the  sea  for  fear  of  piracy,  which  was  ac 
counted  a  trade  of  life  no  less  lawful  than  merchandise : 
wherefore  Tyndareus,  the  father  of  Helen,  considering  the. 
beauty  of  his  daughter,  and  the  rape  which  Theseus  had 
made,  caused  all  her  wooers,  who  were  most  of  the  princi 
pal  men  in  Greece,  to  bind  themselves  by  solemn  oath,  that 
if  she  were  taken  from  her  husband,  they  should  with  all 
.their  might  help  to  recover  her.  This  done,  he  gave  free 
choice  of  a  husband  to  his  daughter,  who  chose  Menelaus, 
brother  to  Agamemnon :  so  the  cause  which  drew  the  Greeks 
unto  Troy,, in  revenge  of  Helen's  rape,  was  partly  the  oath 
which  so  many  princes  had  made  unto  her  father  Tynda 
reus.  Hereunto  the  great  power  of  Agamemnon  was  not  a 
little  helping;  for  Agamemnon,  besides  his  great  dominions 
in  Peloponnesus,  was  lord  of  many  islands ;  he  was  also  rich 
in  money,  and  therefore  the  Arcadians  were  well  contented 
to  follow  his  pay,  whom  he  embarked  for  Troy  in  his  own 
ships,  which  were  more  than  any  other  of  the  Greek  princes 
brought  to  that  expedition. 

Thus  did  all  Greece,  either  as  bound  by  oath,  or  led  by 
the  reputation  and  power  of  the  two  brethren  Agamemnon 
and  Menelaus,  or  desirous  to  partake  of  the  profit  and  ho 
nour  in  that  great  enterprise,  take  arms  against  the  Tro 
jans.  The  Greeks'  fleet  was  (by  Homer's  account)  1200 
sail,  or  thereabouts ;  but  the  vessels  were  not  great ;  for  it 
was  not  then  the  manner  to  build  ships  with  decks ;  only 
they  used  (as  Thucydides  saith)  small  ships,  meet  .for  rob 
bing  on  the  sea;  the  least  of  which  carried  fifty  men,  the 
greatest  120,  every  man  (except  the  captains)  being  both 
a  mariner  and  a  soldier.  By  this  proportion  it  appears  that 
the  Grecian  army  consisted  of  100,000  men,  or  thereabouts. 
This  was  the  greatest  army  that  ever  was  raised  out  of 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  451 

Greece :  and  the  greatness  of  this  army  doth  well  declare 
the  strength  and  power  of  Troy,  which  ten  whole  years  did 
stand  out  against  such  forces :  yet  were  the  Trojans  which 
inhabited  the  city  not  the  tenth  part  of  this  number,  as 
Agamemnon  said  in  the  second  of  Homer's  Iliads;  but 
their  followers  and  aids  were  very  many  and  strong.  For 
all  Phrygia,  Lycia,  Mysia,  and  the  greatest  part  of  Asia 
the  Less,  took  part  with  the  Trojans.  The  Amazons  also 
brought  them  succour;  and  Rhesus  out  of  Thrace,  and 
Memnon  out  of  Assyria,  (though  some  think  out  of  Ethio 
pia,)  came  to  their  defence. 

SECT.  III. 

Of  the  Grecians'  journey,  and  embassage  to  Troy ;  and  of  Helena's 
being  detained  in  Egypt ;  and  of  the  sacrificing  of  Iphigenia. 

WHEREFORE  the  Greeks,  unwilling  to  come  to  trial 
of  arms,  if  things  might  be  compounded  by  treaty,  sent 
Menelaus  and  Ulysses  ambassadors  to  Troy ;  who  demand 
ed  Helen  and  the  goods  that  were  taken  with  her  out  of 
Menelaus's  house.  What  answer  the  Trojans  made  here 
unto  it  is  uncertain.  Herodotus,  from  the  report  of  the 
Egyptian  priests,  makes  it  very  probable  that  Helen  was 
taken  from  Paris  before  his  return  to  Troy.  The  sum  of 
his  discourse  is  this : 

Paris,  in  his  return  with  Helena,  being  driven  by  foul 
weather  unto  the  coast  of  Egypt,  was  accused  for  the  rape 
of  Helen  by  some  bondmen  of  his  that  had  taken  sanctuary. 
Proteus,  then  king  of  Egypt,  finding  the  accusation  true 
by  examination,  detained  Helen,  and  the  goods  taken  with 
her,  till  her  husband  should  require  them ;  dismissing  Paris 
without  further  punishment,  because  he  was  a  stranger. 
When  therefore  the  Greeks,  demanding  Helen,  had  answer 
that  she  was  in  Egypt,  they  thought  themselves  deluded, 
and  thereupon  made  the  war  which  ended  with  the  ruin 
of  Troy.  But  when,  after  the  city  taken,  they  perceived 
indeed  she  had  not  been  there,  they  returned  home,  send 
ing  Menelaus  to  ask  his  wife  of  Proteus.  Homer  and  the 
whole  nation  of  poets  (except  Euripides)  vary  from  this 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

history,  thinking  it  a  matter  more  magnificent  and  more 
graceful  to  their  poems,  for  their  retaining  of  a  fair  lady, 
than  that  they  endured  all  by  force,  because  it  lay  not  in 
their  power  to  redeliver  her.  Yet  in  the  fourth  of  his  Odys- 
ses,  Homer  speaks  of  Menelaus's  being  in  Egypt  before  he 
returned  home  to  Sparta;  which  voyage  it  were  not  easily 
believed  that  he  made  for  pleasure :  and  if  he  were  driven 
thither  by  contrary  winds,  much  more  may  we  think  that 
Paris  was  likely  to  have  been  driven  thither  by  foul  wea 
ther.  For  Paris,  immediately  upon  the  rape  committed, 
was  enforced  to  fly,  taking  such  winds  as  he  could  get,  and 
rather  enduring  any  storm,  than  to  commit  himself  to  any 
haven  in  the  Greek  seas;  whereas  Menelaus  might  have 
put  into  any  port  in  Greece,  and  there  have  remained  with 
good  entertainment,  until  such  time  as  the  wind  had  come 
about,  and  served  for  his  navigation. 

One  great  argument  Herodotus  brings  to  confirm  the 
saying  of  the  Egyptian  priests,  which  is,  that  if  Helen  had 
been  at  Troy,  it  had  been  utter  madness  for  Priamus  to  see 
so  many  miseries  befall  him  during  the  war,  and  so  many  of 
his  sons  slain  for  the  pleasure  of  one,  who  neither  was  heir 
to  the  kingdom  (for  Hector  was  elder)  nor  equal  in  virtue 
to  many  of  the  rest.  Besides,  it  may  seem  that  Lucian 
spake  not  more  pleasantly  than  truly,  when  he  said,  that 
Helen,  at  the  war  of  Troy,  was  almost  as  old  as  queen 
Hecuba,  considering  that  she  had  been  ravished  by  The 
seus,  the  companion  of  Hercules,  who  took  Troy  when 
Priamus  was  very  young;  and  considering  further,  that 
she  was  sister  to  Castor  and  Pollux,  (she  and  Pollux  being 
said  by  some  to  have  been  twins,)  who  sailed  with  the  Ar 
gonauts,  having  Telamon,  the  father  of  Ajax,  in  their  com 
pany,  before  the  time  that  Hesione  was  taken ;  on  whom 
Telamon  begat  Ajax,  that  was  a  principal  commander  in 
the  Trojan  war.  But  whether  it  were  so,  that  the  Trojans 
could  not  or  would  not  restore  Helen,  so  it  was,  that  the 
ambassadors  returned  ill  contented,  and  not  very  well  en 
treated  ;  for  there  wanted  not  some  that  advised  to  have 
them  slain.  The  Greeks  hereupon  incensed,  made  all  haste 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  453 

towards  Troy ;  at  which  time  Calchas  (whom  some  say  to 
have  been  a  runagate  Trojan,  though  no  such  thing  be 
found  in  Homer)  filled  the  captains  and  all  the  host  with 
many  troublesome  answers  and  divinations.  For  he  would 
have  Agamemnon's  daughter  sacrificed  to  appease  Diana, 
whose  anger,  he  said,  withstood  their  passage.  Whether  the 
young  lady  was  sacrificed,  or  whether  (as  some  write)  the 
goddess  was  contented  with  a  hind,  it  is  not  needful  here  to 
be  disputed  of.  Sure  it  is,  that  the  malice  of  the  Devil, 
which  awaits  for  all  opportunities,  is  never  more  importunate 
than  where  men's  ignorance  is  most.  Calchas  also  told  the 
Greeks,  that  the  taking  of  Troy  was  impossible,  till  some 
fatal  impediments  were  removed;  and  that  till  ten  years^ 
were  passed  the  town  should  hold  out  against  them.  All 
which  notwithstanding,  the  Greeks  proceeded  in  their  en 
terprise,  under  the  command  of  Agamemnon,  who  was  ac 
companied  with  his  brother  Menelaus,  Achilles,  the  most 
valiant  of  all  the  Greeks,  his  friend  Patroclus,  and  his  tutor 
Phoenix  ;  Ajax  and  Teucer,  the  sons  of  Telamon ;  Idome- 
neus,  and  his  companion  Meriones;  Nestor,  and  his  sons 
Antilochus  and  Thrasymedes;  Ulysses;  Mnestheus,  the 
son  of  Petreus,  captain  of  the  Athenians;  Diomedes,  the 
son  of  Tydeus,  a  man  of  singular  courage;  the  wise  and 
learned  Palamedes ;  Ascalaphus  and  lalmenus,  the  sons  of 
Mars,  who  had  sailed  with  the  Argonauts ;  Philoctetes  also, 
the  son  of  Paean,  who  had  the  arrows  of  Hercules,  without 
which  Calchas  said  that  the  city  could  not  be  taken ;  Ajax, 
the  son  of  Oileus,  Peneleus,  Thoas,  Eumelus,  Tisandrus, 
Eurypylus,  Athamas,  Sthenelus,  Tlepolemus,  the  son  of 
Hercules;  Podalirius  and  Machaon,  the  sons  of  ^Escula- 
pius ;  Epeus,  who  is  said  to  have  made  the  wooden  horse, 
by  which  the  town  was  taken ;  and  Protesilaus,  who  first 
leaped  on  shore,  neglecting  the  oracle  that  threatened  death 
to  him  that  landed  first. 

SECT.  IV. 

Of  the  acts  of  the  Grecians  at  the  siege. 
THESE,  and  many  other  of  less  note,  arriving  at  Troy, 
found  such  sharp  entertainment,  as  might  easily  persuade 

GgS 


454 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  u. 


them  to  think  that  the  war  would  be  more  than  one  year's 
work.  For  in  the  first  encounter  they  lost  Protesilaus, 
whom  Hector  slew,  and  many  other,  without  any  great 
harm  done  to  the  Trojans ;  save  only  that  by  their  numbers 
of  men  they  won  ground  enough  to  encamp  themselves  in, 
as  appeareth  in  Thucydides.  The  principal  impediment 
which  the  Greeks  found  was  want  of  victuals,  which  grew 
upon  them  by  reason  of  their  multitude,  and  the  smallness 
of  their  vessels,  wherein  they  could  not  carry  necessaries  for 
such  an  army.  Hereupon  they  were  compelled  to  send 
some  part  of  their  men  to  labour  the  ground  in  Cherronesse, 
others  to  rob  upon  the  sea,  for  the  relief  of  the  camp.  Thus 
was  the  war  protracted  nine  whole  years,  and  either  nothing 
done,  or  if  any  skirmishes  were,  yet  could  the  town  receive 
little  loss  by  them,  having  equal  numbers  to  maintain  the 
field  against  such  Greeks  as  continued  the  siege,  and  a  more 
safe  retreat  if  the  enemy  got  the  better. 

Wherefore  Ovid  saith,  that  from  the  first  year  till  the 
tenth  there  was  no  fighting  at  all;  and  Heraclides  com 
mends  as  very  credible  the  report  of  Herodotus,  that  the 
Greeks  did  not  lie  before  Troy  the  first  nine  years;  but 
only  did  beat  up  and  down  the  seas,  exercising  their  men, 
and  enriching  themselves,  and  so  by  wasting  the  enemy's 
country,  did  block  up  the  town,  unto  which  they  returned 
not,  until  the  fatal  time  drew  near  when  it  should  be  sub 
verted. 

This  is  confirmed  by  the  inquiry  which  Priam  us  made, 
when  the  Greek  princes  came  into  the  field,  the  tenth  year, 
for  he  knew  none  of  them,  and  therefore  sitting  upon  an 
high  tower,  (as  Homer,  Iliad.  3.  tells,)  he  learned  their 
names  of  Helen ;  which,  though  it  is  like  to  be  a  fiction, 
yet  could  it  not  at  all  have  been  supposed  that  he  should 
be  ignorant  of  them,  if  they  had  shewed  themselves  before 
the  town  so  many  years  together.  Between  these  relations 
of  Thucydides  and  Herodotus,  the  difference  is  not  much, 
the  one  saying  that  a  few  of  the  Greeks  remained  in  the 
camp  before  Troy,  whilst  the  rest  made  purveyance  by  land 
and  sea;  the  other,  that  the  whole  army  did  spend  the  time 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  455 

in  wasting  the  sea-coasts.  Neither  do  the  poets  greatly  dis 
agree  from  these  authors;  for  they  make  report  of  many 
towns  and  islands  wasted,  and  the  people  carried  into  cap 
tivity  ;  in  which  actions  Achilles  was  employed,  whom  the 
army  could  not  well,  nor  would  have  spared,  if  any  service 
of  importance  had  been  to  be  performed  before  the  city. 
Howsoever  it  was,  this  is  agreed  by  general  consent,  that 
in  the  beginning  of  that  summer,  in  which  Troy  was  taken, 
great  booties  were  brought  into  the  camp,  and  a  great  pesti 
lence  arose  among  the  Greeks;  which  Homer  saith,  that 
Apollo  sent  in  revenge  of  his  priest's  daughter,  whom  Aga 
memnon  had  refused  to  let  go  for  any  ransom :  but  Hera- 
elides,  interpreting  the  place,  saith,  that  by  Apollo  was 
meant  the  sun;  who  raised  pestilent  fogs,  by  which  the 
army  was  infected,  being  lodged  in  a  moorish  piece  of 
ground.  And  it  might  well  be  that  the  camp  was  over- 
pestered  with  those  who  had  been  abroad,  and  now  were 
lodged  all  close  together :  having  also  grounded  their  ships 
within  the  fortifications. 

About  the  same  time  arose  much  contention  between  Aga 
memnon  and  Achilles  about  the  booty,  whereof  Agamem 
non,  as  general,  having  first  chosen  for  his  part  a  captive 
woman,  and  Achilles,  in  the  second  place,  chosen  for  him 
self  another,  then  Ajax,  Ulysses,  and  so  the  rest  of  the  chief 
tains  in  order.  When  the  soothsayer  Calchas  had  willed 
that  Agamemnon's  woman  should  be  restored  to  her  father, 
Apollo's  priest,  that  so  the  pestilence  might  cease,  then  did 
Agamemnon  greatly  rage,  and  say,  that  he  alone  would  not 
lose  his  part  of  the  spoil,  but  would  either  take  that  which 
had  been  given  to  Achilles,  or  that  which  had  fallen  to 
Ajax  or  to  Ulysses.  Hereupon  Achilles  defied  him,  but 
was  fain  to  suffer  all  patiently,  as  not  able  to  hold  his  con 
cubine  by  strong  hand,  nor  to  revenge  her  loss,  otherwise 
than  by  refusing  to  fight,  or  to  send  forth  his  companies. 
But  the  Greeks,  encouraged  by  their  captains,  presented 
themselves  before  the  city  without  him  and  his  troops. 

The  Trojans  were  now  relieved  with  great  succours,  all 
the  neighbour  countries  having  sent  them  aid ;  partly  drawn 

Gg4 


456  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

to  that  war  by  their  commanders,  who  assisted  Priamus  for 
money,  wherewith  he  abounded  when  the  war  began,  (as 
appears  by  his  words  in  Homer,)  or  for  love  of  himself  and 
his  sons,  or  hope  of  marriage  with  some  of  his  many  and 
fair  daughters;  partly  also  (as  we  may  well  guess)  incited 
by  the  wrongs  received  of  the  Greeks,  when  they  wasted 
the  countries  adjoining  unto  Troy:  so  that  when  Hector 
issued  out  of  the  town,  he  was  little  inferior  to  his  enemies 
in  numbers  of  men,  or  quality  of  their  leaders.  The  prin 
cipal  captains  in  the  Trojan  army  were  Hector,  Paris,  Dei- 
phobus,  Helenus,  and  the  other  sons  of  Priamus ;  ^Eneas, 
Antenor  and  his  sons,  Polydamas,  Sarpedon,  Glaucus, 
Asius,  and  the  sons  of  Panthus,  besides  Rhesus,  who  was 
slain  the  first  night  of  his  arrival;  Memnon,  queen  Pen- 
thesilea,  and  others  who  came  toward  the  end  of  the  war. 
Between  these  and  the  Greeks  were  many  battles  fought ; 
the  greatest  of  which  were,  that  at  the  tomb  of  king  Ilus, 
upon  the  plain ;  and  another,  at  the  very  trenches  of  the 
camp,  wherein  Hector  brake  through  the  fortifications  of 
the  Greeks,  and  began  to  fire  their  ships ;  at  which  time 
Ajax,  the  son  of  Telamon,  with  his  brother  Teucer,  were 
in  a  manner  the  only  men  of  note  that,  remaining  unwound- 
ed,  made  head  against  Hector,  when  the  state  of  the  Greeks 
was  almost  desperate. 

Another  battle,  (for  so  antiquity  calls  it,)  or  rather  the 
same  renewed,  was  fought  by  Patroclus,  who,  having  ob 
tained  leave,  drew  forth  Achilles's  troops,  relieving  the 
weary  Greeks  with  a  fresh  supply.  Agamemnon,  Dio- 
medes,  Ulysses,  and  the  rest  of  the  princes,  though  sore 
wounded,  yet  were  driven  to  put  on  armour,  and  with  help 
of  Patroclus,  repelled  the  Trojans  very  hardly.  For  in 
that  fight  Patroclus  was  lost,  and  his  body,  with  much  con 
tention  recovered  by  his  friends,  was  brought  back  into  the 
camp;  the  armour  of  Achilles  which  he  had  put  on,  being 
torn  from  him  by  Hector.  It  was  the  manner  of  those 
wars,  having  slain  a  man,  to  strip  him,  and  hale  away  his 
body,  not  restoring  it  without  ransom,  if  he  were  one  of 
f  the  vulgar,  little  reckoning  was  made;  for  they 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  457 

fought  all  on  foot,  slightly  armed,  and  commonly  followed 
the  success  of  their  captains,  who  rode,  not  upon  horses, 
but  in  chariots,  drawn  by  two  or  three  horses,  which  were 
guided  by  some  trusty  followers  of  theirs,  which  drave  up 
and  down  the  field,  as  they  were  directed  by  the  captains, 
who  by  the  swiftness  of  their  horses  presenting  themselves 
where  need  required,  threw  first  their  javelins,  and  then 
alighting  fought  on  foot  with  swords  and  battle-axes,  re 
tiring  into  the  ranks  of  the  footmen,  or  else  returning  to 
their  chariots  when  they  found  cause,  and  so  began  again 
with  a  new  dart  as  they  could  get  it,  if  their  old  were  lost 
or  broken.  Their  arms  defensive  were  helmets,  breast 
plates,  boots  of  brass  or  other  metal,  and  shields  commonly 
of  leather,  plated  over.  The  offensive  were  swords  and 
battle-axes  at  hand ;  and  stones,  arrows,  or  darts,  when 
they  fought  at  any  distance.  The  use  of  their  chariots 
(besides  the  swiftness)  was  to  keep  them  from  weariness, 
whereto  the  leaders  were  much  subject,  because  of  their 
armour,  which  the  strongest  and  stoutest  ware  heaviest: 
also  that  from  them  they  might  throw  their  javelins  down 
wards  with  the  more  violence.  Of  which  weapon  I  find 
not  that  any  carried  more  than  one  or  two  into  the  field : 
wherefore  they  were  often  driven  to  return  to  their  tents  for 
a  new  one,  when  the  old  was  gone.  Likewise  of  armours 
they  had  little  change  or  none ;  every  man  (speaking  of  the 
chief)  carried  his  own  complete,  of  which  if  any  piece  were 
lost  or  broken,  he  was  driven  to  repair  it  with  the  like,  if 
he  had  any  fitting,  taken  from  some  captain  whom  he  had 
slain  and  stripped ;  or  else  to  borrow  of  them  that  had  by 
such  means  gotten  some  to  spare.  Whereas  therefore 
Achilles  had  lost  his  armour,  which  Hector  (as  is  said  be 
fore)  had  taken  from  the  body  of  Patroclus,  he  was  fain  to 
await  the  making  of  new,  ere  he  could  enter  the  fight; 
whereof  he  became  very  desirous,  that  he  might  revenge  the 
death  of  Patroclus,  his  dear  friend. 

At  this  time  Agamemnon  reconciled  himself  unto  Achilles, 
not  only  restoring  his  concubine  Briseis,  but  giving  him  very 
great  gifts,  and  excusing  former  matters  as  well  as  he  might. 


458  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

In  the  next  battle  Achilles  did  so  behave  himself,  that  he 
did  not  only  put  the  Trojans  to  the  worst,  but  also  slew  the 
valiant  Hector,  whom  (if  Homer  may  herein  be  believed) 
he  chased  three  times  about  the  walls  of  Troy.  But  great 
question  may  be  made  of  Homer's  truth  in  this  narration. 
For  it  is  not  likely  that  Hector  would  stay  alone  without 
the  city  (as  Homer  doth  report  of  him)  when  all  the  Tro 
jans  were  fled  into  it ;  nor  that  he  could  leap  over  the  rivers 
of  Xanthus  and  Simois,  as  he  must  have  done  in  that  flight  : 
nor  that  the  Trojans,  perceiving  Hector  in  such  an  extre 
mity,  would  have  forborne  to  open  some  of  their  gates  and 
let  him  in.  But  this  is  reported  only  to  grace  Achilles,  who 
having  (by  what  means  soever)  slain  the  noble  Hector,  did 
not  only  carry  away  his  dead  body,  as  the  custom  then  was, 
but  boring  holes  in  his  feet,  and  thrusting  leathern  thongs 
into  them,  tied  him  to  his  chariot,  and  dragged  him  shame 
fully  about  the  field,  selling  the  dead  body  to  his  father 
Priamus  for  a  very  great  ransom.  But  his  cruelty  and 
covetousness  were  not  long  unrevenged ;  for  he  was  shortly 
after  slain  with  an  arrow  by  Paris,  as  Homer  says,  in  the 
Scaean  gate,  or  as  others,  in  the  temple  of  Apollo,  whither 
he  came  to  have  married  Polyxena,  the  daughter  of  Pria 
mus,  with  whom  he  was  too  far  in  love,  having  slain  so 
many  of  her  brethren,  and  his  body  was  ransomed  (as  Ly- 
cophron  saith)  at  the  self-same  rate  that  Hector's  was  by 
him  sold  for.  Not  long  after  this,  Penthesilea,  queen  of  the 
Amazons,  arrived  at  Troy ;  who,  after  some  proof  given  of 
her  valour,  was  slain  by  Pyrrhus,  the  son  of  Achilles. 

SECT.    V. 

Of  the  taking  of  Troy,  the  wooden  horse,  the  book  of  Dares  and 

Dictys,  the  colonies  of  the  relics  of  Troy. 
FINALLY,  after  the  death  of  many  worthy  persons  on 
each  side,  the  city  was  taken  by  night,  as  all  writers  agree; 
but  whether  by  the  treason  of  ^Eneas  and  Antenor,  or  by  a 
wooden  horse,  as  the  poets  and  common  fame  (which  fol 
lowed  the  poets)  have  delivered,  it  is  uncertain.  Some 
write,  that  upon  one  of  the  gates  of  Troy  called  Scsea,  was 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  459 

the  image  of  a  horse,  and  that  the  Greeks  entering  by  that 
gate,  gave  occasion  to  the  report  that  the  city  was  taken  by 
an  artificial  horse.  It  may  well  be,  that  with  some  wooden 
engine  which .  they  called  an  horse,  they  either  did  batter 
the  walls,  as  the  Romans  in  after-times  used  to  do  with  the 
ram ;  or  scaled  the  walls  upon  the  sudden,  and  so  took  the 
city.  As  for  the  hiding  of  men  in  the  hollow  body  of  a 
wooden  horse,  it  had  been  a  desperate  adventure,  and  serv 
ing  to  no  purpose.  For  either  the  Trojans  might  have  per 
ceived  the  deceit,  and  slain  all  those  princes  of  Greece  that 
were  enclosed  in  it,  (which  also  by  such  as  maintain  this 
report  they  are  said  to  have  thought  upon,)  or  they  might 
have  left  it  a  few  days  without,  (for  it  was  unlikely  that 
they  should  the  very  first  day  both  conclude  upon  the  bring 
ing  it  into  the  town,  and  break  down  their  walls  upon  the 
sudden  to  do  it,)  by  which  means  they  who  were  shut  into  it 
must  have  perished  for  hunger,  if  they  had  not  by  issuing  forth 
unseasonably  discovered  the  invention.  Whereas  further  it 
is  said,  that  this  horse  was  built  so  high  and  great,  that  it 
could  not  be  brought  into  the  town  through  any  of  the  gates, 
and  that  therefore  the  Trojans  were  fain  to  pull  down  a  part 
of  their  wall  to  make  way  for  it,  through  which  breach  the 
Greeks  did  afterwards  enter :  it  is  hereby  manifest,  that  the 
enclosing  of  so  many  principal  men  was  altogether  needless, 
considering  that  without  their  help  there  was  way  sufficient 
for  the  army,  so  that  the  surprising  of  any  gate  by  them 
was  now  to  no  purpose. 

John  Baptista  Gramay,  in  his  History  of  Asia,  discours 
ing  of  this  war,  saith,  that  the  Greeks  did  both  batter  the 
wall  with  a  wooden  engine,  and  were  also  let  into  the  city 
by  Antenor,  at  the  Scsean  gate;  the  townsmen  sleeping 
and  drinking  without  fear  or  care,  because  the  fleet  of  the 
Grecians  had  hoisted  sail,  and  was  gone  the  day  before  to 
the  isle  of  Tenedos,  thereby  to  bring  the  Trojans  into  secu 
rity.  That  the  city  was  betrayed,  the  books  of  Dares  and 
Dictys  must  prove,  which  whether  we  now  have  the  same 
that  were  by  them  written,  it  may  be  suspected ;  for  surely 
they,  who  have  made  mention  of  these  writers  in  ancient 


460  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

times,  would  not,  as  they  did,  have  followed  the  reports  of 
Homer  and  others,  quite  contradictory  in  most  points  to 
these  two  authors,  without  once  taking  notice  of  the  oppo 
sition  which  they,  having  served  in  that  war,  made  against 
the  common  report;  had  it  not  been  that  either  those  books 
were  even  in  those  times  thought  frivolous,  or  else  contain 
ed  no  such  repugnancy  to  the  other  authors  as  now  is  found 

in  them. 

Also  concerning  the  number  of  men  slain  in  this  war, 
which  Dares  and  Dictys  say  to  have  been  above  600,000 
on  the  Trojan  side,  and  more  than  800,000  of  the  Greeks, 
it  is  a  report  merely  fabulous ;  forasmuch  as  the  whole  fleet 
of  the  Greeks  was  reckoned  by  Homer,  who  extolled  their 
army  and  deeds  as  much  as  he  could,  to  be  somewhat  less 
than  1200  sail,  and  the  army  therein  transported  over  the 
Greek  seas  not  much  above  100,000  men,  according  to  the 
rate  formerly  mentioned.  But  it  is  the  common  fashion  of 
men  to  extol  the  deeds  of  their  ancients ;  for  which  cause 
both  Homer  magnified  the  captains  of  the  Greeks  that 
served  in  the  war,  and  Virgil  with  others  were  as  diligent 
in  commending  and  extolling  the  Trojans  and  their  city, 
from  which  the  Romans  descended.  Yea,  the  Athenians 
long  after,  in  the  war  which  Xerxes  the  Persian  king  made 
against  all  Greece,  did  not  forbear  to  vaunt  of  the  great 
cunning  which  Mnesteus  the  son  of  Peteus  had  shewed,  in 
marshalling  the  Grecian  army  before  Troy ;  whereupon,  as 
if  it  had  been  a  matter  of  much  consequence,  they  were  so 
proud,  that  they  refused  to  yield  unto  Gelon,  king  of  almost 
all  Sicily,  the  admiralty  of  their  seas,  notwithstanding  that 
he  promised  to  bring  200  good  fighting  ships,  and  30,000 
men  for  their  defence. 

The  like  vanity  possessed  many  other  cities  of  Greece, 
and  many  nations  in  these  parts  of  the  world,  which  have 
striven  to  bring  their  descent  from  some  of  the  princes  that 
warred  at  Troy;  all  difficulties  or  unlikelihoods  in  such 
their  pedigree  notwithstanding.  But  those  nations  which 
indeed,  or  in  most  probability,  came  of  the  Trojans,  were 
the  Albanes  in  Italy ;  and  from  them  the  Romans,  brought 


CHAP.  xiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  461 

into  that  country  by  ^Eneas ;  the  Venetians,  first  seated  in 
Padua  and  the  country  adjoining  by  Antenor ;  the  Chao- 
nians,  planted  in  Epirus  by  Helenus,  the  son  of  king  Pri- 
amus.  To  which  Hellanicus  addeth,  that  the  posterity  of 
Hector  did  resemble  such  of  the  Trojans  as  were  left,  and 
reigned  over  them  about  Troy. 

SECT.  VI. 

Of  the  distresses  and  dispersions  of  the  Greeks  returning  from  Troy. 

CONCERNING  the  Greeks,  they  tasted  as  much  misery 
as  they  had  brought  upon  the  Trojans.  For  Thucydides 
notes,  that  by  reason  of  their  long  abode  at  the  siege,  they 
found  many  alterations  when  they  returned ;  so  that  many 
were  driven  by  their  borderers  from  their  ancient  seats; 
many  were  expelled  their  countries  by  faction ;  some  were 
slain  anon  after  their  arrival;  others  were  debarred  from 
the  sovereignty  among  their  people  by  such  as  had  staid  at 
home.  The  cause  of  all  which  may  seem  to  have  been  the 
dispersion  of  the  army,  which,  weakened  much  by  the  cala 
mities  of  that  long  war,  was  of  little  force  to  repel  injuries, 
being  divided  into  so  many  pieces  under  several  command 
ers,  not  very  well  agreeing.  For  (besides  other  quarrels 
arising  upon  the  division  of  the  booty,  and  the  like  occa 
sions)  at  the  time  when  they  should  have  set  sail,  Agamem 
non  and  his  brother  fell  out,  the  one  being  desirous  to  de 
part  immediately,  the  other  to  stay  and  perform  some  sacri 
fices  to  Minerva.  Hereupon  they  fell  to  hot  words,  half 
the  fleet  remaining  with  Agamemnon,  the  rest  of  them  sail 
ing  to  the  isle  of  Tenedos;  where  when  they  arrived,  they 
could  not  agree  among  themselves,  but  some  returned  back 
to  Agamemnon;  others  were  dispersed,  each  holding  his 
own  course.  But  the  whole  fleet  was  sore  vexed  with  tem 
pests  ;  for  Pallas  (as  Homer  saith)  would  not  be  persuaded 
in  haste. 

They  who  returned  safe  were  Nestor  and  Pyrrhus,  whom 
Orestes  afterwards  slew;  also  Idomeneus  and  Philoctetes, 
who  nevertheless,  as  Virgil  tells,  were  driven  soon  after  to 
seek  new  seats ;  Idomeneus  among  the  Salentines,  and  Phi- 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

loctetes  at  Petilia  in  Italy.  Agamemnon  likewise  returned 
home,  but  was  forthwith  slain  by  his  wife,  and  by  the  adul 
terer  ^Egisthus,  who  for  a  while  after  usurped  his  king 
dom.  Menelaus,  wandering  long  upon  the  seas,  came  into 
Egypt,  either  with  Helen,  or  (as  may  rather  seem)  to  fetch 
her.  Ulysses,  after  ten  years,  having  lost  all  his  company, 
got  home  in  poor  estate,  with  much  ado  recovering  the 
mastership  of  his  own  house.  All  the  rest  either  perished 
by  the  way,  or  were  driven  into  exile,  and  fain  to  seek  out 
new  habitations. 

Ajax,  the  son  of  Oileus,  was  drowned ;  Teucer  fled  into 
Cyprus ;  Diomedes  to  king  Daunus,  who  was  lord  of  the 
lapyges  in  Apulia ;  some  of  the  Locrians  were  driven  into 
Africk,  others  into  Italy,  all  the  east  part  whereof  was  called 
Magna  Graecia,  by  reason  of  so  many  towns  which  the  Greeks 
were  driven  to  erect  upon  that  coast.  Finally,  it  appears 
in  Homer,  that  the  Grecian  ladies,  whose  husbands  had 
been  at  the  war  of  Troy,  were  wont  to  call  it  the  place 
where  the  Greeks  suffered  misery,  and  the  unlucky  city  not 
to  be  mentioned.  And  thus  much  for  Troy,  and  those  that 
warred  there :  the  overthrow  of  which  city,  as  hath  been 
said,  happened  in  the  time  of  Habdon  judge  of  Israel,  whom 
Samson,  after  a  vacancy  or  interregnum  for  certain  years, 
succeeded. 


CHAP.   XV. 

Of  Samson,  Eli,  and  Samuel. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  Samson. 

L  HE  birth  and  acts  of  Samson  are  written  at  large  in  the 
13th,  14th,  15th,  and  16th  of  Judges;  and  therefore  I  shall 
not  need  to  make  a  repetition  thereof.  But  these  things  I 
gather  out  of  that  story.  First,  That  the  angel  of  God  for 
bade  the  wife  of  Manoah,  the  mother  of  Samson,  to  drink 
wine  or  strong  drink,  or  to  eat  any  unclean  meat,  after  she 
was  conceived  with  child,  because  those  strong  liquors 


CHAP.  xv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  463 

hinder  the  strength,  and  as  it  were  wither  and  shrink  the 
child  in  the  mother's  womb.  Though  this  were  even  the 
counsel  of  God  himself,  and  delivered  by  his  angel,  yet  it 
seemeth  that  many  women  of  this  age  have  not  read,  or  at 
least  will  not  believe  this  precept ;  the  most  part  forbearing 
nor  drinks  nor  meats,  how  strong  or  unclean  soever,  filling 
themselves  with  all  sorts  of  wines,  and  with  artificial  drinks 
far  more  forcible ;  by  reason  whereof,  so  many  wretched 
feeble  bodies  are  born  into  the  world,  and  the  races  of  the 
able  and  strong  men  in  effect  decayed. 

Secondly,  It  is  to  be  noted,  that  the  angel  of  God  refused 
the  sacrifice  which  Manoah  would  have  offered  him,  com 
manding  him  to  present  it  unto  the  Lord ;  and  therefore 
those  that  profess  divination  by  the  help  of  angels,  to  whom 
also  they  sacrifice,  may  assuredly  know  that  they  are  devils 
who  accept  thereof,  and  not  good  angels,  who  receive  no 
worship  that  is  proper  to  God. 

Thirdly,  This  Samson  was  twice  betrayed  by  his  wives, 
to  wit,  by  their  importunity  and  deceitful  tears ;  by  the 
first  he  lost  but  a  part  of  his  goods,  by  the  second  his  life : 
Quern  nulla  vis  super  are  potuit,  voluptas  evertit;  "  Whom 
"  no  force  could  over-master,  voluptuousness  overturned." 

Fourthly,  We  may  note,  that  he  did  not  in  all  deliver 
Israel  from  the  oppression  of  the  Philistines,  though  in  some 
sort  he  revenged  and  defended  them :  for  notwithstand 
ing  that  he  had  slain  thirty  of  them  in  his  first  attempt, 
burnt  their  corn  in  harvest-time,  and  given  them  a  great 
overthrow  instantly  upon  it ;  yet  so  much  did  Israel  fear 
the  Philistines,  as  they  assembled  3000  men  out  of  Juda  to 
besiege  Samson  in  the  rock  or  mountain  of  Etam,  using 
these  words :  Knowest  not  thou  that  the  Philistines  are 
rulers  over  us  ?  After  which  they  bound  him,  and  delivered 
him  unto  the  Philistines,  for  fear  of  their  revenge ;  though 
he  was  no  sooner  loosened,  but  he  gave  them  another  over 
throw,  and  slew  1000  with  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass. 

Lastly,  Being  made  blind,  and  a  prisoner  by  the  treason 
of  his  wife,  he  was  content  to  end  his  own  life  to  be  avenged 
of  his  enemies,  when  he  pulled  down  the  pillars  of  the  house 


4(54  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

at  the  feast  whereto  they  sent  for  Samson  to  deride  him, 
till  which  time  he  bare  his  affliction  with  patience :  but  it 
was  truly  said  of  Seneca ;  Patientia  scepe  lasa  vertitur  in 
furorem ;  "  Patience  often  wounded  is  converted  into  fury :" 
neither  is  it  at  any  time  so  much  wounded  by  pain  and  loss, 
as  by  derision  and  contumely. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  Eli,  and  of  the  ark  taken,  and  of  Dagoris  fall,  and  the  sending 

back  of  the  ark. 

THE  story  of  Eli  the  priest,  who  succeeded  Samson,  is 
written  in  the  beginning  of  Samuel ;  who  foretold  him  of 
the  destruction  of  his  house  for  the  wickedness  of  his  sons, 
which  he  suppressed  not,  neither  did  he  punish  them  ac 
cording  to  their  deserts :  n  whose  sins  were  horrible,  both  in 
abusing  the  sacrifice,  and  profaning  and  polluting  the  holy 
places ;  though  Levi  Ben  Gerson,  to  extenuate  this  filthy 
offence  of  forcing  the  women  by  the  sons  of  Eli,  hath  a  con 
trary  opinion.  In  this  time  therefore  it  pleased  God  to  cast 
the  Israelites  under  the  swords  of  the  Philistines  ;  of  whom 
there  perished  in  the  first  encounter  4000,  and  in  the  se 
cond  battle  30,000  footmen ;  among  whom  the  sons  of  Eli 
being  slain,  their  father,  (hearing  the  lamentable  success,) 
by  falling  from  his  chair,  brake  his  neck.  He  was  the  first 
that  obtained  the  high  priesthood  of  the  stock  of  Ithamar, 
the  son  of  Aaron,  before  whose  time  it  continued  success 
ively  in  the  race  of  Eleazar,  the  eldest  brother  of  Ithamar: 
for  Aaron  was  the  first,  Eleazar  the  second,  Phinees  the  son 
of  Eleazar  the  third,  Abisue  the  son  of  Phinees  the  fourth, 
his  son  Bocci  the  fifth,  Ozi  the  son  of  Bocci  the  sixth,  and 
then  Eli,  as  Josephus  and  Lyranus  out  of  divers  Hebrew  au 
thors  have  conceived.  In  the  race  of  Ithamar  the  priest 
hood  continued  after  Eli  to  the  time  of  Salomon,  who  cast 
out  °Abiathar,  and  established  Sadok  and  Achimaas  and 
their  successors.  The  ark  of  God  which  Israel  brought 
into  the  field  was  in  this  battle  taken  by  the  Philistines. 
For  as  David  witnesseth,  Psal.  Ixxviii.  God  greatly  abhorred 

"  i  Sam.  ii.  22.  o  ,  Rings  H.  27.  and  ,  chron.  vL 


CHAP.  xv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  465 

Israel,  so  that  he  forsook  the  habitation  of' Shilo  ;  even  the 
tabernacle  where  he  dwelt  among  men,  and  delivered  his 
power  into  captivity,  &c. 

Now  as  it  pleased  God  at  this  time,  that  the  ark  whereby 
himself  was  represented  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
heathen,  for  the  offences  of  the  priests  and  people :  so  did  he 
permit  the  Chaldeans  to  destroy  the  temple  built  by  Salo 
mon;  the  Romans  to  overthrow  the  second  temple;  and  the 
Turks  to  overthrow  the  Christian  churches  in  Asia  and  Eu 
rope.  And  had  not  the  Israelites  put  more  confidence  in 
the  sacrament  or  representation,  which  was  the  ark,  than 
in  God  himself,  they  would  have  observed  his  laws,  and 
served  him  only;  which  whensoever  they  did,  they  were 
then  victorious.  For  after  the  captivity  they  had  no  Park 
at  all,  nor  in  the  times  of  the  Maccabees  ;  and  yet  for  their 
piety  it  pleased  God  to  make  that  family  as  victorious,  as 
any  that  guarded  themselves  by  the  sign  instead  of  the  sub 
stance.  And  that  the  ark  was  not  made  to  the  end  to  be 
carried  into  the  field  as  an  ensign,  David  witnessed  when  he 
fled  from  Absalom.  For  when  the  priests  would  have  car 
ried  the  ark  with  him,  he  forbade  it,  and  caused  it  to  be  re 
turned  into  the  city,  using  these  words:  <llf  I  shall  find 
favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  he  will  bring  me  again:  if 
not,  let  him  do  to  me  as  seemeth  good  in  his  eyes. 

The  Trojans  believed,  that  while  their  palladium,  or  the 
image  of  Minerva,  was  kept  in  Troy,  the  city  should  never 
be  overturned  :  so  did  the  Christians,  in  the  last  fatal  battle 
against  Saladine,  carry  into  the  field,  as  they  were  made  be 
lieve,  the  very  cross  whereon  Christ  died,  and  yet  they  lost 
the  battle,  their  bodies,  and  the  wood.  But  Chrysostom 
upon  St.  Matthew  (if  that  be  his  work)  giveth  a  good  judg 
ment,  speaking  of  those  that  ware  a  part  of  St.  John's  Gospel 
about  their  necks,  for  an  amulet  or  preservative  :  Si  tibi  ea 
non  prosunt  in  auribus,  quomodo  proderunt  in  collo  ?  "  If 
"  those  words  do  not  profit  men  in  their  ears,  (to  wit,  the 
"  hearing  of  the  gospel  preached,)  how  should  it  profit  them 
"  by  hanging  it  about  their  necks  ?"  For  it  was  neither  the 
P  i  Sam.  v.  6.  <«  2  Sam.  xv.  25,  26. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  H  h 


466  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

wood  of  the  ark,  nor  the  wood  of  the  cross,  but  the  reve 
rence  of  the  Father,  that  gave  the  one  for  a  memory  of  his 
covenant,  and  the  faith  in  his  Son,  which  shed  his  blood  on 
the  other  for  redemption,  that  could  or  can  profit  them  and 
us,  either  in  this  life  or  after  it. 

The  Philistines  returning  with  the  greatest  victory  and 
glory  which  ever  they  obtained,  carried  the  ark  of  God  with 
them  to  Azotus,  and  set  it  up,  in  the  house  of  Dagon  their 
idol ;  but  that  night  the  idol  fell  out  of  his  place,  from  above 
to  the  ground,  and  lay  under  the  ark.  The  morning  fol 
lowing  they  took  it  up,  and  set  it  again  in  his  place,  and  it 
fell  the  second  time,  and  the  head  brake  from  the  body,  and 
the  hands  from  the  arms,  shewing  that  it  had  nor  power 
nor  understanding  in  the  presence  of  God ;  for  the  head 
fell  off,  which  is  the  seat  of  reason  and  knowledge,  and  the 
hands  (by  which  we  execute  strength)  were  sundered  from 
the  arms.  For  God  and  the  Devil  inhabit  not  in  one  house 
nor  in  one  heart.  And  if  this  idol  could  not  endure  the  re 
presentation  of  the  true  God,  it  is  not  to  be  marvelled,  that 
at  such  time  as  it  pleased  him  to  cover  his  only-begotten 
with  flesh,  and  sent  him  into  the  world,  that  all  the  oracles, 
wherein  the  Devil  derided  and  betrayed  mortal  men,  lost 
power,  speech,  and  operation  at  the  instant.  For  when  that 
true  Light,  which  had  never  beginning  of  brightness,  brake 
through  the  clouds  of  a  virgin's  body,  shining  upon  the 
earth,  which  had  been  long  obscured  by  idolatry,  all  those 
foul  and  stinking  vapours  vanished.  Plutarch  rehearseth  a 
memorable  accident  in  that  age  concerning  the  death  of  the 
great  god  Pan,  as  he  styleth  him ;  where  (as  ignorant  of 
the  true  cause)  he  searcheth  his  brains  for  many  reasons  of 
so  great  an  alteration ;  yet  finds  he  none  out  but  frivolous. 
For  not  only  this  old  devil  did  then  die,  as  he  supposed, 
but  all  the  rest,  as  Apollo,  Jupiter,  Diana,  and  the  whole 
rabble  became  speechless. 

^  Now  while  the  Philistines  triumphed  after  this  victory, 
God  struck  them  with  the  grievous  disease  of  the  hemor 
rhoids,  of  which  they  perished  in  great  numbers:  for  it  is 
written,  that  the  Lord  destroyed  them.  It  was  therefore  by  ge- 


CHAP.  xv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  467 

4- 

neral  consent  ordered,  that  the  ark  should  be  removed  from 
Azotus  to  Gath,  or  Geth,  another  of  the  five  great  cities  of 
the  Philistines ;  to  prove,  as  it  seemeth,  whether  this  dis 
ease  were  fallen  on  them  by  accident,  or  by  the  hand  of 
God  immediately :  but  when  it  was  brought  to  Gath,  and 
received  by  them,  the  plague  was  yet  more  grievous  and 
mortal :  TFor  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  against  the  city 
with  a  very  great  destruction :  and  he  smote  the  men  of  the 
city,  both  small  and  great,  &c.  And  being  not  yet  satisfied, 
they  of  Gath  sent  the  ark  to  Ekron,  or  Accaron,  a  third 
city  of  the  Philistines :  but  they  also  felt  the  same  smart, 
and  cried  out  that  themselves  and  their  people  should  be 
slain  thereby ;  for  there  was  a  destruction  and  death 
throughout  all  the  city.  In  the  end,  by  the  advice  of  their 
priests,  the  princes  of  the  Philistines  did  not  only  resolve  to 
return  the  ark,  but  to  offer  gifts  unto  the  God  of  Israel,  re 
membering  the  plague  which  had  fallen  on  the  Egyptians, 
when  their  hearts  were  hardened  to  hold  the  people  of  God 
from  their  inheritance  and  from  his  service  by  strong  hand. 
Wherefore  confessing  the  power  of  the  God  of  Israel  to  be 
almighty,  and  that  their  own  idols  were  subject  thereunto, 
they  agreed  to  offer  a  sin-offering,  using  these  words ;  So 
ye  shall  give  glory  to  the  God  of  Israel :  that  he  may  take 
his  hand  from  you,  and  from  your  gods,  and  from  your  land, 
1  Sam.  vi.  5.  And  what  can  be  a  more  excellent  witness 
ing,  than  where  an  enemy  doth  approve  our  cause?  ac 
cording  to  Aristotle ;  Pulchrum  est  testimonium,  quo  nostra 
probantur  ab  hostibus.  So  did  Pharaoh  confess  the  living 
God,  when  he  was  plagued  in  Egypt ;  and  Nabuchodono- 
sor  and  Darius,  when  they  had  seen  his  miracles  by  Da 
niel. 

This  counsel  therefore  of  the  priests  being  embraced,  and 
the  golden  hemorrhoids  and  the  golden  mice  prepared,  they 
caused  two  milch  kine  to  be  chosen,  such  as  had  not  been 
yoked,  and  a  new  cart  or  carriage  to  be  framed;  but  they  durst 
not  drive  or  direct  it  to  any  place  certain,  thereby  to  make 
trial  whether  it  were  indeed  the  hand  of  God  that  had  strucken 
r  i  Sam.  v.  . 


468  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

them.  For  if  the  ark  of  God  were  carried  towards  Bethshe- 
mesh,  and  into  the  territory  of  Israel,  then  they  should  resolve 
that  from  God  only  came  their  late  destruction.  For  the 
Philistines  knew  that  the  milch  kine,  which  drew  the  ark, 
could  not  be  forced  from  their  calves,  but  that  they  would 
have  followed  them  wheresoever;  much  less  when  they 
were  left  to  themselves,  would  they  travel  a  contrary  way. 
For  in  the  darkest  night  in  the  world,  if  calves  be  removed 
from  their  dams,  the  kine  will  follow  them  through  woods 
and  deserts  by  the  foot,  till  they  find  them.  ?ut  the  kine  tra 
velled  directly  towards  Bethshemesh  ;  and  when  they  came 
into  the  fields  thereof,  to  wit,  of  one  Joshua  of  the  same  city, 
they  stood  still  there ;  which  when  the  princes  of  the  Phi 
listines  perceived,  they  returned  to  Ekron :  after  which, 
God  spared  not  his  own  people  the  Bethshemites,  in  that 
they  presumed  to  look  into  the  ark.  And  because  they 
knew  God  and  his  commandments,  and  had  been  taught  ac 
cordingly,  he  struck  them  more  grievously  than  he  did  the 
heathen,  for  there  perished  of  them  fifty  thousand  and  se 
venty.  From  hence  the  ark  was  carried  to  Kirjath-jearim, 
and  placed  in  the  house  of  Abinadab ;  where  it  is  written, 
that  it  remained  twenty  years  in  the  charge  of  Eleazar  his 
son,  until  David  brought  it  to  Jerusalem, 

Now  whereas  it  is  said,  that  in  the  mean  while  the  s  ark 
was  in  Nob,  Mispah,  and  Galgala,  it  was  the  tabernacle 
which  was  at  this  time  severed  from  the  ark ;  or  at  least,  it 
was  for  the  i  present  occasion  brought  to  these  places,  and 
anon  returned  to  Kirjath-jearim. 

SECT.  III. 

Of  Samuel,  and  of  his  government. 

THESE  tragedies  overpast  and  ended,  Samuel,  to  whom 
God  appeared  while  he  was  yet  a  child,  became  now  judge 
and  governor  of  Israel.  He  was  descended  of  the  family  of 
u  Chore,  or  Korach.  For  Levi  had  three  sons,  Gerson, 
Cheath,  and  Merari;  Cheath  had  Amram  and  Izaar;  of 

•  2  Sam.  vi.  and  i  Chron.  xii.  in  the  margin. 

Sec  in  this  book,  ch.  12.  sect.  i.          »  i  Chron.  vi.  22. 


CHAP.  xv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  469 

Amram  came  Moses  and  Aaron ;  of  Izaar,  Chore ;  and  of 
the  family  of  Chore,  Samuel.  His  father  Elcana,  a  Levite, 
was  called  an  Ephratean;  not  that  the  Levites  had  any 
proper  inheritance,  but  because  he  was  of  mount  xEphraim, 
like  as  Jesse,  David's  father,  was  called  an  Ephratean,  be 
cause  born  at  Ephrata,  or  Bethlehem.  Hannah  his  mother 
being  long  fruitless,  obtained  him  of  God  by  prayers  and 
tears  :  it  being  an  exceeding  shame  to  the  Jewish  women  to 
be  called  barren,  in  respect  of  the  blessing  of  God  both  to 
Abraham,  that  his  seed  should  multiply  as  the  stars  of 
heaven  and  the  sands  of  the  sea,  as  in  the  beginning  to 
Adam,  Increase  and  multiply.  &c.  and  in  Deuteronomy  vii. 
There  shall  be  neither  male  nor  female  barren  among  you. 

Samuel  was  no  sooner  born,  but  that  his  mother,  accord 
ing  to  her  former  vow,  dedicated  him  to  God  and  his  ser 
vice,  to  which  she  delivered  him  even  from  the  dug.  For 
as  the  firstborn  of  all  that  were  called  Nazarites  might  be 
redeemed  till  they  were  five  years  old  for  five  shekels,  be 
tween  five  years  and  twenty  for  twenty  shekels ;  so  was  it 
not  required  by  the  law  that  any  of  the  race  of  the  Levites 
should  be  called  to  serve  about  the  tabernacle,  till  they  were 
twenty-five  years  old. 

St.  Peter  reckons  in  the  Acts  the  prophets  from  Samuel, 
who  was  the  first  of  the  writers  of  holy  scriptures,  to  whom 
usually  this  name  of  a  prophet  was  given,  and  yet  did  Moses 
account  himself  such  a  one,  as  in  Deuteronomy  xviii.  ]  5. 
The  Lord  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto  thee  a  Prophet  like 
unfo  me,  &c.  But  he  is  distinguished  from  those  that  pre 
ceded  him,  who  were  called  seers ;  as  1  Sam.  ix.  9.  Before- 
time  in  Israel,  when  a  man  went  to  seek  an  answer  of  God, 
thus  he  spake,  Come,  and  let  us  go  to  the  seer:  for  he  that 
is  now  called  a  prophet  was  in  old  time  called  a  seer.  And 
although  it  pleased  God  to  appear  by  his  angels  to  Moses, 
as  before  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob;  yet  in  the  time  of 

x  Which  region  was  called   Eph-  "  Bethlehem  iu   Juda,"  Gen.  xxxv. 

rata,   as    appeareth    Judgesj  xii.  5  ;  1 9,  from  the  region  of  Ephrata,  which 

whence  for  distinction  we  read,  Ruth  is  in  mount  Ephraim  ;  whence,  Psal. 

i.  2,  Ephrateei  e  Bethlehemo  Jehu-  cxxxii.  6,  Ephrata  is   put  for  Silo, 

dee ;  "  The  town  Ephratah,  which  is  which  was  in  the  tribe  of  Ephraim. 

Hh3 


470  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n 

Eli  there  was  no  manifest  vision  ;  not  that  God  had  alto 
gether  withdrawn  his  grace  from  Israel :  but  as  the  Chal 
dean  paraphrast  hath  it,  those  revelations  before  Samuel's 
time  were  more  clouded  and  obscure.  The  places  wherein 
y Samuel  judged  were  Maspha,  or  Mitspa,  seated  on  a  hill 
in  Benjamin  near  Juda ;  also  Gilgal  and  Bethel,  of  which 
we  have  spoken  elsewhere. 

The  Philistines,  taking  knowledge  of  the  assembly  and 
preparation  for  war  at  Mispa  in  the  beginning  of  Samuel's 
government,  gathered  their  army,  and  marched  towards  the 
city;  at  whose  approach  the  Israelites  strucken  with  fear, 
and  with  the  memory  of  their  former  slaughters  and  servi 
tude,  besought  Samuel  to  pray  to  God  for  them  ;  who  was 
7  then  performing  his  sacrifice  when  the  Philistines  were  in 
view.  But  God  being  moved  with  Samuel's  prayers,  (as  he 
was  by  those  of  Moses,  when  Israel  fought  against  the  Ama- 
lekites  at  their  first  entrance  into  Arabia,)  it  pleased  him 
with  thunder  and  tempest  to  disperse  and  beat  down  the  army 
of  the  Philistines,  according  to  the  prophecy  of  Hanna,  Sa 
muel's  mother  :  a  The  Lord's  adversaries  shall  be  destroyed; 
and  out  of  heaven  shall  he  thunder  upon  them,  &c.  Jose- 
phus  affirms,  that  a  part  of  the  Philistines  were  swallowed 
with  an  earthquake ;  and  that  Samuel  himself  led  the  Is 
raelites  in  the  prosecution  of  their  victory.  After  which 
Samuel  erected  a  monument  in  memory  of  this  happy  suc 
cess  obtained  by  the  miraculous  hand  of  God,  which  Jose- 
phus  called  lapidemfortem;  Samuel,  Ebenezer,  or  the  stone 
of  assistance :  and  then  following  the  opportunity  and  ad 
vantage  of  the  victory,  the  Israelites  recovered  divers  cities 
of  their  own  formerly  lost,  and  held  long  in  possession  of 
the  Philistines,  who  for  a  long  time  after  did  not  offer  any 
invasion  or  revenge.  And  the  better  to  attend  their  pur 
poses,  and  to  withstand  any  of  their  attempts,  the  Israelites 
made  peace  with  the  Amorites,  or  Canaanites,  which  lay  on 

J  i  Sam.  xiii.    See  in  this  book,  that  the  enemies  approached,  he,  no- 
chap 12.  sect.  i.  thing  dismayed    answered,  Ego  au- 

-  Plutarch  reports  of  Numa,  the  tern  sacrifice. 
second  king  of  Rome,  that  when,  as          a  i  Sam.  ii  10 
lie  was  sacrificing,  it  was  told  him 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  471 

their  backs,  and  to  the  north  of  them,  that  they  might  not 
be  assaulted  from  divers  parts  at  once ;  having  the  Philis 
tines  towards  the  west  and  sea-coast,  the  Canaanite  towards 
the  north  and  east,  and  the  Idumite  on  the  south.  The 
estate  being  thus  settled,  Samuel,  for  the  ease  of  the  people, 
gave  audience  and  judgment  in  divers  places  by  turns,  as 
hath  been  elsewhere  said. 


CHAP.    XVI. 

Of  Saul 

SECT.  I. 

Of  the  deliberation  to  change  the  government  into  a  kingdom. 

JDUT  when  age  now  began  to  overtake  Samuel,  and  that 
he  was  not  able  to  undergo  the  burden  of  so  careful  a  go 
vernment,  he  put  off  from  himself  the  weight  of  the  affairs 
on  his  sons,  Joel  and  Abijah,  who  judged  the  people  at 
Beersheba,  a  city  the  very  utmost  towards  the  south  of  Ju 
daea.  And  as  the  place  was  inconvenient  and  far  away,  so 
were  themselves  no  less  removed  from  the  justice  and  virtue 
of  their  father.  For  the  thirst  of  covetousness  the  more  it 
swalloweth,  the  more  it  drieth  and  desireth,  finding  taste  in 
nothing  but  gain ;  to  recover  which  they  set  the  law  at  a 
price,  and  sold  justice  and  judgment  to  the  best  chapmen. 
Which  when  the  elders  of  Israel  observed,  and  saw  that  Sa 
muel,  as  a  natural  man,  (though  a  prophet,)  could  not  so  well 
discern  the  errors  of  his  own,  they  prayed  him  to  consent  to 
their  change  of  government,  and  to  make  them  a  king,  by 
whom  they  might  be  judged  as  other  nations  were  ;  who 
might  also  lead  them  to  the  war,  and  defend  them  against 
their  enemies.  For  after  the  ill  and  lamentable  success 
which  followed  the  rule  of  Eli  his  sons,  when  those  of  Sa 
muel  by  their  first  blossoms  promised  to  yield  fruit  no  less 
bitter,  they  saw  no  way  to  put  the  government  from  out  his 
race,  whom  they  so  much  reverenced,  but  by  the  choice  of 
a  king. 


472  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

In  a  cause  of  so  great  consequence  and  alteration,  Samuel 
sought  counsel  from  God;  which  surely  he  did  not  for  the 
establishing  of  his  own  sons,  who  being  as  they  were,  God 
would  not  have  approved  his  election.  Now  as  it  appears 
by  the  text,  this  speech  or  motion  displeasing  him,  he  used 
his  best  arguments  to  dehort  them;  which  when  he  per 
ceived  to  be  over-feeble,  he  delivered  unto  them,  from  God's 
revelation,  the  inconveniencies  and  miseries  which  should 
befall  them.  And  yet  all  which  he  foreshewed  was  not  in 
tolerable,  but  such  as  hath  been  borne,  and  is  so  still  by  free 
consent  of  the  subjects  towards  their  princes.  For  first  he 
makes  them  know  that  the  king  will  use  their  sons  in  his 
own  service  to  make  them  his  horsemen,  charioteers,  and 
footmen  ;  which  is  not  only  not  grievous,  but  by  the  vassals 
of  all  kings,  according  to  their  birth  and  condition,  desired ; 
it  being  very  agreeable  to  subjects  of  the  best  quality  to 
command  for  the  king  in  his  wars,  and  to  till  the  ground  no 
less  proper  and  appertaining  to  those  that  are  thereto  bred 
and  brought  up :  so  are  likewise  the  offices  of  women-ser 
vants  to  dress  meat,  to  bake  bread,  and  the  like.  But 
whereas  immediately  it  is  threatened,  He  will  take  up 
your  fields,  and  your  vineyards,  and  your  best  olive  trees, 
and  give  them  to  his  servants,  with  other  oppressions ;  this 
hath  given,  and  gives  daily  occasion  to  such  as  would  be 
ruled  by  their  own  discretion,  to  affirm  that  Samuel  de- 
scribetli  here  unto  them  the  power  of  a  king  governed  by 
his  own  affections,  and  not  a  king  that  feareth  God.  But 
others,  upon  further  examination,  construe  this  text  far 
otherwise,  as  teaching  us  what  subjects  ought  with  patience 
to  bear  at  their  sovereign's  hand.  The  former  opinion  is 
grounded  first  upon  that  place  of  Deuteronomy  xvii.  where 
God  foresheweth  this  change  of  government  from  judges  to 
kings,  and  after  he  had  forbidden  many  things  unto  the 
kings,  as  many  wives,  covetousness,  and  the  like,  he  com- 
mandeth  that  the  kings,  which  were  to  reign  over  Israel 
should  write  the  law  of  Deuteronomy,  or  cause  it  to  be 
written  :  and  to  shew  how  greatly  the  king  should  honour 
the  law,  he  addeth,  It  shall  be  with  him.,  and  he  shall  read 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  473 

therein  all  the  days  of  his  life,  that  he  may  learn  to  fear  the 
Lord  his  God,  and  to  keep  all  the  words  of  this  law  and 
these  ordinances  for  to  do  them;  that  he  may  prolong  his 
days  in  his  kingdom,  he  and  his  sons.  But  to  take  away 
any  other  man's  field,  say  they,  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
God,  in  the  same  book  written.  For  it  is  said,  Deut.  vi. 
That  which  is  just  and  right  shalt  thou  follow,  that  thou 
mayest  live.  Now  if  it  be  not  permitted  to  carry  away 
b  grapes  more  than  thou  canst  eat  out  of  another  man's  vine 
yard,  but  forbidden  by  God ;  it  is  much  less  lawful  to  take 
the  vineyard  itself  from  the  owner,  and  give  it  to  another. 
Neither  are  the  words  of  the  textc,  say  they,  such  as  do 
warrant  the  kings  of  Israel,  or  make  it  proper  unto  them, 
to  take  at  will  any  thing  from  their  vassals.  For  it  is  not 
said  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  king,  or  the  king  may  do 
this  or  that ;  but  it  is  written,  that  the  king  will  take  your 
sons:  and  again,  This  shall  be  the  manner  of  the  king  that 
shall  reign  over  you:  God  thereby  foreshewing  what  power, 
severed  from  piety,  (because  it  is  accountable  to  God 
only,)  will  do  in  the  future.  And  hereof  we  find  the  first 
example  in  Achab,  who  took  from  Naboth  both  his  vineyard 
and  his  life,  contrary  to  the  trust  which  God  had  put  in 
him,  of  governing  well  his  people.  For  God  commanded, 
Deut.  xvi.  that  his  people  should  be  judged  with  righteous 
judgment.  Wherefore  though  the  king  had  offered  unto 
Naboth  composition,  as  a  vineyard  of  better  value,  or  the 
worth  in  money,  which  he  refused;  yet  because  he  was 
falsely  accused  and  unjustly  condemned,  (though  by  colour 
of  law,)  how  grievously  Achab  was  punished  by  God,  the 
scriptures  tell  us.  Neither  was  it  a  plea  sufficient  for  Achab 
against  the  all-righteous  God,  to  say  that  it  was  done  with 
out  his  consent,  and  by  the  elders  of  Israel.  For  God  had 
not  then  left  his  people  to  the  elders,  but  to  the  king, 
who  is  called  a  living  law,  even  as  David  testifieth  of  him 
self;  Posuisti  me  in  caput  gentium:  for  this  of  St.  Au 
gustine  is  very  true ;  Simulata  innocentia  non  est  innocen- 
tia:  simulata  cequitas  non  est  aequitas:  sed  duplicatur  pec- 
b  Deut.  xxiii.  24.  c  Loyse. 


474  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

catum  in  quo  est  iniquitas  et  simulation  "  Feigned  inno- 
"  cence  and  feigned  equity  are  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  ; 
"  but  the  fault  or  offence  is  there  doubled,  in  which  there  is 
"  both  iniquity  and  dissimulation."  Such  in  effect  is  their 
disputation,  who  think  this  place  to  contain  the  description 
of  a  tyrant.  But  the  arguments  on  the  contrary  side,  as 
they  are  many  and  forcible,  so  are  they  well  known  to  all ; 
being  excellently  handled  in  that  princely  discourse  of  the 
true  Law  of  free  Monarchies,  which  treatise  I  may  not  pre 
sume  to  abridge,  much  less  here  to  insert.  Only  thus  much 
I  will  say,  that  if  practice  do  shew  the  greatness  of  au 
thority,  even  the  best  kings  of  Juda  and  Israel  were  not  so 
tied  by -any  laws,  but  that  they  did  whatsoever  they  pleased 
in  the  greatest  things ;  and  commanded  some  of  their  own 
princes,  and  of  their  own  brethren,  to  be  slain  without  any 
trial  of  law,  being  sometime  by  prophets  reprehended, 
sometime  not.  For  though  David  confessed  his  offence 
for  the  death  of  Uriah,  yet  Salomon  killing  his  elder  bro 
ther,  and  others,  the  same  was  not  imputed  unto  him  as  any 
offence. 

That  the  state  of  Israel  should  receive  this  change  of  go 
vernment,  it  was  not  only  foretold  by  Moses  in  Deutero 
nomy,  but  prophesied  of  by  Jacob  in  this  scripture :  d  The 
sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Juda,  &c.  It  was  also  pro 
mised  by  God  to  Abraham  for  a  blessing.  For  it  was  not 
only  assured  that  his  issues  should  in  number  equal  the 
stars  in  heaven,  but  that  e  kings  should  proceed  of  him. 
Which  state,  seeing  it  is  framed  from  the  pattern  of  his  sole 
rule  who  is  Lord  of  the  universal;  and  the  excellency 
thereof,  in  respect  of  all  other  governments,  hath  been  by 
many  judicious  men  handled  and  proved,  I  shall  not  need 
to  overpaint  that  which  is  garnished  with  better  colours 
already  than  I  can  lay  on. 

In  the  time  of  the  judges  every  man  hath  observed  what 
civil  war  Israel  had ;  what  outrageous  slaughters  they  com 
mitted  upon  each  other ;  in  what  miserable  servitude  they 
lived  for  many  years;  and  when  it  fared  best  with  them, 
d  Gen-  xJi*.  *v.  e  Gen.  xvii. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  475 

they  did  but  defend  their  own  territories,  or  recover  some 
parts  thereof  formerly  lost.  The  Canaanites  dwelt  in  the 
best  valleys  of  the  country.  The  Ammonites  held  much 
of  Gilead  over  Jordan ;  the  Philistines  the  sea-coasts ;  and 
the  Jebusites  Jerusalem  itself,  till  David's  time :  all  which 
that  king  did  not  only  conquer  and  establish,  but  he  mas 
tered  and  subjected  all  the  neighbour  nations  and  kings,  and 
made  them  his  tributaries  and  vassals.  But  whether  it  were 
for  that  the  Israelites  were  moved  by  those  reasons,  which 
allure  the  most  of  all  nations  to  live  under  a  monarch,  or 
whether  by  this  means  they  sought  to  be  cleared  from  the 
sons  of  f  Samuel,  they  became  deaf  to  all  the  persuasions 
and  threats  which  Samuel  used,  insisting  upon  this  point, 
that  they  would  have  a  king,  both  to  judge  them  and  de 
fend  them ;  whereunto  when  Samuel  had  warrant  from  God 
to  consent,  he  sent  every  man  to  his  own  city  and  abiding. 

SECT.    II. 

Of  the  election  of  Saul. 

AFTER  that  Samuel  had  dismissed  the  assembly  at 
Mizpah,  he  forbare  the  election  of  a  king,  till  such  time  as 
he  was  therein  directed  by  God ;  who  foretold  him  the  day 
before,  that  he  would  present  unto  him  a  man  of  the  land  of 
Benjamin,  whom  he  commanded  Samuel  to  anoint.  So 
Samuel  went  unto  Ramath  Sophim,  to  make  a  feast  for  the 
entertainment  of  Saul,  (whom  yet  he  knew  not,  but  knew 
the  truth  of  God's  promises,)  and  Saul  also  having  wan 
dered  divers  days  to  seek  his  father's  asses,  at  length,  by  the 
advice  of  his  servant,  travelled  towards  Ramath,  to  find  out 
a  seer  or  prophet,  hoping  from  him  to  be  told  what  way 
to  take  to  find  his  beasts.  In  which  journey  it  pleased  God 
(who  doth  many  times  order  the  greatest  things  by  the 
simplest  passages  and  persons)  to  elect  Saul,  who  sought  an 
ass,  and  not  a  kingdom:  like  as  formerly  it  had  pleased 
him  to  call  Moses,  while  he  fed  the  sheep  of  Jethro ;  and 
after  to  make  choice  of  S  David,  the  youngest  of  eight  sons, 
and  by  the  scriptures  called  a  little  one,  who  was  then  keep- 

f  i  Sam.  viii.  *  t  Sam.  xvi. 


476  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ing  of  beasts,  and  changed  his  sheephook  into  a  sceptre, 
making  him  of  all  other  the  most  victorious  king  of  Juda 
and  Israel.  So  John  and  Jacob  were  taken  from  casting 
their  nets,  to  become  fishers  of  men,  and  honoured  with  the 
titles  of  apostles,  a  dignity  that  died  not  in  the  grave,  as 
all  worldly  honours  do ;  but  permanent  and  everlasting  in 
God's  endless  kingdom. 

When  Samuel  was  entered  into  Ramath,  he  prepared  a 
banquet  for  the  king,  whom  he  expected,  and  staid  his  ar 
rival  at  the  gate.  Not  long  after  came  Saul,  whom  God 
shewed  to  Samuel,  and  made  him  know  that  it  was  the 
same  whom  he  had  foretold  him  of,  that  he  should  rule  the 
people  of  God.  Saul  finding  Samuel  in  the  gate,  but  know 
ing  him  not,  though  a  prophet  and  judge  of  Israel,  much 
less  knowing  the  honour  which  attended  him,  asked  Samuel 
in  what  part  of  the  city  the  seer  dwelt ;  Samuel  answered, 
that  himself  was  the  man  he  sought,  and  prayed  Saul  to  go 
before  him  to  the  high  place,  where  Samuel  setting  him  ac 
cording  to  his  degree,  above  all  that  were  invited,  conferred 
with  him  afterwards  of  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  and  of 
God's  graces  to  be  bestowed  on  him,  and  the  morning  fol 
lowing  anointed  him  king  of  Israel. 

After  this,  he  told  him  all  that  should  happen  him  in 
the  way  homeward;  that  two  men  should  encounter  him 
by  Rahel's  sepulchre,  who  should  tell  him  that  his  asses 
were  found  ;  and  that  his  father's  cares  were  changed  from 
the  fear  of  losing  his  beasts,  to  doubt  the  loss  of  his  son : 
that  he  should  then  meet  three  other  men  in  the  plain  of 
Tabor ;  then  a  company  of  prophets ;  and  that  he  should 
be  partaker  of  God's  spirit,  and  prophesy  with  them  ;  and 
that  thereby  his  condition  and  disposition  should  be  changed 
from  the  vulgar,  into  that  which  became  a  king  elected  and 
favoured  by  God. 

But  the  prophets  here  spoken  of,  men  indued  with  spi 
ritual  gifts,  were  not  of  the  first  and  most  reverenced  num 
ber,  who  by  divine  revelation  foretold  things  to  come,  re 
prehended  without  fear  the  errors  of  their  kings,  and 
wrought  miracles ;  of  which  number  were  Moses,  Joshua, 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  477 

Samuel,  and  after  them  Gad,  Nathan,  Ahias,  Elias,  Eli- 
sa?as,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  the  rest ;  for  these  prophets, 
saith  hSt.  Chrysostome,  omnia  tempora  percurrunt,  pr&- 
terita,  pr&sentia  etfutura:  but  they  were  of  those  of  whom 
St  Paul  speaketh,  1  Cor.  xiv.  15.  who,  enriched  with  spi 
ritual  gifts,  expounded  the  scriptures  and  the  law. 

At  Mispeth  Samuel  assembled  the  people,  that  he  might 
present  Saul  to  them,  who  as  yet  knew  nothing  of  his  elec 
tion  ;  neither  did  Saul  acquaint  his  own  uncle  therewith, 
when  he  asked  him  what  had  passed  between  him  and  Sa 
muel  :  for  either  he  thought  his  estate  not  yet  assured,  or 
else  that  it  might  be  dangerous  for  him  to  reveal  it,  till  he 
were  confirmed  by  general  consent.  When  the  tribes  were 
assembled  at  Mispeth,  the  general  opinion  is,  that  he  was 
chosen  by  lot.  Chimhi  thinks  by  the  answer  of  'Urim  and 
Thummim ;  that  is,  by  the  answer  of  the  priest,  wearing 
that  mystery  upon  his  breast  when  he  asked  counsel  of  the 
Lord.  But  the  casting  of  lots  was  not  only  much  used 
among  the  Jews,  but  by  many  others,  if  not  by  all  nations. 
The  land  of  promise  was  divided  by  lot ;  God  commanded 
lots  to  be  cast  on  the  two  goats,  which  should  be  sacrificed, 
and  which  turned  off;  a  figure  of  Chrisfs  suffering,  and 
our  deliverance,  for  whose  garments  the  Jews  also  cast  lots. 
k  Cicero,  Plautus,  iPausanias,  and  others,  have  remembered 
divers  sorts  of  lots  used  by  the  Romans,  Grecians,  and 
other  nations;  as  in  the  division  of  grounds  or  honours, 
and  in  things  to  be  undertaken :  the  two  first  kinds  were 
called  diversory,  the  third  divinatory ;  and  into  one  of 
these  three  all  may  be  reduced  :  all  which  kinds,  howsoever 
they  may  seem  chanceful,  are  yet  ordered  and  directed  by 
God :  as  in  the  Proverbs ;  The  lot  is  cast  into  the  lap,  but 
the  whole  disposition  is  of  the  Lord.  And  in  like  sort  fell 
the  kingdom  of  Israel  on  Saul,  not  by  chance,  but  by  God's 

h  Chrys.  in  Psal.  xliii.  the  heart  of  the  high  priest.     It  is 

j  The  Urim  and  Thummim  in  the  plain  that  they  were  not  the  precious 

ornaments  of  the  high  priest  were  in-  stones,  nor  any  thing  made  by  the 

serted    within    the    pectoral,   which  artificers.    See  Exod.  xxxviii. 

therefore  was  duplicatum,  they  were         k  Cic.  de  Divin. 

placed  in  the  pectoral  over  against         '  Paus.  in  Mes. 


478  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ordinance,  who  gave  Samuel  former  knowledge  of  his  elec 
tion:  from  which  election  Saul  withdrew  himself  in  mo 
desty,  as  both  Josephus  consters  it,  and  as  it  may  be  ga 
thered  by  his  former  answers  to  Samuel,  when  he  acknow 
ledged  himself  the  least  of  the  least  tribe.  But  Samuel, 
enlightened  by  God,  found  where  Saul  was  hidden,  and 
brought  him  among  the  people,  and  he  was  taller  than  all 
the  rest  by  the  shoulders.  And  Samuel  made  them  know 
that  he  was  the  chosen  king  of  Israel,  whereupon  all  the 
multitude  saluted  him  king,  and  prayed  for  him ;  yet  some 
there  were  that  envied  his  glory  (as  in  all  estates  there  are 
such)  who  did  not  acknowledge  him  by  offering  him  m  pre 
sents,  as  the  manner  was ;  of  whom  Saul,  to  avoid  sedition, 
took  no  notice. 

SECT.   III. 

Of  the  establishing  of  Saul  by  his  first  victories. 
NO  sooner  was  Saul  placed  in  the  kingdom,  but  that  he 
received  knowledge  that  Nahas,  king  of  the  Ammonites,  pre 
pared  to  besiege  JabesGilead;  which  nation,  since  the  great 
overthrow  given  them  by  Jephta,  never  durst  attempt  any 
thing  upon  the  Israelites,  till  the  beginning  of  Saul's  rule. 
And  although  the  Ammonites  did  always  attend  upon  the 
advantage  of  time,  to  recover  those  territories  which  first 
the  Amorite  and  then  Israel  dispossessed  them  of,  which 
they  made  the  ground  of  their  invasion  in  Jephta's  time ; 
yet  they  never  persuaded  themselves  of  more  advantage 
than  at  this  present.  For  first,  they  knew  that  there  were 
many  of  the  Israelites  that  did  not  willingly  submit  them 
selves  to  this  new  king ;  secondly,  they  were  remembered 
that  the  Philistines  had  not  long  before  slain  34,000  of 
their  men  of  war ;  and  besides  had  used  great  care  and  po 
licy  that  they  should  have  no  smiths  to  make  them  swords 
or  spears :  neither  was  it  long  before  that  of  the  Beth- 
shemesites,  and  places  adjoining,  there  perished  by  the  hand 
of  God  more  than  50,000,  and  therefore  in  these  respects, 
even  occasion  itself  invited  them  to  enlarge  their  dominions 

m  i  Sam.  x. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  479 

upon  their  borderers ;  Jabes  Gilead  being  one  of  the  near 
est.  Besides,  it  may  further  be  conjectured  that  the  Am 
monites  were  emboldened  against  Jabes  Gilead,  in  respect 
of  their  weakness,  since  the  "Israelites  destroyed  a  great 
part  of  them,  for  not  joining  with  them  against  the  Ben- 
jamites ;  at  which  time  they  did  not  only  slaughter  the  men 
and  male  children,  but  took  from  them  their  young  women, 
and  gave  them  to  the  Benjamites  ;  and  therefore  they  were 
not  likely  to  have  been  increased  to  any  great  numbers : 
and  if  they  had  recovered  themselves  of  this  great  calamity, 
yet  the  Ammonite  might  flatter  himself  with  the  opinion, 
that  Israel,  having  for  long  time  been  disarmed  by  the  Phi 
listines,  was  not  apt  to  succour  those  whom  they  had  so 
deeply  wounded  and  destroyed.  But  contrarywise  when 
the  tidings  came  to  Saul  of  their  danger,  and  that  the  Am 
monites  would  give  them  no  other  condition  to  ransom 
themselves,  but  by  pulling  out  their  right  eyes,  by  which 
they  should  be  utterly  disabled  for  the  war,  as  elsewhere 
hath  been  spoken  ;  Saul,  both  to  value  himself  in  his  first 
year's  reign,  and  because  perchance  he  was  descended  of 
one  of  those  400  maids  taken  from  the  Gileadites  and  given 
to  the  Benjamites,  gave  order  to  assemble  the  forces  of  Is 
rael  ;  hewing  a  yoke  of  oxen  into  pieces,  and  sending  them 
by  messengers  over  all  the  coasts,  protesting  thus,  That 
whosoever  came  not  forth  after  Saul  and  after  Samuel ',  so 
should  his  oxen  be  served;  threatening  the  people  by  their 
goods,  and  not  by  their  lives  at  the  first.  Seven  days  had 
Saul  to  assemble  an  army,  by  reason  that  the  Gileadites 
had  obtained  the  respite  of  these  seven  days  to  give  Nahas 
the  Ammonite  an  answer;  who,  could  they  have  obtained 
any  reasonable  condition,  they  were  contented  to  have  severed 
themselves  from  Israel,  and  to  become  vassals  and  tributa 
ries  to  the  heathen.  In  the  mean  while  Saul  assembled  the 
forces  which  repaired  unto  him  at  Bezec,  near  Jordan, 
that  he  might  readily  pass  the  river  ;  which  done,  he  might 
in  one  day  with  a  speedy  march  arrive  at  Jabes,  under  the 
hills  of  Gilead. 

»  Judg.  xxi. 


480  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

The  army  by  °Saul  led,  consisting  of  330,000  :  he  re 
turned  an  answer  to  those  of  Jabes,  that  they  should  assure 
themselves  of  succour  by  the  next  day  at  noon.  For  as  it 
seemeth  Saul  marched  away  in  the  latter  part  of  the  day, 
and  went  on  all  night;  for  in  the  morning-watch  he  sur 
prised  the  army  of  Nahas  the  Ammonite.  And  to  the  end 
that  he  might  set  on  them  on  all  sides,  he  divided  his  force 
in  three  parts,  putting  them  to  the  sword,  until  the  heat 
of  the  day,  and  the  weariness  of  Saul's  troops,  enforced 
them  to  give  over  the  pursuit.  Now  the  Ammonites  were 
become  the  more  careless  and  secure,  in  that  those  of  Jabes 
promised  the  next  morning  to  render  themselves  and  their 
city  to  their  mercy.  After  this  happy  success,  the  people 
were  so  far  in  love  with  their  new  king,  that  they  would 
have  slain  all  those  Israelites  that  murmured  against  his 
election,  had  not  himself  forbidden  and  resisted  their  reso 
lutions.  Such  is  the  condition  of  worldly  men,  as  they  are 
violent  lovers  of  the  prosperous,  and  base  vassals  of  the 
time  that  flourisheth ;  and  as  despiteful  and  cruel  without 
cause  against  those  whom  any  misadventure  or  other 
worldly  accident  hath  thrown  down. 

After  the  army  removed,  P  Samuel  summoned  the  people 
to  meet  at  Gilgal,  where  Saul  was  now  a  third  time  acknow 
ledged,  and,  as  some  commenters  affirm,  anointed  king : 
and  here  Samuel  used  an  exhortation  to  all  the  assembly, 
containing  precepts,  and  a  rehearsal  of  his  own  justice  dur 
ing  the  beginning  of  his  government  to  that  day.  After 
clSaul  had  now  reigned  one  year  before  he  was  established 
in  Gilgal,  or  Galgala,  he  strengthened  himself  with  a  good 
guard  of  3000  chosen  men,  of  which  he  assigned  1000  to 
attend  on  Jonathan  his  son  at  Gibeah,  the  city  of  his  nati 
vity  ;  the  rest  he  kept  about  his  own  person  in  Micmas, 
and  in  the  hill  of  Bethel. 

0  i  Sam.  xi.  8.  P  i  Sam.  xi.  i  i  Sam.  xii. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  481 

SECT.  IV. 

Of  Saul's  disobedience  in  his  proceedings  in  the  wars  with  the  Phi 
listines  and  AmalekiteSy  which  caused  his  final  rejection. 

JONATHAN,  with  his  small  army  or  regiment  that  at 
tended  him,  taking  a  time  of  advantage,  surprised  a  garri 
son  of  Philistines ;  the  same,  as  some  think,  which  Saul 
passed  by,  when  he  came  from  Rama,  where  he  was  first 
anointed  by  Samuel,  which  they  think  to  have  been  Ca- 
riath-jearim ;  because  a  place  where  the  Philistines  had  a 
garrison,  1  Sam.  x.  is  called  the  hill  of  God,  which  they  un 
derstand  of  Cariath-jearim :  but  Junius  understands  this 
garrison  to  have  been  at  Gebah,  in  Benjamin  near  Gibha, 
where  Jonathan  abode  with  his  thousand  followers.  How 
soever,  by  this  it  appeareth,  that  the  Philistines  held  some 
strong  places,  both  in  the  times  of  Samuel  and  of  Saul, 
within  the  territory  of  Israel :  and  now  being  greatly  en 
raged  by  this  surprise  they  assembled  r 60,000  armed  cha 
riots,  and  6000  horse,  wherewith  they  invaded  Judaea,  and 
encamped  at  Machmas,  or  Michmas,  a  city  of  Benjamin,  in 
the  direct  way  from  Samaria  to  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  land  between  the  sea  and  Jordan.  With  this  sudden 
invasion  the  Israelites  were  strucken  in  so  great  a  fear,  as 
some  of  them  hid  themselves  in  the  caves  of  the  mountains, 
other  fled  over  Jordan  into  Gad  and  Gilead  ;  Saul  himself, 
with  some  2000  men  of  ordinary,  and  many  other  people, 
stayed  at  Galgala  in  Benjamin,  not  far  from  the  passage  of 
Joshua,  when  he  led  Israel  over  Jordan.  Here  Saul,  by 
Samuel's  appointment,  was  to  attend  the  coming  of  Samuel 
seven  days ;  but  when  the  last  day  was  in  part  spent,  and 
that  Saul  perceived  his  forces  to  diminish  greatly,  he  pre 
sumed  (as  some  expound  the  place,  1  Sam.  xiii.  9.)  to  ex 
ercise  the  office  which  appertained  not  unto  him,  and  to  of 
fer  a  burnt-offering  and  a  peace-offering  unto  God,  contrary 
to  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  the  Hebrews,  and  God's  com 
mandments:  others  expound  the  word  obtulii^  in  this  place, 
by  obtulit  per  sacerdotem,  and  so  make  the  sin  of  Saul  not 
to  have  been  any  intrusion  into  the  priest's  office,  but  first  a 
r  i  Sam.  xiii.  5. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  11 


482 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 


disobedience  to  God's  commandment,  in  not  staying  accord 
ing  to  the  appointment,  1  Sam.  x.  8;  secondly,  a  diffidence 
or  mistrust  in  God's  help,  and  too  great  relying  upon  the 
strength  of  the  people,  whose  departing  from  him  he  could 
not  bear  patiently  ;  and  lastly,  a  contempt  of  the  holy  pro 
phet  Samuel,  and  of  the  help  which  the  prayers  of  so  godly 
a  man  might  procure  him.  But  whatsoever  was  his  sin, 
notwithstanding  his  excuses,  he  was  by  s  Samuel  repre 
hended  most  sharply,  in  terms  unfitting  his  estate,  had  not 
extraordinary  warrant  been  given  to  Samuel  so  to  do  from 
God  himself,  at  which  time  also  Samuel  feared  not  to  let 
him  know,  that  the  kingdom  should  be  conferred  to  another, 
(a  man  after  God's  own  heart,)  both  from  <  Saul  and  his 
posterity. 

After  this,  Samuel  and  Saul  returned  to  Gibeah,  where 
Saul,  when  he  had  taken  view  of  his  army,  found  it  to  con 
sist  of  600  men  ;  for  the  most  were  fled  from  him  and  scat 
tered,  yea,  and  among  those  that  stayed,  there  was  not  any 
that  had  either  sword  or  spear,  but  Saul  and  his  son  Jona- 
that  only.  For  the  Philistines  had  not  left  them  any  smith 
in  all  Israel  that  made  weapons  ;  besides,  they  that  came  to 
"Saul  carne  hastily,  and  left  such  weapons  and  armour  as 
they  had,  behind  them  in  the  garrisons :  for  if  they  had  had 
none  at  all,  it  might  be  much  doubted  how  Saul  should  be 
able  the  year  before,  or  in  some  part  of  this  very  year,  to 
succour  Jabes  Gilead  with  330,000  men,  if  there  had  not 
now  been  any  iron  weapon  to  defend  themselves  withal, 
save  only  in  the  hand  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  his  son.  But 
howsoever  all  the  rest  of  the  people  were  formerly  disarmed 
by  the  Philistines,  and  all  those  craftsmen  carried  out  of  the 
land  that  made  weapons  ;  there  being  left  unto  the  Israel 
ites  only  files,  to  sharpen  and  amend  such  stuff  as  served  for 
the  plough,  and  for  nought  else;  yet  that  they  had  some 
kind  of  arms  it  is  manifest,  or  else  they  durst  not  have  at 
tempted  upon  the  Philistines  as  they  did.  And  it  is  not  said 
in  the  text,  that  there  was  not  any  sword  in  all  Israel,  but 
only  that  there  was  not  any  found  amongst  those  600  sok 
*  i  Sam.  xlii.  t  !  Sam  xiy  u  l  Sam  xnj 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  483 

diers  which  stayed  with  x  Saul  after  Samuel's  departure ; 
and  it  seemeth  that  when  Samuel  had  publicly  reprehended 
Saul,  that  his  own  guards  forsook  him,  having  but  600  re 
maining  of  his  3000  ordinary  soldiers,  and  of  all  the  rest 
that  repaired  unto  him,  of  which  many  were  fled  from  him 
before  Samuel  arrived. 

With  this  small  troop  he  held  himself  to  his  own  city  of 
Gibeah,  as  a  place  of  more  strength  and  better  assured  unto 
him  than  Gilgai  was.     Neither  is  it  obscure  how  it  should 
come  to  pass  that  the  Philistines  should   thus  disarm   the 
most  part  of  the  Israelites,  howsoever  in  the  time  of  Samuel 
much  had  been  done  against  them.     For  the  victories  of  Sa 
muel  were  not  got  by  sword  or  spear,  but  by  thunder  from 
heaven ;  and  when  these  craftsmen  were  once  rooted  out  of 
the  cities  of  Israel,  no  marvel  if  they  could  not  in  a  short 
peace  under  Samuel  be  replanted  again.     For  this  tyranny 
of  the  Philistines  is  to  be  understood  rather  of  the  precedent 
times  than  under  Samuel ;  and  yet  under  him  it  is  to  be 
thought  that  by  their  crafts  they  proceeded  in  the  policy, 
not  suffering  their  artificers  to  teach  the  Israelites,  and  so 
even  to  the  times  of  Saul  kept  them  from  having  any  store 
of  armour.    The  same  policy  did  Nabuchodonosor  use  after 
his  conquest  in  Judaea,  Dionysius  in  Sicily,  and  many  other 
princes  elsewhere  in  all  ages.     But  these  lost  weapons  in 
part  the  Israelites  might  repair  in  Gilead ;  for  over  Jordan 
the  Philistines  had  not  invaded.    The  rest  of  their  defences 
were  such  as  antiquity  used,  and  their  present  necessity 
ministered  unto  them ;   to    wit,   clubs,    bows,    and    slings. 
For  the  Benjamites  exceeded  in  casting  stones  in  slings : 
and  that  these  were  the  natural  weapons,  and  the  first  of 
all  nations,  it  is  manifest ;  and  so  in  1  Chron.  xii.  2.  it  is 
written  of  those  that  came  to  succour  David  against  Saul, 
while  he  lurked  at  Ziklag,  That  they  were  weaponed  with 
bows,  and  could  use  the  right  and  the  left  hand  with  stones; 
and  with  a  sling  it  was  that  David  himself  slew  the  giant 
Goliath. 

While  the  state  of  Israel  stood  in  these  hard  terms,  the 
*  i  Sam.  xiii.  22.  « 


484  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Philistines  having  parted  their  army  into  three  troops,  that 
they  might  spoil  and  destroy  many  parts  at  once ;  Jona 
than,  strengthened  by  God,  and  followed  with  his  esquire 
only,  scaled  a  mountain,  whereon  a  7  company  of  Philistines 
were  lodged ;  the  rest  of  their  army  (as  may  be  gathered 
by  the  success)  being  encamped  in  the  plain  adjoining. 
And  though  he  were  discovered  before  he  came  to  the  hill 
top,  and  in  a  kind  of  derision  called  up  by  his  enemies ;  yet 
he  so  behaved  himself,  as,  with  the  assistance  of  God,  he 
slew  twenty  of  the  first  Philistines  that  he  encountered. 
Whereupon  the  next  companies  taking  the  alarm,  and  being 
ignorant  of  the  cause,  fled  away  amazed  altogether.  In 
which  confusion,  fear,  and  jealousy,  they  slaughtered  one 
another  instead  of  enemies :  whereupon  those  Hebrews  which 
became  of  their  party,  because  they  feared  to  be  spoiled  by 
them,  took  the  advantage  of  their  destruction,  and  slew  of 
them  in  great  numbers.  And  lastly,  Saul  himself,  taking 
knowledge  of  the  rout  and  disorder,  together  with  those  Is 
raelites  that  shrouded  themselves  in  mount  zEphraim,  set 
upon  them,  -and  obtained  (contrary  to  all  hope  and  expecta 
tion)  a  most  happy  and  glorious  victory  over  them.  Here 
was  that  prophecy  in  Deuteronomy  fulfilled  by  Jonathan, 
That  one  of  those  which  feared  God  should  kill  a  thousand, 
and  two  of  them  ten  thousand. 

This  done,  the  small  army  of  Israel  made  retreat  from 
the  pursuit.  And  though  Saul  had  bound  the  people  by 
an  oath  not  to  take  food  till  the  evening,  yet  his  son  Jona 
than,  being  enfeebled  with  extreme  labour  and  emptiness, 
tasted  a  drop  of  honey  in  his  passage  ;  for  which  Saul  his 
father  would  have  put  him  to  death,  had  not  the  people  de 
livered  him  from  his  cruelty. 

The  late  miraculous  victory  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  seems 
to  have  reduced  unto  the  Philistines  remembrance  of  their 
former  overthrow,  likewise  miraculous,  in  the  days  of  Sa 
muel  ;  so  that  for  some  space  of  time  they  held  themselves 
quiet.  In  the  mean  while  Saul  being  now  greatly  encou 
raged,  undertook  by  turns  all  his  bordering  enemies; 

y  i  Sam.  xiv.  12.  *  ,  Sam.  xiv. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  485 

namely,  the  aMoabites,  Ammonites,  Edomites,  and  the 
Arabians  of  Zobah ;  against  all  which  he  prevailed.  He 
then  assembled  all  the  forces  he  could  make,  to  wit,  210,000 
men,  and  receiving  the  commandment  of  God  by  Samuel, 
he  invaded  Amalec,  wasting  and  destroying  all  that  part  of 
Arabia  Petraea,  and  the  Desert,  belonging  to  the  Amale- 
kites,  from  Havilah  towards  Tigris  unto  Shur,  which  bor- 
dereth  Egypt ;  in  which  war  he  took  Agag  their  king  pri 
soner.  But  whereas  he  was  instructed  by  Samuel  to  follow 
this  nation  without  compassion,  because  they  first  of  all  other 
attempted  b  Israel,  when  they  left  Egypt  in  Moses's  time :  he 
notwithstanding  did  not  only  spare  the  life  of  Agag,  but  re 
served  the  best  of  the  beasts  and  spoil  of  the  country,  with 
pretence  to  offer  them  in  sacrifice  to  the  living  God.  There 
fore  did  Samuel  now  a  second  time  make  him  know,  that 
God  would  cast  him  from  his  royal  estate  to  which  he  was 
raised  when  he  was  of  base  condition,  and,  as  the  text  hath 
it,  little  in  his  own  eyes.  And  though  the  offence  was  great 
in  Saul  for  not  obeying  the  voice  of  God  by  Samuel,  had 
there  been  no  former  precept  to  that  effect ;  yet  seeing  Saul 
could  not  be  ignorant  how  severely 'it  pleased  God  to  en 
join  the  Israelites  to  revenge  themselves  upon  that  nation, 
he  was  in  all  unexcusable.  For  God  had  commanded  that 
the  c  Israelites  should  put  out  the  remembrance  of  Amalec 
from  under  heaven.  For  the  cruelty  which  the  predeces 
sors  of  this  Agag  used  against  the  Israelites,  especially  on 
those  which  were  overwearied,  faint,  sick,  and  aged  people? 
was  now  to  be  revenged  on  him  and  his  nation  above  400 
years  afterwards  ;  and  now  he  was  to  pay  the  debt  of  blood, 
which  his  forefathers  borrowed  from  the  innocent ;  himself 
having  also  sinned  in  the  same  kind,  as  these  words  of  Sa 
muel  witness ;  d  As  thy  sword  hath  made  other  women  child- 
less,  so  shall  thy  mother  be  childless  among  other  women  : 
at  which  time  Samuel  himself  (after  he  had  been  by  many 
bootless  entreaties  persuaded  to  stay  a  while  with  Saul)  did 
cut  Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord  in  Gilgal,  and  soon  after 
•  i  Sam.  xiv.  b  Exod.  xvii.  c  Deut.  xxv.  15.  d  i  Sam.  xv.  33. 


486  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

he  departed  to  Ramath,  and  came  no  more  to  see  Saul,  until 
the  day  of  Us  death. 

SECT.    V. 

Of  the  occurrents  between  the  rejection  of  Saul  and  his  death. 

NOW  while  Samuel  mourned  for  Saul,  God  commanded 
him  to  choose  a  king  for  Israel  among  the  sons  of  Ishai ; 
which  Samuel  (doubting  the  violent  hand  of  Saul)  feared  in 
a  sort  to  perform,  till  it  pleased  God  to  direct  him  how  he 
might  avoid  both  the  suspicion  and  the  danger.  And  if 
Samuel  knew  that  it  was  no  way  derogating  from  the  provi 
dence  of  God,  that  by  his  cautious  care  and  wisdom  he 
sought  to  avoid  the  inconvenience  or  dangers  of  this  life,  then 
do  those  men  mistake  the  nature  of  his  divine  ordinance, 
who,  neglecting  the  reason  that  God  hath  given  them,  do  no 
otherwise  avoid  the  perils  and  dangers  thereof,  than  as  men 
stupified  in  the  opinion  of  fate  or  destiny,  neglecting  either 
to  beg  counsel  at  God's  hand  by  prayer,  or  to  exercise  that 
wisdom  or  foresight,  wherewith  God  hath  enriched  the  mind 
of  man  for  his  preservation.  Neither  did  the  all-powerful 
God  (who  made,  and  could  destroy  the  world  in  an  instant) 
disdain  here  to  instruct  Samuel  to  avoid  the  fury  of  Saul 
by  the  accustomed  cautious  ways  of  the  world. 

Of  the  sons  of  Ishai,  Samuel,  by  God  directed,  made 
choice  of  David  the  youngest,  having  refused  Eliab  the 
first-born ;  who,  though  he  were  a  man  of  a  comely  person 
and  great  strength,  yet  unto  such  outward  appearance  the 
Lord  had  no  respect.  For,  as  it  is  written,  e  God  seeth  not 
as  man  seeth,  &c.  but  the  Lord  beholdeth  the  heart.  He  also, 
refusing  the  other  six  brethren,  made  choice  of  one  whom 
his  father  had  altogether  neglected,  and  left  in  the  field  to 
attend  his  flock,  for  of  him  the  Lord  said  to  Samuel,  Arise 
and  anoint  him,  for  this  is  he ;  which  done,  Samuel  de 
parted  and  went  to  Ramath.  Neither  was  it  long  after  this 
that  Saul  began  to  seek  the  life  of  David  ;  in  which  bloody 
mind  he  continued  till  he  died,  overcome  in  battle  by  the 
Philistines. 

0  i  Sam.  xvi.  7. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  487 

The  Philistines  having  well  considered,  as  it  seems,  the 
increase  of  Saul's  power  through  many  victories  by  him  ob 
tained,  whilst  they  had  sitten  still  and  forborne  to  give  impe 
diment  unto  his  prosperous  courses,  thought  it  good  to  make 
new  trial  of  their  fortune,  as  justly  fearing  that  the  wrongs 
which  they  had  done  to  Israel  might  be  repaid  with  advan 
tage,  if  ever  opportunity  should  serve  their  often  injured 
neighbours  against  them,  as  lately  it  had  done  against  Moab, 
Ammon,  and  the  rest  of  their  ancient  enemies.  Now  for 
the  quality  of  their  soldiers,  and  all  warlike  provisions,  the 
Philistines  had  reason  to  think  themselves  equal,  if  not  su 
perior  to  Israel.  The  success  of  their  former  wars  had  for 
the  most  part  been  agreeable  to  their  own  wishes :  as  for 
late  diasters,  they  might,  according  to  human  wisdom,  im 
pute  them  to  second  causes,  as  to  a  tempest  happening  by 
chance,  and  to  a  mistaken  alarm,  whereby  their  army  pos 
sessed  with  a  needless  fear  had  fallen  to  rout.  Having 
therefore  mustered  their  forces,  and  taken  the  field,  encamp 
ing  so  near  to  the  army  which  king  Saul  drew  forth  against 
them,  that  they  could  not  easily  depart  without  the  trial  of 
a  battle,  each  part  kept  their  ground  of  advantage  for  a 
while,  not  joining  in  gross,  but  maintaining  some  skirmishes, 
as  refusing  both  of  them  to  pass  the  valley  that  lay  between 
their  camps.  Just  causes  of  fear  they  had  on  both  sides ; 
especially  the  Philistines,  whose  late  attempts  had  been  con 
founded  by  the  angry  hand  of  God.  Upon  this  occasion 
perhaps  it  was,  that  they  sought  to  decide  the  matter  by 
single  combat,  as  willing  to  try  in  one  man's  person,  whe 
ther  any  stroke  from  Heaven  were  to  be  feared.  Goliath  of 
Gath,  a  strong  giant,  fearing  neither  God  nor  man,  under 
took  to  defy  the  whole  host  of  Israel,  provoking  them  with 
despiteful  words  to  appoint  a  champion  that  might  fight 
with  him  hand  to  hand,  offering  condition,  that  the  party 
vanquished  in  champion  should  hold  itself  as  overcome  in 
gross,  and  become  vassal  to  the  other.  This  gave  occasion 
to  young  David,  whom  Samuel  by  God's  appointment  had 
anointed,  to  make  a  famous  entrance  into  public  notice  of 
the  people.  For  no  man  durst  expose  himself  to  encounter 

1 14 


488  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  great  strength  of  Goliath,  until  David  (sent  by  his  father 
of  an  errand  to  the  camp)  accepted  the  combat,  and  ob 
tained  the  victory,  without  other  arms  offensive  or  defensive 
than  a  sling,  wherewith  he  overthrew  that  haughty  giant, 
and  after  with  his  own  sword  struck  off  his  head.  Here 
upon  the  Philistines,  who  should  have  yielded  themselves  as 
subjects  to  the  conqueror,  according  to  the  covenant  on 
their  own  side  propounded,  fled  without  stay,  and  were 
pursued  and  slaughtered  even  to  their  own  gates.  By  this 
victory  the  Philistines  were  not  so  broken,  that  either  any 
of  their  towns  were  lost,  or  their  people  discouraged  from 
infesting  the  territories  of  Israel.  But  David,  by  whom 
God  had  wrought  this  victory,  fell  into  the  grievous  indig 
nation  of  his  master  Saul,  through  the  honour  purchased  by 
his  well  deserving.  For  after  such  time  as  the  Spirit  of 
God  departed  from  Saul  and  came  upon  David,  he  then  be 
came  a  cruel  tyrant,  faithless  and  irreligious  f.  Because  the 
high  priest  Abimelech  fed  David  in  his  necessity  with  hal 
lowed  bread,  and  armed  him  with  the  sword  of  his  own 
conquest  taken  from  Goliath  ;  Saul  not  only  by  his  wicked 
Edomite  Doeg  murdered  this  Abimelech,  and  eighty-five 
priests  of  Nob,  but  also  he  destroyed  the  city,  Sand  smote 
with  the  edge  of  the  sword  both  man  and  woman,  both  child 
and  suckling,  both  ox  and  ass,  and  sheep.  And  he  that  had 
compassion  on  Agag  the  Amalekite,  who  was  an  enemy  to 
God  and  his  people,  and  also  spared  and  preserved  the  best 
of  his  cattle,  contrary  to  the  commandment  and  ordinance 
of  God,  both  by  Moses  and  Samuel,  had  not  now  any  mercy 
in  store  for  the  innocent,  for  the  Lord's  servants,  the  priests 
of  Israel.  Yea,  he  would  have  slain  his  own  son  h  Jona 
than,  for  pitying  and  pleading  David's  innocency,  as  also 
once  before  for  tasting  the  honey,  when  his  fainting  for  hun 
ger  made  him  forget  his  father's  unreasonable  commination. 
The  companions  of  cruelty  are,  breach  of  faith  towards  men, 
and  impiety  towards  God.  The  former  he  shewed  in  deny 
ing  David  his  daughter,  whom  he  had  promised  him ;  and 
again  in  taking  her  away  from  him  to  whom  he  had  given 

'  i  Sam.  xvi.  13.  t  j  Sam.  xxii.  19.  h  ,  Sam.  xxiv. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  489 

her  ;  also  in  that  when  as  David  had  twice  spared  his  life  in 
the  territory  of  Ziph,  and  Saul  twice  sworn  to  do  him  no 
hurt,  and  confessed  his  errors,  yet  he  sought  still  to  destroy 
him  by  all  the  means  he  could.  His  impiety  towards  God 
he  shewed,  in  that  he  sought  counsel  of  the  witch  of  Endor, 
which  was  the  last  preparative  for  his  destruction.  For 
whereas  when  he  sought  counsel  from  God  he  had  been 
always  victorious  ;  from  the  oracle  of  the  Devil  this  success 
followed,  that  both  himself  and  his  three  sons,  with  his 
nearest  and  faithfullest  servants,  were  all  slaughtered  by 
the  Philistines ;  his  body  with  the  bodies  of  his  sons  (as  a 
spectacle  of  shame  and  dishonour)  were  hung  over  the  walls 
of  Bethsan,  and  there  had  remained  till  they  had  found  bu 
rial  in  the  bowels  of  ravenous  birds,  had  not  the  grateful 
Gileadites  of  Jabes  stolen  their  carcasses  thence  and  interred 
them.  This  was  the  end  of  Saul,  after  he  had  governed  Is 
rael,  together  with  Samuel,  forty  years,  and  by  himself 
after  Samuel  twenty  years,  according  to  » Cedrenus,  Theo- 
philus,  and  Josephus.  But  yet  it  seemeth  to  me  that,  after 
the  death  of  Samuel,  Saul  did  not  rule  very  long.  For  in 
the  beginning  of  the  25th  chapter,  it  is  written  that  Samuel 
died  ;  and  in  the  rest  of  the  same  chapter  the  passages  are 
written  of  David,  Nabal,  and  Abigail,  after  which  the  death 
of  Saul  quickly  ensued. 

An  exceeding  valiant  man  he  was,  and  gave  a  fair  en 
trance  to  all  those  victories  which  David  afterwards  ob 
tained  ;  for  he  had  beaten  the  Ammonites  with  their  neigh 
bouring  nations  ;  crushed  the  Syrians  and  their  adherents ; 
broken  the  strength  of  the  Amalekites,  and  greatly  wasted 
the  power  and  pride  of  the  Philistines. 

SECT.   VI. 

Of  such  as  lived  with  Samuel  and  Saul;  of  Hellen  and  Hercules, 
and  of  their  issues :  upon  occasion  of  the  Dores,  with  the  Hera- 
clidtE,  entering  Peloponnesus  about  this  time. 
IN  the  second  year  of  Samuel,  according  to  Eusebius, 

was  David  born;  after  Codoman  later,  and  in  the  ninth 
1  Acts  xiii,  31.    Cedren.  p.  69.  Theop.  1.  3.  p.  3.  Joseph.  1.  28. 


490 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 


year;  after  Bunting  in  the  tenth.     For  David,  saith  he, 
was  thirty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign  :  whence  it  fol- 
loweth,  that  he  was  born  in  the  tenth  of  the  forty  years 
which  are  given  to  Samuel  and  Saul.     About  the  eleventh 
of  Samuel,  JEneas  Silvius,  the  son  of  Posthumus,  began 
his  reign  over  the  Latins  in  Alba,  who  governed  that  state 
thirty-one  years.     There  are  who  place  before  him  Lati- 
nus  Silvius,  as  brother  to  Posthumus,  calling  him  the  fifth 
from  ^Eneas,  and  fourth  king  of  Alba ;  whereof  I  will  not 
stand  to  dispute.     In  the  eleventh  of  Samuel,  Dercilus  sat 
in  the  throne  of  Assyria,  being  the  one  and  thirtieth  king ; 
he  ruled  that  empire  forty  years.     In  this  age  of  Samuel, 
the  Dores  obtained  Peloponnesus,  and  at  once  with  the  He- 
raclidse,  who  then  led  and  commanded  the  nation,  possessed 
a  great  part  thereof  328  years  before  the  first  olympiad, 
according  to  Diodorus  and  Eratosthenes.     For  all  Greece 
was  anciently  possessed  by  three  tribes  or  kindreds,  viz.  the 
lonians,  Dorians,  and  ^Eolians :  at  length  it  was  called  Hel 
las,  and  the  people  Hellenes,  of  Hellen,  the  son  of  Deuca 
lion,  lord  of  the  country  of  Phthiotis  in  Thessaly.     But  be 
fore  the  time  of  this  Hellen,  yea  and  long  after,  Greece  had 
no  name  common  to  all  the  inhabitants,  neither  were  the 
people  called  Hellenes,  till  such  time  as  partly  by  trading 
in  all  parts  of  the  land,  partly  by  the  plantation  of  many 
colonies,  and  sundry  great  victories  obtained,  the  issues  of 
Hellen  had  reduced  much  of  the  country  under  their  obe 
dience,  calling  themselves  generally  by  one  name,  and  yet 
every  several  nation  after  some  one  of  the  posterity  of  Hel 
len,  who  had  reigned  over  it.     And  because  this  is  the  fur 
thest  antiquity  of  Greece,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  recount  the 
pedigree  of  her  first  planters. 

lapetus  (as  the  poets  fable)  was  the  son  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  so  accounted,  either  because  the  names  of  his  parents 
had  in  the  Greek  tongue  such  signification,  or  perhaps  for 
his  knowledge  in  astronomy  and  philosophy. 

lapetus  begat  Prometheus  and  Epimetheus ;  of  whom  all 
men  have  read  that  have  read  poets.  Prometheus  begat 
Deucalion ;  and  Epimetheus,  Pyrrha.  Deucalion  and  This 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  491 

wife  Pyrrha  reigned  in  Thessaly,  which  then  was  called 
Pyrrha,  (as  Cretensis  Rhianus  affirmeth,)  of  Pyrrha  the 
queen.  In  Deucalion's  time  was  that  great  flood  of  which 
we  have  spoken  elsewhere.  Deucalion  begat  Hellen :  whose 
sons  were  Xuthus,  Dorus,  and  JSolus ;  of  Dorus  and  Mo- 
lus,  the  Dores  and  JEolians  had  name.  The  JEoles  inha 
bited  Bceotia.  The  Dores  having  first  inhabited  sundry 
parts  of  Thessaly,  did  afterwards  seat  themselves  about 
Parnassus,  and  finally  became  lords  of  the  countries  about 
Lacedaemon :  Xuthus,  the  eldest  son  of  Hellen,  being  ba 
nished  by  his  brethren  for  having  diverted  from  them  to  his 
own  use  some  part  of  their  father's  goods,  came  to  Athens ; 
where  marrying  the  daughter  of  king  Erechtheus,  he  begat 
on  her  two  sons,  Achaeus  and  Ion.  Of  these  two,  Achaeus, 
for  a  slaughter  by  him  committed,  fled  into  Peloponnesus ; 
and  seating  himself  in  Laconia,  gave  name  to  that  region : 
from  whence  (as  some  write)  he  afterwards  departed ;  and, 
levying  an  army,  recovered  the  kingdom  of  his  grandfather 
in  Thessaly. 

Ion  being  general  for  the  Athenians,  when  Eumolpus  the 
Thracian  invaded  Attica,  did  obtain  a  great  victory,  and 
thereby  such  love  and  honour  of  the  people,  that  they  com 
mitted  the  ordering  of  their  state  into  his  hands.  He  di 
vided  the  citizens  into  tribes,  appointing  every  one  to  some 
occupation  or  good  course  of  life.  When  the  people  mul 
tiplied,  he  planted  colonies  in  Sycionia,  then  called  JSgia- 
los,  or  ^Egialia:  in  which  country  Solinus  then  reigning, 
thought  it  safer  to  give  his  daughter  Helice  in  marriage  to 
Ion,  and  make  him  his  heir,  than  to  contend  with  him.  So 
Ion  married  Helice,  and  built  a  town  called  by  his  wife's 
name  in  ^Egialia,  where  he  and  his  posterity  reigned  long, 
and  (though  not  obliterating  the  old  name)  gave  to  that  land 
the  denomination.  But  in  after-times  the  Dores,  assisting 
the  nephews  of  Hercules,  invaded  Peloponnesus,  and  over 
coming  the  Achaeans  possessed  Laconia,  and  all  those  parts 
which  the  Achaei  had  formerly  occupied.  Hereupon  the 
Achaei,  driven  to  seek  a  new  seat,  came  unto  the  lones,  de 
siring  to  inhabit  ^Egialia  with  them,  and  alleging  in  Vain 


492 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 


that  Ion  and  Achseus  had  been  brethren.  When  this  re- 
quest  could  not  be  obtained,  they  sought  by  force  to  ex 
pel  the  lonians,  which  they  performed ;  but  they  lost  their 
king  Tisamenes,  the  son  of  Orestes,  in  that  war. 

Thus  were  the  lones  driven  out  of  Peloponnesus,  and 
compelled  to  remove  into  Attica,  from  whence  after  a  while 
they  sailed  into  Asia,  and  peopled  the  western  coast  thereof, 
on  which  they  built  twelve  cities,  inhabited  by  them  even 
to  this  day,  at  the  least,  without  any  universal  or  memorable 
transmigration.  This  expedition  of  the  lones  into  Asia 
hath  been  mentioned  of  all  which  have  written  of  that  age, 
and  is  commonly  placed  140  years  after  the  war  of  Troy, 
and  sixty  years  after  the  descent  of  the  Heraclidae  into  Pe 
loponnesus.  These  Heraclidae  were  they  of  whom  the  kings 
of  Sparta  issued ;  which  race  held  that  kingdom  about  700 
years.  Of  their  father  Hercules  many  strange  things  are 
delivered  unto  us  by  the  poets,  of  which  some  are  like  to 
have  been  true,  others  perhaps  must  be  allegorically  under 
stood.  But  the  most  approved  writers  think  that  there  were 
many  called  Hercules,  all  whose  exploits  were  by  the  Greeks 
ascribed  to  the  son  of  Alcmena,  who  is  said  to  have  per 
formed  these  twelve  great  labours. 

First,  he  slew  the  Nemaean  lion  ;  secondly,  he  slew  the 
serpent  Hydra,  which  had  nine  heads,  whereof  one  being 
cut  off,  two  grew  in  the  place ;  the  third  was  the  overtaking 
a  very  swift  hart ;  the  fourth  was  the  taking  of  a  wild  boar 
alive,  which  haunted  mount  Erymanthus  in  Arcady ;  the 
fifth  was  the  cleansing  of  Augeas's  ox-stall  in  one  day,  which 
he  performed  by  turning  the  river  Alpheus  into  it ;  the  sixth 
was  the  chasing  away  of  the  birds  from  the  lake  Stymphalis; 
the  seventh  was  the  fetching  a  bull  from  Crete ;  the  eighth 
was  the  taking  of  the  mares  which  Diomedes  king  of  Thrace 
fed  with  human  flesh ;  the  ninth  was  to  fetch  a  girdle  of  the 
queen  of  the  Amazons ;  the  three  last  were,  to  fetch  Ge- 
ryon's  beeves  from  Gades,  the  golden  apples  of  the  Hespe- 
rides,  and  Cerberus  from  hell.  The  mythological  inter 
pretation  of  these  I  purposely  omit,  as  both  overlong  to  be 
here  set  down,  and  no  less  perplexed  than  the  labours  them- 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  493 

selves.  For  some  by  Hercules  understand  fortitude,  pru 
dence,  and  constancy,  interpreting  the  monsters,  vices. 
Others  make  Hercules  the  sun,  and  his  travels  to  be  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.  There  are  others  who  apply 
his  works  historically  to  their  own  conceits ;  as  well  assured, 
that  the  exposition  cannot  have  more  unlikelihood  than  the 
fables,  that  he  took  Elis,  Pylus,  (Echalia,  and  other  towns, 
being  assisted  by  such  as  either  admired  his  virtues,  or  were 
beholden  unto  him.  Also  that  he  slew  many  thieves  and 
tyrants  I  take  to  be  truly  written,  without  addition  of  poet 
ical  vanity.  His  travels  through  most  parts  of  the  world 
are,  or  may  seem,  borrowed  from  Hercules  Libycus.  But 
sure  it  is  that  many  cities  in  Greece  were  greatly  bound  to 
him ;  for  that  he  (bending  all  his  endeavours  to  the  com 
mon  good)  delivered  the  land  from  much  oppression.  But 
after  his  death  no  city  of  Greece  (Athens  excepted)  requited 
the  virtue  and  deserts  of  Hercules  with  constant  protection 
of  his  children,  persecuted  by  the  king  Eurystheus.  This 
Eurystheus  was  son  of  Sthenelus,  and  grandchild  of  Per 
seus;  he  reigned  in  Mycenae,  the  mightiest  city  then  in 
Greece.  He  it  was  that  imposed  those  hard  tasks  upon 
Hercules,  who  was  bound  to  obey  him  (as  poets  report) 
for  expiation  of  that  murder  which  in  his  [madness  he  had 
committed  upon  his  own  children ;  but,  as  others  say,  be 
cause  he  was  his  subject  and  servant :  wherefore  there  are 
who  commend  Eurystheus  for  employing  the  strength  of 
Hercules  to  so  good  a  purpose.  But  it  is  generally  agreed 
by  the  best  writers,  that  Hercules  was  also  of  the  stock  of 
Perseus,  and  holden  in  great  jealousy  by  Eurystheus,  be 
cause  of  his  virtue,  which  appeared  more  and  more  in  the 
dangerous  services  wherein  he  was  employed,  so  that  he  grew 
great  in  reputation  and  power  through  all  Greece,  and  had 
by  many  wives  and  concubines  above  threescore  children. 
These  children  Eurystheus  would  fain  have  got  into  his 
power,  when  Hercules  was  dead ;  but  they  fled  unto  Ceyx, 
king  of  Trachinia,  and  from  him  (for  he  durst  not  withstand 
Eurystheus)  to  Athens.  The  Athenians  not  only  gave 
them  entertainment,  but  lent  them  aid,  wherewith  they  en- 


494  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

countered  Eurystheus.  lolaus,  the  brother's  son  of  Her 
cules,  who  had  assisted  him  in  many  of  his  travels,  was  cap 
tain  of  the  Heraclidae.  It  is  said  of  him,  that  being  dead, 
he  obtained  leave  of  Pluto  to  live  again  till  he  might  re 
venge  the  injuries  done  by  Eurystheus;  whom  when  he 
had  slain  in  battle,  he  died  again.  It  seems  to  me,  that 
whereas  he  had  led  colonies  into  Sicily,  and  abode  there  a 
long  time  forgotten,  he  came  again  into  Greece,  to  assist  his 
cousins,  and  afterwards  returned  back.  When  the  Pelo- 
ponnesians  understood  that  Eurystheus  was  slain,  they  took 
Atreus,  the  son  of  Pelops,  to  their  king ;  for  he  was  rich, 
mighty,  and  favoured  of  the  people.  Against  him  the  He 
raclidae  marched  under  Hyllus,  the  son  of  Hercules.  But 
to  avoid  effusion  of  blood,  it  was  agreed,  that  Hyllus  should 
fight  with  Echenus,  king  of  the  Tegeatae,  a  people  of  Arca 
dia,  who  assisted  Atreus,  with  condition  that  if  Hyllus  were 
victor,  he  should  peaceably  enjoy  what  he  challenged  as  his 
right ;  otherwise  the  Heraclidae  should  not  enter  Pelopon 
nesus  in  100  years.  In  that  combat  Hyllus  was  slain,  and 
the  Heraclidae  compelled  to  forbear  their  country  till  the 
third  generation ;  at  which  time  they  returned  under  Ari- 
stodemus,  (as  the  best  authority  shews,  though  some  have 
said  that  they  came  under  the  conduct  of  his  children,)  and 
brought  with  them  the  Dores,  whom  they  planted  in  that 
country,  as  is  before  shewed,  having  expelled  the  Achsei, 
over  whom  the  issue  of  Pelops  had  reigned  after  the  death 
of  Eurystheus  four  generations. 

SECT.  VII. 

Of  Homer  and  Hesiod,  and  many  changes  in  the  world  that  hap 
pened  about  this  age. 

ABOUT  this  time  that  excellent  learned  poet  Homer 
lived,  as  many  of  the  best  chronologers  affirm.  He  was  by 
race  of  the  Maeones,  descended  (as  ^Functius  imagineth)  of 
Berosus's  Anamaeon,  who  gave  name  to  that  people.  But 
this  Functius  imagineth  Homer  the  poet  to  have  been  long 

k  Fun.  Chro.  fol.ii.  col.  D. 


CHAP.  xvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  495 

after  these  times,  rashly  framing  his  era  according  to  !Ar- 
chilochus  in  the  tract,  or  rather  fragment,  de  Temporibus ; 
and  makes  seven  more  of  this  name  to  have  flourished  in 
divers  cities  in  Greece :  whence  perhaps  sprang  the  diver 
sity  of  opinions  both  of  the  time  and  of  the  native  city  of 
Homer.  According  to  this  Archilochus,  Functius  finds 
Homer  about  the  time  of  Manasseh  king  of  Juda,  and 
Numa  of  Rome.  He  was  called  Melesigenes,  from  the 
place  of  his  birth,  and  at  length  Homer,  because  blind  men 
follow  a  guide,  which  signification,  among  others,  is  in  the 
verb  6{j.r,pslv ;  for  this  Homer  in  his  latter  time  was  blind. 
m  Clemens  Alexandrinus  recites  many  different  opinions 
touching  the  question  of  the  time  when  Homer  lived.  So 
also  "Aulus  Gellius,  and  Tatianus  Assyrius,  in  his  oration 
ad  Gentes.  Paterculus  reckons  that  Homer  flourished  950 
years  before  the  consulship  of  Marcus  Vinutius;  which 
Mercator  casteth  up  in  the  world's  year  3046,  and  after 
Troy  taken,  about  260  years;  and  about  250  years  before 
the  building  of  Rome ;  making  him  to  have  flourished  about 
the  time  of  Jehosaphat,  king  of  Juda.  But  Clemens  Alex 
andrinus  and  Tatianus  above  named, ^mention  authors  that 
make  him  much  ancienter.  The  difference  of  which  authors 
in  this  point  is  not  unworthy  the  reader's  consideration,  that 
by  this  one  instance  he  may  guess  of  the  difficulty,  and  so 
pardon  the  errors  in  the  computations  of  ancient  time ;  see 
ing  in  such  diversity  of  opinions  a  man  may  hardly  find  out 
what  to  follow.  For  Crates  the  grammarian  (as  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  reports)  gave  being  to  Homer  about  eighty 
years  after  Troy  taken,  near  the  time  that  the  Heraclida? 
returned  into  Peloponnesus ;  and  °  Eratosthenes  after  Troy 
100  years :  Theopompus  500  years  after  the  army  of  Greece 
sailed  into  Phrygia  for  the  war  of  Troy.  Euphorion  makes 
him  contemporary  with  Gyges,  who  began  to  reign  in  the 

1  This  author,  set  out  with  Berosus  n  Noct.  Attic.  1.3.  c.  n.    Item,  1. 

and  others,  first  at  Basil,  and  after  17.  c.  21. 

with  friar  Annius's  comment  at  Ant-  °  As  both  Clem.  Alex,  and  Tatian. 

werp,  is  incertte  Jidei.  Naucler.  f.  147.  Assyr.  report  his  opinion,  Rerum  Phil, 

placeth  Homer  in  the  thirty-second  43.  Ros.  in  Disc.  Tempornm.  Phil,  in 

generation  in  the  time  of  Samuel.  Comm.  in  Archilog. 

m  Stromatum,  1.  5. 


496  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

18th  olympiad  ;  (which  was  forty-five  years  after  Rome  was 
built ;)  and  Sosibius  saith,  that  he  was  ninety  years  before 
the  first  olympiad ;  which  he  seeks  to  prove  by  the  times  of 
Charillus,  and  his  son  Nicander.     Philochorus  placeth  him 
180  after  Troy;  Aristarchus  140,  in  the  time  of  the  seat 
ing  of  the  colonies  in  Ionia.     Apollodorus  affirms,  that  he 
lived  while  Agesilaus  governed  Lacedaemon ;  and  that  Ly- 
curgus  in  his  young  years,  about  100  years  after  the  Ionian 
plantations,  came  to  visit  him,  near  240  years  after  Troy 
taken.     P  Herodotus  finds  Homer  flourishing  622  years  be 
fore  Xerxes's  enterprise  against  the  Grecians ;  which  Bero- 
aldus  accounteth  at  168  years  after  the  Trojan  war.    Euse- 
bius   seems  to  make   him  to   have   been  about  the   time 
of  Joash,  king   of  Juda,  124  years  before   Rome  built; 
though  elsewhere  in   his  chronology  he  notes,   that  some 
place  him  in  the  time  of  Samuel,  and  others  in  the  end  of 
David,  and  others  in  other  ages.     In  his  evangelical  pre 
paration,  where  out  of  Tatianus  Assyrius  he  citeth  sundry 
opinions  touching  the  time  when  Homer  lived,  he  reckoneth 
many  other  Greek  writers  more  ancient  than  Homer;  as 
Linus,  Philammon,  Epimenides,  Phemius,  Aristaeus,  Or 
pheus,  Musseus,  Thamyras,  Amphion,  and  others. 

Now  whether  Homer  or  Hesiodus  were  the  elder,  it  is 
also  much  disputed.  <lAulus  Gellius  reports,  that  Philo 
chorus  and  Xenophanes  affirm,  that  Homer  preceded  He 
siod  j  and  on  the  contrary,  that  Luc.  Accius  the  poet,  and 
Ephorus  the  historian,  make  Hesiod  of  an  elder  time  than 
Homer.  rVarro  leaves  it  uncertain  which  of  these  learned 
fablers  was  first  born ;  but  he  finds  that  they  lived  together 
some  certain  years,  wherein  he  confirms  himself  by  an  epi 
gram  written  upon  a  trevit,  and  left  by  Hesiod  in  Helicon. 
s  Cornelius  Nepos  reports,  that  they  both  lived  160  years 
before  Rome  built ;  while  the  Silvii  reigned  in  Alba  about 
'140  years  after  the  fall  of  Troy.  uEuthymenes  finds 
them  both  200  years  after  Troy  taken,  in  the  time  of  Aca- 

P  Her.  in  Vita  Horn.  t  This  number  Mercator  corrects, 

«  Noct.  Attic.  1. 3.  c,  1 1 .  and  reads  240  for  it. 

'  Varro  de  Iroag.  1. 1.  «  Euthym.  in  Chr.  apud  Clem.  Al. 

•  Nep.  in  Chron.  Cassel.  i.  Annul.  Strom.  $." 


CHAP.  XVL.  OF  THE  WORLD.  497 

stus  the  son  of  Pelias,  king  of  Thessaly.  For  myself,  I 
am  not  much  troubled  when  this  poet  lived ;  neither  would 
I  offend  the  reader  with  these  opinions,  but  only  to  shew 
the  uncertainty  and  disagreement  of  historians,  as  well  in 
this  particular  as  in  all  other  questions  and  disputes  of  time. 
For  the  curiosity  of  this  man's  age  is  no  less  ridiculous,  than 
the  inquisition  why  he  began  his  Iliads  with  the  word  Menin, 
as  perhaps  containing  some  great  mystery.  In  derision 
whereof,  Lucian  feigning  himself  to  have  been  in  hell,  and 
to  have  spoken  with  Homer,  there  asked  him  the  cause  why 
he  began  his  book  with  that  word ;  who  answered,  that  he 
began  in  that  sort,  because  it  came  in  his  head  so  to  do. 

It  seemeth  that  Senyes,  or,  after  Macrobius,  Senemires, 
ruled  Egypt  at  this  time ;  for  Tanephersobris  was  his  suc 
cessor,  who  preceded  Vaphres,  father-in-law  to  Solomon. 

About  the  end  of  Saul's  government,  or  in  the  beginning 
of  David's  time  according  to  x  Cassiodorus,  the  Amazons 
with  the  Cimmerians  invaded  Asia,  Latinus  Sylvius  then 
ruling  in  Italy.  And  besides  the  overthrow  of  that  famous 
state  of  Troy,  (which  fell  103  years  before  David's  time,) 
there  were  many  other  changes  in  the  middle  part  of  the 
world,  not  only  by  reason  of  those  northern  nations;  but 
there  sprung  up,  somewhat  nearly  together,  six  kingdoms 
into  greatness,  not  before  erected.  In  Italy,  that  of  the 
Latins ;  in  the  south  part  of  Greece,  those  of  Lacedaemon, 
Corinth,  and  the  Achaei.  In  Arabia,  Syria  Soba,  and  Da 
mascus,  the  Adads  made  themselves  princes,  of  which  there 
were  ten  kings,  which  began  and  ended  with  the  king  of 
Israel  in  effect :  and  somewhat  before  these,  the  state  of  the 
Israelites,  having  now  altered  their  form  of  government, 
began  to  flourish  under  kings,  of  which  David,  in  a  few 
years,  became  master  of  all  those  neighbouring  nations,  who 
by  interchange  of  times  had  subjected  the  Judaeans,  cor 
rupted  their  religion,  and  held  them  under  in  a  most  abject 
and  grievous  slavery ;  to  wit,  the  Edumeans,  Moabites, 
Ammonites,  Midianites,  Itureans,  and  the  rest  of  the  Ara- 

*  Ens.  ct  Cass.  in  Chron. 
RALEGH,   HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  K  k 


4,98  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

bians,  with  the  Philistines,  Jebusites,  Geshurites,  Macha^ 
thites,  all  which  acknowledged  David  for  their  sovereign 
lord,  and  paid  him  tribute. 


CHAP.    XVII. 

Of  David. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  David's  estate  in  the  time  of  Saul. 

THE  hazards  which  David  ran  into  while  he  was  yet  only 
designed  king,  and,  living  as  a  private  man,  expected  the  • 
empire,  were  very  many.  The  first  personal  act  of  fame 
was  his  killing  of  Goliath  in  the  view  of  both  armies,  where 
by  he  became  known  to  Saul,  and  so  highly  affected  of  Jo 
nathan  the  son  of  Saul,  that  he  loved  him  as  his  own  soul ; 
insomuch,  as  when  Saul  sought  to  persuade  his  son  that 
David  would  assuredly  be  the  ruin  of  his  house  and  estate, 
and  offered  him  violence  when  he  pleaded  his  cause,  Jona 
than  could  never  be  persuaded,  never  forced,  nor  ever  wea 
ried  from  the  care  of  David's  life  and  well  doing.  It  was 
not  long  after  this  signal  act  of  David's,  but  that  Saul  be 
came  exceeding  jealous  of  him,  though  he  were  become  as 
his  household  servant,  and  his  esquire,  or  armour-bearer. 
Saul,  being  vexed  with  an  evil  spirit,  was  advised  to  procure 
some  cunning  musician  to  play  before  him  upon  the  harp, 
whereby  it  was  thought  that  he  might  find  ease;  which  came 
to  pass  accordingly.  He  entertained  David  for  this  pur 
pose,  and  began  to  favour  him,  giving  him  a  place  of  com 
mand  among  the  men  of  war.  But  the  jealous  tyrant  soon 
waxed  weary  of  his  good  affections,  and  sought  to  kill  Da 
vid,  being  thereunto  moved  only  through  envy  of  his  vir 
tue.  This  passion  first  brake  forth  in  the  midst  of  his  rav 
ing  fit,  at  which  time  he  threw  a  spear  at  David,  that  was 
ihen  playing  on  his  harp  to  do  him  ease. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  499 

yCensorinus  remembereth  one  Asclepius,  a  physician,  who 
practised  the  curing  of  the  phrensy  by  the  like  music,  and 
tempted  thereby  those  diseases  which  grew  from  passion. 
That  Pythagoras  did  also  the  like  by  such  a  kind  of  har 
mony,  Seneca,  in  his  third  book  of  anger,  witnesseth.  But 
the  madness  of  Saul  came  from  the  Cause  of  causes,  and  was 
thereby  incurable,  howsoever  it  sometimes  left  him,  and 
yielded  unto  that  music  which  God  had  ordained  to  be  a 
mean  of  more  good  to  the  musician  than  to  the  king. 

Saul,  having  failed  in  such  open  attempts,  gave  unto  Da 
vid  the  commandment  of  1000  soldiers,  to  confront  the  Phi 
listines  withal.  For  he  durst  not  trust  him,  as  before,  about 
his  person,  fearing  his  revenge.  Now  the  better  to  cover 
his  hatred  towards  him,  he  promised  him  his  daughter  Me- 
rab  to  wife ;  but  having  married  her  to  Adriel,  he  gave  to 
David  his  younger  daughter  Michol,  but  with  a  condition 
to  present  him  with  an  hundred  foreskins  of  the  Philistines ; 
hoping  rather  (in  respect  of  the  valour  of  that  nation)  that 
the  Philistines  would  take  David's  head,  than  he  their  fore 
skins.  This  hope  failing,  when  as  now  David's  victories 
begat  new  fears  and  jealousies  in  Saul,  he  practised  with 
Jonathan,  and  afterwards  with  his  own  hands  attempted  his 
life;  but  his  purposes  were  still  frustrated.  After  all  this, 
he  sought  to  murder  him  in  his  own  house,  but  Michol  his 
wife  delivered  him2.  So  David  sought  Samuel  at  Ramah, 
and  being  pursued  by  Saul,  fled  thence  unto  Nob  in  Ben 
jamin  to  Abimelech,  then  to  Achis  the  Philistine,  prince 
of  Gath  a ;  where  to  obscure  himself,  he  was  forced  to  coun 
terfeit  both  simplicity  and  distraction.  But  being  ill  as 
sured  among  the  Philistines,  he  covered  himself  in  the 
cave  of  Adullam;  and  after  conveying  such  of  his  kins 
folks  as  were  not  fit  to  follow  him,  into  Moab,  he  hid  him 
self  in  the  deserts  of  b  Ziph,  Maon,  and  the  hills  of  Engaddi, 
where  he  cut  off  the  lap  of  Saul's  garments,  and  spared  his 
life;  as  he  did  a  second  time  in  the  desert  of  cZiph,  after 

y  Cens.  c.  12.  et  14.  b  i  Sam.  xxiv. 

*  i  Sam.  xix.  c  i  Sam.  xxvi. 

a  i  Sam.  xxi. 

K  k  2 


500  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  IT. 

his  passage  with  Nabal  and  Abigail.  After  which  he  re 
paired  to  Achis  of  Gath  the  second  time,  and  was  kindly 
entertained  in  regard  of  the  hatred  with  which  his  master 
Saul  was  known  to  prosecute  him. 

Of  Achis  David  obtained  d  Siklag  in  Simeon,  pretending 
to  invade  Juda?a ;  but  he  bent  his  forces  another  way,  and 
struck  the  Amalekites,  with  other  enemies  of  Israel,  letting 
none  live  to  complain  upon  him.  Achis,  supposing  that  Da 
vid  had  drawn  blood  of  his  own  nation,  thought  himself  as 
sured  of  him ;  and  therefore  preparing  to  invade  Israel, 
summoneth  David  to  assist  him,  who  dissembling  his  in 
tent,  seemeth  very  willing  thereto.  But  the  rest  of  the 
Philistine  princes,  knowing  his  valour,  and  doubting  his 
disposition,  liked  not  his  company,  and  therefore  he  with 
drew  himself  to  Siklag.  At  his  return  he  found  the  town 
burnt,  his  two  wives,  with  the  wives  and  children  of  his 
people,  taken  by  the  Amalekites:  hereupon  his  fellows  mu 
tinied,  but  God  gave  him  comfort  and  assurance  to  recover 
all  again ;  which  he  did. 

This  army  of  the  Philistines,  commanded  by  Achis,  en 
countered  Saul  at  Gilboa,  in  which  he  and  his  three  sons 
were  slain.  The  news  with  Saul's  crown  and  bracelets 
were  brought  to  David,  at  Siklag,  in  his  return  from  being 
victorious  over  Amalek,  by  a  man  of  the  same  nation,  who 
e  avowed  (though  falsely)  that  himself,  at  Saul's  request, 
had  slain  him.  David,  because  he  had  accused  himself, 
made  no  scruple  to  cause  him  to  be  slain  at  the  instant ; 
and  the  sooner,  because  the  probabilities  gave  strong  evi 
dence  withal.  Otherwise  it  followeth  not  that  every  man 
ought  to  be  believed  of  himself  to  his  own  prejudice.  For 
it  is  held  in  the  law,  f  Confessio  reorum  non  habenda  est 
pro  eocplorato  crimine,  nisi  approbate  alia  instruit  reli- 
gionem  cognoscentis ;  "  The  prisoner's  confession  must  not 
"  be  taken  for  an  evidence  of  the  crime,  unless  some  other 
"  proof  inform  the  conscience  of  the  judge."  For  a  man 

A  It  seemeth  that  Simeon  never  ob-  o/Juda  unto  this  day. 
tained  Siklag  till  this  time,  for  it  is         •  2  Sam  i 
said  in  the  istof  Sam.  xxvii.  6.  there-         f  Jn  F.  de  Quaest.  1.  prim. 
fore  Siklag  pertaineth  unto  the  king 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  501 

may  confess  those  things  of  himself,  that  the  judge  by  ex 
amination  may  know  to  be  impossible.  But  because  it  is 
otherwise  determined  in  the  title  de  Custodia  Reorum  I.  si 
confessus,  et  in  cap.  de  Pcenis  I.  qui  sententiam,  therefore 
doth  the  gloss  reconcile  these  two  places  in  this  sort:  Si 
quis  injudicio  sponte  de  seipso  conjiteatur^  et  postea  maneat 
in  confessione^  id  est  satis;  "  If  any  man  in  judgment  do 
"  confess  of  himself,  of  his  own  accord,  and  after  doth  per- 
"  severe  in  his  confession,  it  is  enough."  That  David  great 
ly  bewailed  Saulj  it  is  not  improbable ;  for  death  cutteth 
asunder  all  competition ;  and  the  lamentable  end  that  befell 
him,  being  a  king,  with  whom,  in  effect,  the  strength  of 
Israel  also  fell,  could  not  but  stir  up  sorrow  and  move  com 
passion  in  the  heart  of  David. 

The  victory  which  the  Philistines  had  gotten  was  so  great, 
that  some  towns  of  the  Israelites,  even  beyond  the  river  of 
Jordan,  were  abandoned  by  the  inhabitants,  and  left  unto 
the  enemy,  who  took  possession  of  them  without  any  resist 
ance  made.  Wherefore  it  may  seem  strange,  that  a  nation 
so  warlike  and  ambitious  as  were  the  Philistines,  did  not 
follow  their  fortune  with  all  diligence,  and  seek  to  make  the 
conquest  entire.  Most  like  it  seems,  that  the  civil  war 
immediately  breaking  out  between  David  and  the  house  of 
Saul,  wherein  Juda  was  divided  from  the  rest  of  Israel, 
gave  them  hope  of  an  easy  victory  over  both  ;  and  thereby 
caused  them  to  attempt  nothing  at  the  present,  lest  by  so 
doing  they  should  enforce  their  disagreeing  enemies  to  a 
necessary  reconciliation  ;  but  rather  to  permit  that  the  one 
part  should  consume  the  other,  by  which  means  both  the 
victors  and  the  vanquished  would  become  a  prey  to  the  vio 
lence  of  such  as  had  beaten  them  when  their  forces  were 
united. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  the  beginning  of  David's  reign,  and  the  war  made  by  Abner  for 
Ishbosheth. 

AFTER  the  death  of  Saul,  Abner,  who  commanded  for 
Saul  in  the  war,  sought  to  advance  Ishbosheth,  (or  Jebo- 
stus,  according  to  Josephus,)  though  he  had  no  right  to  the 

K  k3 


502  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  u. 

kingdom  of  Israel ;  for  Mephibosheth,  the  first  son  of  Jo 
nathan,  lived.  Against  this  Abner  and  Ishbosheth  David 
made  a  defensive  war,  till  Abner  passed  Jordan,  and  entered 
the  border  of  Juda ;  at  which  time  he  sent  Joab  with  such 
forces  as  he  had,  to  resist  Abner ;  Ishbosheth  remaining  in 
Gilead,  and  David  in  Hebron.  The  armies  encountered 
each  other  near  Gibeon,  where  it  seemeth  that  Abner  made 
the  offer  to  try  the  quarrel  by  the  hands  of  a  few ;  like  to 
that  combat  between  the  Lacedaemonians  and  the  Argives, 
remembered  by  Herodotus,  300  being  chosen  of  each  na 
tion  ;  of  which  number  three  persons  were  only  left  unslain. 
The  like  trial  by  a  far  less  number  was  performed  by  the 
Horatii  and  Curiatii  for  the  Romans  and  Latins.  The 
same  challenge  Goliath  the  Philistine  made,  whom  David 
slew ;  a  custom  very  ancient.  Edward  the  Third  offered 
the  like  trial  in  his  own  person  to  the  French  king ;  and 
Francis  the  French  king  to  Charles  the  emperor.  There 
were  twelve  chosen  of  each  part,  in  this  war  of  David  with 
the  house  of  Saul,  to  wit,  so  many  of  Benjamin,  and  as 
many  of  Juda ;  whose  force  and  valour  was  so  equal,  as 
there  survived  not  any  one  to  challenge  the  victory.  But 
the  quarrel  stayed  not  here ;  for  the  army  of  Juda  pressed 
Abner  in  gross,  and  brake  him.  Three  hundred  and  sixty 
men  of  Abner's  companions  were  slain,  and  but  twenty  of 
Juda ;  whereof  Asahel,  the  brother  of  Joab,  was  one ;  who 
when  he  would  needs  pursue  s  Abner,  and  by  Abner's  per 
suasions  could  not  be  moved  to  quit  him,  he  was  forced  to 
turn  upon  him,  wounding  him  to  death  with  the  stroke  of 
his  spear.  For  though  Asahel  were  an  excellent  footman, 
and  as  it  is  written  in  the  text,  as  light  as  a  wild  roe,  and 
as  Josephus  reporteth,  contended  not  only  with  men  but 
with  horses,  and  hoped  to  have  gotten  great  fame,  if  he 
could  have  mastered  Abner,  (who,  as  Asahel  persuaded 
himself,  had  by  being  overthrown,  and  flying  away,  lost  his 
courage,)  yet  here  it  fell  out  true,  h  that  the  race  is  not  to  the 
swift. 

That  this  civil  war  lasted  two  years,  we  find  it  written  in 
*  2Sam-»-  "  Eccles.ix. 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  603 

2Sam.il.  10.  though  in  the  beginning  of  the  third  it  is 
again  made  probable,  that  this  contention  dured  longer ; 
and  therefore  the  matter  resteth  still  in  dispute,  and  some  of 
the  rabbins  conceive,  that  Ishbosheth  had  then  reigned  two 
years  when  this  was  written,  the  war  as  yet  continuing  a 
longer  time.  For  Abner  held  for  the  party  of  Ishbosheth 
after  this,  and  till  such  time  as  there  grew  jealousy  be 
tween  him  and  Ishbosheth  for  Saul's  concubine :  neither 
did  the  death  of  Ishbosheth  instantly  follow  ;  but  how  long 
after  the  murder  of  Abner  it  happened,  the  same  doth  not 
certainly  appear. 

SECT.    III. 
Of  the  death  of  Abner  slain  by  Joab,  and  of  Ishbosheth  by  Rechab 

and  Baanah. 

ABNER,  reconciled  to  David,  was  anon  by  'Joab  mur 
dered  ;  for  Joab  could  not  endure  a  companion  in  David's 
favour,  and  in  the  commandment  of  his  forces,  by  which  he 
was  grown  so  powerful,  as  David  forbare  to  call  him  to  ac 
count  :  for  thus  much  he  confesseth  of  himself:  k  /  am  this 
day  weak;  and  these  men  the  sons  of  Zeruiah  be  too  hard 
for  me.  In  this  sort  David  complained  after  Abner's  death  ; 
and  to  make  it  clear  that  he  hated  this  fact  of  Joab,  he  fol 
lowed  him  with  this  public  imprecation  ;  1  Let  the  blood  fall 
on  the  head  of 'Joab >,  and  on  all  his  father's  house  ;  and  let 
them  be  subject  to  ulcers,  to  the  leprosy,  to  lameness,  to  the 
sword,  and  to  poverty,  &c.  For  could  any  thing  have 
withstood  the  ordinance  of  God,  this  murder  committed  by 
Joab  might  greatly  have  endangered  David's  estate,  Abner 
being  the  mouth  and  trust  of  all  the  rest  of  the  tribes  not 
yet  reconciled.  This  mischance  therefore  David  openly  be 
wailed,  so  that  all  Israel  perceived  him  to  be  innocent  of 
that  fact.  The  place  which  Abner  held,  being  general  of 
the  men  of  war,  was  of  such  importance,  that  the  kings 
themselves  were  fain  to  give  them  great  respect,  as  hath 
been  already  shewed  more  at  large.  This  office  Joab  held 
in  the  army  of  Juda,  and  thought  himself  worthy  to  hold 
the  place  entire,  if  once  his  lord  might  obtain  the  whole 
'  2  Sam.  iii.  27.  k  2  Sara.  iii.  39.  Verse  29. 

K  k  4 


504  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

kingdom.     For  he  was  near  to  David  in  kindred,  and  had 
been  partaker  of  ali  his  adversity;  wherefore  he  did  not 
think  it  meet,  that  an  old  enemy  should  in  reward  of  new 
benefits  be  made  his  partner.     Indeed  he  was  by  nature  so 
jealous  of  his  dignity  and  place,  that  he  afterwards  slew 
Amasa,  his  own  kinsman,  and  the  king's,  upon  the  same 
quarrel,  taking  it  in  high  disdain  to  see  him  joined  with 
himself  as  captain  of  the  host  of  Juda ;  much  less  could  he 
brook  a  superior,  and  such  a  one  as  had  slain  his  brother, 
and  been  beaten  himself  in  battle.     But  howsoever  Joab 
did  hate  or  despise  Abner,  David  esteemed  highly  of  him 
as  of  a  prince,  and  a  great  man  in  Israel,  excusing  the  over 
sight,  by  which  he  might  seem  to  have  perished,  by  affirm 
ing,  that  he  died  not  like  a  fool  nor  a  man  vanquished, 
m  but  as  a  man  falleth  before  wicked  men,  so,  said  he,  didst 
thoufalL     And  certainly  it  is  no  error  of  wit  nor  want  of 
valour  and  virtue  in  him,  whom  a  stronger  hand  destroyeth 
unawares,  or  whom  subtlety  in  free  trust  bringeth  to  confu 
sion.     For  all  under  the  sun  are  subject  to  worldly  miseries 
and  misadventures.     Howsoever  Ishbosheth  meant  to  have 
dealt  with  Abner,  yet  when  he  heard  of  his  death  he  de 
spaired  greatly  of  his  estate,  and  with  him  all  Israel  were 
possessed  with  great  fear ;  insomuch  as  two  of  Ishbosheth's 
own  captains,  Rechab  and  Baanah,  murdered  Ishbosheth, 
and,  presenting  his  head  to  n  David,  received  the  same  re 
ward  that  the  Amalekite  lately  did  for  pretending  to  have 
slain  Saul.     Ishbosheth  being  dead,  all  the  elders  of  Israel 
repaired  to  David  at  Hebron,  where  he  was  the  third  and 
last  time  anointed  by  general  consent. 

SECT.  IV. 

Of  the  flourishing  time  of  David's  kingdom,  the  talcing  of  Jerusa 
lem,  with  two  overthrows  given  to  the  Philistines,  and  the  con 
duction  of  the  ark  to  the  city  of  David. 

WHEN  David  was  now  established  in  the  kingdom,  his 
first  enterprise  was  upon  the  Jebusites,  who,  in  derision  of 
his  force,  and  confident  in  the  strength  of  the  place,  (as  is 
m  2  Sam.  iii.  34.  „  2  Sam>  h, 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  505 

thought,)  manned  their  walls  with  the  blind  and  lame  of  their 
city0,  which  David  soon  after  entered  ;  all  their  other  forces 
notwithstanding.  For  having  mastered  the  fort  of  Zion, 
(which  was  afterward  the  city  of  David,)  he  became  lord  of 
Jerusalem  without  any  great  danger,  expelling  thence  the 
Jebusites,  who  had  held  it  from  the  foundation  to  the  times 
of  Moses  and  Joshua,  and  after  them  almost  400  years. 
There  are  who  expound  this  place  otherwise :  Except  thou 
take  away  the  blind  and  the  lame,  thou  shalt  not  come  in 
hither.  For  some  think  that  it  was  meant  by  the  idols  of 
the  Jebusites ;  others,  that  it  had  reference  to  the  covenant 
made  long  before  with  Isaac  and  Jacob :  the  one  blind  by 
nature  and  age,  the  other  made  lame  by  wrestling  with  the 
angel,  and  that  therefore  till  those  (that  is,  till  that  cove 
nant)  be  broken,  David  ought  not  to  molest  them.  But  for 
myself  I  take  it  with  Josephus,  that  they  armed  their  walls 
with  certain  impotent  people  at  first,  in  scorn  of  David's  at 
tempt.  For  they  that  had  held  their  city  about  four  hun 
dred  years  against  all  the  children  of  Israel,  Joshua,  the 
Judges,  and  Saul,  did  not  doubt  but  to  defend  it  also 
against  David. 

When  he  had  now  possessed  himself  of  the  very  heart 
and  centre  of  the  kingdom,  and  received  congratulatory  am 
bassadors  and  presents  from  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre ;  he  en 
tertained  divers  other  concubines,  and  married  more  wives, 
by  whom  he  had  ten  sons  in  Jerusalem,  and  by  his  former 
wives  he  had  six  in  Hebron,  where  he  reigned  seven  years. 

The  Philistines  hearing  that  David  was  now  anointed 
king,  as  well  of  Juda  as  of  Israel,  they  thought  to  try  him 
in  the  beginning,  before  he  was  fully  warm  in  his  seat. 
And  being  encountered  by  David  at  two  several  times  in 
the  v  valley  ofRephaim^  or  of  the  giants,  they  were  at  both 
times  overthrown.  After  which  he  called  the  place  Baalpe- 
razim. 

Then  David  assembled  30,000  choice  Israelites  to  con 
duct  the  ark  of  God  from  the  house  of  Abinadab  in  Gibea 
to  the  city  of  David,  which  business  was  interrupted  by 

•  2  Sam.  v.  ,   P  Ibid, 


506  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  death  of  Uzzah  the  son  of  Abinadab,  whom  the  Lord 
slew  for  presuming  to  touch  the  ark,  though  it  were  with 
intent  to  stay  it  from  taking  harm  when  it  was  shaken. 
But  after  three  years  it  was  with  great  solemnity  brought 
into  the  city  with  sacrifices,  music,  dances,  and  all  signs 
of  joyfulness,  in  which  David  himself  gladly  bare  a  part. 
Hereupon  Michol  derided  him  for  dancing  before  the  ark, 
and  afterward  told  him  in  scorn,  That  he  was  uncovered  as 
a  fool  In  the  eyes  of  the  maidens  his  servants;  namely,  that 
he  forgat  his  regal  dignity  both  in  apparel  and  behaviour, 
and  mixed  himself  among  the  base  multitude,  dancing  as 
fools  do  in  the  ways  and  streets ;  not  that  she  disliked  Da 
vid's  behaviour,  (as  I  take  it,)  though  she  made  it  the  co 
lour  of  her  derision.  But  rather  the  abundant  grief  which 
this  spectacle  stirred  up,  beholding  the  glory  of  her  husband 
to  whom  she  was  delivered  lastly  by  force,  and  remembering 
the  miserable  end  of  her  father  and  brethren,  out  of  whose 
ruins  she  conceived  that  the  son  of  Ishai  had  built  this  his 
Greatness,  together  with  the  many  new  wives  and  concubines 
embraced  since  his  possession  of  Jerusalem,  made  her  break 
out  in  those  despiteful  terms,  for  which  she  remained  barren 
to  her  death. 

This  done,  1  David  consulted  with  the  prophet  Nathan 
for  the  building  of  the  temple  or  house  of  God ;  but  was 
forbidden  it,  because  he  was  a  man  of  war,  and  had  shed 
blood.  So  greatly  doth  the  Lord  and  King  of  all  detest 
homicide;  having  threatened,  not  in  vain,  that  he  would 
require  the  blood  of  man  at  the  hand  of  man  and  beast. 
The  wars  which  David  had  made  were  just,  and  the  blood 
therein  shed  was  of  the  enemies  of  God  and  his  church ; 
yet  for  this  cause  it  was  not  permitted  that  his  hands  should 
lay  the  foundation  of  that  holy  temple.  Hereby  it  appears 
how  greatly  those  princes  deceive  themselves,  who  think  by 
bloodshed,  and  terror  of  their  wars,  to  make  themselves  in 
greatness  like  to  the  Almighty,  which  is  a  damnable  pride ; 
not  caring  to  imitate  his  mercy  and  goodness,  or  seek  the 
blessedness  promised  by  our  Saviour  unto  the  peacemakers. 

i  i  Chron.  xiii. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  507 

Now  although  it  was  not  pleasing  to  the  Lord  to  accept  a 
temple  of  David's  founding,  yet  was  his  religious  intent  so 
well  accepted,  that  hereupon  he  received  both  a  confirma 
tion  of  the  kingdom  to  him  and  his  heirs,  and  that  happy 
promise  of  the  everlasting  throne  that  should  be  established 
in  his  seed. 

SECT.  V. 
The  overthrow  of  the  Philistines  and  Moabites. 

SOON  after  this,  David  overthrew  the  Philistines,  which 
made  them  altogether  powerless,  and  unable  to  make  any 
invasion  upon  Israel  in  haste  r.  For  it  is  written,  Accepit 
frcenum  Amgaris  e  manu  PhiUstceorum ;  which  place  our 
English  Geneva  converts  in  these  words ;  And  David  took 
the  bridle  of  bondage  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Philistines. 
The  Latin  of  s  Junius  giveth  another  and  a  better  sense ; 
for  by  that  bridle  of  Amgar  was  meant  the  strong  city  of 
Gath,  or  Geth,  and  so  the  Geneva  hath  it  in  the  marginal 
note.  This  city  of  Gath  was  the  same  which  was  after 
ward  Dio-Caesarea,  set  on  the  frontier  of  Palestina  at  the 
entrance  into  Judaea  and  Ephraim.  From  thence  they  made 
their  incursions,  and  thereinto  their  retreat  in  all  their  inva 
sions,  which  being  taken  by  David  and  demolished,  there 
was  left  no  such  frontier  town  of  equal  strength  to  the  Phi 
listines  on  that  part.  The  hill  whereon  Geth,  or  Gath, 
stood,  the  Hebrews  call  Ammae,  whereof  and  of  the  word 
Gar  is  made  Amgar,  of  which  Pliny  in  his  1st  book  and 
13th  chapter.  This  exposition  is  made  plain  and  confirmed 
in  the  1st  of  Chron.  chap,  xviii. 

There  was  no  nation  bordering  the  Jews  that  so  greatly 
afflicted  them  as  the  Philistines  did,  who  before  the  time  of 
Saul  (to  the  end  they  might  not  sharpen  any  weapon  against 
them)  did  not  leave  one  smith  in  all  their  cities  and  villages 
of  that  kind,  but  enforced  them  to  come  down  into  their 
territory  ^or  all  iron  work  whatsoever  they  needed ;  so  as 
the  Israelites  till  this  time  of  David  were  seldom  free  from 
paying  tribute  to  the  Philistines. 

T  2  Sam.  viii.  i. 

*  Junius  in  c.  8.  of  the  second  of  Samuel.  *  i  Sam.  xiii. 


508  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

After  this,  he  gave  them  four  other  overthrows;  but  the  war 
of  the  Moabites  and  Arabians  came  between.  In  the  first  of 
which  he  was  endangered  by  Ishbi-benob,  the  head  of  whose 
spear  weighed  300  shekels  of  brass,  which  make  nine  pound 
three  quarters  of  our  poizes;  at  which  time  uAbishai  suc 
coured  David  and  slew  the  Philistines,  whereupon  the  coun 
sellors  and  captains  of  David  (lest  the  light  of  Israel  might 
by  his  loss  be  quenched)  vowed,  that  he  should  not  thence 
forth  hazard  himself  in  any  battle.  The  second  and  third 
encounter  and  overthrow  of  the  Philistines  was  at  Gob,  a 
place  near  Gesar,  and  the  last  at  Gath,  or  Geth.  And 
being  now  better  assured  of  the  Philistines  by  the  taking  of 
Geth,  he  invaded  Moab,  from  whom  notwithstanding  in  his 
adversity  he  sought  succour,  and  left  his  parents  with  him 
in  trust.  But  whether  it  were  the  same  king  or  no,  it  is  not 
known. 

The  rabbins  feign  that  Moab  slew  those  kinsfolks  of 
David,  which  lived  under  his  protection  in  Saul's  time ;  but 
questionless  David  well  knew  how  that  nation  had  been 
always  enemies  to  Israel,  and  took  all  the  occasions  to  vex 
them  that  were  offered.  And  he  also  remembered,  that  in 
the  twenty-third  of  Deuteronomy  God  commanded  Israel  not 
to  seek  the  peace  or  prosperity  of  the  Moabites,  which  David 
well  observed,  for  he,  destroyed  two  parts  of  all  the  people, 
leaving  a  third  to  till  the  ground.  This  victory  obtained, 
he  led  his  army  by  the  border  of  Ammon  towards  Syria 
Zobah,  the  region  of  Adadezer  the  son  of  Rehob,  king 
thereof.  The  place  is  set  down  in  the  description  of  the 
Holy  Land ;  to  which  I  refer  the  reader. 

SECT.  VI. 

The  war  which  David  made  upon  the  Syrians. 

IT  is  written  in  the  text,  David  smote  also  Hadadezer, 

&c.  as  he  went  to  recover  his  border  at  the  river  Euphrates. 

Now  whether  the  words,  as  he  went  to  recover  his  border , 

be  referred  to  David  or  Hadadezer,  it  is  not  agreed  upon. 

Junius  thinks  that  the  article  he  hath  relation  to  David,  who, 

11  2  Sam.  xxi.  17. 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  509 

finding  Tohu  oppressed  by  Hadadezer,  overthrew  the  one, 
and  succoured  the  other.  But  the  ancient  and  most  re 
ceived  opinion,  that  this  recovery  hath  reference  to  the  Sy 
rian,  is  more  probable.  For  if  David  had  intended  any 
such  enterprise  towards  Euphrates,  he  was  in  far  better  case 
to  have  proceeded  after  his  victory  than  before  ;  seeing  that 
(Adadezer  being  taken)  he  had  now  left  no  enemy  on  his 
back,  either  to  pursue  him,  to  take  victuals  and  supplies 
from  him,  or  to  stop  the  passages  of  the  mountains  upon  him 
at  his  return. 

Again,  seeing  David  was  either  to  pass  through  a  part  of 
Arabia  the  Desert,  or  by  the  plains  of  Palmy  rena,  his  army 
consisting  of  footmen,  for  the  most,  if  not  all ;  he  had  now 
both  horse  and  chariots  good  store  to  carry  his  provisions 
through  those  uncultivated  places,  by  which  he  was  to  have 
marched  before  he  could  have  reached  Euphrates,  or  any 
part  thereof.  But  we  find  that  David  returned  to  Jerusa 
lem,  after  lie  had  twice  overthrown  the  Syrian  army,  not 
bending  his  course  towards  the  river  Euphrates,  but  seeking 
to  establish  his  purchases  already  made.  Whereby  it  may 
appear,  that  it  was  the  Syrian,  and  not  king  David,  that  was 
going  to  enlarge  his  border,  as  afore  is  said. 

The  king  of  Syria  Damascena  and  of  Damascus,  whereof 
that  region  is  so  called,  hearing  that  Adadezer  was  over 
thrown  by  the  Israelites,  fearing  his  own  estate,  and  the  loss 
of  his  own  country  which  adjoined  to  Syria  Zobah  of  Ha 
dadezer,  sent  for  an  army  of  Aramites  or  Syrians  to  his 
succour ;  but  these,  as  it  appeareth,  came  too  late  for  Ada 
dezer,  and  too  soon  for  themselves ;  for  there  perished  of 
those  supplies  22,000.  This  king  of  Damascus,  Josephus 
(out  of  Nicolaus,  an  ancient  historian)  calleth  Adad,  who 
was  also  of  the  same  name  and  family  as  all  those  other 
Adads  were;  which  now  began  to  grow  up  in  greatness,  and 
so  continued  for  ten  descents,  till  they  were  extinguished  by 
the  Assyrians,  as  is  shewed  heretofore.  David,  having  now 
reduced  Damascus  under  his  obedience,  left  a  garrison 
therein  as  he  did  in  Edom,  having  also  sacked  the  adjoining 
cities  of  Betah  and  Berathi,  belonging  to  Adadezer,  of  which 


510  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

cities  Ptolemy  calleth  Betah,  Tauba;  and  Berathi  he  nam- 
eth  Barathena.  x  Tohu,  or  Thoi,  whose  country  of  Ha- 
math  joined  to  Adadezer,  (as  in  the  description  of  the  Holy 
Land  the  reader  may  perceive,)  sent  his  son  Joram  to  con 
gratulate  this  success  of  David  ;  partly  because  he  had  war 
with  Adadezer,  and  partly  because  he  feared  David  now  vic 
torious.  He  also  presented  David  with  vessels  of  gold,  sil 
ver,  and  brass,  all  which,  together  with  the  golden  shields  of 
the  Aramites,  and  the  best  of  all  the  spoils  of  other  nations, 
David  dedicated  unto  God  at  his  return.  Junius  trans 
lates  the  words  clypeos  aureos  by  umbones,  as  if  all  the 
parts  of  the  targets  were  not  of  gold,  but  the  bosses  only. 
The  Septuagint  call  them  bracelets  ;  Aquila,  golden  chains. 
But  because  Roboam  made  shields  of  brass  in  place  of  these 
of  Adadezer,  at  such  time  as  Shicah  the  Egyptian  sacked 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  it  may  be  gathered  thereby  that 
those  of  Adadezer  were  golden  shields. 

This  done,  David  sent  ambassadors  to  Hanum,  king  of 
the  Ammonites,  to  congratulate  his  establishment  in  his  fa 
ther's  kingdom  7;  for  David,  in  the  time  of  his  affliction  un 
der  Saul,  had  been  relieved  by  Nahash,  the  father  of  Ha 
num.  But  this  Ammonite  being  ill  advised,  and  overjea- 
lous  of  his  estate,  used  David's  messengers  so  barbarously 
and  contemptuously,  (by  curtailing  their  beards  and  their 
garments,)  as  he  thereby  drew  a  war  upon  himself,  which 
neither  his  own  strength  nor  all  the  aids  purchased  could 
put  off  or  sustain.  For  notwithstanding  that  he  had  waged 
33,000  soldiers  of  the  Amalekites  and  their  confederates ; 
to  wit,  of  the  vassals  of  Adadezer  20,000,  and  of  z  Maachah 
and  Ishtob  13,000,  (for  which  he  disbursed  a  thousand  ta 
lents  of  silver;)  yet  all  these  great  armies,  together  with  the 
strength  of  the  Ammonites,  were  by  a  Joab  and  his  brother 
Abishai  easily  broken  and  put  to  ruin,  and  that  without  any 
great  loss  or  slaughter  at  that  time.  And  it  is  written,  that 
when  the  Aramites  fled,  the  Ammonites  also  retreated  into 
*  2  Sam.  viii.  lshtob>  or  Thob>  a  country  near  Gad, 

L      u*  iX'  v  under  the  rocks  of  Arnon. 

1  Maachah,  the  north  part  of  Tra-          »  *  Sam.  x 
chonitis,  remembered  in  Dent,  iii.  14. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  511 

their  cities,  the  one  holding  themselves  within  the  walls, 
the  other  in  their  deserts  adjoining,  till  Joab  was  returned 
to  Jerusalem. 

Hadadezer,  hearing  that  Joab  had  dismissed  his  army, 
assembled  his  forces  again,  and  sent  all  the  companies  that 
he  could  levy  out  of  Mesopotamia,  who  under  the  command 
of  Shobach  passed  Euphrates,  and  encamped  at  b  Helam,  on 
the  south  side  thereof.  David,  hearing  of  this  new  prepara 
tion,  assembled  all  the  ablest  men  of  Israel,  and  marched 
towards  the  Syrian  army  in  Palmyrena,  not  yet  entered  into 
Arabia ;  to  wit,  at  Helam,  a  place  no  less  distant  from  Da 
mascus,  towards  the  north-east,  than  Jerusalem  was  to 
wards  the  south-west.  Now  David  (speaking  humanly) 
might  with  the  more  confidence  go  on  towards  Euphrates, 
(which  was  the  furthest-ofF  journey  that  ever  he  made,)  be 
cause  he  was  now  lord  of  Damascus,  which  lay  in  the  mid 
way.  He  also  possessed  himself  of  c  Thadmor,  or  Palmy 
rena,  which  Salomon  afterwards  strongly  fortified ;  and  this 
city  was  but  one  day's  journey  from  Helam  and  the  river 
Euphrates.  So  had  he  two  safe  retreats,  the  one  to  Thad- 
mor,  and  the  next  from  thence  to  Damascus.  In  this  en 
counter  between  David  and  the  Syrians,  they  lost  40,000 
horsemen  and  700  chariots,  together  with  Shobach  general 
of  their  army.  The  Chronicles  call  these  40,000  soldiers 
footmen,  and  so  Junius  converts  it,  and  so  is  it  very  pro 
bable.  For  the  army  of  Israel,  consisting  of  footmen,  could 
hardly  have  slaughtered  40,000  horsemen,  except  they 
quitted  their  horses  and  fought  on  foot.  So  are  the  cha 
riots  taken  in  this  battle  numbered  at  7000  in  the  first  of 
Chronicles  chap.  ix.  in  which  number,  as  I  conceive,  all  the 
soldiers  that  served  in  them,  with  the  conductors,  are  in 
cluded  :  so  as  there  died  of  the  Syrians  in  this  war  against 
David,  before  he  forced  them  to  tribute,  100,000  footmen, 
besides  all  their  horsemen  and  waggoners,  and  besides  all 
those  that  Joab  slew,  when  they  fled  at  the  first  encounter, 
together  with  the  Ammonites  before  Rabba.  Notwithstand- 

b  Helam,  or  Chelam,  which  Pto-      of  Euphrates.  2  Sam.  x. 
]omycal]eth  Alamatbii,  near  the  fords         <  See  chap.  18.  sect.  2. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ing  all  which,  the  Adads  in  following  ages  gathered  strength 
again,  and  afflicted  the  kings  of  Juda  often  ;  but  the  kings 
of  Israel  they  impoverished,  even  to  the  last  end  of  that 

state. 

David  having  now  beaten  the  Arabians  and  Mesopota- 
mians  from  the  party  and  confederacy  of  Ammon ;  he  sent 
out  Joab,  the  lieutenant  of  his  armies,  to  forage  and  destroy 
their  territory,  and  to  besiege  Kabbah,  afterward  Phila 
delphia,  which  after  a  while  the  Israelites  mastered  and  pos 
sessed.  The  king's  crown,  which  weighed  a  talent  of  gold, 
garnished  with  precious  stones,  David  set  on  his  own  head, 
and  carried  away  with  him  the  rest  of  the  riches  and  spoil 
of  the  city.  And  though  David  staved  at  Jerusalem,  fol 
lowing  the  war  of  Uriah's  wife,  till  such  time  as  the  city 
was  brought  to  extremity,  and  ready  to  be  entered;  yet 
Joab,  in  honour  of  David,  forbare  the  last  assault  and  en 
trance  thereof,  till  his  master's  arrival.  To  the  people  he 
used  extreme  rigour,  (if  we  may  so  call  it,  being  exercised 
against  heathen  idolaters;)  for  some  of  them  he  tare  with 
harrows,  some  he  sawed  asunder,  others  he  cast  into  burn 
ing  kilns,  in  which  he  baked  tile  and  brick. 

SECT.    VII. 

Of  David's  troubles  in  his  reign,  and  of  his  forces. 
BUT  as  victory  begetteth  security,  and  our  present  worldly 
felicity  a  forgetfulness  of  our  former  miseries,  and  many 
times  of  God  himself,  the  giver  of  all  goodness ;  so  did  these 
changes,  in  the  fortune  and  state  of  this  good  king,  change 
also  the  zealous  care  which  formerly  he  had  to  please  God 
in  the  precise  observation  of  his  laws  and  commandments. 
For  having  now  no  dangerous  apparent  enemy,  (against 
whom  he  was  wont  to  ask  counsel  from  the  Lord,)  he  began 
to  be  advised  by  his  own  human  affections  and  vain  desires. 
For  he  was  not  only  satisfied  to  take  Uriah's  wife  from  him, 
and  to  use  her  by  stealth,  but  he  embroidered  his  adultery 
with  Uriah's  slaughter,  giving  order  to  his  trusty  servant 
d  Joab  to  marshal  him  in  the  front  or  point  of  those  Israel- 

d  2  Sam.  xi.  15. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  513 

ites,  which  gave  an  assault  upon  the  suburbs  of  llabba, 
when  there  was  not  as  yet  any  possibility  of  prevailing. 
And  that  which  could  no  less  displease  God  than  the  rest, 
he  was  content  that  many  others  of  his  best  servants  and 
soldiers  should  perish  together  with  Uriah,  hoping  thereby 
to  cover  his  particular  ill  intent  against  him.  After  which 
he  began  by  degrees  to  fall  from  the  highest  of  happiness, 
and  his  days  then  to  come  were  filled  with  joys  and  woes 
interchangeable ;  his  trodden  down  sorrows  began  again  to 
spring,  and  those  perils  which  he  had  pulled  up  by  the 
roots,  (as  he  hoped,)  gave  him  an  after-harvest  of  many 
cares  and  discontentments.  And  if  it  had  pleased  God  to 
take  the  witness  of  David's  own  mouth  against  him,  as  Da 
vid  himself  did  against  the  Amalekite  which  pretended  to 
have  slain  Saul,  he  had  then  appeared  as  worthy  of  repre 
hension  as  the  other  was  of  the  death  he  suffered.  For 
when  Nathan  the  prophet  propounded  unto  him  his  own 
error  in  the  person  of  another,  to  wit,  of  him  that  took  the 
poor  man's  sheep  that  had  none  else,  the  bereaver  being  lord 
of  many  ;  he  then  vowed  it  to  the  living  Lord,  that  such  a 
one  should  die  the  death.  And  hereof,  although  it  pleased 
God  to  pardon  David  for  his  life,  which  remission  the  pro 
phet  Nathan  pronounced,  yet  he  delivered  him  God's  justice, 
together  with  his  mercy  in  the  tenor  following ;  e  Now  there 
fore  the  sword  shall  never  depart  from,  tliy  house,  &c.  be 
cause  thou  hast  taken  his  wife  to  be  thy  wife,  and  hast  slain 
Uriah  with  the  sword  of  the  children  of  Amman.  Soon 
after  this,  David  lost  the  child  of  adultery  which  he  begot 
on  Bersabe.  Secondly,  His  own  son  Amnon  being  in  love 
with  his  half-sister  Thamar,  by  the  advice  of  his  cousin- 
german,  the  son  of  Shimeah,  David's  brother,  possessed  her 
by  force ;  which  when  he  had  performed,  he  thrust  her 
from  him  in  a  careless  and  despiteful  manner.  Two  years 
after  which  foul  and  incestuous  act,  Absalom  caused  him  to 
be  murdered  at  the  feast  of  his  sheep- shearing ;  not  per 
chance  in  revenge  of  Thamar's  ravishment  alone,  but  having 
it  in  his  heart  to  usurp  the  kingdom ;  in  which,  because  he 

«  2  Sam.  xii.  9,  10. 
RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.   VOL.   IT.  L  1 


514  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  IT. 

could  not  in  any  sort  be  assured  of  Amnon,  he  thought  his 
affair  greatly  advanced  by  his  destruction.  So  the  one  brother 
having  ravished  his  own  sister,  and  then  despised  her  ;  the 
other,  after  a  long  dissembled  malice,  first  made  his  own 
brother  drunken,  and  then  slaughtered  him  ;  which  done, 
he  fled  away,  and  lived  under  the  safeguard  of  f  Talmai, 
king  of  Geshur,  near  Damascus,  who  was  his  grandfather  by 
the  mother,  but  a  heathen  king.  Thirdly,  When  Absalom, 
by  the  invention  of  Joab,  (but  chiefly  because  of  the  great 
affection  of  David  towards  his  son,)  was  brought  again,  first 
to  the  king's  favour,  and  then  to  his  presence ;  he  began 
instantly  to  practise  against  s  David  his  father,  seeking  by 
the  pretence  of  common  justice,  and  by  lowly  and  familiar 
manner  to  all  men,  and  by  detracting  from  his  father's 
equity,  to  win  unto  himself  a  popular  reputation.  Here  be 
gan  the  great  affliction  threatened  by  the  Lord  as  a  punish 
ment  of  David's  sin. 

The  company  which  h  Absalom  gathered  at  the  first  were 
but  200  men,  which  he  carried  with  him  from  Jerusalem  to 
Hebron ;  pretending,  though  impiously,  the  performance  of 
a  vow  to  God.  There  when  Achitophel  repaired  unto  him, 
and  many  troops  of  people  from  all  places,  he  proclaimed 
himself  king,  and  was  by  the  people  (whose  hearts  God  had 
turned  from  their  lawful  prince)  accepted  so  readily,  that 
David  doubting  to  be  set  upon  on  the  sudden,  durst  not 
trust  himself  in  his  own  city  of  Jerusalem,  nor  in  any  other 
walled  town  for  fear  of  surprise,  but  encamped  in  the  fields 
and  deserts,  with  some  600  of  his  guards,  and  few  else. 
The  priests  he  left  in  Jerusalem  with  the  ark  of  God,  from 
whom  he  desired  to  be  advertised  of  those  things  that 
chanced,  to  whom  he  directed  'l  Hushai,  his  trusty  friend 
and  servant,  praying  him  to  make  himself  in  all  his  outward 
actions  and  counsels  of  Absalom's  party  and  confederacy, 
thereby  the  better  to  discover  unto  him  the  purposes  of 
Achitophel,  a  revolted  counsellor,  whose  practices  he  greatly 
doubted.  And  now  when  treason  was  in  fashion,  Ziba  also 
sought  to  betray  his  master  Mephibosheth,  the  son  of  Jona- 

f  2  Sam.  xiii.         s  2  Sam.  xiv.  h  2  Sam.  xv.    *        '  Ibid. 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  515 

than ;  and  Shimei,  of  the  house  of  Saul,  (the  fire  of  whose 
hatred  David's  prosperity  had  smothered,  but  his  adver 
sity  illightened,)  holding  himself  upon  the  advantage  of  a 
mountain  side,  k  cast  stones  at  David,  and  most  despitefully 
cursed  him  to  his  face ;   but  David  attending  no  private  re 
venges,  forbade  Abishai  to  pursue  him  for  the  present,  yet 
left  him  among  others,  in  the  roll  of  his  revenge,  to  his  son 
Salomon.     Absalom  being  now  possessed  of  Jerusalem,  was 
advised  by  Achitophel  to  use  his  '  father's  concubines  in 
some  such  public  place,  as  all  Israel  might  assure  themselves 
that  he  was  irreconcileable  to  his  father ;  whereof  being  per 
suaded  they  would  then  resolvedly  adhere  to  Absalom  and 
his  cause,  without  fear  of  being  given  up  upon  a  reconcilia 
tion   between  them.     This    savage   and    impious    (though 
crafty)  counsel  Achitophel  indeed   urged  for  his  own  re 
spect,  as  fearing  that  this  rebellion  might  take  end  to  his  de 
struction  ;  who  most  of  all  other  inflamed  Absalom  against 
his  father.     And  now  was  it  fulfilled  that  Nathan  had  di 
rectly  foretold  David ;  /  will  raise  up  evil  against  thee  out 
of  thine  own  house,  and  will  take  tliy  wives  before  thine 
eyes,  and  give  them  unto  thy  neighbour,  and  he  shall  lie  with 
thy  wives  in  the  sight  of  the  sun.    For  thou  didst  it  secretly: 
but  I  will  do  this  thing  before  all  Israel,  and  before  the  sun, 
Q  Sam.  xii.  11, 12.   He  also  gave  advice  to  Absalom,  that  him 
self,  with  an  army  of  12,000  men,  might  be  employed  at  the 
instant  for  the  surprising  of  David,  which   had  willingly 
been  embraced  by  Absalom,  had   not  m  Hushai,  David's 
faithful  servant,  given  counter  advice,  and  swayed  it;  per 
suading  Absalom,  that  it  was  fitter  and  more  safe  for  him, 
with  all  the  strength  of  Israel,  to  pursue  his  father  ;  than  by 
such  a  troop,  which  David's  valour,  and  those  of  his  attend 
ants,  might  either  endanger  or  resist.     This  delay  in  Absa 
lom,  and  advantage  of  time  gained  by  David,  was  indeed, 
after  God,  the  loss  of  the  one  and  delivery  of  the  other. 
Whereupon  "Achitophel  rightly   fearing  (by  the  occasion 
foreshewed)  the  success  which  followed,  disposed  of  his  own 

k  2  Sam.  xvi.         '  Ibid.         m  2  Sam.  xvii.  14.         »  2  Sam.  xvii.  2^. 


516  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

estate,  and  then  forsook  both  the  party  and  the  care  of  Ab 
salom,  and  of  his  own  life. 

David  being  advertised  of  this  enterprise  against  him, 
marched  away  all  night,  and  passed  Jordan,  possessing  him 
self  of  Mahanaim  in  the  tribe  of  Gad ;  the  same  wherein 
Ishbosheth  himself,  in  the  war  against  David  after  Saul's 
death,  seated  himself.  To  which  place  there  repaired  unto 
him  Shobi,  the  son  of  Nahash  the  Ammonite,  whom  David 
loved,  the  same  which  Josephus  calleth  Shiphar.  And 
though  it  be  greatly  disputed  what  this  Shobi  was,  yet  the 
most  general  and  probable  opinion  makes  him  a  second  bro 
ther  to  Hanum,  whom  David  for  his  father's  sake  established 
in  the  kingdom  after  Hanum's  overthrow.  In  thankfulness 
whereof  he  relieved  David  in  this  his  extremity.  There 
came  also  to  David's  assistance  Machir  of  Lodabar,  guard 
ian  in  former  times  to  Mephibosheth,  and  among  others 
Barzillai  the  Gileadite,  who  willingly  fed  David  and  all  his 
company. 

In  the  mean  time  both  the  king  and  Absalom  prepared  to 
fight;  Absalom  made  Amasa  commander  of  the  army  of 
Israel,  the  same  place  which  Joab  held  with  David ;  an 
office  next  the  king  himself,  like  unto  that  of  the  mayors  of 
the  palace  anciently  in  France.  David,  persuaded  by  his 
company,  stayed  in  Mahanaim,  and  disposed  the  forces  he 
had  to  Joab,  Abishai,  and  Ittai,  giving  them  charge  in  the 
hearing  of  all  that  issued  out  at  the  port  of  Mahanaim,  that 
they  should  spare  the  life  of  Absalom.  But  Joab,  besides 
that  he  was  very  cruel  by  nature,  remembered  that  Absa 
lom  had  lately  disposed  of  his  government  to  Amasa,  and 
therefore  the  victory  being  obtained,  and  news  brought  him 
that  Absalom  hung  by  the  hair  of  his  head  on  a  tree,  when 
he  could  not  persuade  the  messenger  to  return  and  kill 
him,  °he  himself  with  his  own  servants  despatched  him. 
It  appeared  also  by  the  sequel,  that  Joab  affected  Adoni- 
jah,  whom  he  afterward  acknowledged,  David  yet  living; 

0  2  Sam.  xviii. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  517 

and  fearing  the  disposition  of  Absalom,  he  embraced  the 
present  advantage  offered. 

Hereof,  together  with  news  of  the  victory,  when  know 
ledge  was  brought  to  David,  he  mourned  and  sorrowed,  not 
only  as  a  man  that  had  lost  a  son,  but  as  one  that  had  out 
lived  all  his  worldly  joys,  and  seen  every  delight  of  life  in 
terred.  For  he  so  hid  himself  from  his  people,  as  those, 
which  hoped  for  honour  and  reward  after  so  great  a  vic 
tory,  covered  themselves  also  in  the  city,  as  if  they  had 
committed  the  greatest  offences,  and  had  rather  deserved 
death  than  recompense.  Whereupon  Joab  presenting  him 
self  before  David,  persuaded  him  to  dissemble  his  sorrow 
for  the  present,  and  to  shew  himself  to  the  army.  For  first 
he  told  him  that  he  had  discountenanced  his  faithful  ser 
vants,  who  had  that  day  preserved  his  life ;  inferring  that 
nothing  could  be  more  dangerous  to  a  king,  than  not  only 
not  to  acknowledge  so  great  a  love  and  constancy  in  his 
people,  who,  being  but  few  in  number,  did  yet  resolvedly  ex 
pose  themselves  to  great  perils  for  his  sake ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  grieve  and  lament  at  their  good  success :  for  no 
doubt  they  might  all  have  bought  their  peace  of  Absalom 
at  an  easy  rate.  Secondly,  he  urged,  that  it  was  generally 
believed  that  he  loved  his  enemies  and  hated  his  friends, 
and  that  he  witnessed  by  this  his  mourning,  that  he  had  not 
any  respect  of  his  princes,  and  others  his  faithful  servants, 
but  would  more  have  joyed  if  they  had  all  perished,  and 
Absalom  lived,  than  in  the  victory  by  their  faithfulness  and 
approved  valour  gotten. 

Lastly,  he  used  this  prevalent  argument,  that  if  the 
king  came  not  out,  and  shewed  himself  publicly  to  his  men 
of  war,  that  they  would  all  that  very  night  abandon  him, 
arid  return ;  concluding  with  this  fearful  threatening,  PAnd 
that  will  be  worse  unto  thee  than  all  the  evil  that  Jell  on 
theefrom  thy  youth  hitherto.  By  these  overbold  and  arro 
gant  speeches  (though  perchance  uttered  with  a  good  intent) 
Joab  raised  David  from  his  bed  of  sorrow,  and  brought  him 
to  the  gates  of  the  city  among  the  people,  whom  he  assured 
P  2  Sam.  xix.  7. 
Ll3 


518  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

of  his  love  and  affection,  especially  Amasa,  who  commanded 
the  army  of  Absalom,  to  whom  he  promised  the  office  of 
lieutenantship;  the  same  which  Absalom  had  given  him, 
and  which  Joab  now  enjoyed.  For  David  doubted,  that  if 
Amasa  were  not  satisfied,  he  might  draw  from  him  a  great 
part  of  the  strength  of  Israel,  now  under  his  command 
ment. 

This  done,  the  king  marched  towards  Jordan  homeward, 
where  in  his  passage  he  pardoned  q  Shimei,  who  had  lately 
reviled  him  to  his  face ;  but  this  remission  was  but  external, 
as  appeared  afterward.  He  also  accepted  of  Mephibo- 
sheth's  excuse,  whom  Ziba  had  formerly  falsely  accused 
and  betrayed. 

He  also  entreated  rBarzillai  the  Gileadite,  his  late  liberal 
host,  to  follow  him  to  Jerusalem,  that  he  might  reward  his 
service  done  him  ;  who  excusing  himself  by  his  age,  ap 
pointed  his  son  Chimham  to  attend  the  king. 

At  Gilgal,  on  this  side  Jordan,  all  the  tribes  assembled, 
and  after  some  contention  which  of  them  ought  to  have 
most  interest  in  David,  the  army  brake,  and  David  returned 
to  Jerusalem.  But  Sheba,  the  son  of  Bichri,  a  Benjamite, 
of  the  faction  of  the  house  of  Saul,  finding  some  discon 
tentment  among  the  Israelites,  withdrew  them  from  David, 
as  from  a  stranger  in  whom  they  had  no  interest ;  and  it 
seemeth  that  many  of  the  people  of  the  out-tribes,  and  in 
effect  of  all  but  Juda,  bare  still  a  good  affection  to  the  issues 
of  their  first  king.  David  employed  his  reconciled  captain 
Amasa  to  give  him  contentment,  and  to  witness  his  trust, 
as  also  because  he  conceived  that  Amasa  had  interest  in 
those  revolts  of  Israel  more  than  Joab  had.  He  received 
commandment  from  David  to  assemble  the  army  within 
three  days,  which  he  foreslowed  ;  but  being  onward  on  his 
way,  Abishai,  Joab's  brother,  was  sent  after  him,  with  Da 
vid's  guard  and  best  soldiers,  whom  also  Joab  accompanied ; 
and  overtaking  Amasa  near  Gibeon,  pretending  to  embrace 
him,  sgave  him  a  wound,  whereof  he  fell  dead,  being  no 
less  jealous  of  Amasa  than  he  was  of  Abner,  whom  he  mur- 

i  2  Sam,  xix.  23.  '  2  Sam.  xix.  38.  •  2  Sam.  xx.  10. 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  519 

dered  in  the  same  manner,  and  out  of  the  same  impatient 
ambition.  This  done,  he  pursued  '  Sheba,  and  finding  him 
enclosed  in  Abel,  assaulted  the  city  with  that  fury,  that  the 
citizens,  by  the  persuasions  of  a  wise  woman  there  inhabit 
ing,  cut  off  Sheba's  head,  and  flung  it  to  Joab  over  the 
walls ;  which  done,  he  retreated  his  army  to  Jerusalem,  and 
commanded  as  before  all  the  host  of  Israel. 

The  next  act  of  David's  was  the  delivery  of  Saul's  sons  or 
kinsmen  to  the  Gibeonites,  whom  those  citizens  hung  up  in 
revenge  of  their  father's  cruelty.  David  had  knowledge 
from  the  oracle  of  God,  that  a  famine,  which  had  continued 
on  the  land  three  years,  came  by  reason  of  Saul  and  his 
house ;  to  wit,  for  the  slaughter  of  the  Gibeonites :  and 
therefore  he  willingly  yielded  to  give  them  this  satisfaction, 
both  because  he  had  warrant  from  God  himself,  as  also,  if 
we  may  judge  humanly,  to  rid  himself  of  Saul's  line,  by 
whom  he  and  his  might,  as  well  in  the  present  as  in  the  fu 
ture,  be  greatly  molested  and  endangered  ;  only  he  spared 
Mephibosheth,  the  son  of  Jonathan,  both  for  the  love  he 
bare  to  his  father,  as  for  his  oath  and  vow  to  God. 

Now  where  it  is  written  in  the  text,  The  king  took  the 
two  sons  of  Rispah,  whom  she  bare  unto  Saul,  and  the  Jive 
sons  of  Michol  the  daughter  of  Saul,  whom  she  bare  to 
Adriel,  and  delivered  them  to  the  Gibeonites,  %  Sam.  xxi. 
Junius  calls  this  Michol  the  sister  of  her  that  was  Da 
vid's  wife,  she  whom  Saul  married  to  Phaltiel ;  but  Michol 
here  named  had  Adriel  to  her  husband,  the  same  which  is 
named  Merab  in  1  Sam.  xviii.  who  was  first  promised  to 
David,  when  he  slew  Goliath  in  the  valley  of  Raphaim  :  and 
because  it  is  written  that  Michol  loved  David,  which  per 
chance  Merab  did  not,  whether  David  had  any  human  re 
spect  in  the  delivery  of  her  children,  it  is  only  known  to 
God. 

Now  whereas  the  Geneva  nameth  Michol  for  Merab  the 
wife  of  Adriel ;  the  better  translation  were  out  of  the  He 
brew   word  here    used,   having  an   eclipsis  or  defect,  and 
signifieth,  as  I  am  informed,  one  of  the  same  kindred,  as  in 
1  2  Sam.  xx.  22. 
Ll4 


520  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  19th  verse  of  the  same  twenty-first  chapter  it  is  said  of 
Goliath,  whose  spear  was  weighty  as  a  weaver's  beam,  when 
as  by  the  same  eclipsis  it  must  be  understood  by  the  bro 
ther  of  Goliath ;  Goliath  himself  being  formerly  slain. 

As  by  the  death  of  Saul's  children  God  secured  the 
house  of  David,  leaving  no  head  unto  rebellion  ;  so  did  he 
strengthen  both  the  king  and  nation  against  foreign  ene 
mies,  by  the  valour  of  many  brave  commanders,  the  like  of 
whom,  for  number  and  quality,  that  people  of  Israel  is  not 
known  to  have  had  at  any  time  before  or  after.  Thirty 
captains  of  thousands  there  were,  all  men  of  mark  and 
great  reputation  in  war.  Over  these  were  six  colonels, 
whose  valour  was  so  extraordinary,  that  it  might  well  be 
held  as  miraculous.  These  colonels  had  some  difference  of 
place  and  honour,  which  seemeth  to  have  been  given  upon 
mere  consideration  of  their  virtue.  For  Abishai,  the  bro 
ther  of  Joab,  who  in  the  war  against  the  Ammonites  and 
Aramites  was  lieutenant,  and  commanded  half  the  army, 
could  not  attain  to  the  honour  of  the  first  rank,  but  was 
fain  to  rest  contented  with  being  principal  of  the  three  colo 
nels  of  the  second  order,  notwithstanding  his  nearness  in 
blood  unto  the  king,  the  flourishing  estate  of  his  own  house, 
and  his  well  approved  services.  All  these  colonels  and  cap 
tains,  with  the  companies  belonging  to  them,  may  seem  to 
have  been  such  as  were  continually  retained,  or  at  the  least 
kept  in  readiness  for  any  occasion,  considering  that  the 
numbers  which  were  mustered  and  drawn  out,  if  need  re 
quired,  into  the  field,  very  far  exceeded  thirty  thousand, 
yea  or  thirty  times  as  many.  They  were  most  of  them 
such  as  had  followed  the  king  in  Saul's  time,  and  been  har 
dened  with  his  adversities.  Others  there  were  very  many, 
and  principal  men  in  their  several  tribes,  that  repaired  unto 
him  after  the  death  of  Saul ;  but  these  captains  and  colonels 
(who  with  Joab,  that  was  general  of  all  the  king's  forces, 
make  up  the  number  of  thirty-seven)  were  the  especial  men 
of  war,  and  reckoned  as  David's  worthies u.  The  long 
reign  of  David,  as  it  is  known  to  have  consumed  many  of 

u  i  Sam.  xxiii.  39, 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  521 

these  excellent  men  of  war,  so  may  it  probably  be  guessed 
to  have  wasted  the  most  of  those  whose  deaths  we  find  no 
where  mentioned.  For  the  sons  of  Zeruia,  who  had  been 
too  hard  for  David,  were  worn  away,  and  only  Joab  left  in 
the  beginning  of  Salomon,  who  wanted  his  brother  Abishai 
to  stand  by  his  side  in  his  last  extremity. 

By  the  actions  forepassed  in  the  time  of 'David,  it  is  ga 
thered  that  he  had  reigned  now  thirty-three  years,  or  there 
about,  when  the  posterity  of  Saul  was  rooted  out,  so  that  he 
enjoyed  about  seven  years  of  entire  quiet  and  security, 
wherein  it  pleased  God  to  remove  all  impediments  that 
might  have  troubled  the  succession  of  Salomon  in  his  fa 
ther's  throne.  In  this  time  also  David  having  established 
all  things  in  Juda  and  Israel,  and  the  borders  thereof,  he 
again  displeased  God  by  x  numbering  the  people,  as  in  os 
tentation  of  his  power :  in  which  he  employed  Joab  with 
other  captains  of  his  army,  who  after  nine  months  and 
twenty  days  travel,  returned  with  the  account  and  register 
of  all  the  people  able  and  fit  to  bear  arms,  and  they 
amounted  to  the  number  of  1,300,000,  besides  Levi  and 
Benjamin  ;  whereof  in  Juda  and  the  cities  thereof  500,000, 
and  in  Israel  800,000. 

For  this,  when  by  the  prophet  Gad  he  was  offered  from 
God  the  choice  of  three  punishments,  whereof  he  might 
submit  himself  to  which  he  pleased  ;  to  wit,  seven  years  fa 
mine;  three  months  war,  wherein  he  should  be  unpros- 
perous  in  all  attempts,  and  be  chased  by  his  enemies ;  or  a 
general  pestilence  to  last  three  days;  David  made  choice  to 
bow  himself  under  the  hand  of  God  only,  and  left  himself 
subject  to  that  cruel  disease,  which  hath  no  compassion  or 
respect  of  persons,  of  which  there  perished  70,000.  And 
hereby  he  hath  taught  all  that  live,  that  it  is  better  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  God  than  of  men ;  whereof  he  giveth  us 
this  divine  reason,  y  For  his  mercies  are  great. 

*  2  Sam.  xxiv.  i  Chron.  xxi.  y  2  Sara.  xiv. 


522  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

SECT.   VIII. 

Of  the  last  acts  of  David;  AdonijaKs  faction;  the  revenge  upon 

Joab  and  Shimei. 

LASTLY,  when  he  grew  weak  and  feeble,  and  past  the 
acts  and  knowledge  of  women,  he  was  yet  advised  to  lie  in  the 
arms  of  a  young  and  well-complexioned  maiden,  to  keep 
him  warm.  In  this  his  weak  estate  of  body,  when  he  was 
in  a  manner  bedrid,  Adonijah  his  eldest  son,  (Amnon  and 
Absalom  being  now  dead,)  having  drawn  unto  his  party  that 
invincible,  renowned,  and  feared  Joab,  with  Abiathar  the 
priest,  began  manifestly  to  prepare  for  his  establishment  in 
the  kingdom  after  his  father.  For  being  the  eldest  now 
living  of  David's  sons,  and  a  man  of  a  goodly  personage,  Sa 
lomon  yet  young,  and  born  of  a  mother  formerly  attainted 
with  adultery,  for  which  her  name  was  omitted  by  St.  Mat 
thew,  (as  Beda,  Hugo,  Thomas,  and  others  suppose,)  he 
presumed  to  carry  the  matter  without  resistance.  Hereof 
when  David  had  knowledge  by  Bersabe  the  mother  of  Sa 
lomon,  who  did  put  him  in  mind  of  his  faithful  promise, 
that  Salomon  her  son  should  reign  after  him,  (Nathan  the 
prophet  affirming  the  same  thing  unto  the  king,  and  se 
conding  her  report  of  Adonijah's  presumption,)  the  king 
calling  unto  him  Zadoc  the  priest,  Nathan  the  prophet, 
and  Benaiah  the  captain  of  his  guard,  gave  charge  and  com 
mission  to  anoint  Salomon,  and  to  set  him  on  the  mule 
whereon  himself  used  to  ride  in  his  greatest  state ;  which 
done,  Salomon,  attended  and  strongly  guarded  by  the  ordi 
nary  and  choice  men  of  war,  the  Cherethites  and  Pelethites, 
shewed  himself  to  the  people.  Those  tidings  being  reported 
to  Adonijah,  he  presently  abandoned  his  assistants,  and  for 
the  safety  of  his  life  he  held  by  the  horns  of  the  altar,  whom 
for  the  present  Salomon  pardoned.  After  this,  z  David  had 
remaining  two  especial  cares,  whereof  he  was  desirous  to 
discharge  his  thoughts;  the  one,  concerning  the  peace  of 
the  land,  which  might  be  disturbed  by  some  rebellion  against 
Salomon  ;  the  other,  concerning  the  building  of  the  temple, 
which  he  sought  by  all  means  to  advance,  and  make  the  bu- 
1  i  Kings  i. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  523 

siness  public.  a  To  bring  these  intentions  to  good  effect  he 
summoned  a  parliament,  consisting  of  all  the  princes  of  Is 
rael,  the  princes  of  the  several  tribes,  all  the  captains  and 
officers,  with  all  the  mighty,  and  men  of  power,  who  re 
paired  unto  Jerusalem. 

In  this  assembly  the  king  stood  up,  and  signified  his  pur 
pose  of  building  the  temple,  shewing  how  the  Lord  had  ap 
proved  the  motion.  Herein  he  took  occasion  to  lay  open 
his  own  title  to  the  crown,  shewing  that  the  kingdom  was  by 
God's  ordinance  due  to  the  tribe  of  Juda,  (as  Jacob  in  his 
blessing  prophetically  bequeathed  it,)  and  that  God  himself 
was  pleased  to  make  choice  of  him  among  all  his  father's 
sons.  In  like  manner  he  said  that  God  himself  had  ap 
pointed  Salomon  by  name  to  be  his  successor ;  whereupon 
he  earnestly  charged  both  the  people  and  his  son  to  con 
form  themselves  unto  all  that  God  had  commanded,  and 
particularly  to  go  forward  in  this  work  of  the  Lord's  house 
which  Salomon  was  chosen  to  build  b.  Then  produced  he 
the  pattern  of  the  work,  according  to  the  form  which  God 
himself  had  appointed  ;  and  so  laying  open  his  own  prepa 
rations,  he  exhorted  all  others  to  a  voluntary  contribution. 

The  king's  proposition  was  so  well  approved  by  the  princes 
and  people,  that  whereas  he  himself  had  given  3000  talents 
of  gold, and  7000  of  silver,  they  added  unto  it  7000  of  gold 
and  10,000  of  silver,  besides  brass,  iron,  and  jewels,  heartily 
rejoicing  in  the  advancement  of  so  religious  a  work.  This 
business  being  well  despatched,  a  solemn  feast  with  great 
sacrifice  was  made,  at  which  time  Salomon  was  again  anointed 
king,  and  received  fealty  of  all  the  princes  and  people  of  the 
land,  and  of  all  the  princes  his  brethren,  the  sons  of  king 
David.  Salomon  being  thus  established  king,  his  father 
David  finding  himself  even  in  the  hands,  of  death,  first  ex 
horted  his  son  to  exercise  the  same  courage  and  strength  of 
mind  which  himself  had  done  in  all  his  attempts,  and  to  the 
end  that  a  happy  end  might  follow  the  beginning  of  all  his 
enterprises,  he  uttered  these  mighty  words ;  c  Take  heed  to 
tfie  charge  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  walk  in  his  ways^  and 

«  i  Chroii.  xxviii.  i.  b  i  Chrou.  xxix.  19.  c  i  Kiugs  ii.  3. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

keep  Us  statutes,  and  his  commandments,  and  his  judg 
ments,  and  Ms  testimonies,  as  it  is  written  in  the  law  of 
Moses,  &c.  to  the  performance  of  which  God  fastened  the 
succession  and  prosperity  of  his  issues.  For  this  done, 
(saith  God  himself,)  dthou  shalt  not  want  one  of  thy  poste 
rity  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  Israel. 

Secondly,  he  advised  him  concerning  Joab,  who  out  of 
doubt  had  served  David  from  the  first  assault  of  Jerusalem 
to  the  last  of  his  wars,  with  incomparable  valour  and  fide 
lity,  saving  that  he  fastened  himself  to  Adonijah,  (his  master 
yet  living,)  and  thereby  vexed  him  in  his  feeble  age.  But 
as  God  hath  never  left  cruelty  unrevenged,  so  was  it  his 
will  that  Joab  should  drink  of  the  same  cup  whereof  he  had 
enforced  other  men  to  taste,  and  suffer  the  same  violence 
which  himself  had  unjustly  strucken  others  withal,  qui  gla- 
dio  percutit,  gladio  peribit;  for  he  had  bereaved  Abner  and 
Amasa  of  their  lives,  having  against  the  one  the  pretence 
only  of  his  brother's  slaughter,  whom  Abner  had  slain  in 
the  time  of  war,  and  could  not  avoid  him  ;  against  the  other, 
but  a  mere  jealousy  of  his  growing  great  in  the  favour-  of 
David.  And  though  Joab  assured  himself  that  Abner  and 
Amasa  being  dead,  there  was  none  left  either  to  equal  him 
or  supplant  him,  yet  God  (deriding  the  policies  of  wicked 
men)  raised  up  Benaiah,  the  son  of  Jehoiadah,  to  pull  him 
from  the  sanctuary,  and  to  cut  him  in  pieces.  For  David 
giveth  this  cause  to  Salomon  against  Joab,  that  he  slew  the 
captains  of  the  host  of  Israel,  e  and  shed  blood  of  battle  in 
peace ;  and  to  this  apparent  and  just  cause,  it  is  not  impro 
bable  but  that  David  remembered  the  ill  affection  of  Joab 
towards  Salomon,  which  Joab  made  manifest  by  the  un 
timely  setting  up  of  Adonijah,  David  yet  living.  Some 
other  offence  Joab  had  committed  against  David,  of  which 
in  these  words  he  put  his  son  Salomon  in  mind ;  f  Thou 
Icnowest  also  what  Joab  the  son  of  Seruiah  did  to  me,  &c. 
Now  whether  this  were  meant  by  the  killing  of  Absalom, 
contrary  to  the  king's  desire,  or  by  the  proud  words  used 
to  him  when  he  mourned  in  Mahanaim  for  Absalom  ;  or 
*  i  Kings  ii.  4.  «  ,  Rings  ii.  5.  '  Ibid. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  525 

whether  it  were  the  publishing  of  David's  letter  unto  him 
for  the  killing  of  Uriah,  thereby  to  disgrace  Salomon  as  de 
scended  of  such  a  mother,  the  scriptures  are  silent.  True  it 
is,  that  those  great  men  of  war  do  oftentimes  behave  them 
selves  exceeding  insolently  towards  their  princes,  both  in  re 
spect  of  their  service  done,  as  also  because  they  flatter  them 
selves  with  an  opinion,  that  either  their  masters  cannot  miss 
them,  or  that  they  dare  not  offend  them.  But  this  kind  of 
pride  hath  overthrown  many  a  worthy  man,  otherwise  de 
serving  great  honour  and  respect. 

He  also  gave  order  to  Salomon  to  rid  himself  of  Shimei, 
who  not  long  before  had  cast  stones  at  David,  and  cursed 
him  to  his  face.  And  albeit  by  reason  of  his  oath  and  pro 
mise  David  spared  Shimei  all  the  time  himself  lived,  yet 
being  dust,  and  in  the  grave,  he  slew  him  by  the  hand  of 
Salomon  his  son  s.  Hence  it  seemeth  that  king  Henry  the 
Seventh  of  England  had  his  pattern,  when  he  gave  order  to 
Henry  the  Eighth  to  execute  Pool  as  soon  as  himself  was 
buried,  having  made  promise  to  the  king  of  Spain,  when  he 
delivered  Pool  unto  him,  that  while  he  lived  he  would  never 
put  him  to  death,  nor  suffer  violent  hands  to  be  laid  upon 
him. 

And  yet  did  not  the  execution  of  Joab  yield  unto  Salo 
mon  any  such  great  profit  or  assurance  as  he  hoped  for. 
For  he  found  a  young  Adad  of  Idumaea,  and  Rezin  of  Da 
mascus,  to  vex  him ;  who,  as  the  scriptures  witness  h,  were 
emboldened  to  enterprise  upon  Salomon,  hearing  that  Da 
vid  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  that  Joab  the  captain  of  the 
host  was  dead.  Now  when  David  had  reigned  in  all  forty 
years,  to  wit,  in  Hebron  seven  years,  and  in  Jerusalem 
thirty-three,  he  died. 

For  his  person,  he  was  of  small  stature,  but  exceeding 
strong.  For  his  internal  gifts  and  graces  he  so  far  exceeded 
all  other  men,  as,  putting  his  human  frailty  apart,  he  was 
said  by  God  himself  to  be  a  man  according  to  his  own  heart. 
The  Psalms  which  he  wrote  witness  his  piety  and  his  excel 
lent  learning ;  of  whom  Jerome  to  Paulinus :  David  Si- 

*  i  Kings  ii.  h  i  Kings  xi. 


526  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

monides  noster,  Pindarus  et  Alceeus*  Flaccus,  quoque  Ca 
tullus,  et  Serenus,  Christum  lyra  personat,  et  in  decachordo 
psalterio  ab  inferis  suscitat  resurgentem ;  "  David,'7  saith 
he,  "  our  Simonides,  Pindarus,  Alcaeus,  Horace,  Catullus, 
"  and  Serenus,  he  playeth  Christ  on  his  harp,  and  on  a 
"  ten-stringed  psalter  he  raiseth  him  up  rising  from  the 
"  dead/1  And  being  both  a  king  and  a  prophet,  he  fore- 
telleth  Christ  more  lightsomely  and  lively  than  all  the  rest. 
The  Book  of  the  Psalms,  saith  Glycas,  was  divided,  or 
dered,  and  distinguished  by  Ezekias;  but  whether  all  the 
Psalms  were  written  by  David  it  is  diversely  disputed.  For 
» Athanasius,  Cyprian,  Lyranus,  and  others,  conceive  divers 
authors,  answering  the  titles  of  the  several  Psalms,  as  Moses, 
Salomon,  and  the  rest  hereafter  named,  and  that  only  se 
venty-three  Psalms  were  composed  by  David  himself,  namely, 
those  which  are  entitled  ipsius  David.  For  the  fiftieth  and 
the  seventy-second,  with  the  ten  that  follow,  are  bestowed 
on  Asaph  the  son  of  Barachia,  eleven  other  on  the  sons  of 
Korah,  and  eleven  are  ascribed  to  Moses,  to  wit,  the  eighty- 
ninth  and  the  ten  following,  and  so  they  are  entitled  in  the 
old  Hebrew  copies,  though  the  Vulgar  and  Septuagint 
(three  excepted)  style  them  otherwise.  The  supposed  nine 
authors  of  these  Psalms  which  David  wrate  not,  k  Sixtus  Se- 
nensis  nameth  as  followeth  :  Salomon,  Moses,  (whom  Aben- 
Ezra,  contrary  to  Jerome,  maketh  one  of  David's  singers,) 
Asaph,  Ethan-Eziachi,  Eman-Eziaira,  Idithum,  and  the 
three  sons  of  Chore.  But  St.  Chrysostom  makes  David  the 
sole  author  of  all  the  Psalms,  and  so  doth  T  St.  Augustine, 
reasoning  in  this  manner.  Although,  saith  he,  some  there 
are  that  ascribe  those  Psalms  only  unto  David  which  are 
overwritten  ipsius  David,  and  the  rest,  entitled  ipsi  David, 
toothers;  this  opinion,  saith  he,  voce  evangelica  Salvato- 
ris  ipsius  refutatur,  ubi  ait  quod  ipse  David  in  Spiritu 
Christum  dixerit  esse  suum  Dominum,  quoniam  Psalmus 
109  sic  incipit :  Dixit  Dominus  Domino  meo,  Sede  a  dex- 

'  Athan.   in    Synop.   Hier.   Epist.      i.  fol.  10.  et  n 

f3k*^'J?  ex£'  '•  PV  '  All«- de  Civitate  Dei'  }-  's- c- 

k  Vide  Sixt.  Senen.  Bib.  Sanct.  1.      1.1. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  527 

tris  meis,  &c.;  "  The  voice  of  the  gospel  refutes  this  opin- 
"  ion,  where  it  saith,  that  David  himself  in  the  Spirit  calleth 
"  Christ  his  Lord,  because  the  109th  Psalm  begins  thus ; 
"  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand" 
&c.  Lastly,  His  testimonies  are  used  both  by  Christ  and 
the  apostles,  and  he  was  as  a  pattern  to  all  the  kings  and 
princes  that  succeeded  him. 

His  story,  and  all  his  particular  actions,  were  written  by 
the  prophets,  Samuel,  Nathan,  and  Gad,  as  it  is  in  1  Chron. 
xxix.  19.  For  the  several  parts  of  the  books  of  Samuel, 
which  entreat  chiefly  of  David,  were,  as  it  seems,  written  by 
these  three  holy  men. 

m  Constantine  Manasses  hath  an  opinion,  that  the  Tro 
jans,  during  the  time  of  the  siege,  sought  for  succour  from 
David,  and  that  he  stayed  neuter  in  that  war.  But  it 
seemeth  that  Manasses  did  miscast  the  time  betwixt  David 
and  the  Trojan  war.  For  it  is  generally  received,  that 
Troy  fell  between  the  times  of  Abdon  and  Samson,  judges 
of  Israel,  about  the  world's  year  2848,  and  David  died  in 
the  year  2991. 

SECT.   IX. 

Of  the  treasures  of  David  and  Salomon. 

HIS  treasures  were  exceeding  great.  For  it  is  written  in 
the  first  of  Chronicles,  chap.  xxii.  14.  that  he  left  Salo 
mon  for  the  building  of  the  temple  a  hundred  thousand  ta 
lents  of  gold,  and  a  thousand  thousand  talents  of  silver,  and 
of  brass  and  iron  passing  all  weight,  which  is  more  than  any 
king  of  the  world  possessed  besides  himself,  and  his  son  to 
whom  he  left  it.  For  it  amounteth  to  three  thousand  three 
hundred  thirty  and  three  cartload,  and  a  third  of  a  cartload 
of  silver,  allowing  two  thousand  weight  of  silver,  or  six 
thousand  pound  sterling  to  every  cartload,  besides  three 
score  and  seventeen  millions  of  French  crowns,  or  of  our 
money  twenty-three  millions  and  one  thousand  pound;  a 
matter,  but  for  the  testimony  of  the  scriptures,  exceeding  all 

m  Cap.  17.  §.  6,  7.  in  liis  Annals  translated  out  of  Greek  into  Latin,  by 
Joannes  Lennclavius. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

belief.  For  that  any  riches  were  left  him,  it  doth  not  ap 
pear  ;  seeing  that  the  judges  had  not  any  treasure,  nor  any 
sovereign  power  to  make  levies  ;  but  when  they  went  to  .the 
wars,  they  were  followed  by  such  voluntaries  as  the  several 
tribes  by  turns  gave  them  :  seeing  also  that  Saul,  who  was  of 
a  mean  parentage,  and  perpetually  vexed  and  invaded  by  the 
Philistines,  could  not  in  all  likelihood  gather  great  riches, 
(if  any  at  all,)  his  territories  being  exceeding  narrow,  and 
thereof  the  better  part  possessed  by  his  enemies. 

Therefore  it  were  not  amiss  to  consider  how  David,  within 
the  space  of  not  very  many  years,  might  amass  up  such 
mighty  treasures.  For  though  parsimony  be  itself  a  great 
revenue,  yet  needs  there  must  have  been  other  great  means. 
It  seems  that  he  made  the  uttermost  profit  of  all  that  he 
had,  that  was  profitable  Eusebius,  in  his  ninth  book  and 
last  chapter  de  Prceparatione  Ev angelica,  citeth  the  words 
of  Eupolemus,  who  reporteth  that  David,  among  other 
preparations  for  the  temple,  built  a  navy  in  Melanis,  or, 
as  Villalpandus  corrects  it,  Achanis,  a  city  of  Arabia, 
and  from  thence  sent  men  to  dig  for  gold  in  the  island 
Urphe,  which  Ortelius  thinks  was  Ophir,  though  Eupole 
mus,  in  his  place  of  Eusebius,  (erring  perhaps  in  this  cir 
cumstance,)  saith,  that  this  island  is  in  the  Red  sea ;  from 
whence,  saith  this  Eupolemus,  they  brought  gold  into  Jewry. 
Pineda,!.  4.  de  rebus  Salomonis,  c.  1.  thinks  that  David  did 
this  way  also  enrich  himself,  and  citeth  this  testimony  of 
Eupolemus :  and  yet  certainly  David  had  many  other  wavs 
to  gather  great  riches.  Much  land  doubtless  he  gained  by 
conquest  from  the  Canaanites  and  Philistines,  besides  those 
fruitful  valleys  near  Jordan  in  Trachonitis  and  Basan,  and 
the  best  of  Syria,  and  other  countries  bordering  the  Israel 
ites.  These  demesnes  belike  he  kept  in  his  own  hands,  and 
with  his  infinite  number  of  captives,  which  he  took  in  his 
wars,  which  were  not  able  to  redeem  themselves,  husbanded 
those  grounds  for  his  greatest  advantage.  For  it  is  written, 
1  Chron.  xvii.  that  Jehonathan  was  over  his  treasures  in  the 
field,  in  the  villages,  in  the  cities,  in  the  towns ;  that  Ezri 
was  over  the  labourers  that  tilled  his  ground ;  Simei  over 


CHAP.  xvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  529 

the  vineyards,  and  Sabdi  over  the  store  of  the  wine  ;  Baal 
Hanan  over  the  olive  trees,  and  Joash  over  the  store  of  the 
oil;  also  that  he  had  herdmen  that  had  charge  over  his 
cattle,  both  in  the  high  lands  and  in  the  plains,  over  his 
sheep,  camels,  and  asses.  And  this  custom  of  enriching 
themselves  by  husbandry  and  cattle  the  ancient  kings  every 
where  held,  both  before  and  after  David's  time.  For  we 
read  of  n  Pharaoh,  that  he  spoke  to  Joseph  to  appoint  some 
of  his  brethren,  or  of  their  servants,  to  be  rulers  over  his 
cattle.  We  read  of  °  Uzzia,  that  he  loved  husbandry,  had 
much  cattle,  and  ploughmen,  and  dressers  of  vines :  like 
wise  we  read  it  in  all  Greek  poets,  that  the  wealth  of 
the  ancient  kings  did  especially  consist  in  their  herds  and 
flocks,  whereof  it  were  needless  to  cite  Augeas  and  Adme- 
tus,  or  any  other,  for  examples,  the  rule  holding  true  in 
all.  Now  concerning  David,  it  is  not  unlikely,  but  that 
those  captives  which  were  not  employed  in  husbandry,  were 
many  of  them  used  by  him  in  all  sorts  of  gainful  profes 
sions,  as  the  ancient  Romans  in  like  manner  used  their 
slaves. 

To  these  profits  (besides  the  tributes  and  impositions 
which  doubtless  were  great,  and  besides  the  innumerable 
presents  which  yearly  were  brought  him,  or  extraordinarily 
sent  him,  by  Tehu  and  others)  we  may  add  the  great  spoils 
which  he  found  in  the  cities  and  countries  which  he  con 
quered  ;  also  the  head-money  which  was  gathered  per  leg-em 
capitationis,  u  by  the  law  of  capitation,"  or  head-money, 
every  man,  rich  or  poor,  paying  half  a  side  of  the  sanctuary, 
which  is  about  as  much  as  fourteen  pence,  and  so  in  all  it 
amounted  to  a  wondrous  sum  in  that  kingdom ;  wherein 
1,570,000  fighting  men  were  numbered  by  Pjoab.  Now 
although  this  law  of  capitation  be  thought  by  some  very 
learned  not  to  have  been  perpetual,  (which  opinion  of  theirs 
nevertheless  they  confess  is  against  the  Hebrew  expositions,) 
yet  David  upon  this  occasion  is  not  unlikely  to  have  put  it 
in  practice.  And  by  these  means  might  he  be  able  to  leave 
those  huge  treasures  to  Salomon.  Yet  it  may  seem,  that 
n  Gen.  xlvii.  °  2  Cbron.  xxvi.  P  i  Chron.  xxi. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  M  m 


530  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

of  this  great  mass  of  gold  and  silver  left  by  David,  the  least 
part  was  his  own  in  private,  and  so  will  it  appear  the  less 
wonderful  that  he  left  so  much.  Of  his  own  liberality  we  find 
that  he  gave  to  the  building  of  the  temple  3000  talents  of 
gold,  and  7000  talents  of  silver,  a  great  sum,  but  holding  a 
very  small  proportion  to  the  other.  Wherefore  we  are  to 
consider,  that  the  treasures  of  the  sanctuary  itself  were  ex 
ceeding  great,  as  needs  they  must  have  been,  having  re 
ceived  continual  increase,  without  any  loss  or  diminution, 
ever  since  the  time  of  Moses  and  Joshua.  The  revenues 
of  the  sanctuary  (besides  all  manner  of  tithes  and  oblations, 
which  defrayed  the  daily  expenses,  and  maintained  the 
priest  and  Levites)  were  partly  raised  out  of  the  head- 
money  before  mentioned ;  partly  out  of  the  spoils  gotten  in 
war.  For  all  the  booty  was  divided  into  two  n  parts,  where 
of  the  soldiers  had  one,  and  the  people  which  remained  at 
home  had  the  other  half;  whereby  all  the  country  received 
benefit  of  the  victory,  yet  so  that  the  soldiers  had  a  far 
greater  proportion  than  the  rest,  as  being  fewer,  and  there 
fore  receiving  more  for  every  single  share. 

Out  of  this  purchase  was  deducted  the  Lord's  tribute, 
which  was  one  in  fifty  of  that  which  the  people  received, 
and  one  in  five  hundred  of  that  which  was  given  to  the  sol 
diers  ;  namely,  one  hundred  and  one  thousandth  part  of  the 
whole  booty.  So  in  the  spoil  of  Midian,  32,000  women 
being  taken,  the  army  had  16,000  of  them  for  r  slaves,  and 
the  congregation  had  other  16,000 ;  but  out  of  the  16,000 
given  to  the  army  were  exempted  thirty- two  for  the  Lord's 
tribute.  Out  of  the  people's  number  were  taken  320.  By 
this  means,  the  lesser  that  the  army  was  which  had  exposed 
itself  to  danger,  the  greater  profit  had  every  soldier ;  but 
when  it  consisted  of  many  hands,  they  who  remaining  at 
home  were  fain  to  undergo  more  than  ordinary  travel  in 
domestical  affairs,  did  receive  by  so  much  the  greater  portion. 
But  the  Lord's  tribute  was  always  certain,  yea,  many  times 
it  was  increased,  either  by  some  especial  commandment,  as 
when  all  the  gold,  and  silver,  and  other  metals  found  in 
i  Numb.  xxxi.  27.  r  Numb.  xxxi.  40. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  581 

Jericho  were  8 consecrated  unto  God;  or  by  thankfulness 
of  the  rulers  and  people,  as  when,  after  the  victory  obtain 
ed  against  the  Midianites  without  the  loss  of  one  man,  all 
jewels,  bracelets,  earrings,  and  the  like,  were  l  offered  up 
as  voluntary  presents. 

Now  howsoever  the  Israelites  were  many  times  oppressed, 
and  trodden  down  by  other  nations,  yet  were  not  these  trea 
sures  robbed  or  spoiled ;  for  the  enemies  never  gat  posses 
sion  of  the  tabernacle  that  was  in  Shilo.  Wherefore  it  can 
not  otherwise  be,  than  that  the  wealth  of  the  sanctuary  must 
have  been  exceeding  great ;  as  containing  above  one  hun 
dredth  part  of  all  the  money  and  other  goods  found  by  the 
Israelites  in  the  whole  land  of  "Canaan,  and  of  all  that  was 
purchased  by  so  many  victories  as  they  obtained  against  the 
bordering  nations.  For  that  this  treasury  was  not  defrauded 
of  the  due  portion,  it  is  evident ;  seeing  that,  before  the  time 
of  David  and  his  lieutenant  Joab,  it  is  recorded,  that  Saul 
and  Abner,  and  before  them  Samuel,  had  used  to  dedicate 
of  the  spoils  obtained  in  war  to  maintain  the  house  of  the 
Lord :  the  like  whereof  may  be  well  presumed  of  the  for 
mer  judges  and  captains  in  other  ages.  Certain  it  is,  that 
the  conquest  of  David  brought  into  the  land  far  greater 
abundance  of  riches  than  any  former  victories  had  pur 
chased,  those  of  Joshua  perhaps  excepted ;  but  these  vast 
sums,  of  an  hundred  thousand  talents  of  silver,  may  seem 
rather  to  have  been  made  up  by  the  addition  of  his  winnings 
and  liberality  to  the  treasures  laid  up  in  many  former  ages, 
than  to  have  been  the  mere  fruits  of  his  own  industry. 

Now  concerning  the  riches  of  Salomon,  it  is  more  mani 
fest  how  he  gathered  them;  for  he  received  of  yearly  re 
venues,  with  his  tributes,  666  x  talents  of  gold,  besides  the 
customs  of  spices.  He  had  also  six  rich  returns  from  the 
East  Indies,  which  greatly  increased  his  store.  For  his 
ships  performed  that  voyage  every  three  years,  and  he  be 
gan  that  trade  in  the  twenty-second  year  of  his  reign,  and 

»  Josb.  vi.  19.  *  A  talent  of  gold  is  770  French 

1  Numb.  xxxi.  50.  crowns,  I  Kings  x.  14. 

u  i  Chron.  xxvi.  27,  z8. 

M  m  £ 


532  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ruled  forty  years.  Besides  this,  all  Judaea  and  Israel  were 
now  mastered  to  his  hands ;  all  the  Arabians  his  borderers, 
the  Syrians  of  Zobah,  of  Damascena,  of  Palmyra,  of  Itu- 
rsea ;  all  of  7 Idumsea,  Moab,  and  Aramon,  paid  him  tribute; 
as  likewise  did  the  Hittites,  who  with  the  Perizzites,  He- 
vites,  Jebusites,  and  other  races  of  the  Canaanites,  were  not 
as  yet  extinguished,  though  subjected. 

Into  this  flourishing  estate  was  the  kingdom  of  Israel  re 
duced  by  David,  who,  after  forty  years'  reign,  and  seventy 
years  of  life,  zdied  in  a  good  age,  full  of  days,  riches,  and 
honour,  and  was  buried  in  the  city  of  David.  It  is  written 
by  a  Joseph  us,  that  there  was  hid  in  David's  tomb  a  mar 
vellous  quantity  of  treasures,  insomuch  as  Hyrcanus,  (who 
first  of  the  Chasmansei,  or  race  of  the  Maccabees,  called 
himself  king,)  1300  years  after,  drew  thence  3000  talents, 
to  rid  himself  of  Antiochus,  then  besieging  Jerusalem;  and 
afterwards  Herod  opening  another  cell,  had  also  an  exceed 
ing  mass  of  gold  and  silver  therein.  And  it  was  an  ancient 
custom  to  bury  treasure  with  the  dead.  So  the  Peruvians 
and  other  Americans  did  the  like,  which  being  discovered 
by  the  Spaniards,  they  enriched  themselves  by  nothing  so 
much  in  their  first  conquest.  That  Salomon  did  bury  so 
much  treasure  in  his  father's  grave,  it  would  hardly  be  be 
lieved,  in  regard  of  the  great  exactions  with  which  he  was 
fain  to  burden  the  people,  notwithstanding  all  the  riches 
which  he  got  otherwise,  or  which  were  left  unto  him  ;  were 
it  not  withal  considered,  that  his  want  of  money  grew  from 
such  magnificent  employments.  Particularly  of  the  sepul 
chre  of  David  the  scriptures  have  no  mention,  but  only  the 
sepulchres  of  the  kings  of  Juda,  as  of  an  honourable  place  of 
burial.  Yet  the  monuments  of  those  kings,  as  (by  relation 
of  the  duke  of  bUlika)  they  remained  within  these  thirty 
years,  and  are  like  to  remain  still,  are  able  to  make  any  re 
port  credible  of  the  cost  bestowed  upon  them. 

*  i  Kings  ix.  20.  and  x.  29.  b  peregrinat.  Hierosol.  D.  N.  Ch. 

1  i  Chron.  xxix.  28.  Ra<Jz.  Epist.  2. 

»  Jos.  Ant.  1.  7. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  533 

SECT.   X. 

Of  the  Philistines,  whom  David  absolutely  mastered ;  and  of  sundry 
other  contemporaries  with  David. 

OF  the  Philistines,  whose  pride  David  was  the  first  that 
absolutely  mastered,  in  this  conclusion  of  David's  time  some 
what  here  may  be  spoken. 

They  descended  of  Casloim,  who,  according  to  Isidore, 
1.  9.  19-  and  Jos..l.  1.  Ant.  17.  was  one  of  the  sons  of  Mis- 
raim,  and  was  surnamed  Philistim,  as  Esau  was  surnamed 
Edom,  and  Jacob  Israel.  There  were  of  them  five  cities  of 
petty  principalities;  namely,  cAzotus  or  Asdod,  Gaza  or 
Aczaph,  Ascalon,  Geth  or  Gath,  and  Accaron.  It  seemeth 
that  Casloim  was  the  first  founder  of  this  nation,  because  of 
his  kindred  on  either  hand,  the  Canaanites  and  the  Egyp 
tians. 

The  first  king  of  these  Philistines,  which  the  scriptures 
have  named,  was  that  d  Abimelech  which  loved  Sara,  Abra 
ham's  wife. 

The  second  Abimelech  lived  at  once  with  Isaac,  to  whom 
Isaac  repaired  in  the  time  of  famine,  Abimelech  then  resid 
ing  at  Gerar  in  the  border  of  Idumaea,  which  Abimelech  fan 
cied  e  Isaac's  wife ;  as  his  father  had  done  Sara. 

After  Abimelech  the  second,  the  Philistine  kings  are  not 
remembered  in  the  scriptures  till  David's  time ;  perhaps  the 
government  was  turned  into  aristocratical :  for  they  are 
afterwards  named  princes  of  the  Philistines,  howsoever 
f  Achis  be  named  king  of  Gath,  the  same  to  whom  David 
fled,  and  who  again  gave  him  Siklag  to  inhabit  in  Saul's 
time. 

After  him  we  read  of  another  Achis,  who  lived  with  Sa 
lomon,  to  whom  Shimei  travelled  to  fetch  back  his  fugitive 
servant,  what  time  the  seeking  of  his  servant  was  the  loss 
of  his  life.  Jeremiah  the  prophet  speaketh  of  the  kings  of 
Palestine,  or  Philistine.  Amos  nameth  the  king  of  Ascalon ; 

r  i  Sara.  vi.  f  J udg.  xvi.  i  Sam.  xviii.  29.  i  Sam. 

d  Gen.  xx.  xxi.  n.  i  Kings  ii. 

•  Gen.  xxvi. 

M  m  3 


534  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Zacharias,  a  king  of  Gaza.  The  rest  of  the  wars  of  the 
Philistines  are  remembered  in  the  catalogue  of  the  judges, 
of  Saul  and  David,  and  therefore  I  shall  not  need  to  collect 
the  particulars  in  this  place. 

There  lived  at  once  with  David  the  third  of  the  Silvii, 
king  of  Alba,  called  Latinus  Silvius,  who  is  said  to  have 
ruled  that  part  of  Italy  fifty  years.  And  about  his  four 
teenth  year  Codrus  the  last  king  of  the  Athenians  died,  to 
whom  succeeded  the  first  prince  of  those,  who  being  called 
after  Medon,  Medontidae,  without  regal  name  governed 
Athens  during  their  life. 

The  reasons  which  moved  the  Athenians  to  change  their 
government  were  not  drawn  from  any  inconvenience  found 
in  the  rule  of  sovereignty,  but  in  honour  of  Codrus  only. 
For  when  the  Grecians  of  Doris,  a  region  between  Phocis 
and  the  mountain  CEta,  sought  counsel  from  the  oracle  for 
their  success  in  the  wars  against  the  Athenians,  it  was  an 
swered,  that  then  undoubtedly  they  should  prevail,  and  be 
come  lords  of  that  state,  when  they  could  obtain  any  vic 
tory  against  the  nation,  and  yet  preserve  the  Athenian  king 
living.  Codrus,  by  some  intelligence  being  informed  of  this 
answer,  withdrew  himself  from  his  own  forces,  and  putting 
on  the  habit  of  a  common  soldier  entered  the  camp  of  the 
Dorians,  and  killing  the  first  he  encountered,  was  himself 
forthwith  cut  in  pieces. 

Eupales,  the  thirty-first  king  of  Assyria,  which  others  ac 
count  but  the  thirtieth,  began  to  rule  that  empire  about  the 
thirteenth  year  of  David,  and  held  it  thirty-eight  years. 

Near  the  same  time  began  Ixion,  the  second  king  of  the 
Heraclidae,  the  son  of  Eurysthenes,  in  Corinth ;  and  Agis, 
the  second  of  the  Heraciidae,  in  Lacedgemon  :  in  honour  of 
which  Agis,  his  successors  were  called  Agidae  for  many 
years  after.  He  restored  the  Laconians  to  their  former 
liberty ;  he  overcame  the  citizens  of  Helos  in  Laconia,  who 
had  refused  to  pay  him  tribute ;  he  condemned  them  and 
theirs  to  perpetual  slavery ;  whereof  it  came,  that  all  the 
Messenians,  whom  at  length  they  brought  into  the  like 
bondage,  were  after  called  Helotes. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  535 

In  like  sort  from  the  Sclavi  came  the  word  slave.  For 
when  that  nation,  issuing  out  of  Sarmatia,  now  called  Russia, 
had  seized  upon  the  country  of  Illyria,  and  made  it  their 
own  by  conquest,  their  victory  pleased  them  so  highly,  that 
thereupon  they  called  themselves  by  a  new  name,  Slavos, 
which  is  in  their  language  glorious.  But  in  after- times, 
(that  warmer  climate  having  thawed  their  northern  hardi 
ness,  and  not  ripened  their  wits,)  when  they  were  trodden 
down,  and  made  servants  to  their  neighbours,  the  Italians, 
which  kept  many  of  them  in  bondage,  began  to  call  all  their 
bondmen  slaves,  using  the  word  as  a  name  of  reproach ;  in 
whicH  sense  it  is  now  current  through  many  countries. 

Other  chronologers  make  this  Agis  the  third  king  of 
Sparta,  and  somewhat  later,  about  the  twenty-third  year  of 
David,  and  say,  that  Achestratus  was, the  fourth  king  of 
this  race,  the  same  whom  sEusebius  calls  Labotes,  and  sets 
him  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  Salomon. 

In  the  tenth  year  of  Achestratus,  Androclus,  the  third 
son  of  Codrus,  assisted  by  the  lones,  built  Ephesus  in  Ca- 
ria,  who,  after  the  adjoining  of  the  isle  of  Samos  to  his  ter 
ritory,  was  slain  by  the  Carians,  whose  country  he  usurped. 
He  was  buried  (saith  Pausanias)  in  one  of  the  gates  of 
h  Ephesus,  called  Magnetes,  his  armed  statua  being  set 
over  him.  Strabo  reports,  that  after  Androclus  had  sub 
dued  the  lonians,  (the  next  province  to  Ephesus,  on  the 
sea-coast  of  Asia  the  Less,)  he  enlarged  his  dominions  upon 
the  ^Eoles,  which  joineth  to  Ionia;  and  that  his  posterity, 
governed  the  cities  of  l  Ephesus  and  Erythra3  by  the  name 
of  Basilida?,  in  Strabo's  own  time.  Of  the  expedition  of  the 
lones,  how  they  came  hither  out  of  Peloponnesus,  I  have 
k  spoken  already  upon  occasion  of  the  return  of  the  Hera- 
clidae  into  Peloponnesus,  wherein,  with  the  Dores,  they  ex 
pelled  the  Achaei,  and  inhabited  their  places  in  that  land ; 
though  this  of  the  lones  succeeded  that  of  the  Heraclidae 
100  years. 

«  Euseb.  in  Chron.  •  Arist.  1.  5.  Pol.  c.  (r. 

h  The  east  gate  of  Ephesus  towards         k  See  ch.  16.  sect.  6.  of  this  book. 
Magnesia  upon  the  river  Maeander. 

M  m  4 


536  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

The  city  of  Ephesus  became  exceeding  famous :  first,  for 
the  temple  of  ]  Diana  therein  built ;  which  had  in  length 
425  foot,  and  220  in  breadth,  sustained  with  127  pillars  of 
marble,  of  70  foot  high ;  whereof  27  were  most  curiously 
graven,  and  all  the  rest  of  choice  marble  polished,  the  work 
being  first  set  out  by  Ctesiphon  of  Gnossos.  Secondly,  it 
became  renowned  by  being  one  of  the  first  that  received  the 
Christian  faith,  of  which  Timothy  was  bishop ;  to  whom, 
and  to  the  Ephesians,  St.  Paul  wrote  his  epistles  so  enti 
tled.  The  other  city  possessed  by  Androclus  in  JSolis 
was  also  universally  spoken  of  by  reason  of  Sibylla,  sur- 
named  Erythraea,  who  lived  740  years  before  Christ  born. 
St.  Augustine  avoweth,  that  a  Roman  proconsul  shewed 
him,  in  an  ancient  Greek  copy,  certain  verses  of  this  pro 
phetess;  which  began  (as  St.  Augustine  changed  them  into 
Latin)  in  these  words :  Jesus  Christus  Dei  Filius  Salva- 
tor ;  "  Jesus  Christ  Son  of  God  the  Saviour.'" 

About  the  time  that  Joab  besieged  Rabba  in  Moab, 
Vaphres  began  to  govern  in  Egypt,  the  same  that  was 
father-in-law  to  Salomon,  whose  epistles  to  Salomon,  and 
his  to  Vaphres,  are  remembered  by  Eusebius  out  of  Pole- 
mon.  In  the  twenty-first  of  David  was  the  city  of  Mag 
nesia  in  Asia  the  Less  founded,  the  same  which  is  seated 
upon  the  river  Maeander,  where  Scipio  gave  the  great  over 
throw  to  Antiochus.  In  this  territory  are  the  best  horses  of 
the  Lesser  Asia  bred  ;  whereof  Lucan  : 

Et  Magnetis  equis,  Minyce  gens  cognita  remis. 

About  the  same  time  Cuma  in  Campania  was  built  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Chalcis  in  Euboea,  according  to  mSer- 
vius,  with  whom  Strabo  joineth  the  Cumaeans  of  ^Eolis, 
saying,  that  to  the  one  of  these  people  the  government  was 
given,  with  condition  that  the  other  should  give  name  to  the 
city.  Of  this  Cuma  was  Ephorus,  the  famous  scholar  of 
Isocrates. 

Eusebius  and  Cassiodore  find  the  building  of  Carthage 
at  this  time,  to  wit,  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  David;  but 

1  Plm.1.2.  0.58.  «t  1.7.  0.37.  «  Serv.  in^neid.3.  Strabo,  1.  5. 


CHAP.  xvn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  537 

much  mistaken.  For  the  father  of  Dido  was  Metinus,  the 
son  of  Badezor,  brother  to  Jezabel,  who  married  Achab, 
king  of  Israel ;  and  between  the  death  of  David  and  the 
first  of  Achab  there  were  wasted  about  ninety-five  years. 

In  this  time  also  Acastus  lived,  the  second  of  the  Athe 
nian  princes  after  Codrus,  of  which  there  were  thirteen  in 
descent  before  the  state  changed  into  a  magistracy  of  ten 
years.  Some  n  writers  make  it  probable  that  the  ^Eolians, 
led  by  Graus,  the  grand  nephew  of  Orestes,  possessed  the 
city  and  island  of  Lesbos  about  this  time.  In  the  thirty- 
second  year  of  David,  Hiram  began  to  reign  in  Tyre,  ac 
cording  to  °  Josephus,  who  saith,  that  in  his  twelfth  year 
Salomon  began  the  work  of  the  temple.  But  it  is  a  fami 
liar  error  in  Josephus  to  misreckon  times,  which  in  this  point 
he  doth  so  strangely,  as  if  he  knew  not  how  at  all  to  cast 
any  account.  For  it  is  manifest  that  Hiram  sent  messen 
gers  and  cedars  to  David  soon  after  his  taking  of  Jerusa 
lem,  which  was  in  the  very  beginning  of  David^s  reign  over 
Israel,  when  as  yet  he  had  reigned  only  seven  years  in  P  He 
bron,  over  the  house  of  Juda.  Wherefore  it  must  needs 
be  that  Hiram  had  reigned  above  thirty  years  before  Salo 
mon  ;  unless  more  credit  should  be  given  to  those  Tyrian 
records  which  are  cited  by  Josephus,  than  to  the  plain 
words  of  scripture  contradicting  them.  For  that  it  was  the 
same  Hiram  which  lived  both  with  David  and  with  Salo 
mon,  the  scriptures  make  it  plainly  manifest. 


CHAP.   XVIII. 

Of  Salomon. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  the  establishing  of  Salomon;  of  birthright,  and  of  the  cause  of 
Adonijatis  death,  and  of  Salomon's  wisdom. 

OALOMON,  who  was  brought  up  under  the  prophet  Na 
than,  began  to  reign  over  Juda  and  Israel  in  the  year  of  the 

*  Euseb.  in  Cliron.  Herod,  in  Vit.          °  Antiq.  8.  et  cont.  Ap.  1.  i. 
Horn,  et  Strab.  1. 14.  t1  2  Sam.  v. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n, 

world  2991.  He  was  called  Salomon  by  the  appointment 
of  God.  He  was  also  called  Jedidiah,  or  Theophilus,  by 
Nathan,  because  the  Lord  loved  him. 

Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  after  Salomon's  anointing,  despatch 
ed  ambassadors  toward  him,  congratulating  his  establish 
ment  ;  a  custom  between  princes  very  ancient.  Whence  we 
read  that  David  did  in  like  sort  salute  <iHanum,  king  of  the 
Ammonites,  after  his  obtaining  the  kingdom. 

The  beginning  of  Salomon  was  in  blood,  though  his  reign 
were  peaceable.  For  soon  after  David's  death  he  caused  his 
brother  Adonijah  to  be  slain  by  Benaiah,  the  son  of  Jehoi- 
ada,  taking  occasion  from  Adonijah's  desiring  by  Ber- 
sabe,  that  the  young  maid  Abishag,  which  lay  in  David's 
bosom  in  his  latter  days,  to  keep  him  warm,  might  be  given 
him.  Whatsoever  he  pretended,  it  was  enough  that  Ado 
nijah  was  his  elder  brother,  and  sought  the  kingdom  con 
trary  to  the  will  of  David,  whom  God  inclined  towards  Sa 
lomon.  And  yet  it  is  said,  that  a  word  is  enough  to  the 
wise,  and  he  that  sees  but  the  claw,  may  know  whether  it 
be  a  lion  or  no ;  so  it  may  seem,  that  to  the  quicksighted 
wisdom  of  Salomon  this  motion  of  Adonijah's  was  a  demon 
stration  of  a  new  treason.  For  they  which  had  been  con 
cubines  to  a  king,  might  not  after  be  touched  but  by  a  king; 
whence  r  Achitophel  wished  Absalom  to  take  his  father's  con 
cubines  as  a  part  of  the  royalty.  And  David,  after  that 
wrong,  determining  to  touch  them  no  more,  did  not  give 
them  to  any  other,  but  shut  them  up,  and  they  remained 
widowed  until  their  s  death.  And  this  it  seems  was  the 
depth  of  Ishbosheth's  quarrel  against  Abner,  for  having  his 
father's  concubine.  And  some  signification  of  this  custom 
may  seem  too  in  the  words  of  God  by  Nathan  to  David  ;  / 
have  given  thee  thy  master's  house  and  thy  muster's  wives. 
And  in  the  words  of  Saul,  upbraiding  Jonathan,  that  he 
had  chosen  David  to  the  shame  of  the  *  nakedness  of  his 
mother.  Hereunto  perhaps  was  some  reference  to  this  pur 
pose  of  Adonijah  to  marry  with  her  that  was  always  present 
with  David  in  his  latter  days,  and  who  belike  knew  all  that 

i  2  Sam.  x.       '  2  Sam.  xvi.  21.        •  2  Sam.  xx.  3.        *  i  Sam.  xx.  30. 


CHAP.  xvin.          OF  THE  WORLD.  539 

was  past  for  the  conveying  of  the  kingdom  to  Salomon. 
There  might  be  divers  further  occasions,  as,  either  that  he 
would  learn  such  things  by  her  as  might  be  for  the  advan 
tage  of  his  ambition,  or  that  he  would  persuade  her  to  forge 
some  strange  tale  about  David's  last  testament,  or  any  thing 
else  that  might  prejudice  the  title  of  Salomon. 

As  for  the  right  of  an  elder  brother,  which  uAdonijah 
pretended,  though  generally  it  agreed  both  with  the  law  of 
nations  and  with  the  customs  of  the  Jews ;  yet  the  kings  of 
the  Jews  were  so  absolute,  as  they  did  therein,  and  in  all 
else,  what  they  pleased.  Some  x  examples  also  they  had, 
(though  not  of  kings,)  which  taught  them  to  use  this  pater 
nal  authority  in  transferring  the  birthright  to  a  younger 
son;  namely,  of  Jacob's  disheriting  Reuben,  and  giving 
the  birthright  (which  was  twice  as  much  as  any  portion  of 
the  other  brethren)  to  Joseph ;  of  whom  he  made  two  tribes. 
And  that  it  was  generally  acknowledged  that  this  power  was 
in  David,  it  appears  by  the  words  of  Bersabe  and  Nathan 
to  David,  and  of  Jonathan  to  Adonijah.  For  as  for  popu 
lar  election,  that  it  was  necessary  to  confirm,  or  that  the 
refusal  of  the  people  had  authority  to  frustrate  the  elder 
brother's  right  to  the  kingdom,  it  nowhere  appears  in  the 
stories  of  the  Jews.  It  is  said  indeed  that  the  people  made 
Saul  king  at  y  Gilgal ;  that  is,  they  acknowledged  and  esta 
blished  him.  For  that  he  was  king  long  before,  no  man 
can  doubt.  In  like  manner  elsewhere  the  phrase  of  choosing 
or  making  their  king  is  to  be  expounded ;  as  where  in  the 
prohibition,  that  they  should  not  make  themselves  a  king, 
it  is  said,  z  Thou  shalt  make  him  king  whom  the  Lord  shall 
choose. 

But  to  proceed  with  the  acts  of  Salomon.  At  the  same 
time  that  he  put  Adonijah  to  death,  he  rid  himself  also  of 
Joab,  and  three  years  after  of  Shimei,  as  David  had  advised 
him :  he  displaced  also  the  priest  a  Abiathar,  who  took  part 

u  I  Kings  ii.  15.  I  Kings  i.  20.  27. 

x  Deut.   xxi.    15.     Filium    exosae  f  i  Sam.  xi.  14. 

agnoscito  dando  ei  portionem  duo-  l  Deut.  xvii.  15. 

rum:  nam  ipsius  est  jus  primogeni-  »  i  Kings  ii. 
torum.  i  Reg.  i.  17.  et  xx.  29.  34. 


540  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n 

with  Adonijah  against  him ;  but  in  respect  of  his  office,  and 
that  he  followed  David  in  all  his  afflictions,  and  because  he 
had  borne  the  ark  of  God  before  his  father,  he  spared  his 
life.  And  thus  being  established  in  his  kingdom,  he  took 
the  daughter  of  Vaphres,  king  of  Egypt,  to  wife ;  for  so 
Eusebius  out  of  Eupolemus  calls  him.  He  offered  a  thou 
sand  sacrifices  at  Gibeon,  where  God  appearing  unto  him 
in  a  dream,  bade  him  ask  what  he  would  at  his  hands :  So 
lomon  chooseth  wisdom,  which  pleased  God.  And  God  said 
unto  him,  Because  thou  hast  asked  this  thing,  and  hast  not 
asked  for  thyself 'long life ',  neither  hast  thou  asked  riches 
for  thyself,  nor  hast  asJced  the  life  of  thine  enemies,  be 
hold,  I  have  done  according  to  thy  words.-  By  which  we 
may  inform  ourselves  what  desires  are  most  pleasing  to  God, 
and  what  not.  For  the  coveting  after  long  life,  in  respect 
of  ourselves,  cannot  but  proceed  of  self-love,  which  is  the 
root  of  all  impiety :  the  desire  of  private  riches  is  an  affec 
tion  of  covetousness,  which  God  abhorreth :  to  affect  re 
venge,  is  as  much  as  to  take  the  sword  out  of  God's  hand, 
and  to  distrust  his  justice.  And  in  that  it  pleased  God  to 
make  Salomon  know  that  it  liked  him  that  he  had  not  asked 
the  life  of  his  enemies,  it  could  not  but  put  him  in  mind  of 
his  brother's  slaughter,  for  which  he  had  not  any  warrant 
either  from  David  or  from  the  law  of  God.  But  because 
Salomon  desired  wisdom  only,  which  taught  him  both  to 
obey  God  and  to  rule  men,  it  pleased  God  to  give  him 
withal  that  which  he  desired  not.  And  I  have  also  given 
thee,  saith  God,  that  which  thou  hast  not  asked,  both  riches 
and  honour.  This  gift  of  wisdom  our  commentators  stretch 
to  almost  all  kinds  of  learning :  but  that  it  comprehended 
the  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  plants  and  living  creatures, 
the  scripture  testifieth  ;  though  no  doubt  the  chief  excellency 
of  b  Salomon's  wisdom  was  in  the  knowledge  of  governing 
his  kingdom;  whence,  as  it  were  for  an  example  of  his  wis 
dom,  the  scripture  telleth  how  soon  he  judged  the  contro 
versy  between  the  two  harlots. 

b  i  Kings  iv.  33.   i  Kings  iii.  9. 


CHAP.  xvin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  541 

SECT.   II. 

Of  Salomon's  buildings  and  glory. 

HE  then  entered  into  league  with  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre, 
from  whom  he  had  much  of  his  materials  for  the  king^s  pa 
lace  and  the  temple  of  God ;  for  the  building  whereof  he 
had  received  a  double  charge,  one  from  his  father  David, 
and  another  from  God.  For  like  as  it  is  written  of  David, 
1  Chron.  xxii.  6.  That  he  called  Salomon  his  son,  and 
charged  him  to  build  a  house  for  the  Lord  God  of  Israel ; 
so  doth  cTostatus  give  the  force  of  a  divine  precept  to  these 
words,  Behold,  a  son  is  born  unto  thee,  &c.  he  shall  build 
an  house  for  my  name. 

d  He  began  the  work  of  the  temple  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  year  of  his  reign,  at  which  time  also  he  prepared 
his  fleet  at  Ezion-gaber,  to  trade  for  gold  in  the  East  Indies, 
that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  supply  the  charge  of  so 
great  a  work.  For  that  the  temple  was  in  building  while 
his  fleets  were  passing  to  and  fro,  it  is  manifest ;  for  the  pil 
lars  of  the  temple  were  made  of  the  almaggim  trees  brought 
from  Ophir.  Of  this  most  glorious  building,  of  all  the  par 
ticulars  (whereof  the  e  form  and  example  was  given  by  God 
himself)  many  learned  men  have  written,  as  Salmeron,  Mon- 
tanus,  Ribera,  Barradas,  Azorius,  Villalpandus,  Pineda,  and 
others,  to  whom  I  refer  the  reader. 

For  the  cutting  and  squaring  of  the  cedars  which  served 
that  building,  Salomon  employed  thirty  thousand  carpenters, 
ten  thousand  every  month  by  course:  he  also  used  f eighty 
thousand  masons  in  the  mountain,  and  seventy  thousand  la 
bourers  that  bare  burdens,  which,  it  is  conceived,  he  select 
ed  out  of  the  proselytes,  besides  three  thousand  three  hun 
dred  masters  of  his  work ;  so  as  he  paid  and  employed  in 
all,  one  hundred  eighty  three  thousand  and  three  hundred 
men;  in  which  number  the  Zidonians,  which  were  more  skil 
ful  in  hewing  timber  than  the  Israelites,  may,  as  I  think, 
be  included.  For  S  Hiram  caused  his  servants  to  bring 

c  Tost.  9.  26.  in  i  Chron.  f  i  Kings  v. 

d  i  Kings  vi.  *  i  Kings  v.  9. 

e  i  Chron.  xxviii.  29. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

down  the  cedars  and  firs  from  Lebanon  to  the  sea,  and 
thence  sent  them  in  raffs  to  Joppe,  or  the  next  port  to 
Jerusalem.  For  in  2  Chron.  ii.  it  is  plain  that  all  but  the 
thirty  thousand  carpenters  and  the  overseers  were  strangers, 
and,  as  it  seemeth,  the  vassals  of  h  Hiram  and  of  Vaphres 
king  of  Egypt.  In  recompense  of  all  this  timber  and  stone, 
Salomon  gave  Hiram  twenty  thousand  measures  of  wheat, 
and  twenty  measures  of  pure  oil  yearly.  Eusebius  out  of 
Eupolemus,  in  the  ninth  book  of  his  Preparation,  the  last 
chapter,  hath  left  us  a  copy  of  Salomon's  letter  to  Suron, 
(which  was  the  same  as  Huram,  or  Hiram,)  king  of  Tyre,  in 
these  words : 

Rex  Salomon  Suroni,  Tyri,  Sidonis,  atque  Phoenicia 
regi,  amico  paterno  salutem.  Scias  me  a  Deo  magiio  David 
patris  mei  regnum  accepisse,  cumque  mihi  pater  *pr&cepit 
templum  Deo,  qui  terram  creavit,  conacre,  ut  etiam  ad  te 
scriberem  prcecepit :  scribo  igitur,  et  peto  a  te  ut  artifices 
atque  fabros  ad  cedificandum  templum  Dei  mittere  velis. 

"  King  Salomon  to  king  Suron,  of  Tyre,  Sidon,  and 
"  Phoenicia,  king,  and  my  father's  friend,  sendeth  greeting. 
"  You  may  understand,  that  I  have  received  of  the  great 
"  God  of  my  father  David  the  kingdom;  and  when  my 
"  father  commanded  me  to  build  a  temple  to  God  which 
"  created  heaven  and  earth,  he  commanded  also  that  I 
"  should  write  to  you.  I  write  therefore  to  you,  and  be- 
"  seech  you,  that  you  would  be  pleased  to  send  me  artificers 
"  and  carpenters  to  build  the  temple  of  God." 
To  which  the  king  Suron  made  this  answer. 
Suron,  Tyri,  Sidonis,  et  Phcenicice  rex,  Salomoni  regi 
salutem.  Lectis  litteris  gratias  egi  Deo,  qui  tibi  regnum 
patris  tradidit :  et  quoniam  scribis  fabros  ministrosque  ad 
condendum  templum  esse  tibi  mittendos,  misi  ad  te  millia 
Uominum  octoginta,  et  architectum  Tyrium  hominem  ex 
matre  Judcea,  virum  in  rebus  architecture?  mirabilem.  Cu- 
rabis  igitur  ut  necessariis  non  egeant,  et  templo  Dei  con- 
dito  ad  nos  rede  ant. 

"  Suron,  of  Tyre,  Sidon,  and  Phoenicia  king,  to  king  Sa- 

h  i  Kings  v.  it. 


CHAP.  xvin.          OF  THE  WORLD.  543 

"  lomon,  greeting.  When  I  read  your  letters,  I  gave  God 
"  thanks,  who  hath  installed  you  in  your  father's  kingdom. 
"  And  because  you  write  that  carpenters  and  workmen  may 
"  be  sent  to  build  God's  temple,  I  have  sent  unto  you  four- 
"  score  thousand  men,  and  a  master-builder,  a  Tyrian,  born 
"  of  a  Jewish  woman,  a  man  admirable  in  building.  You 
"  will  be  careful  that  all  necessaries  be  provided  for  them, 
"  and,  when  the  temple  of  God  is  built,  that  they  come 
"  home  to  us." 

The  copies  of  these  letters  were  extant  in  'Josephus's 
time,  as  himself  affirmeth,  and  to  be  seen,  saith  he,  tarn  in 
nostris  quam  in  Tyrwrum  annalibus ;  "  as  well  in  our 
"  own  as  in  the  Tyrian  annals."  But  he  delivereth  them 
somewhat  in  different  terms,  as  the  reader  may  find  in  his 
Antiquities.  But  were  this  intercourse  between  Salomon 
and  Hiram  either  by  message  or  by  writing,  it  is  somewhat 
otherwise  delivered  in  the  k  scriptures  than  either  Eupole- 
mus  or  Josephus  set  it  down ;  but  so,  that  in  substance 
there  is  little  difference  between  the  one  and  the  other. 

The  like  letter  in  effect  Salomon  is  said  to  have  written 
to  Vaphres,  king  of  Egypt,  and  was  answered  as  from 
Hiram. 

But  whereas  some  commentors  upon  Salomon  find  that 
Hiram  king  of  Tyre,  and  Vaphres  king  of  Egypt,  gave 
Salomon  the  title  of  rex  magnus,  and  cite  Eupolemon  in 
Eusebius ;  I  do  not  find  any  such  addition  of  magnus  in 
Eusebius,  in  the  last  chapter  of  that  ninth  book ;  neither  is 
it  in  Josephus,  in  the  eighth  book  and  second  chapter  of 
the  Jews'  Antiquities ;  it  being  a  vain  title  used  by  some  of 
the  Assyrian  and  Persian  kings,  and  used  likewise  by  the 
Parthians,  and  many  other  after  them,  insomuch  as  in  latter 
times  it  grew  common,  and  was  usurped  by  mean  persons  in 
respect  of  the  great  Hermes  the  first,  which  was  honoured 
by  that  name  for  his  noble  qualities,  as  much  or  more  than 
for  his  mightiness. 

After  the  finishing  and  dedication  of  the  temple  and  house 
of  the  Lord,  Salomon  fortified  Jerusalem  with  a  treble  wall, 
*  Joseph.  Ant.  1.8.  c.  2.  k  i  Kings  v.  i — 9. 


544  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

and  repaired  Hazor,  which  had  been  the  ancient  metropolis 
of  the  Canaanites  before  Joshua's  time ;  so  did  he  Gaza  of 
the  Philistines:  he  built  ^ethoron,  Gerar,  and  the  Millo 
or  munition  of  Jerusalem.  For  Pharaoh  (as  it  seemeth 
in  favour  of  Salomon)  came  up  into  the  edge  of  Ephraim, 
and  took  Gerar,  which  the  Canaanites  yet  held,  and  put 
them  to  the  sword,  and  burnt  their  city.  The  place  and 
territory  he  gave  Salomon's  wife  for  a  dowry.  And  it  is 
probable,  that  because  Salomon  was  then  busied  in  his  mag 
nificent  buildings,  and  could  not  attend  the  war,  that  he 
entreated  his  father-in-law  to  rid  him  of  those  neighbours, 
which  Pharaoh  performed.  But  he  thereby  taught  the 
Egyptians  to  visit  those  parts  again  before  they  were  sent 
for ;  and  in  his  son  Rehoboam's  time  Sheshack,  this  man's 
successor,  did  sack  Jerusalem  itself. 

Salomon  also  built  Megiddo  in  Manasse,  on  this  side  Jor 
dan,  and  Balah  in  Dan ;  also  Thadmor,  which  may  be  either 
Ptolemy's  Thamoron,  in  the  desert  of  Juda,  or  (as  m  Jo- 
sephus  thinks)  Palmyra  in  the  desert  of  Syria,  which  Pal 
myra,  because  it  stood  on  the  utmost  border  of  Salomon's 
dominion,  to  the  north-east  of  Libanus,  and  was  of  David's 
conquest  when  he  won  Damascus,  it  may  seem  that  Salomon 
therefore  bestowed  thereon  the  most  cost,  and  fortified  it 
with  the  best  art  that  that  age  had.  n  Josephus  calls  this 
place  Thadamora,  by  which  name,  saith  he,  given  by  Salo 
mon,  the  Syrians  as  yet  call  it.  Jerome,  in  his  book  of 
Hebrew  places,  calls  it  Thermeth.  In  after-times,  when  it 
was  rebuilt  by  Adrian  the  emperor,  it  was  honoured  with 
his  name,  and  called  Adrianopolis.  In  respect  of  this  great 
charge  of  building,  Salomon  raised  tribute  through  all 
his  dominions;  besides  an  hundred  and  twenty  talents  of 
gold  received  from  Hiram's  servants,  Salomon  offered  Hi 
ram  twenty  towns  in  or  near  the  Upper  Galilee ;  but  be 
cause  they  stood  in  an  unfruitful  and  marish  ground,  Hi 
ram  refused  them,  and  thereof  was  the  territory  called 
Chabul. 

These  towns,  as  it  is  supposed,  lay  in  Galilee  of  the  Gen- 
1  Joseph.  Ant.  1.  8.  c.  2.  «•  ibid.  «  Ibid. 


CHAP,  xviii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  54$ 

tiles,  N&n  qiwd  Gentes  ibi  habitarent:  sed  quia  sub  ditione 
regis  Gentilis  erat ;  "  Not  that  it  was  possessed  by  the  Gen- 
"  tiles,"  saith  Nauclerus,  "  but  because  it  was  under  the 
"  rule  of  a  king  that  was  a  Gentile."  Howsoever  it  were, 
k  is  true  that  Salomon,  in  his  twenty-first  year,  fortified 
those  places  which  Hiram  refused.  Further,  he  made  a 
journey  into  Syria-Zobah,  and  established  his  tributes ;  the 
first  and  last  war  (if  in  that  expedition  he  were  driven  to 
fight)  that  he  made  in  person  in  all  his  life.  He  then  vi 
sited  the  border  of  all  his  dominions,  passing  from  Thadmor 
to  the  north  of  Palmyrena,  and  so  to  the  deserts  of  Idumaea, 
from  whence  he  visited  Eziongaber  and  Eloth,  the  utter 
most  place  of  the  south  of  all  his  territories,  bordering  to 
the  Red  sea ;  which  cities  I  have  described  in  the  story  of 
Moses. 

SECT.  III. 

Of  Salomon's  sending  to  Ophir,  and  of  some  seeming  contradictions 
about  Salomon's  riches,  and  of  Pineda's  conceit  of  two  strange 
passages  about  Africk. 

HERE  Salomon  prepared  his  fleet  of  ships  for  India, 
with  whom  Hiram  joined  in  that  voyage,  and  furnished  him 
with  mariners  and  pilots,  the  Tyrians  being  of  all  others  the 
most  expert  seamen.  From  this  part  of  Arabia,  which  at 
this  time  belonged  to  Edom,  and  was  conquered  by  David, 
did  the  fleet  pass  on  to  the  East  Indies,  which  was  not  far  off, 
namely  to  Ophir,  one  of  the  islands  of  the  Moluccas,  a  place 
exceeding  rich  in  gold:  witness  the  Spaniards,  who,  not 
withstanding  all  the  abundance  which  they  gather  in  Peru, 
do  yet  plant  in  those  islands  of  the  east  at  Manilia,  and  re 
cover  a  great  quantity  from  thence,  and  with  less  labour 
than  they  do  in  any  one  part  of  Peru  or  New  Spain. 

The  return  which  was  made  by  these  ships  amounted  to 
four  hundred  and  twenty  talents ;  but  in  2  Chron.  viii.  it  is 
written  four  hundred  and  fifty  talents ;  whereof  thirty  talents 
went  in  expense  for  the  charge  of  the  fleet  and  wages  of  men, 
and  four  hundred  and  twenty  talents,  which  makes  five  and 
twenty  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  crowns,  came  clear. 
And  thus  must  those  two  places  be  reconciled.  As  for  the 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  X  n 


546  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

place,  1  Kings  x.  14,  which  speaketh  of  six  hundred  sixty 
and  six  talents  of  gold,  that  sum,  as  I  take  it,  is  of  other 
receipts  of  Salomon's  which  were  yearly,  and  which  came  to 
him  besides  these  profits  from  Ophir. 

My  opinion  of  the  land  of  Ophir,  that  it  is  not  Peru  in 
America,  (as  divers  have  thought,)  but  a  country  in  the 
East  Indies;  with  some  reason  why  at  those  times  they 
could  not  make  more  speedy  return  to  Jerusalem  from  the 
East  Indies  than  in  three  years ;  and  that  Tharsis  in  scrip 
ture  is  divers  times  taken  for  the  ocean ;  hath  been  already 
declared  in  the  ° first  book. 

Only  it  remaineth  that  I  should  speak  somewhat  of  Pi 
neda's  strange  conceits,  who,  being  a  Spaniard  of  Baetica, 
would  fain  have  Gades,  or  Calismalis,  in  old  times  called 
Tartessus,  which  is  the  south-west  corner  of  that  province, 
to  be  the  Tharsis  from  whence  Salomon  fetched  his  gold ; 
for  no  other  reason,  as  it  seems,  but  for  love  of  his  own 
country,  and  because  of  some  affinity  of  sound  between 
Tharsis  and  Tartessus.  For  whereas  it  may  seem  strange 
that  it  should  be  three  year  ere  they  that  took  ship  in  the 
Red  sea  should  return  from  the  East  Indies  to  Jerusalem, 
this  hath  been  in  part  answered  already.  And  further,  the 
intelligent  may  conceive  of  sundry  lets,  in  the  digging  and 
refining  of  the  metal,  and  in  their  other  traffick,  and  in  their 
land  carriages  between  Jerusalem  and  the  Red  sea,  and 
perhaps  also  elsewhere :  so  that  we  have  no  need  to  make 
Salomon's  men  to  go  many  thousand  miles  out  of  their  way 
to  Gades,  round  about  all  Africk,  that  so  they  might  be 
long  a  coming  home. 

For  the  direct  way  to  Gades  (which  if  Salomon  and  the 
Israelites  knew  not,  the  Tyrians  which  went  with  them 
could  not  have  been  ignorant  of)  was  along  the  Mediter- 
ran  sea,  and  so  (besides  many  wonderful  inconveniences 
and  terrible  navigation  in  rounding  Africa)  they  should 
have  escaped  the  troublesome  land  carriage  between  Jeru 
salem  and  the  Red  sea,  through  dry,  desert,  and  thievish 

-  Chap.  8.  sect.  9.  10.  §.  5.  Lib.  4.  de  Rebus  Salomonis,  c.  6.  et  15. 


CHAP.  xvin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  547 

countries  ;  and  within  thirty  mile  of  Jerusalem,  at  Joppe, 
or  some  other  haven  in  Salomon's  own  country,  have  laden 
and  unladen  their  ships. 

But  this  direct  course  they  could  not  hold,  saith  Pineda, 
because  the  huge  island  of  Atlantis,  in  largeness  greater 
than  all  Africk  and  Asia,  being  swallowed  up  in  the  Atlan 
tic  ocean,  hindered  Salomon's  ships  from  passing  through 
the  straits  of  Gibraltar  :  for  this  he  allegeth  Plato  in  Timaeo. 
But  that  this  calamity  happened  about  Salomon's  time,  or 
that  thereby  the  straits  of  Grades  were  filled  with  mud,  and 
made  unpassable,  that  there  could  be  no  coming  to  Gades 
by  the  Mediterran  sea  ;  or  that  this  indraught,  where  the  sea 
runneth  most  violently,  and  most  easily  scoureth  his  chan 
nel,  should  be  filled  with  mud,  and  not  also  the  great  ocean 
in  like  manner,  where  this  huge  island  is  supposed  to  have 
stood  ;  or  that  Salomon's  ships  being  in  the  Red  sea  should 
neglect  the  golden  mines  of  the  East  Indies  (which  were 
infinitely  better,  and  nearer  to  the  Red  sea  than  any  in 
Spain)  to  seek  gold  at  Cadiz  by  the  way  of  compassing 
Africa,  it  is  most  ridiculous  to  imagine.  For  the  Spaniard 
himself,  that  hath  also  the  rich  Peru  in  the  west,  fortifieth 
in  the  East  Indies,  and  inhabits  some  part  thereof,  as  in 
Manilla,  finding  in  those  parts  no  less  quantity  of  gold  (the 
small  territory  which  he  there  possesseth  considered)  than  in 
Peru. 

The  same  P  Pineda  hath  another  strange  passage  round 
about  all  Africa,  which  elsewhere  he  dreams  of:  supposing, 
whereas  Jonas  sailing  to  Tharsis  the  city  of  Cilicia  was 
cast  out  in  the  Mediterran  sea,  and  taken  up  there  by  a 
whale;  that  this  whale,  in  three  days,  swimming  above 
twelve  thousand  English  miles,  along  the  Mediterran  seas, 
and  so  through  the  straits  of  Gades,  and  along  the  huge 
seas  round  about  Africa,  cast  up  Jonas  upon  the  shore  of 
the  Red  sea,  that  so  he  might  have  perhaps  some  six  miles 
the  shorter  (though  much  the  worse)  way  to  Nineveh.  This 
conceit  he  grounds  only  upon  the  ambiguity  of  the  word 

P  De  Rebus  Sal.  1.4.  c.  12.  n.  As  it  appears  he  took  ship  at  Japho,  or 
Joppe,  ch.  1.3. 


N  n 


548  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

Suph,  which  oftentimes  is  an  epitheton  of  the  Red  sea  (as  if 
we  should  call  it  mare  algosum,  the  sea  full  of  weeds)  for 
the  Red  sea.  But  in  Jonas  ii.  5.  it  is  generally  taken  in  the 
proper  signification  for  weeds,  and  not  as  Pineda  would 
have  it,  who  in  this  place,  against  his  own  rule,  (which  else 
where  he  giveth  us,)  supposeth  strange  miracles  without  any 
need.  For  this  long  voyage  of  the  whale  finished  in  three 
days,  is  a  greater  miracle  than  the  very  preservation  of 
Jonas  in  the  belly  of  the  whale :  and  therefore  seeing  there 
is  no  necessity  of  this  miracle,  we  send  it  back  unto  him, 
keeping  his  own  rule,  which  in  this  place  he  forgets ;  Mi- 
racula  non  sunt  multipticanda.  And  again,  <\Non  sunt 
mlracula  gratis  danda,  nee  pro  arbitrio  nova  Jingenda ; 
"  Miracles  are  not  to  be  multiplied  without  necessity,  nor 
"  delivered  without  cause,  nor  feigned  at  pleasure."  There 
fore  to  leave  this  man  in  his  dreams,  which  (were  he  not 
otherwise  very  learned  and  judicious)  might  be  thought 
unworthy  the  mentioning.  But  to  proceed  with  our  story 
of  Salomon. 

The  queen  of  Saba's  coming  from  far  to  Salomon,  (as 
it  seems  from  Arabia  Felix,  and  not,  as  some  think,  from 
Ethiopia,)  and  her  rich  presents,  and  Salomon's  reciprocal 
magnificence,  and  his  resolving  of  her  difficult  questions, 
those  are  set  down  at  large  in  the  text.  But  herein  r  Jose- 
phus  is  greatly  mistaken,  who  calls  this  queen  of  Saba  Ni- 
caules,  the  successor  (saith  he  out  of  Herodotus)  of  those 
thirty  and  eight  Egyptian  kings  which  succeeded  Mineus, 
the  founder  of  Memphis ;  adding,  that  after  this  Egyptian, 
and  the  father-in-law  of  Salomon,  the  name  of  Pharaoh  was 
left  off  in  Egypt.  For  as  it  is  elsewhere  proved  that  the 
queen  was  of  Arabia,  not  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia ;  so  were 
there  other  Pharaohs  after  the  father-in-law  of  Salomon; 
yea,  above  three  hundred  years  after  Salomon,  sPharaoh- 
Necho  slew  Josias  king  of  Juda. 

It  is  also  written  of  Salomon,  that  he  kept  in  garrisons 
fourteen  thousand  chariots  and  twelve  thousand  horsemen  ; 

"  In&-  F-  •  2  Kings  xxiii.  and  2  Chron.  xxr 

T  Joseph.  Ant.  1.  8.  i,  2.  Jer.  xlvi.  2. 


cHAp.xviii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  549 

that  he  spent  in  court  every  day  thirty  measures  of  fine 
flour,  threescore  measures  of  wheat,  one  hundred  sheep, 
besides  stags  and  fallow  deer,  bugles  and  fowl ;  four  thou 
sand  stalls  of  horses  he  had  for  his  chariots  and  other  uses, 
and  for  the  twelve  thousand  horsemen  of  his  guard.  For 
the  forty  thousand  stalls,  in  1  Kings  iv.  are  to  be  taken  but 
for  so  many  horses ;  whence  in  2  Chron.  ix.  it  is  written  but 
four  thousand  stalls  or  teams,  and  in  every  team  ten  horses, 
as  Junius  and  the  Geneva  understand  it.  He  was  said  to 
be  wiser  than  any  man,  yea,  than  were  l  Ethan  the  Ezra- 
hite,  than  Heman,  Chalcal,  or  than  Darda,  to  which  Junius 
addeth  a  fifth,  to  wit,  Ezrack  :  for  the  Geneva  maketh 
Ethan  an  Ezrahite  by  nation.  Jpsephus  writes  them  Athan, 
jEman,  Chalceus,  and  Donan,  the  sons  of  Hemon.  He  spake 
three  thousand  proverbs,  and  his  songs  were  one  thousand 
and  five,  whereof  either  the  most  part  perished  in  the  capti 
vity  of  Babylon,  or  else  because  many  acts  of  Salomon's 
were  written  and  kept  among  the  public  records  of  civil 
causes,  and  not  ecclesiastical,  therefore  they  were  not  thought 
necessary  to  be  inserted  into  God's  book. 

SECT.  IV. 

Of  the  fall  of  Salomon,  and  how  long  he  lived. 

NOW  as  he  had  plenty  of  all  other  things,  so  had  he  no 
scarcity  of  women.  For  besides  his  seven  hundred  wives, 
he  kept  three  hundred  concubines,  and  (forgetting  that  God 
had  commanded  that  none  of  his  people  should  accompany 
the  daughters  of  idolaters)  he  took  wives  out  of  Egypt, 
Edom,  Moab,  Ammon,  Zidon,  and  Heth  ;  and  when  he 
fell  a  doating,  his  wives  turned  his  heart  after  other  gods, 
as  Ashtaroth  of  the  Zidonians,  Milcom  or  Molech  of  the 
Ammonites,  and  Chemosh  of  Moab. 

These  things  God  punished  by  Adad  of  Idumaea,  Rezin 
of  Damascus,  and  by  Jeroboam  his  own  servant,  and  one 
of  the  masters  of  his  works,  who  by  the  ordinance  of  God 
tare  from  his  son  Rehoboam  ten  of  the  twelve  parts  of  all 
the  territory  he  had:  uDeus  dum  in  peccatores  animad- 

*  i  Kings  iv.  31.  "  P.  Mart,  in  Reg. 

N  n3 


550  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

vertit,  aliorum  peccatis  utitur,  quce  ipse  non  fetit ;  "  God 
"  in  punishing  sinners,  useth  the  sins  of  others,  which  he 
"  himself  wrought  not." 

In  the  reign  of  Salomon  (as  in  times  of  long  peace)  were 
few  memorable  actions  by  him  performed,  excepting  his 
buildings,  with  other  works  of  magnificence,  and  that  great 
Indian  voyage  already  mentioned.  Forty  years  he  reigned  ; 
how  many  he  lived,  it  is  not  written,  and  must  therefore  be 
found  only  by  conjecture.  The  most  likely  way  to  guess 
at  the  truth  in  this  case,  is  by  considering  the  actions  of 
David  before  and  after  Salomon's  birth,  whereby  we  may 
best  make  estimation  of  the  years  which  they  consumed, 
and  consequently  learn  the  true  or  most  likely  year  of  his 
nativity.  Seven  years  David  reigned  in  Hebron  :  in  his 
eighth  year  he  took  Jerusalem,  and  warred  with  the  Phi 
listines,  who  also  troubled  him  in  the  year  following.  The 
bringing  home  of  the  ark  seems  to  have  been  in  the  tenth 
year  of  David,  and  his  intention  to  build  the  temple  in  the 
xyear  ensuing,  at  which  time  he  had  sufficient  leisure,  living 
in  rest.  After  this  he  had  wars  with  the  Philistines,  Moab- 
ites,  Aramites,  and  Edomites,  which  must  needs  have  held 
him  five  years,  considered  that  the  Aramites  of  Damasco 
raised  war  against  him  after  such  time  as  he  had  beaten 
Hadadezer ;  and  that  in  every  'of  these  wars  he  had  the 
entire  y  victory.  Neither  is  it  likely  that  these  services  oc 
cupied  any  longer  time,  because  in  those  days  and  places 
there  were  no  wintering  camps  in  use,  but  at  convenient 
seasons  of  the  year  kings  went  forth  to  war,  despatching  all 
with  violence  rather  than  with  temporizing;  as  maintain 
ing  their  armies  partly  upon  the  spoil  of  the  enemies'  coun 
try,  partly  upon  the  z  private  provision  which  every  soldier 
made  for  himself.  The  seventeenth  year  of  David,  in  which 
he  took  Mephibosheth  the  son  of  Jonathan  into  his  court, 
appeareth  to  have  passed  away  in  quiet,  and  the  year  fol 
lowing  to  have  begun  the  war  with  Ammon ;  but  somewhat 
late,  in  the  end  of  summer  perhaps,  it  came  to  trial  of  a 
battle,  (for  Joab  after  the  victory  returned  immediately  to 
i'  '•  y  2  Sam.  xi.  i.  *  !  Sam.  xvii.  17,  18. 


CHAP.  xvin.          OF  THE  WORLD.  551 

Jerusalem,)  the  causes  and  preparations  for  that  war  hav 
ing  taken  up  all  the  summer.  David's  personal  expedition 
against  the  Aramites,  wherein  he  brought  all  the  tributaries 
of  Hadadezer  under  his  own  allegiance,  appears  manifestly 
to  have  been  the  next  year's  work,  wherein  he  did  cut  off 
all  means  of  succour  from  the  Ammonites ;  all  Syria,  Moab, 
and  Idumsea  being  now  at  his  own  devotion.  By  this  reck 
oning  it  must  have  been  the  twentieth  year  of  David's  reign, 
and  about  the  fiftieth  of  his  life,  in  which  he  sent  forth  Joab 
to  besiege  Rabba,  and  finished  the  war  of  Ammon  ;  wherein 
also  fell  out  the  matter  of  Uriah's  wife.  So  one  half  of 
David's  reign  was  very  prosperous;  in  the  other  half  he 
felt  great  sorrow  by  the  expectation,  execution,  and  sad  re 
membrance  of  that  heavy  judgment  laid  upon  him  by  God 
for  his  foul  and  bloody  offence. 

Now  very  manifest  it  is,  that  in  the  year  after  the  death 
of  that  child  which  was  begotten  in  adultery,  Salomon  was 
born,  who  must  needs  therefore  have  been  nineteen  years 
old,  or  thereabout,  when  he  began  to  reign  at  the  decease 
of  his  father,  as  being  begotten  in  the  twenty-first  year  of 
his  father's  reign,  who  reigned  in  all  forty. 

This  account  hath  also  good  coherence  with  the  following 
times  of  David,  as  may  be  collected  out  of  ensuing  actions : 
for  two  years  passed  ere  Absalom  slew  his  brother  Ammon ; 
three  years  ere  his  father  pardoned  him  ;  and  two  years 
more  ere  he  came  into  the  king's  presence.  After  this  he 
prepared  horses  and  men,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
rebellion,  which  seems  to  have  been  one  year's  work.  So 
the  rebellion  itself,  with  all  that  happened  thereupon,  as  the 
commotion  made  by  Sheba,  the  death  of  Amasa,  and  the 
rest,  may  well  seem  to  have  been  in  the  thirtieth  year  of 
David's  reign. 

Whether  the  three  years  of  famine  should  be  reckoned 
apart  from  the  last  years  of  war  with  the  Philistines,  or  con 
founded  with  them,  it  were  more  hard  than  needful  to  con 
jecture.  Plain  enough  it  is,  that  in  the  ten  remaining  years 
of  David  there  was  time  sufficient,  and  to  spare,  both  for 
three  years  of  famine,  for  four  years  of  war,  and  for  num- 

N  n  4 


552  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

bering  the  people,  with  the  pestilence  ensuing ;  as  also  for 
his  own  last  infirmity,  and  disposing  of  the  kingdom.  Yet 
indeed  it  seems  that  the  war  with  the  Philistines  was  but 
one  year's  work,  and  ended  in  three  or  four  fights,  of  which 
the  two  or  three  former  were  at  Gob,  or  Nob,  near  unto 
Gezer,  and  the  last  at  Gath.  This  war  the  Philistines  under 
took,  as  it  seemeth,  upon  confidence  gathered  out  of  the 
tumults  in  Israel,  and  perhaps  emboldened  by  David's  old 
age,  for  he  fainted  now  in  the  battle,  and  was  afterwards 
hindered  by  his  men  from  exposing  himself  unto  danger 
any  more.  So  David  had  six  or  seven  years  of  rest,  in 
which  time  it  is  likely  that  many  of  his  great  men  of  war 
died,  (being  of  his  own  age,)  whereby  the  stirring  spirit  of 
Adonijah  found  little  succour  in  the  broken  party  of  Joab 
the  son  of  Zeruiah. 

At  this  time  it  might  both  truly  be  said  by  a  David  to 
Salomon,  Thou  art  a  wise  man,  and  by  Salomon  to  God, 
/  am  but  a  young  child ;  for  nineteen  years  of  age  might 
well  agree  with  either  of  these  two  speeches. 

Nevertheless  there  are  some  that  gather  out  of  Salomon's 
professing  himself  a  child,  that  he  was  but  eleven  years  old 
when  he  began  to  reign.  Of  these  Rabbi  Salomon  seems 
the  first  author,  whom  other  of  great  learning  and  judg 
ment  have  herein  followed ;  grounding  themselves  perhaps 
upon  that  which  is  said  of  b  Absalom's  rebellion,  that  it  was 
after  forty  years,  which  they  understand  as  years  of  David's 
reign.  But  whereas  Rehoboam  the  son  of  Salomon  was 
forty-one  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign,  it  would  follow 
hereby  that  his  father  had  begotten  him,  being  himself  but 
a  child  of  nine  or  ten  years  old;  the  difference  between 
their  ages  being  no  greater,  if  Salomon  (who  reigned  forty 
years)  were  but  eleven  years  old  when  his  reign  began. 
To  avoid  this  inconvenience,  Joseph  us  allows  eighty  years 
of  reigri  to  Salomon  ;  a  report  so  disagreeing  with  the  scrip 
tures,  that  it  needs  no  confutation.  Some  indeed  have,  in 
favour  of  this  opinion,  construed  the  words  of  Josephus,  as 
if  they  included  all  the  years  of  Salomon's  life.  But  by 
"  i  Kings  ii.  9.  and  iii.  7.  b  2  Sam.  xv.  < 


CHAP.  xvin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  553 

such  reckoning  he  should  have  been  forty  years  old  at  his 
father's  death;  and  consequently  should  have  been  born 
long  before  his  father  had  won  Jerusalem ;  which  is  a  ma 
nifest  untruth.  Wherefore  the  forty  years  remembered  in 
Absalom's  rebellion,  may  either  seem  to  have  reference  to 
the  space  between  David's  first  anointment  and  the  trouble 
which  God  brought  upon  him  for  his  wickedness,  or  per 
haps  be  read  (according  to  Joseph  us,  Theodoret,  and  the 
Latin  translation)  four  years;  which  passed  between  the 
return  of  Absalom  to  Jerusalem  and  his  breaking  out. 

SECT.    V. 

Of  Salomon's  writings. 

THERE  remain  of  Salomon's  works  the  Proverbs,  the 
Preacher,  and  the  Song  of  Salomon.  In  the  first,  he  teach- 
eth  good  life,  and  correcteth  manners;  in  the  second,  the 
vanity  of  human  nature;  in  the  third,  he  singeth  as  it  were 
the  epithalamion  of  Christ  and  his  church.  For  the  book 
entitled  the  Wisdom  of  Salomon,  (which  some  give  unto 
Salomon,  and  some  make  the  elder  Philo  the  author  there 
of,)  Jerome,  and  many  others  of  the  best  learned,  make  us 
think  it  was  not  Salomon  that  wrote  it :  Stylus  libri  Sapi- 
entice  (saith  c  Jerome)  qui  Salomonis  inscribitur,  Grcecam 
redolet  eloquentiam ;  "  The  style  of  the  Book  of  Wisdom, 
"  which  is  ascribed  to  Salomon,  savoureth  of  the  Grecian 
"  eloquence."  And  of  the  same  opinion  was  St.  Augustine ; 
and  yet  he  confesseth  in  the  19th  book  and  20th  chapter  of 
the  City  of  God,  that  the  author  of  that  book  hath  a  direct 
foretelling  of  the  passion  of  Christ  in  these  words:  ACir- 
cumveniamus  justum,  quoniam  insuavis  est  nobis,  &c.  "  Let 
"  us  circumvent  the  righteous,  for  he  is  unpleasing  to  us, 
"  he  is  contrary  to  our  doings,  he  checketh  us  for  offend- 
"  ing  against  the  law,  he  makes  his  boast  to  have  the  know- 
"  ledge  of  God,  and  he  calleth  himself  the  Son  of  the 
"  Lord,"  &c.  And  so  doth  the  course  of  all  the  following 
words  point  directly  at  Christ.  The  books  of  Ecclesiastes, 

c  Hier.  ad  Croraasium.  *  Sap.  ii . 


554  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Proverbs,  and  eCantica  Canticorum,  Rabbi  Moses  Kimchi 
ascribeth  to  Isaiah  the  prophet.  Suidas  and  Cedrenus  report, 
that  Salomon  wrate  of  the  remedies  of  all  diseases,  and 
graved  the  same  on  the  sides  of  the  porch  of  the  temple, 
which  they  say  f  Ezechias  pulled  down,  because  the  people, 
neglecting  help  from  God  by  prayer,  repaired  thither  for 
their  recoveries. 

Of  Salomon's  books  of  invocations  and  enchantments,  to 
cure  diseases  and  expel  evil  spirits,  Josephus  hath  written 
at  large,  though,  as  I  conceive,  rather  out  of  his  own  inven 
tion,  or  from  some  uncertain  report,  than  truly. 

He  also  speaketh  of  one  Eliazarus,  who,  by  the  root  in 
Salomon's  ring,  dispossessed  divers  persons  of  evil  spirits  in 
the  presence  of  Vespasian  and  many  others;  which  I  will  not 
stand  to  examine. 

Certainly,  so  strange  an  example  of  human  frailty  hath 
never  been  read  of  as  this  king ;  who  having  received  wis 
dom  from  God  himself,  in  honour  of  whom,  and  for  his.  only 
service,  he  built  the  first  and  most  glorious  temple  of  the 
world ;  he  that  was  made  king  of  Israel  and  Judaea,  not  by 
the  law  of  nature  but  by  the  love  of  God,  and  became  the 
wisest,  richest,  and  happiest  of  all  kings,  did,  in  the  end, 
by  the  persuasion  of  a  few  weak  and  wretched  idolatrous 
women,  forget  and  forsake  the  Lord  of  all  the  world  and 
the  Giver  of  all  goodness,  of  which  he  was  more  liberal  to 
this  king  than  to  any  that  ever  the  world  had.  Of  whom 
Siracides  writeth  in  this  manner :  "  Salomon  reigned  in  a 
"  peaceable  time  and  was  glorious ;  for  God  made  all  quiet 
"  round  about,  that  he  might  build  a  house  in  his  name, 
"  and  prepare  the  sanctuary  for  ever :  how  wise  wast  thou 
"  in  thy  youth,  and  wast  filled  with  understanding  as  with 
"  a  flood !  Thy  mind  covered  the  whole  earth,  and  hath 
"  filled  it  with  grave  and  dark  sentences.  Thy  name  went 
"  abroad  in  the  isles,  and  for  thy  peace  thou  wast  beloved," 
&c.  But  thus  he  concludeth  ;  "  Thou  didst  bow  thy  loins 
"  to  women,  and  wast  overcome  by  thy  body ;  thou  didst 
e  S.  Sen.  t  62.  f  Reinecc.  hi  Jul.  Hist. 


CHAP.  xvin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  555 

"  stain  thine  honour,  and  hast  defiled  thy  posterity,  and 
"  hast  brought  wrath  upon  thy  children,  and  felt  sorrow 
"  for  thy  folly."  chap,  xxvii. 

SECT.  VI. 

Of  the  contemporaries  of  Salomon. 

NEAR  the  beginning  of  Salomon's  reign,  Agelaus,  the 
third  of  the  Heraclidae,  in  Corinth  ;  Labotes,  in  Lacedaemon; 
and  soon  after,  Sylvius  Alba,  the  fourth  of  the  Sylvii,  swayed 
those  kingdoms ;  Laosthenes  then  governing  Assyria ;  Aga- 
stus  and  Archippus,  the  second  and  third  princes  after  Co- 
drus,  ruling  the  Athenians. 

In  the  twenty-sixth  of  Salomon's  reign,  Hiram  of  Tyre 
died,  to  whom  Baliastrus  succeeded,  and  reigned  seventeen 
years,  after  Mercator's  account,  who  reckons  the  time  of  his 
rule  by  the  age  of  his  sons,  s  Josephus  gives  him  fewer 
years.  Theophilus  Antiochenus,  against  Autolicus,  finds 
Bozorius  the  next  after  Hiram,  if  there  be  not  some  kings 
omitted  between  the  death  of  Hiram  and  the  reign  of  Bo 
zorius. 

Vaphres  being  dead,  about  the  twentieth  of  Salomon, 
Sesac,  or  Shisak,  (as  our  English  Geneva  terms  him,)  began 
to  govern  in  Egypt,  being  the  same  with  him  whom  Diocfo- 
rus  calleth  Sosachis;  Josephus,  Susac;  Cedrenus,  Susesi- 
nus ;  Eusebius,  in  the  column  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  Smen- 
des,  and  in  that  of  the  Hebrews  Susac.  Josephus,  in  the 
eighth  of  his  Antiquities,  reproveth  it  as  an  error  in  Hero 
dotus,  that  he  ascribeth  the  acts  of  Susac  to  Sesostris,  which 
perchance  Herodotus  might  have  done  by  comparison,  ac 
counting  Sesac  another  Sesostris,  for  the  great  things  he 
did. 

Of  the  great  acts  and  virtues  of  king  Sesostris  I  have 
spoken  already  in  the  story  of  the  Egyptian  princes :  only 
in  this  he  was  reproved,  that  he  caused  four  of  his  captive 
kings  to  draw  his  caroche,  when  he  was  disposed  to  be  seen, 
and  to  ride  in  triumph  :  one  of  which  four,  saith  Eutropius, 
at  such  time  as  Sesostris  was  carried  out  to  take  the  air,  cast 
?  Ant.  lib.  3. 


556  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

his  head  continually  back  upon  the  two  foremost  wheels 
next  him;  which  Sesostris  perceiving,  asked  him  what  he 
found  worthy  the  admiration  in  that  motion  :  to  whom  the 
captive  king  answered,  that  in  those  he  beheld  the  instability 
of  all  worldly  things  ;  for  that  both  the  lowest  part  of  the 
wheel  was  suddenly  carried  about,  and  became  the  highest, 
and  the  uppermost  part  was  as  suddenly  turned  downward 
and  under  all:  which  when  h  Sesostris  had  judiciously 
weighed,  he  dismissed  those  princes,  and  all  others,  from  the 
like  servitude  in  the  future.  Of  this  Sesostris,  and  that  he 
could  not  be  taken  for  Sesac,  I  have  spoken  at  large  in  that 
part  of  the  Egyptian  kings  preceding. 


CHAP.    XIX. 

Of  Salomon's  successors  until  the  end  ofJehosaphat. 

SECT.   I. 

Of  Rehoboam's  beginnings :  the  defection  of  the  ten  tribes,  and  Je 
roboam's  idolatry. 

rVEHOBOAM,  the  son  of  Salomon  by  Nahama  an  Am- 
monitess,  now  forty  years  old,  succeeded  his  father  Salo 
mon,  and  was  anointed  at  Sichem,  where  the  ten  tribes  of 
Israel  were  assembled ;  who  attended  a  while  the  return  of 
Jeroboam,  as  yet  in  Egypt,  since  he  fled  thither  fearing  Sa 
lomon.  After  his  arrival,  the  people  presented  a  petition  to 
Rehoboam,  to  be  eased  of  those  great  tributes  laid  on  them 
by  his  father  :  l  Sic  enim  Jirmius  eijvre  imperium,  si  amari 
mallet  quam  metui ;  "  So  should  his  empire,'1  saith  Jose- 
phus,  "  be  more  assured,  if  he  desired  rather  to  be  beloved 
"  than  feared :"  whereof  he  took  three  days  to  deliberate 
before  his  answer;  of  whom  therefore  it  could  not  be  said  as 
of  David,  that  he  was  wiser  than  all  his  teachers.  For  as 
of  himself  he  knew  not  how  to  resolve,  so  had  he  not  the 
judgment  to  discern  of  counsels,  which  is  the  very  test  of 
h  Hist.  Misccl.  1.  17.  i  Ant.  lib.  8.  0.3. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  557 

wisdom  in  princes,  and  in  all  men  else.  But  notwithstand 
ing  that  he  had  consulted  with  those  grave  and  advised  men 
that  served  his  father,  who  persuaded  him  by  all  means  to 
satisfy  the  multitude  ;  he  was  transported  by  his  familiars  and 
favourites,  not  only  to  continue  on  the  backs  of  his  subjects 
those  burdens  which  greatly  crushed  them ;  but  (vaunting 
falsely  of  greatness  exceeding  his  father's)  he  threatened  in 
sharp,  or  rather  in  terrible  terms,  to  lay  yet  heavier  and  more 
unsupportable  loads  on  them.  But,  as  it  appeared  by  the 
success,  those  younger  advisers  greatly  mistook  the  na 
ture  of  severity,  which  without  the  temper  of  clemency  is 
no  other  than  cruelty  itself :  they  also  were  ignorant  that  it 
ought  to  be  used  for  the  help,  and  not  for  the  harm  of  sub 
jects.  For  what  is  the  strength  of  a  king  left  by  his  people  ? 
and  what  cords  or  fetters  have  ever  lasted  long,  but  those 
which  have  been  twisted  and  forged  by  love  only  ?  His  wit 
less  parasites  could  well  judge  of  the  king's  disposition; 
and  being  well  learned  therein,  though  ignorant  in  all  things 
else,  it  sufficed  and  enabled  them  sufficiently  for  the  places 
they  held.  But  this  answer  of  Rehoboam  did  not  a  little 
advance  Jeroboam's  designs.  For  being  foretold  by  the 
prophet  Achiah  of  his  future  advancement,  these  the  king's 
threats  (changing  the  people's  love  into  fury)  confirmed  and 
gave  courage  to  his  hopes.  For  he  was  no  sooner  arrived, 
than  elected  king  of  Israel ;  the  people  crying  out,  What 
portion  have  we  in  David  ?  we  have  no  inheritance  in  the 
son  of  Ishai.  Now  though  themselves,  even  k  all  the  tribes 
of  Israel,  had  consented  to  David's  anointing  at  Hebron  the 
second  time,  acknowledging  that  they  were  his  bones  and 
his  flesh  ;  yet  now,  after  the  manner  of  rebels,  they  forgat 
both  the  bonds  of  nature  and  their  duty  to  God,  and,  as 
all  alienated  resolved  hearts  do,  they  served  themselves  for 
the  present  with  impudent  excuses.  And  now  over-late, 
and  after  time,  Rehoboam  sent  Adoram,  one  of  the  taxers 
of  the  people,  a  man  most  hateful  to  all  his  subjects,  to  pa 
cify  them,  whom  they  instantly  beat  to  death  with  stones. 
Whereupon  the  king  affrighted,  got  him  from  ]  Sichem  with 

k  2  Sam.v.  i.  '   i  Kings  xii.  21. 


558  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

all  speed,  and  recovered  Jerusalem,  where  preparing  to  invade 
Israel  with  an  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand  chosen  men, 
Shemai  in  the  person  of  God  commanding  to  the  contrary, 
all  was  stayed  for  the  present.  In  the  mean  time  Jeroboam 
the  new  king  fortified  Sechem  on  this  side,  and  Penuel  on 
the  other  side  of  Jordan ;  and  fearing  that  the  union  and 
exercise  of  one  religion  would  also  join  the  people's  hearts 
again  to  the  house  of  David,  and  having  in  all  likelihood 
also  promised  the  Egyptians  to  follow  their  idolatry,  he  set 
up  two  calves  of  gold  for  the  children  of  Israel  to  worship, 
impiously  persuading  them  that  those  were  the  gods,  or  at 
least  by  these  he  represented  those  gods,  which  delivered 
them  out  of  Egypt ;  and,  refusing  the  service  of  the  Le- 
vites,  he  made  priests  fit  for  such  gods.  It  must  needs  be, 
that  by  banishing  the  Levites,  which  served  David  and  Sa 
lomon  through  all  Israel,  Jeroboam  greatly  enriched  him 
self,  as  taking  into  his  hands  all  those  cities  which  were 
given  them  by  Moses  and  Joshua ;  for,  as  it  is  written,  the 
Levites  left  their  suburbs  and  their  possession,  and  came  to 
Juda^  &c.  This  irreligious  policy  of  Jeroboam  (which 
was  the  foundation  of  an  idolatry  that  never  could  be  rooted 
out,  until  Israel  for  it  was  rooted  out  of  the  land)  was  by 
prophecy  and  miracles  impugned  sufficiently  when  it  first 
began  ;  but  the  affections  maintaining  it  were  so  strong,  that 
neither  m  prophecy  nor  miracle  could  make  them  yield.  Je 
roboam  could  not  be  moved  now  by  the  authority  of  Ahia, 
who  from  the  Lord  had  first  promised  unto  him  the  king 
dom  ;  nor  by  the  m  withering  of  his  own  hand  as  he 
stretched  it  over  the  altar,  which  also  clave  asunder,  ac 
cording  to  the  sign  which  the  man  of  God  had  given  by  the 
commandment  of  God,  who  again  recovered  and  cured  him 
of  that  defect ;  yet  he  continued  as  obstinate  an  idolater  as 
before,  for  he  held  it  the  safest  course  in  policy  to  proceed 
as  he  had  begun.  This  impious  invention  of  Jeroboam, 
who  forsook  God,  and  the  religion  of  his  forefathers,  by 
God  and  his  ministers  taught  them,  was  by  a  modern 
historian  compared  with  the  policies  of  late  ages,  observing 

m  i  KSngsxiii.4,  5,  6. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  559 

well  the  practice  of  his  nation,  being  an  Italian  born  : 
Sic  qui  hodie,  saith  he,  politici  vocantur,  et  propria  com- 
moda,  prcesentesque  utilitates  sibi  tanquam  ultimumjinem 
constituunt,  causam  quam  vacant  status  in  capite  omnium 
ponunt :  pro  ipsa  tuenda,  promovenda,  conservanda,  am- 
plianda,  nihil  non  faciendum  putant.  Si  injuria  proximo 
irroganda,  si  justitice  honestatisque  leges  subvertendce,  si 
religio  ipsa  pessundanda,  si  denique  omnia  jura  divina  et 
humana  violanda,  nihil  intentatum,  nihil  per  fas  nefasque 
relinquendum  censent,  cuncta  ruant,  omnia  pereant,  nihil 
ad  ipsos,  modo  id,  quod  e  re  sua  esse  sibi  persuadent,  obti- 
neant,  ac  si  nullus  sit  qui  talia  curet,  castigareve  possit 
Deus ;  "So  they  who  are  now  called  politicians,  propound- 
"  ing  to  themselves,  as  their  utmost  end  and  scope,  their 
"  own  commodity  and  present  profit,  are  wont  to  allege  the 
6<  case  of  state,  forsooth,  as  the  principal  point  to  be  re- 
"  garded  :  for  the  good  of  the  state,  for  advancing,  preserv- 
"  ing,  or  increasing  of  the  state,  they  think  they  may  do 
"  any  thing.  If  they  mean  to  oppress  their  neighbour,  to 
"  overturn  all  laws  of  justice  and  honesty,  if  religion  itself 
"  must  go  to  wreck,  yea,  if  all  rights  of  God  and  man 
"  must  be  violated,  they  will  try  all  courses,  be  it  right,  be 
"  it  wrong,  they  will  do  any  thing ;  let  all  go  to  ruin,  what 
"  care  they,  so  long  as  they  may  have  what  they  would ;  as 
"  who  should  say,  there  were  no  God  that  would  offer  to 
"  meddle  in  such  matters,  or  had  power  to  correct  them.v 

Indeed  this  allegation  of  Raggione  del  Stato  did  serve  as 
well  to  uphold,  as  at  the  first  it  had  done  to  bring  in  this 
vile  idolatry  of  the  ten  tribes.  Upon  this  ground  Amazia, 
the  priest  of  Bethel,  counselled  the  prophet  n  Amos  not  to 
prophesy  at  Bethel ;  For,  said  he,  it  is  the  king's  court. 
Upon  this  ground  even  °  Jehu,  that  had  massacred  the  priests 
of  Baal  in  zeal  for  the  Lord,  yet  would  not  in  any  wise  de 
part  from  that  politic  sin  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  P  Nebat, 
which  made  Israel  to  sin.  It  was  reason  of  state  that  per 
suaded  the  last  famous  French  king,  Henry  the  Fourth,  to 
change  his  religion  ;  yet  the  protestants  whom  he  forsook 
n  Amos  vii.  13.  «  2  Kings  x.  16.  P  2  Kings  x.  31. 


560  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

obeyed  him,  but  some  of  the  papists  whom  he  followed 
murdered  him.  So  strongly  doth  the  painted  vizor  of  wise 
proceeding  delude  even  those  that  know  the  foul  face  of  im 
piety  lurking  under  it,  and  behold  the  wretched  ends  that 
have  ever  followed  it ;  whereof  Jehu  and  all  the  kings  of 
Israel  had,  and  were  themselves,  very  great  examples. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  Rehoboam1  s  impiety,  for  which  he  was  punished  by  Sesac ;  of  his 
end  and  contemporaries. 

WHILE  Jeroboam  was  occupied  in  setting  up  his  new 
religion,  Rehoboam  on  the  other  side  having  now  little  hope 
to  recover  the  provinces  lost,  strengthened  the  principal 
places  remaining  with  all  endeavour;  for  he  fortified  and 
victualled  fifteen  cities  of  <1  Juda  and  Benjamin  :  not  that 
he  feared  Jeroboam  alone,  but  the  Egyptians,  to  whom  Je 
roboam  had  not  only  fastened  himself,  but  withal  invited 
them  to  invade  Judaea ;  laying  perchance  before  them  the 
incountable  riches  of  David  and  Salomon,  which  might 
now  easily  be  had,  seeing  ten  of  the  twelve  tribes  were  re 
volted,  and  become  enemies  to  the  Judaeans.  So  as  by 
those  two  ways,  (of  late  years  often  trodden,)  to  wit,  change 
of  religion  and  invitation  of  foreign  force,  Jeroboam  hoped 
to  settle  himself  in  the  seat  of  Israel,  whom  yet  the  power 
ful  God  for  his  idolatry  in  a  few  years  after  rooted  out 
with  all  his.  Rehoboam  also,  having,  as  he  thought,  by 
r  fortifying  divers  places  assured  his  estate,  forsook  the  law 
of  the  living  God,  and  made  high  places,  and  images,  and 
groves  on  every  high  hill,  and  under  every  green  tree. 

And  therefore  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  Sesac,  or  Shi- 
shac,  before  spoken  of,  being  now  king  of  Egypt,  and  with 
whom  as  well  Adad  of  Idumaea  as  Jeroboam  were  familiar, 
and  his  instruments,  entered  s  Judaea  with  twelve  thousand 
chariots  and  threescore  thousand  horse,  besides  footmen, 
which  l  Josephus  numbers  at  four  hundred  thousand.  This 
army  was  compounded  of  four  nations;  Egyptians,  Lu- 

«  2Chron.  xi.  .  2Chron.xii.3. 

r  Kings  xiv.  13.  t  Joseph.  Ant.  8.  c.  4. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  561 

baeans,  Succaeans,  and  Cusites.  The  Lubaeans  were  Ly- 
baeans,  the  next  bordering  region  to  Egypt,  on  the  west 
side.  The  Cusites  were  of  Petraea,  and  of  the  desert  Arabia, 
which  afterwards  followed  Zerah  against  ll  Asa  king  of  Juda. 
The  Succaeans,  according  to  Junius's  opinion,  were  of  Suc- 
coth,  which  signifieth  tents :  he  doth  suppose  that  they 
were  the  Trogloditae,  mentioned  often  in  x  Pliny,  Ptolemy, 
and  other  authors.  The  Troglodites  inhabited  not  far  from 
the  banks  of  the  Red  sea,  in  twenty-two  degrees  from  the 
line  northward,  about  six  hundred  English  miles  from  the 
best  and  maritimate  part  of  Egypt ;  and  therefore  I  do 
not  think  that  the  Succims,  or  Succaei,  were  those  Troglo 
ditae,  but  rather  those  Arabians  which  Ptolemy  calls  Arabes 
jEgyptii,  or  Ichthyophagi,  which  possess  that  part  of  Egypt 
between  the  mountains  called  xAlabastrini  and  the  Red 
sea,  far  nearer  Egypt,  and  readier  to  be  levied  than  those 
removed  savages  of  the  Trogloditae. 

With  this  great  and  powerful  army  Sesac  invaded  Ju 
daea,  and  (besides  many  other  strong  cities)  won  Jerusalem 
itself,  of  which,  and  of  the  temple  and  king's  house  he  took 
the  spoil,  carrying  away  (besides  other  treasures)  the  golden 
shields  which  Salomon  had  made,"  in  imitation  of  those 
which  David  recovered  from  Adadezer  in  the  Syrian  war : 
these  Rehoboam  supplied  with  targets  of  brass,  which  were 
fit  enough  to  guard  a  king  of  his  quality ;  whom  Siracides 
calleth  the  foolishness  of  the  people. 

From  this  time  forward  the  kings  of  Egypt  claimed  the 
sovereignty  of  Judaea,  and  held  the  Jews  as  their  tributa 
ries  :  Sesac,  as  it  seems,  rendering  up  to  Rehoboam  his  places 
on  that  condition.  So  much  may  be  gathered  out  of  the 
words  of  God,  where  promising  the  deliverance  of  Juda 
after  their  humiliation,  he  doth  notwithstanding  leave  them 
under  the  yoke  of  Egypt  in  these  words:  Nevertheless 
they  (to  wit,  the  Judaeans)  shall  be  his  servants,  that  is,  the 
servants  of  Sesac. 

After  this  overthrow  and  dishonour,  Rehoboam  reigned 

u  2    Chron.  xii.  2.    2  Kings  xiv.         *  Plin.  1.6.0.29.  Ptol.Asise,  Tab. 3. 
Annot.  in  12.  Chron.  *  Cap.  47.  v.  23. 

RALEGH,  HTST.   WORLD.  VOL.  II.  O  O 


562  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

twelve  years,  and  his  losses  received  by  Sesac  notwith 
standing,  he  continued  the  war  against  Jeroboam  all  his 
lifetime.  After  his  death  Jeroboam  governed  Israel  four 
years. 

Rehoboam  lived  fifty-eight  years,  and  reigned  seventeen. 
His  story  was  written  at  large  by  Shemeiah  and  Hidden  the 
prophets,  but  the  same  perished  with  that  of  Nathan  and 
the  rest. 

With  Rehoboam,  Archippus  and  Tersippus,  the  third 
and  fourth  archontes  or  governors  for  life  after  Codrus, 
governed  in  Athens ;  Abdastrartus,  or  Abstrartus,  in  Tyre  ; 
Doristhus,  the  fifth  of  the  Heraclidae,  in  Sparta,  according  to 
z  Eusebius,  (others  make  him  the  sixth ;)  and  Priminas  the 
fourth  in  Corinth.  Over  the  Latins  reigned  Sylvius  Alba 
and  Sylvius  Atys,  the  fourth  and  fifth  of  the  Sylvii. 

About  the  twelfth  of  Rehoboam,  Abdastrartus,  king 
of  Tyre,  was  murdered  by  his  nurse's  sons,  or  foster-bre 
thren,  the  elder  of  which  usurped  the  kingdom  twelve 
years. 

Towards  his  latter  times,  Periciades,  or  Pyrithiades,  be 
gan  to  govern  Assyria,  the  34th  king  thereof :  and  not  long 
after,  Astartus,  the  son  of  Baleastartus,  recovered  the  king 
dom  of  Tyre  from  the  usurpers. 

SECT.   III. 

Of  the  great  battle  between  Jeroboam  and  Abijah,  with  a  corollary 

of  the  examples  of  God's  judgments. 

ABIJAH,  the  son  of  Rehoboam,  inherited  his  father's 
kingdom,  and  his  vices.  He  raised  an  army  of  four  hun 
dred  thousand,  with  which  he  invaded  Jeroboam,  who  en 
countered  him  with  a  double  number  of  eight  hundred 
thousand ;  both  armies  joined  near  to  the  mount  Ephraim, 
where  Jeroboam  was  utterly  overthrown,  and  the  strength 
of  Israel  broken ;  for  there  fell  of  that  side  five  hundred 
thousand,  the  greatest  overthrow  that  ever  was  given  or  re 
ceived  of  those  nations.  Abijah  being  now  master  of  the 
field,  recovered  Bethel,  Jeshanah,  and  Ephron ;  soon  after 

*  Euseb.  Chron. 


CHAP.  xrx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  563 

which  discomfiture  Jeroboam  died ;  who  reigned  in  all 
twenty-two  years.  Abijah,  the  better  to  strengthen  him 
self,  entered  into  league  with  Hesion,  the  third  of  the  Adads 
of  Syria  ;  as  may  be  gathered  out  of  2  Chron.  xvi.  23.  He 
reigned  but  three  years,  and  then  died.  The  particulars  of 
his  acts  were  written  by  Iddo  the  prophet,  as  some  part  of  his 
father's  were. 

Here  we  see  how  it  pleased  God  to  punish  the  sins  of  Sa 
lomon  in  his  son  Rehoboam  ;  first,  by  an  idolater  and  a 
traitor ;  and  then  by  the  successor  of  that  Egyptian,  whose 
daughter  Salomon  had  married,  thereby  the  better  to  assure 
his  estate,  which,  while  he  served  God,  was  by  God  assured 
against  all  and  the -greatest  neighbouring  kings,  and  when 
he  forsook  him,  it  was  torn  asunder  by  his  meanest  vassals : 
not  that  the  father  wanted  strength  to  defend  him  from  the 
Egyptian  Sesac ;  for  the  son  Abijah  was  able  to  levy  four 
hundred  thousand  men,  and  with  the  same  number  he  over 
threw  eight  hundred  thousand  Israelites,  and  slew  of  them 
five  hundred  thousand,  God  giving  spirit,  courage,  and  in 
vention,  when  and  where  it  pleaseth  him.  And  as  in  those 
times  the  causes  were  expressed,  why  it  pleased  God  to  pu 
nish  both  kings  and  their  people,  the  same  being  both  before 
and  at  the  instant  delivered  by  prophets ;  so  the  same  just 
God,  who  liveth  and  governeth  all  things  for  ever,  doth  in 
these  our  times  give  victory,  courage,  and  discourage,  raise 
and  throw  down  kings,  estates,  cities,  and  nations,  for  the 
same  offences  which  were  committed  of  old,  and  are  com 
mitted  in  the  present :  for  which  reason,  in  these  and  other  the 
afflictions  of  Israel,  always  the  causes  are  set  down,  that  they 
might  be  as  precedents  to  succeeding  ages.  They  were 
punished  with  famine  in  David's  time  for  three  years,  *for 
Saul  and  his  bloody  house,  &c.  And  David,  towards  his 
latter  end,  suffered  all  sorts  of  afflictions  and  sorrows  in 
effect,  for  Uriah.  Salomon  had  ten  tribes  of  twelve  torn 
from  his  son  for  his  idolatry.  Rehoboam  was  spoiled  of  his 
riches  and  honour  by  Sesac  of  Egypt,  because  the  people 
of  Juda  made  images,  high  places,  and  groves,  &c.  and  be- 

•  2  Sam.  xxi.  i. 

o  o  2 


564  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

cause  they  suffered  Sodomites  in  the  land.  Jeroboam  was 
punished  in  himself  and  his  posterity  for  the  golden  calves 
that  he  erected.  Joram  had  all  his  sons  slain  by  the  Philis 
tines,  and  his  very  bowels  torn  out  of  his  body  by  an  exco 
riating  flux  for  murdering  his  brethren.  Ahab  and  Jezabel 
were  slain,  the  blood  of  the  one,  the  body  of  the  other  eaten 
with  dogs,  for  the  false  accusing  and  killing  of  Naboth. 
So  also  hath  God  punished  the  same  and  the  like  sins  in  all 
after-times,  and  in  these  our  days,  by  the  same  famine,  plagues, 
war,  loss,  vexation,  death,  sickness,  and  calamities,  howso 
ever  the  wise  men  of  the  world  raise  these  effects  no  higher 
than  to  second  causes,  and  such  other  accidents;  which, 
as  being  next  their  eyes  and  ears,  seem  to  them  to  work 
every  alteration  that  happeneth. 

SECT.   IV. 

Of  Asa  and  his  contemporaries. 

TO  Abijah  succeeded  Asa,  who  enjoyed  peace  for  his 
first  ten  years,  in  which  time  he  established  the  church  of 
God,  b  breaking  down  the  altars  dedicated  to  strange  gods, 
with  their  images,  cutting  down  their  groves,  and  taking 
away  their  high  places;  He  also  spared  not  his  own  c  mother, 
who  was  an  idolatress,  but  deposing  her  from  her  regency, 
brake  her  idol,  stampt  it,  and  burnt  it. 

He  also  fortified  many  cities  and  other  places,  providing 
(as  provident  kings  do)  for  the  troubles  of  war  in  the  leisure 
of  peace.  For  not  long  after,  he  was  invaded  by  Zerah, 
who  then  commanded  all  the  Arabians  bordering  Judaea, 
and  with  such  a  multitude  entered  the  territory  of  Asa,  as 
(for  any  thing  that  I  have  read)  were  never  assembled  of 
that  nation  either  before  or  since.  For  it  is  written,  that 
there  came  against  the  Judaeans  d  Zerah  of  Ethiopia,  with 
an  host  of  ten  hundred  thousand,  and  three  hundred  cha 
riots,  which  Asa  encountered  with  an  army  of  five  hundred 
and  fourscore  thousand,  levied  out  of  those  two  tribes  of 
Juda  and  Benjamin  which  obeyed  him,  and  with  which  he 

b  2  Chron.  xiv.  c  2  Chroq.  xv.  16.  d  2  Chron.  xiv.  9. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  565 

overthrew  this  fearful  multitude,  and  had  the  spoil  both  of 
their  cities  and  camp. 

That  this  Zerah  was  not  an  Ethiopian  I  have  e  proved 
already,  and  were  it  but  the  length  between  Ethiopia  and 
Judaea,  and  the  strong  flourishing  regions  of  Egypt  inter 
jacent,  (who  would  not  suffer  a  million  of  strangers  to  pass 
through  them,)  it  were  sufficient  to  make  it  appear  how 
foolish  the  opinion  is,  that  these  invaders  were  Ethiopians. 
But  in  that  the  scriptures  acknowledge  that  Gerar  was  be 
longing  to  Zerah,  and  the  cities  thereabouts  were  spoiled  by 
the  Judagans  in  following  their  victory,  as  places  belonging 
to  Zerah,  and  that  all  men  know  that  Gerar  standeth  upon 
the  torrent  of  Besor,  which  David  passed  over  when  he  sur 
prised  the  Amalekites,  or  Arabians,  this  proveth  sufficiently 
that  Zerah  was  leader  of  the  Arabians,  and  that  f  Gerar  was 
a  frontier  town  standing  on  the  uttermost  south  border  of 
all  Judaea,  from  all  parts  of  Ethiopia  six  hundred  miles. 
Also  the  spoils  which  Asa  took,  as  the  cattle,  camels,  and 
sheep,  whereof  he  sacrificed  five  thousand,  shew  them  to  be 
Arabians  adjoining,  and  not  far  off,  and  not  unknown  to  the 
Ethiopians.  And  if  it  be  objected,  that  these  desert  coun 
tries  can  hardly  yield  a  million  of  men  fit  for  the  wars,  I 
answer,  that  it  is  as  like  that  Arabia  Petraea  and  the  desert, 
which  compass  two  parts  of  the  Holy  Land,  should  yield 
ten  hundred  thousand,  as  that  two  tribes  of  the  twelve  should 
arm  five  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand.  Besides,  it  an- 
swereth  to  the  promise  of  God  to  Abraham,  that  these  na 
tions  should  exceed  in  number ;  for  God  spake  it  of  Is- 
mael,  that  he  would  make  him  fruitful,  and  multiply  him 
exceedingly,  that  he  should  beget  twelve  princes,  &c. 

5  Baasha,  a  king  of  Israel,  began  to  reign  in  the  third  of 
Asa,  and  fearing  the  greatness  of  Asa  after  his  great  vic 
tory,  entertained  Benhadad  king  of  Syria,  of  the  race  of 
Adadezer,  to  join  with  him  against  Asa ;  and  to  the  end  to 
block  him  up,  he  fortified  Rama,  which  lieth  in  the  way  from 
Jerusalem  towards  Samaria. 

'  In  the  former  book,  ch.  4.  sect.          f  2  Chron.  xiv. 
14.  item,  ch.  8.  sect.  10.  §.6.  *  2  Chron.  xvi.  i. 

oo3 


566  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

This  war  began,  according  to  the  letter  of  the  scriptures, 
in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  Asa's  reign;  but  because  in 
1  Kings  xvi.  it  is  said  that  Baasha  died  in  the  twenty-sixth 
year  of  Asa,  therefore  could  not  Baasha  begin  this  war  in 
the  thirty-fifth  of  Asa's  reign,  but  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of 
the  division  of  Juda  and  Israel ;  for  so  many  years  it  was 
from  the  first  of  Rehoboam,  who  reigned  seventeen  years, 
to  the  sixteenth  of  Asa.  It  may  seem  strange,  that  Asa 
being  able  to  bring  into  the  field  an  army  of  five  hundred 
and  fourscore  thousand  good  soldiers,  did  not  easily  drive 
away  Baasha,  and  defeat  him  of  his  purposes,  the  victories  of 
Abia  against  Jeroboam,  and  of  Asa  himself  against  Zerah 
being  yet  fresh  in  mind,  which  might  well  have  embold 
ened  the  men  of  Juda,  and  as  much  disheartened  the  ene 
mies.  Questionless  there  were  some  important  circumstances 
omitted  in  the  text,  which  caused  Asa  to  fight  at  this  time 
with  money.  It  may  be,  that  the  employment  of  so  many 
hundred  thousands  of  hands  in  the  late  service  against  Ze 
rah,  had  caused  many  men's  private  businesses  to  lie  undes- 
patched,  whereby  the  people,  being  now  intentive  to  the  cul 
ture  of  their  lands,  and  other  trades,  might  be  unwilling  to 
stir  against  the  Israelites,  choosing  rather  to  wink  at  appa 
rent  inconvenience,  which  the  building  of  Rama  would 
bring  upon  them  in  after-times.  Such  backwardness  of  the 
people  might  have  deterred  Asa  from  adventuring  himself 
with  the  least  part  of  his  forces,  and  committing  the  success 
into  the  hands  of  God.  Howsoever  it  were,  he  took  the 
treasures  remaining  in  the  temple,  with  which  he  waged 
Benhadad  the  Syrian  against  Baasha,  whose  employments 
Benhadad  readily  accepted,  and  brake  off  confederacy  with 
Baasha.  For  the  Israelites  were  his  borderers  and  next 
neighbours,  whom  neither  himself  (after  his  invasion)  nor 
his  successors  after  him  ever  gave  over  till  they  had  made 
themselves  masters  of  that  kingdom.  So  h  Benhadad  being 
now  entered  into  Nephthalim  without  resistance,  he  spoiled 
divers  principal  cities  thereof,  and  enforced  »  Baasha  to  quit 
Ramah,  and  to  leave  the  same  to  Asa  with  all  the  materials 
h  2  Chron.  xvi.  4.  i  x  Kings  xv. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  567 

which  he  had  brought  thither  to  fortify  the  same ;  which 
done,  Benhadad,  who  loved  neither  party,  being  loaden  with 
the  spoils  of  Israel  and  the  treasures  of  Juda,  returned  to 
Damascus.  After  this,  when  Hanani  the  prophet  repre 
hended  Asa  in  that  he  now  relied  on  the  strength  of  Syria, 
and  did  not  rest  himself  on  the  favour  and  assistance  of 
God,  he  not  only  caused  Hanani  to  be  imprisoned,  but  he 
began  to  burden  and  oppress  his  people,  and  was  therefore 
stricken  with  the  grievous  pains  of  the  gout  in  his  feet, 
wherewith  after  he  had  been  two  years  k  continually  tor 
mented,  he  gave  up  the  ghost  when  he  had  reigned  forty- 
one  years. 

There  lived  with  Asa,  Agesilaus  the  sixth  of  the  Hera- 
clidae,  and  Bacis  the  fifth  king  of  the  same  race  in  Corinth, 
of  whom  his  successors  were  afterwards  called  Bacidse. 
Astartus  and  Astarimus  were  kings  in  Tyre.  1  Astarimus 
took  revenge  on  his  brother  Phelletes,  for  the  murder  of 
Ithobalus,  priest  of  the  goddess  Astarta,  whom  Salomon  in 
dotage  worshipped.  Atys  and  Capys  ruled  the  Latins : 
Pyrithiades  and  Ophrateus  the  Assyrians :  Tersippus  and 
Phorbas  the  Athenians :  Chemmis  reigned  in  Egypt ;  who 
dying  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  Asa,  left  Cheops  his  suc 
cessor  that  reigned  fifty-six  years,  even  to  the  sixteenth  of 

Joas. 

SECT.   V. 

Of  the  great  alteration  falling  out  in  the  ten  tribes  during  the  reign 
of  Asa. 

IN  the  reign  of  Asa  the  kingdom  of  Israel  felt  great  and 
violent  commotions,  which  might  have  reduced  the  ten  tribes 
unto  their  former  allegiance  to  the  house  of  David,  if  the 
wisdom  of  God  had  not  otherwise  determined.  The  wicked 
ness  of  Jeroboam  had,  in  his  latter  days,  the  sentence  of 
heavy  vengeance  laid  upon  it  by  the  mouth  of  Ahia,  the 
same  prophet  which  had  foretold  the  division  of  Israel,  for 
the  sin  of  Salomon,  and  his  reign  over  the  ten  tribes.  One 
son  Jeroboam  had,  among  others,  in  whom  only  God  found 
so  much  piety,  as  (though  it  sufficed  not  to  withhold  his 
k  2  Chron,  xvi.  '  Euseb.  in  C'hron. 

o  o  4 


568  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

wrath  from  that  family)  it  procured  unto  him  a  peaceable 
end  ;  an  honourable  testimony  of  the  people's  love,  by  their 
general  mourning  and  lamentation  at  his  death,  and  (wherein 
he  was  most  happy)  the  favourable  approbation  of  God 
himself. 

After  the  loss  of  this  good  son,  the  ungodly  father  was 
soon  taken  away :  a  miserable  creature,  so  conscious  of  his 
vile  unthankfulness  to  God,  that  he  durst  not  suffer  his  own 
name  to  be  used  in  consulting  with  an  holy  prophet,  assured 
of  the  ruin  hanging  over  him  and  his,  yea,  of  God's  extreme 
hatred ;  yet  forbearing  to  destroy  those  accursed  idols  that 
wrought  his  confusion.  So  loath  he  Avas  to  forsake  his 
worldly  wisdom,  when  the  world  was  ready  to  forsake  him 
and  all  belonging  to  him,  his  hateful  memory  excepted. 

Nadab,  the  son  of  Jeroboam,  reigned  in  the  second  and 
third  years  of  Asa,  which  are  reckoned  as  two  years,  though 
indeed  his  father's  last  year  of  two  and  twenty  did  run 
along  (how  far  is  uncertain)  with  the  second  of  m  Asa,  whose 
third  year  was  the  first  of  Baasha ;  so  that  perhaps  this  Na 
dab  enjoyed  not  his  kingdom  one  whole  year.  He  did  not 
alter  his  father's  courses,  neither  did  God  alter  his  sentence. 
It  seems  that  he  little  feared  the  judgments  denounced 
against  his  father's  house ;  for  as  a  prince  that  was  secure 
of  his  own  estate,  he  armed  all  Israel  against  the  Philistines, 
and  besieged  one  of  their  towns.  There  (whether  it  were 
so,  that  the  people  were  offended  with  his  ill  success,  and  re 
called  to  mind  their  grievous  loss  of  five  hundred  thousand 
under  Jeroboam,  counting  it  an  unlucky  family  to  the  na 
tion  ;  or  whether  by  some  particular  indiscretion  he  exas 
perated  them)  slain  he  was  by  Baasha,  whom  the  army  did 
willingly  accept  for  king  in  his  stead.  Baasha  was  no 
sooner  proclaimed  king,  than  he  began  to  take  order  with 
the  house  of  Jeroboam,  that  none  of  them  might  molest 
him,  putting  all  of  them,  without  mercy,  to  the  sword. 
That  he  did  this  for  private  respects,  and  not  in  regard  of 
God's  will  to  have  it  so,  it  is  evident,  by  his  continuing  in 
the  same  form  of  idolatry  which  Jeroboam  had  begun. 
m  i  Kings  xv.  25. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  569 

Wherefore  he  received  the  same  sentence  from  God  that 
had  been  laid  upon  Jeroboam,  which  was  executed  upon 
him  also  in  the  same  sort.  He  began  to  infest  Asa,  by  for 
tifying  Rama ;  but  was  diverted  from  thence  by  the  Sy 
rian  Benhadad,  who  did  waste  his  country,  destroying  all 
the  land  of  Nephthalim.  Four  and  twenty  years  he  reigned ; 
and  then  dying,  left  the  crown  to  Elah  his  son,  who  en 
joyed  it,  as  Nadab  the  son  of  Jeroboam  had  done,  two  years 
current,  perhaps  not  one  complete. 

Elah  was  as  much  an  idolater  as  his  father,  and  withal  a 
riotous  person.  He  sent  an  army  against  Gibbethon,  the 
same  town  of  the  Philistines  before  which  Nadab  the  son  of 
Jeroboam  perished  ;  but  he  sat  at  home  the  whilst,  feasting 
and  drinking  with  his  minions,  whereby  he  gave  such  ad 
vantage  against  himself  as  was  not  neglected.  Zimri,  an 
ambitious  man,  remaining  with  the  king  at  Tirzah,  finding 
his  master  so  dissolute,  and  his  behaviour  so  contemptible, 
conceived  hope  of  the  like  fortune  as  Baasha  had  found,  by 
doing  as  Baasha  had  done :  wherefore  he  did  set  upon  Elah 
in  his  drunkenness,  and  slew  him.  Presently  upon  which 
fact,  he  styled  himself  king  of  Israel,  and  began  his  reign 
with  massacreing  all  the  house  of  Baasha ;  extending  his 
cruelty  not  only  to  his  children  and  kinsfolk,  but  unto  all 
his  friends  in  Tirzah.  These  news  were  quickly  blown  to 
the  camp  at  Gibbethon,  where  they  were  not  welcomed  ac 
cording  to  Zimri's  expectation.  For  the  soldiers,  instead  of 
proclaiming  him  king,  proclaimed  him  traitor:  and  being 
led  by  Omri,  whom  they  saluted  king,  they  (quitting  the 
siege  of  Gibbethon)  presented  themselves 'before  Tirzah, 
which  in  short  space  they  may  seem  to  have  forced.  Zimri 
wanting  strength  to  defend  the  city,  not  courage  to  keep 
himself  from  falling  alive  into  his  enemies'*  hands,  did  set  fire 
on  the  palace,  consuming  it  and  himself  together  to  ashes. 
Seven  days  he  is  said  to  have  reigned ;  accounting  (as  is 
most  likely)  to  the  time  that  Omri  was  proclaimed  in  the 
camp.  For  Zimri  was  also  an  idolater,  walking  in  the  way 
of  Jeroboam,  1  Kings  xvi.  19,  and  therefore  is  likely  to  have 
had  more  time  wherein  to  declare  himself  than  the  reign  of 


570  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

seven  days,  and  those  consumed  partly  in  murdering  the 
friends  of  Baasha,  partly  in  seeking  to  have  defended  his 
own  life.  After  the  death  of  Elah,  there  arose  another  king 
to  oppose  the  faction  of  Omri ;  whereby  it  may  seem  that 
Zimri  had  made  his  party  strong,  as  being  able  to  set  up  a 
new  head,  who  doubtless  would  never  have  appeared,  if 
there  had  not  been  ready  to  his  hand  some  strength,  not  un 
likely  to  resist  and  vanquish  the  army  which  maintained 
Omri.  How  long  this  Tibni,  the  new  competitor  of  Omri, 
held  out,  I  do  not  find ;  only  it  appears  that  his  side  was 
decayed,  and  so  he  died,  leaving  no  other  successor  than  his 
concurrent. 

SECT.    VI. 

A  conjecture  of  the  causes   hindering  the  reunion  of  Israel  with 
Juda,  which  might  have  been  effected  by  these  troubles. 

ANY  man  that  shall  consider  the  state  of  Israel  in  those 
times,  may  justly  wonder  how  it  came  to  pass,  that  either 
the  whole  nation,  wearied  with  the  calamities  already  suffered 
under  these  unfortunate  princes,  and  with  the  present  civil 
wars,  did  not  return  to  their  ancient  kings,  and  reunite 
themselves  with  the  mighty  tribes  of  J.uda  and  Benjamin  ; 
or.that  Zimri  and  Tibni,  with  their  oppressed  factions,  did 
not  call  in  Asa,  but  rather  chose,  the  one  to  endure  a  des 
perate  necessity  of  yielding,  or  burning  himself,  the  other  to 
languish  away,  a  man  forsaken  ;  than  to  have  recourse  unto 
a  remedy  so  sure,  so  ready,  and  so  honourable.  To  say 
that  God  was  pleased  to  have  it  so,  were  a  true,  but  an  idle 
answer,  (for  his  secret  will  is  the  cause  of  all  things,)  unless 
it  could  be  proved,  that  he  had  forbidden  Asa  to  deal  in 
that  business,  as  he  forbade  Rehoboam  to  force  the  rebel 
lious  people  to  obedience.  That  the  restraint  laid  by  God 
upon  Rehoboam  did  only  bind  his  hands  from  attempting 
the  suppression  of  that  present  insurrection,  it  appears  by 
the  war  continued  between  Israel  and  Juda  so  many  years 
following;  wherein  Abia  so  far  prevailed,  that  he  won  a 
great  battle,  and  recovered  some  towns  belonging  to  the 
other  tribes,  which  he  annexed  to  his  own  dominion. 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  571 

Wherefore  we  may  boldly  look  into  the  second  causes, 
moving  the  people  and  leaders  of  the  ten  tribes  to  suffer  any 
thing  under  new  upstarts,  rather  than  to  .cast  their  eyes 
upon  that  royal  house  of  David,  from  which  the  succession 
of  five  kings  in  lineal  descent  had  taken  away  all  imputa 
tion  that  might  formerly  have  been  laid  upon  the  mean  be 
ginnings  thereof.  To  think  that  Omri  had  prevented  his 
competitors,  in  making  peace  with  Asa,  were  a  conjecture 
more  bold  than  probable.  For  Omri  was  not  only  an  idol 
ater,  n  but  did  worse  than  all  that  were  before  him  ;  which, 
as  it  might  serve  alone  to  prove  that  Asa,  being  a  godly  king, 
would  not  adhere  to  him,  so  the  course  which  he  professed 
to  take  at  the  very  first,  of  revenging  the  massacre  com 
mitted  upon  the  family  and  friends  of  Baasha,  (Asa  his 
mortal  enemy,)  gives  manifest  reason  why  Zimri,  who  had 
wrought  that  great  execution,  should  more  justly  than  he 
have  expected  the  friendship  of  Juda  in  that  quarrel. 
Wherefore,  in  searching  out  the  reason  of  this  backwardness 
in  the  ten  tribes  (which  was  such  that  they  may  seem  to 
have  never  thought  upon  the  matter)  to  submit  themselves 
to  their  true  princes,  it  were  not  amiss  to  examine  the 
causes,  moving  the  people  to  revenge  the  death  of  Elah,  an 
idle  drunkard,  rather  than  of  Nadab  the  son  of  Jeroboam, 
who  followed  the  wars  in  person,  as  a  man  of  spirit  and 
courage.  Surely  it  is  apparent,  that  the  very  first  defec 
tion  of  the  ten  tribes  was  (if  we  look  upon  human  rea 
son)  occasioned  by  desire  of  breaking  that  heavy  yoke  of 
bondage  wherewith  Salomon  had  galled  their  necks.  Their 
desire  was  to  have  a  king  that  should  not  oppress  them, 
not  to  have  no  king  at  all.  And  therefore  when  the  arro 
gant  folly  of  Rehoboam  had  caused  them  to  renounce  him, 
they  did  immediately  choose  Jeroboam  in  his  stead,  as  a 
man  likely  to  afford  that  liberty  unto  them,  for  which  he  had 
contended  in  their  behalf.  Neither  were  they,  as  it  seems, 
herein  altogether  deceived :  for  his  affection  of  popularity 
appears  in  his  building  of  decayed  towns,  and  in  the  insti- 
"  i  Kings  xvi.  25. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

tution  of  his  new  devised  idolatry ;  where  he  told  the  people, 
that  it  was  too  much  for  them  to  travel  so  far  as  Jerusalem. 
But  whether  it  were  so  that  his  moderation,  being  volun 
tary,  began  to  cease  towards  the  latter  end  of  his  reign,  and 
in  the  reign  of  his  son,  when  long  time  of  possession  had 
confirmed  his  title,  which  at  the  first  was  only  good  by 
courtesy  of  the  people ;  or  whether  the  people  (as  often 
happens  in  such  cases)  were  more  offended  by  some  prero 
gatives  of  a  king  that  he  still  retained  in  his  own  hands,  than 
pleased  with  his  remission  of  other  burdens ;  it  is  clearly 
apparent,  that  the  whole  army  of  all  Israel  joined  with 
Baasha,  taking  in  good  part  the  death  of  Nadab  and  eradi 
cation  of  Jeroboam's  house. 

Now  the  reign  of  Baasha  himself  was  (for  ought  that  re- 
maineth  in  writing  of  it)  every  way  unfortunate ;  his  labour 
and  cost  at  Rama  was  cast  away ;  the  other  side  of  his 
kingdom  harried  by  the  Syrians ;  neither  did  he  win  that  one 
town  of  Gibbethon  from  the  Philistines,  but  left  that  bu 
siness  to  his  son,  who  likewise  appears  an  unprofitable  slug 
gard.  Wherefore  it  must  needs  be,  that  the  favour  of  the 
people  towards  the  house  of  Baasha  grew  from  his  good 
form  of  civil  government,  which  happily  he  reduced  to  a 
more  temperate  method  than  Jeroboam  ever  meant  to  do. 
And  surely  he  that  shall  take  pains  to  look  into  those  ex 
amples  which  are  extant  of  the  different  courses  held  by  the 
kings  of  Israel  and  Juda,  in  administration  of  justice,  will 
find  it  most  probable,  that  upon  this  ground  it  was  that  the 
ten  tribes  continued  so  averse  from  the  line  of  David,  as  to 
think  all  adversity  more  tolerable  than  the  weighty  sceptre 
of  that  house.  For  the  death  of  Joab  and  Shimei  was  in 
deed  by  them  deserved  ;  yet  in  that  they  suffered  it  without 
form  of  judgment,  they  suffered  like  unto  men  innocent. 
The  death  of  Adonijah  was  both  without  judgment  and 
without  any  crime  objected,  other  than  the  king's  jealousy  ; 
out  of  which,  by  the  same  rule  of  arbitrary  justice,  (under 
which  it  may  be  supposed  that  many  were  cast  away,)  he 
would  have  slain  Jeroboam  (if  he  could  have  caught  him) 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  573 

before  he  had  yet  committed  any  offence,  as  appears  by  his 
confident  return  out  of  Egypt,  like  one  that '  was  known  to 
have  endured  wrong,  having  not  offered  any. 

The  like  and  much  more  barbarous  execution,  to  wit, 
without  law,  Jehoram  did  upon  his  brethren,  and  upon  sun 
dry  of  his  greatest  men ;  as  also  Joash  did  so  put  to  death 
Zachariah,  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  who  had  made  him  king, 
°even  in  the  court  of  the  house  of  the  Lord:  P  and  Ma- 
nasses  did  shed  innocent  blood  exceeding  much)  till  he  re- 
plenished  Jerusalem  from  corner  to  corner :  and  this  was 
imputed  to  him  as  another  fault,  besides  his  sin  wherewith 
he  made  Juda  to  sin.  Contrariwise,  among  the  kings  of 
Israel  we  find  no  monument  of  such  arbitrary  proceeding, 
unless  perhaps  the  words  of  Jehoram  the  son  of  Ahab 
(which  were  but  words)  may  be  taken  for  an  instance,  when 
he  said,  Q  God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  the  head  of 
Elisha  the  son  of  Shaphat  shall  stand  on  him  this  day  : 
whereby  it  is  not  plain  whether  he  meant  to  kill  him  with 
out  more  ado,  or  to  have  him  condemned  as  a  false  prophet, 
that  had  made  them  hold  out  against  the  Aramites,  till  they 
were  fain  to  eat  their  own  children ;  which  he  thought  a 
sufficient  argument  to  prove,  that  it  was  not  God's  purpose 
to  deliver  them.  The  death  of  Naboth  sheweth  rather  the 
liberty  which  the  Israelites  enjoyed,  than  any  peremptory 
execution  of  the  king's  will.  For  Naboth  did  not  fear  to 
stand  upon  his  own  right,  though  Ahab  were  even  sick  for 
anger,  neither  was  he  for  that  cause  put  to  death,  as  upon 
commandment,  but  made  away  by  conspiracy,  the  matter 
being  handled  after  a  judicial  form,  which  might  give  satis 
faction  to  the  people,  ignorant  of  the  device,  though  to  God 
it  could  not. 

The  murder  of  the  prophets  is  continually  ascribed  to  Je- 
zabel,  an  impotent  woman,  and  not  unto  the  king  her  hus 
band.  Neither  is  it  certain  that  there  was  no  law  made, 
whereby  their  lives  were  taken  from  them  ;  but  certain  it 
is,  that  the  people,  being  r  idolaters,  were  both  pleased  with 

0  2  Chron.  xxiv.  21.  12  Kings  vi.  31. 

P  2  Kings  xxi.  16.  r  2  Kings  xix.  10. 


574  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

their  death,  and  laboured  in  the  execution.  So  that  the 
doings  of  the  kings  of  Juda  (such  as  are  registered)  prove 
them  to  have  used  a  more  absolute  manner  of  command 
than  the  kings  of  the  ten  tribes.  Neither  do  their  sufferings 
witness  the  contrary :  for  of  those  which  reigned  over  Juda, 
from  the  division  of  the  kingdom  to  the  captivity  of  the 
ten  tribes,  three  were  slain  by  the  people,  and  two  were  de 
nied  a  place  of  burial  amongst  their  ancestors.  Yea,  the 
death  of  Ahaziah  and  his  brethren,  slain  by  Jehu,  with  the 
destruction  of  all  the  royal  seed  by  Athalia,  did  not  (for 
ought  that  we  can  read)  stir  up  in  the  people  any  such  thirst 
of  revenge,  as  might  by  the  suddenness  and  uniformity 
testify  the  affection  to  be  general,  and  proceeding  from  a 
loving  remembrance  of  their  princes ;  unless  we  should 
think  that  the  death  of  Athalia,  after  seven  years  reign, 
were  occasioned  rather  by  the  memory  of  her  ill  purchasing, 
than  by  the  present  sense  of  her  tyrannical  abusing  the  go 
vernment  whereon  she  had  seized.  On  the  other  side,  such 
of  the  kings  of  Israel  as  perished  by  treason,  (which  were 
seven  of  the  twenty,)  were  all  slain  by  conspiracy  of  the 
great  men,  who  aspired  by  treason  to  the  crown  ;  the  people 
being  so  far  from  embruing  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their 
sovereigns,  that  (after  Nadab)  they  did  never  forbear  to  re 
venge  the  death  of  their  kings,  when  it  lay  in  their  power, 
nor  approve  the  good  success  of  treason,  unless  fear  com 
pelled  them.  So  that  the  death  of  two  kings  being  throughly 
revenged  upon  other  two,  namely,  the  death  of  Elah  and 
Zacharia,  upon  Zimri  and  Shallum,  who  traitorously  got 
and  usurped  for  a  little  while  their  places ;  only  three  of 
the  seven  remain,  whose  ends  how  the  people  took,  it  may 
be  doubtful.  Though  indeed  it  is  precisely  said  of  the 
slaughter,  committed  on  AhaVs  children  by  Jehu,  that  the 
people  durst  not  fight  with  him  that  did  it,  because  s  they 
were  exceedingly  afraid :  and  the  same  fear  might  be  in 
them  at  the  death  of  Peka,  whose  history  (as  others  of  that 
time)  is  cursorily  passed  over.  The  like  may  be  pronounced, 
and  more  absolutely,  of  the  kings  of  England,  that  never 

*  2  Kings  x.  4. 


« 

CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  575 

any  of  them  perished  by  fury  of  the  people,  but  by  trea 
son  of  such  as  did  succeed  them ;  neither  was  there  any 
motive  urging  so  forcibly  the  death  of  king  Edward  and 
king  Richard,  when  they  were  in  prison,  as  fear  lest  the 
people  should  stir  in  their  quarrel.  And  certainly  (how 
soever  all  that  the  law  calls  treason,  be  interpreted  as  tend 
ing  finally  to  the  king's  destruction)  in  those  treasonable  in 
surrections  of  the  vulgar,  which  have  here  most  prevailed, 
the  fury  of  the  multitude  hath  quenched  itself  with  the  blood 
of  some  great  officers ;  no  such  rebellions,  howsoever  wicked 
and  barbarous  otherwise,  thirsting  after  the  ruin  of  their  na 
tural  sovereign,  but  rather  forbearing  the  advantages  gotten 
upon  his  royal  person  ;  which  if  any  man  impute  unto  gross 
ignorance,  another  may  more  charitably,  and,  I  think,  more 
truly,  ascribe  to  a  reverent  affection.  Wherefore  that  fable 
of  Briareus,  who,  being  loosened  by  Pallas,  did  with  his 
hundred  hands  give  assistance  to  Jupiter,  when  all  the  rest 
of  the  gods  conspired  against  him,  is  very  fitly  expounded 
by  sir  Francis  Bacon,  as  signifying,  that  monarchs  need  not 
to  fear  any  curbing  of  their  absoluteness  by  mighty  sub 
jects,  as  long  as  by  wisdom  they  keep  the  hearts  of  the 
people,  who  will  be  sure  to  come  in  on  their  side.  Though 
indeed  the  story  might  very  well  have  borne  the  same  inter 
pretation  as  it  is  rehearsed  by  Homer,  who  tells  us,  that  Pal 
las  was  one  of  the  conspiracy,  and  that  Thetis  alone  did  mar 
all  their  practice  by  loosening  Briareus.  For  a  good  form 
of  government  sufficeth  by  itself  to  retain  the  people,  not 
only  without  assistance  of  a  laborious  wit,  but  even  against 
all  devices  of  the  greatest  and  shrewdest  politicians ;  every 
sheriff  and  constable  being  sooner  able  to  arm  the  multitude 
in  the  king's  behalf,  than  any  overweening  rebel,  how  mighty 
soever,  can  against  him. 

This  declaration  of  the  people's  love  being  seldom  found 
in  Juda,  makes  it  very  likely  that  the  rule  itself  of  govern 
ment  there  was  such,  as  neither  gave  occasion  of  content 
ment  unto  the  subjects,  nor  of  confidence  in  their  good 
affection  to  the  kings.  Upon  which  reasons  it  may.  seem 
that  the  multitude  was  kept  usually  disarmed ;  for  other- 


576  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

wise  it  would  have  been  almost  impossible,  that  Athalia,  the 
sister  of  Ahab,  a  stranger  to  the  royal  blood  of  Juda,  should 
by  the  only  authority  of  a  queen-mother  have  destroyed  all 
the  seed  of  David,  and  usurped  the  kingdom  very  near  se 
ven  years,  without  finding  any  resistance.  Yea,  when  Je- 
hoiada  the  high  priest  had  agreed  with  the  captains  and 
principal  men  of  the  land  to  set  up  Joash  their  lawful  king, 
whereunto  the  whole  nation  were  generally  well  affected, 
he  was  fain  to  give  to  these  captains  and  their  men  the 
spears  and  the  shields  that  were  king  David's,  and  were  in 
the  house  of  the  Lord.  But  we  need  riot  enter  into  such 
particulars.  Questionless,  the  tribes  which  thought  obe 
dience  to  their  princes  to  be  a  part  of  their  duty  towards 
God,  would  endure  much  more  with  patience,  than  they 
which  had  kings  of  their  own  choice  or  admission,  ^holding 
the  crown  by  a  more  uncertain  tenure. 

And  this,  in  my  opinion,  was  the  reason,  why  the  ten 
tribes  did  never  seek  to  return  to  their  ancient  lords ;  but 
after  the  destruction  of  their  six  first  kings,  which  died  in 
the  reign  of  Asa,  admitted  a  seventh  of  a  new  family,  rather 
than  they  would  consubject  themselves,  with  those  of  Juda 
and  Benjamin,  under  a  more  honourable,  but  more  heavy 
yoke. 

So  Asa,  having  seen  the  death  of  seven  kings  of  Israel, 
died  himself  after  forty-one  years  reign,  leaving  Jehoshaphat 
his  son  to  deal  with  Ahab  the  son  of  Omri,  who  was  the 
eighth  king  over  the  ten  tribes. 

SECT.    VII. 

Of  Jehoshaphat  and  his  contemporaries. 

JEHOSHAPHAT,  who  succeeded  Asa,  was  a  prince 
religious  and  happy  :  he  destroyed  all  the  groves,  altars, 
and  high  places  dedicated  to  idolatry,  and  sent  teachers  to 
all  places  and  people  wanting  instruction :  he  recovered  the 
tribute  due  unto  him  by  the  Arabians  and  Philistines ;  from 
the  one  he  had  silver,  from  the  other  sheep  and  goats  to  the 
number  of  fifteen  thousand  and  four  hundred.  The  num 
bers  of  his  men  of  war  were  more  than  admirable :  for  it  is 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  577 

written  that  *Adnah  had  the  command  of  three  hundred 
thousand,  Jehohanan  of  two  hundred  and  fourscore  thou 
sand,  and  Amasia  of  two  hundred  thousand ;  also  that  he 
had,  besides  these,  in  Benjamin,  of  those  that  bare  shields, 
which  we  call  targeteers,  and  of  archers  under  Eliada,  two 
hundred  thousand,  and  under  the  commandment  of  Jehoza- 
bad  a  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand ;  which  numbered 
together  make  eleven  hundred  and  sixty  thousand ;  all  which 
are  said  to  have  waited  upon  the  king,  besides  his  garrisons. 
That  Juda  and  Benjamin,  a  territory  not  much  exceed 
ing  the  county  of  Kent,  should  muster  eleven  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  fighting  men,  it  is  very  strange,  and  the 
number  far  greater  than  it  was  found  upon  any  other  view. 
u  Joab  in  David^s  time  found  five  hundred  thousand  ;  Re- 
hoboam  found  but  an  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand ; 
Abia  four  hundred  and  eight  thousand  ;  Asa  five  hundred 
and  fourscore  thousand :  Amasiah  enrolled  all  that  could 
bear  arms,  and  they  amounted  to  three  hundred  thousand  ; 
Uzziah,  three  hundred  and  seven  thousand  and  five  hun 
dred.  Surely,  whereas  it  is  written,  that  when  news  was 
brought  to  Jehoshaphat,  that  Moab  and  Ammon  were  en 
tered  his  territory  to  the  west  of  Jordan,  and  that  their 
numbers  were  many,  he  feared  (to  wit)  the  multitude,  it  is 
not  likely  that  he  would  have  feared  even  the  army  of 
Xerxes,  if  he  could  have  brought  into  the  field  eleven  hun 
dred  and  threescore  thousand  fighting  men,  leaving  all  his 
strong  cities  manned.  I  am  therefore  of  opinion,  (referring 
myself  to  better  judgment,)  that  these  numbers  specified  in 
the  second  of  Chronicles  the  seventeenth,  distributed  to  se 
veral  leaders,  were  not  all  at  one  time,  but  that  the  three 
hundred  thousand  under  Adnah,  and  the  two  hundred  and 
fourscore  thousand  under  Jehohanan  were  afterwards  com 
manded  and  mustered  by  Amasiah,  Eliada,  and  Jehozabad ; 
for  the  gross  and  total  is  not  in  that  place  set  down,  as  it 
was  under  the  other  kings  formerly  named.  Again,  as  the 
aids  which  Jehoshaphat  brought  to  Ahab  did  not  shew  that 
he  was  a  prince  of  extraordinary  power,  so  the  Moabites 

1  2  Chron.  xvii.  "  2  Sam.  xxiv.  4. 

liALEGH    HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  P 


578  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

and  Ammonites,  which  he  feared,  could  never  make  the  one 
half  of  those  numbers  which  he  that  commanded  least  among 
Jehoshaphat's  leaders  had  under  him. 

This  mighty  prince,  notwithstanding  his  greatness,  yet 
he  joined  in  friendship  with  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  who  had 
married  that  wicked  woman  Jezabel.  Him  Jehoshaphat 
visited  at  Samaria,  and  caused  his  son  Joram  to  marry  Atha- 
liah,  this  Ahab's  daughter. 

Ahab  persuaded  Jehoshaphat  to  assist  him  in  the  war 
against  the  Syrians,  who  held  the  city  of  Ramoth-Gilead 
from  him,  and  called  together  four  hundred  of  his  prophets, 
or  Baalites,  to  foretell  the  success,  who  promised  him  vic 
tory.  But  Jehoshaphat  believed  nothing  at  all  in  those  di 
viners,  but  resolved  first  of  all  to  confer  with  some  one 
prophet  of  the  Lord  God  of  Israel.  Hereupon  Ahab  made 
answer,  that  he  had  one  called  Michaiah,  but  he  hated  that 
prophet,  because  he  always  foretold  of  evil,  and  never  of  any 
good  towards  him.  Yet  sent  for  Michaiah  was  to  the  king, 
but  by  the  way  the  messenger  prayed  him  to  consent  with 
the  rest  of  the  prophets,  and  to  promise  victory  unto  them, 
as  they  did.  But  Michaiah  spake  the  truth,  and  repeated 
his  vision  to  both  kings,  which  was,  That  God  asked  who 
shall  persuade  Ahab>  that  he  may  go  up  and  fall  at  Ramoth- 
Gilead  ?  To  whom  a  spirit  that  stood  before  the  Lord  an 
swered,  that  he  would  enter  into  his  prophets,  and  be  in 
them  a  false  spirit  to  delude.  For  as  it  is  said  by  Christ, 
Non  enim  vos  estis  qui  loquimini,  sed  SpirituS  Patris  vestri 
loquitur  in  vobis  ;  "It  is  not  you  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit 
"  of  your  Father  speaks  in  you  :"  so  in  a  contrary  kind  did 
the  Devil  in  the  prophets  of  Baal,  or  Satan,  encourage  Ahab 
to  his  destruction.  And  as  P.  Martyr  upon  this  place  well 
observeth,  these  evil  spirits  are  the  ministers  of  God's  ven 
geance,  and  are  used  as  the  hangmen  and  tormentors  which 
princes  sometimes  employ.  For  as  it  pleaseth  God  by  his 
good  angels  to  save  and  deliver  from  destruction,  of  which 
the  scriptures  have  many  examples;  so  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  by  the  evil  that  he  punisheth  and  destroyeth,  both 
which  are  said  to  perform  the  will  of  their  Creator,  licet 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  579 

non  eodem  animo.  Ecclesiasticus  remembereth  a  second 
sort  of  malignant  natures,  but  they  are  every  where  visible. 
There  are  spirits,  saith  he,  created  for  vengeance,  which  in 
their  rigour  lay  on  sure  strokes.  In  the  time  of  destruc 
tion  they  shew  forth  their  power,  and  accomplish  the  wrath 
of  him  that  made  them. 

Now  Michaiah  having  by  this  his  revelation  greatly  dis 
pleased  the  king,  and  the  prophets  whose  spirit  he  disco 
vered,  was  stricken  by  Zedekiah,  one  of  BaaPs  prophets, 
and  by  Ahab  himself  committed  to  prison ;  where  he  ap 
pointed  him  to  be  reserved  and  fed  with  bread  of  affliction 
till  he  returned  in  peace.  But  Michaiah,  not  fearing  to  re 
ply,  answered,  If  thou  return  in  peace,  the  Lord  hath  not 
spoken  by  me  :  nevertheless,  Ahab  went  on  in  that  war,  and 
was  wounded  to  death.  Jehoshaphat  returned  to  Jerusa 
lem,  where  he  was  x  reprehended  by  Jehu  the  prophet  for 
assisting  an  idolatrous  prince,  and  one  that  hated  God. 

After  this,  the  Aramites  of  Damascens  joined  with  the 
Moabites,  Ammonites,  and  Idumaeans,  to  invade  Judaea; 
who  pass  Jordan,  and  encamp  at  Engaddi :  and  when  Je 
hoshaphat  gathered  his  army,  the  prophet  Jahaziel  foretold 
him  of  the  victory,  which  should  be  obtained  without  any 
bloodshed  of  his  part :  and  so  when  Jehoshaphat  approach 
ed  this  assembly  of  nations,  the  Ammonites  and  Moabites 
disagreeing  with  the  Idumaeans,  and  quarrelling  for  some 
causes  among  themselves,  those  of  Ammon  and  Moab  set 
upon  the  Idumaeans,  and  brake  them  utterly ;  which  done, 
they  also  invaded  each  other ;  in  which  broil  Jehoshaphat 
arriving,  y  took  the  spoil  of  them  all  without  any  loss  of  his 
part,  as  it  was  foretold  and  promised  by  God.  Notwithstand 
ing  this  victory,  Jehoshaphat,  forgetting  that  he  was  for 
merly  reprehended  for  assisting  an  idolatrous  king,  did  not 
withstanding  join  with  Ochazias,  the  son  of  Ahab,  in  pre 
paring  a  fleet  to  send  to  Ophir,  hoping  of  the  like  return 
which  Salomon  had :  but  as  z  Eliezer  the  prophet  foretold 
him,  his  ships  perished  and  were  broken  in  the  port  of 
Ezion-gaber,  and  so  that  enterprise  was  overthrown. 

*  2  Chron.  xix.  y  2  Chrou.  xx.  *  Ibid. 


580  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Yet  he  taketh  part  with  Jehoram,  the  brother  of  Ocha- 
zias,  against  the  Moabites,  with  which  kings  of  Juda  and 
Israel  the  Edomites  join  their  forces,  not  forgetting,  it 
seems,  that  the  Moabites,  assisted  by  the  Ammonites,  had 
not  long  before  destroyed  their  army. 

The  Moabites,  subjects  to  David  and  Salomon,  forsaking 
the  kings  of  Juda,  gave  themselves  for  vassals  to  Jeroboam, 
and  so  they  continued  to  his  successors  till  the  death  of 
Ahab:  but  Jehoshaphat,  notwithstanding  the  idolatry  of 
his  colleague,  yet,  as  it  seemeth,  he  was  drawn  into  this  war 
both  to  be  avenged  of  the  Moabites  for  their  defection  from 
Juda  to  Israel,  as  also  because  they  had  lately  joined  them 
selves  with  the  Syrians  against  Jehoshaphat ;  and  thirdly,  to 
punish  their  double  rebellion,  who  first  forsook  Juda  and 
now  Israel. 

Both  kings  resolved  to  pass  by  the  way  of  Idumaea,  there 
by  the  better  to  assure  that  nation ;  for  we  find  that  both 
Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom  were  all  in  the  field  together  at 
Engaddi  against  Jehoshapat ;  but  whether  they  had  then 
declared  themselves  against  Jehoshaphat,  it  is  not  certain  : 
for  in  2  Chron.  xxi.  8.  it  is  written,  that  in  the  time  of  Jeho 
ram,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat^  Edom  rebelled;  and  therefore 
it  seemeth  to  me  that  the  Edomites,  when  they  were  slain 
by  Moab  and  Ammon,  not  finding  themselves  satisfied  in 
such  conditions  as  they  required,  offered  to  turn  from  them, 
and  to  join  themselves  with  the  army  of  Juda:  for  that 
they  were  numbered  among  the  enemies  of  Jehoshaphat,  it 
is  plain  in  2  Chron.  xx.  and  as  plain  chap.  ii.  8.  that  they 
were  not  declared,  nor  had  made  them  a  king,  till  Jehosha- 
phafs  death.  Now  in  the  passage  of  these  kings  towards 
Moab,  whether  it  were  by  the  extraordinary  heat  of  the 
year,  or  whether  the  Idumteans,  having  a  purpose  to  rebel, 
misled  the  army  of  Juda  and  Israel  with  intent  to  enfeeble 
them  for  want  of  water ;  true  it  is,  that  they  suffered  the 
same,  if  not  a  greater  thirst  than  the  armies  of  Crassus  and 
M.  Antonius  did  in  their  Parthian  expeditions ;  and  had,  in 
all  likelihood,  utterly  perished,  had  not  Elisha  taught  them 
to  cut  trenches  whereinto  the  water  sprang,  by  which,  not 


CHAP.  xix.  OF  THE  WORLD.  581 

only  Jehoshaphat  and  his  army,  but  Jehoram  king  of  Is 
rael,  an  idolater,  was  relieved  :  the  great  mercy  and  good 
ness  of  God  having  ever  been  prone  to  save  the  evil  for  the 
good,  whereas  he  never  destroyed  the  good  for  the  evil. 

The  miserable  issue  of  this  war,  and  how  a  Moab  burnt 
his  son,  or  the  son  of  the  king  of  Edom,  for  sacrifice  on  the 
rampire  of  his  own  city,  I  have  already  written  in  the  life 
of  Jehoram  among  the  kings  of  Israel.  b  Jehoshaphat 
reigned  twenty-five  years,  and  died :  he  was  buried  in  the 
valley  of  Jehoshaphat ;  and  a  part  of  the  pyramis  set  over 
his  grave  is  yet  to  be  seen,  saith  c  Brochard.  His  acts  are 
written  at  large  by  Jehu  the  son  of  Hanani. 

There  lived  with  Jehoshaphat,  Ophratenes  in  Assyria, 
Capetus  and  Tiberinus,  kings  of  the  Albans,  in  Italy :  of 
the  latter  the  river  Tiber  (formerly  Albula)  took  name. 

In  Jehoshaphafs  time  also  ruled  Mecades,  or  Mezades, 
in  Athens ;  Agelas,  or  Agesilaus,  in  Corinth  ;  and  Archilaus, 
of  the  same  race,1  of  the  Heraclida?  the  seventh  in  Lacedse- 
mon.  Badesorus  ruled  the  Tyrians ;  Ahab,  Ochazias,  and 
Jehoram,  the  Israelites. 


CHAP.    XX. 

Of  Jehoram  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  Ahaziah. 

SECT.  I. 

That  Jehoram  was  made  king  sundry  times. 

J  EHORAM,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  king  of  Juda,  began 
to  reign  at  thirty-two  years  of  age,  and  lived  until  he  was, 
forty  years  old,  being  eight  years  a  king :  but  of  these 
eight  years,  which  Jehoram  is  said  to  have  reigned,  four 
are  to  be  reckoned  in  the  life  of  his  father,  who  going  to 
the  Syrian  war  with  Ahab,  left  this  Jehoram  king  in  his 
stead,  as  Ahab  did  his  son  Ahaziah.  This  appears  by  the 
several  beginnings  which  are  given  in  scripture  to  the  two 
Jehorams,  kings  of  Israel  and  Juda,  and  to  Ahaziah,  the 
"  2  Kings  iii.  b  2  Cliron.  xx.  c  Broch.  ter.  sanct.. 

p  p  3 


582  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

eldest  son  of  Ahab ;  for  d  Ahaziah  is  said  to  have  begun  his 
reign  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat.  Jehoram  the 
brother  of  e  Ahaziah  succeeded  him  in  the  second  year  of 
Jehoram  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Juda,  that  is,  in 
the  next  year  after  that  Jehoram  of  Juda  was  designed 
king  by  his  father;  it  being  (as  we  find  elsewhere)  the 
f  eighteenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat  himself,  who  went  with 
the  Israelite  against  Moab.  Hereby  it  appears  that  the 
full  power  and  execution  of  the  royal  office  was  retained  still 
by  Jehoshaphat,  who  governed  absolutely  by  himself,  not 
communicating  the  rule  with  his  son.  But  in  the  fifth  year 
of  S  Jehoram  king  of  Israel,  which  was  the  two  and  twen 
tieth  of  Jehoshaphat,  the  old  king  took  unto  him,  as  partner 
in  the  government,  this  his  eldest  son,  who  was  at  that  time 
thirty-two  years  old,  his  father  being  fifty-seven.  Now  for 
asmuch  as  Jehoshaphat  reigned  h  twenty-five  years,  it  is  evi 
dent  that  his  son  did  not  reign  alone  till  the  eighth  of  Joram 
king  of  Israel.  The  like  regard  is  to  be  had  in  accounting 
the  times  of  other  kings  of  Juda  and  Israel,  who  did  not 
always  reign  precisely  so  long  as  the  bare  letter  of  the  text 
may  seem  at  first  to  affirm ;  but  their  years  were  sometimes 
complete,  sometimes  only  current,  sometimes  confounded 
with  the  years  of  their  successors  or  foregoers,  and  must 
therefore  be  found  by  comparing  their  times  with  the  years 
of  those  others,  with  whom  they  did  begin  and  end. 

It  were  perhaps  a  thing  less  needful  than  curious,  to  in 
quire  into  the  reasons  moving  Jehoshaphat  either  to  assume 
unto  him  his  son  as  partner  in  the  kingdom,  whilst  he  was 
able  himself  to  command  both  in  peace  and  in  war,  the  like 
having  never  been  done  by  any  of  his  progenitors,  or  having 
once  (in  the  seventeenth  of  his  reign)  vouchsafed  unto  him 
that  honour,  to  resume  it  unto  himself,  or  at  leastwise  to 
defer  the  confirmation  of  it,  until  four  or  five  years  were 
passed.  Yet  forasmuch  as  to  enter  into  the  examination  of 
these  passages  may  be  a  mean  to  find  some  light  whereby 

*  i  Kings  xxii.  51.  g3  Kings  vni.  16. 

•  a  Kings  i.  17.  h  ,  Rings  xxii.  42- 
2  Kings  Hi.  i.  9. 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  583 

we  may  more  clearly  discover  the  causes  of  much  extraordi 
nary  business  ensuing,  I  hold  it  not  amiss  to  make  such  con 
jecture,  as  the  circumstances  of  the  story,  briefly  handled  in 
the  scriptures,  may  seem  to  approve. 

We  are  therefore  to  consider,  that  this  king  Jehoshaphat 
was  the  first  of  RehoboanTs  issue  that  ever  entered  into  any 
strait  league  with  the  kings  of  the  ten  tribes.  All  that 
reigned  in  Juda  before  him  had  with  much  labour  and 
long  war  tired  themselves  in  vain,  making  small  profit  of  the 
greatest  advantages  that  could  be  wished.  Wherefore  Je 
hoshaphat  thought  it  the  wisest  way  to  make  a  league  offen 
sive  and  defensive  between  Israel  and  Juda,  whereby  each 
might  enjoy  their  own  in  quiet. 

This  confederacy,  made  by  a  religious  king  with  one  that 
did  '  hate  the  Lord,  could  not  long  prosper,  as  not  issuing 
from  the  true  root  and  fountain  of  all  wisdom;  yet  as  a 
piece  of  sound  policy,  doubtless  it  wanted  not  fair  pretences 
of  much  common  good  thereby  likely  to  arise,  with  mutual 
fortification  of  both  those  kingdoms  against  the  uncircum- 
cised  nations,  their  ancient  enemies.  This  apparent  benefit 
being  so  inestimable  a  jewel,  that  it  might  not  easily  be  lost, 
but  continue  as  hereditary  from  father  to  son,  it  was  thought 
a  very  good  course  to  have  it  confirmed  by  some  sure  bond 
of  affinity,  and  thereupon  was  Athaliah,  the  daughter  of 
Omri,  and  sister  of  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  given  in  marriage 
to  Jehoram,  who  was  son  and  heir  apparent  to  the  king  of 
Juda.  This  lady  was  of  a  masculine  spirit,  and  learned  so 
much  of  queen  Jezabel,  her  brother's  wife,  that  she  durst 
undertake,  and  could  thoroughly  perform,  a  great  deal  more 
in  Jerusalem  than  the  other  knew  how  to  compass  in  Sa 
maria.  She  was  indeed  a  firebrand,  ordained  by  God  to 
consume  a  great  part  of  the  noblest  houses  in  Juda,  and 
perhaps  of  those  men  or  their  children,  whose  worldly  wis 
dom,  regardless  of  God's  pleasure,  had  brought  her  in. 

The  first-fruits  of  this  great  league  was  the  Syrian  war  at 
Ramoth-Gilead,  wherein  Juda  and  Israel  did  adventure 
equally,  but  the  profit  of  the  victory  should  have  redounded 

'  2  Chron.  xix.  2,  3. 

p  p  4 


584  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

wholly  to  Ahab:  as  godly  princes  very  seldom  thrive  by 
matching  with  idolaters,  but  rather  serve  the  turns  of  those 
false  friends,  who  being  ill  affected  to  God  himself,  cannot 
be  well  affected  to  his  servants.  Before  their  setting  forth, 
Ahab  designed  as  king  his  son  Ahaziah ;  not  so  much  per 
haps  in  regard  of  the  uncertain  events  of  war,  (for  none  of 
his  predecessors  had  ever  done  the  like  upon  the  like  occa 
sions,)  nor  as  fearing  the  threatenings  of  the  prophet  Mi- 
chaiah,  (for  he  despised  them,)  as  inviting  Jehoshaphat  by 
his  own  example  to  take  the  same  course,  wherein  he  pre 
vailed. 

SECT.  II. 

Probable  conjectures  of  the  motives  inducing  the  old  king  Jeho 
shaphat  to  change  his  purpose  often,  in  making  his  son  Jehoram 
king. 

MANY  arguments  do  very  strongly  prove  Jehoram  to 
have  been  wholly  overruled  by  his  wife ;  especially  for  his 
forsaking  the  religion  of  his  godly  ancestors,  and  following 
the  abominable  superstitions  of  the  house  of  Ahab. 

That  she  was  a  woman  of  intolerable  pride,  and  abhorring 
to  live  a  private  life,  the  whole  course  of  her  actions  wit- 
nesseth  at  large.  Much  vain  matter  she  was  able  to  pro 
duce,  whereby  to  make  her  husband  think  that  his  brethren 
and  kindred  were  but  mean  and  unworthy  persons  in  compa 
rison  of  him  and  of  his  children,  which  were  begotten  upon 
the  daughter  and  sister  of  two  great  kings,  not  upon  base 
women  and  mere  subjects.  The  court  of  Ahab,  and  his 
famous  victories  obtained  against  the  Syrian  Benhadad,  were 
matter  sufficient  to  make  an  insolent  man  think  highly  of 
himself,  as  being  allied  so  honourably;  who  could  other 
wise  have  found  in  his  heart  well  enough  to  despise  all  his 
brethren,  as  being  the  eldest  and  heir  apparent  to  the  crown, 
whereof  already  he  had,  in  a  manner,  the  possession. 

How  soon  his  vices  brake  out,  or  how  long  he  dissembled 
them  and  his  idolatrous  religion,  it  cannot  certainly  be 
known.  Like  enough  it  is,  that  some  smoke,  out  of  ;the  hid 
den  fire,  did  very  soon  make  his  father's  eyes  to  water ;  who 
thereupon  caused  the  young  man  to  know  himself  better,  by 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  585 

making  him  fall  back  into  rank  among  his  younger  brethren. 
And  surely  the  doings  of  Jehoshaphat,  about  the  same  time, 
argue  no  small  distemper  of  the  whole  country,  through  the 
misgovernment  of  his  ungodly  son.  For  the  good  old  king 
was  fain  to  make  his  progress  round  about  the  land,  re 
claiming  the  people  unto  the  service  of  God,  and  appointing 
judges  k  throughout  all  the  strong  cities  of  Juda ,  city  by 
city.  This  had  been  a  needless  labour,  if  the  religion  taught 
and  strongly  maintained  by  Asa  and  by  himself  had  not 
suffered  alteration,  and  the  course  of  justice  been  perverted 
by  the  power  of  such  as  had  borne  authority.  But  the  ne 
cessity  that  then  was  of  reformation,  appears  by  the  charge 
which  the  king  did  give  to  the  judges  ;  and  by  his  commis 
sion  given  to  one  of  the  priests  in  spiritual  causes,  and  to 
the  steward  of  his  house  in  temporal  matters,  to  be  general 
overseers. 

This  was  not  till  after  the  death  of  Ahaziah  the  son  of 
Ahab  ;  but  how  long  after,  it  is  uncertain.  For  Jehoram, 
the  brother  of  Ahaziah,  began  his  reign  (as  hath  been  al 
ready  noted)  in  the  eighteenth  of  Jehoshaphat,  which  was 
then  accounted  the  second  of  Jehoram,  Jehoshaphat^  son, 
though  afterwards  this  Jehoram  of  Juda  had  another  first 
and  second  year  even  in  his  father's  time,  before  he  reigned 
alone,  as  the  best  chronologers  and  expositors  of  the  holy 
text  agree.  So  he  continued  in  private  estate  until  the 
two  and  twentieth  of  his  father's  reign,  at  which  time,  though 
the  occasions  inducing  his  restitution  to  former  dignity  are 
not  set  down,  yet  we  may  not  think  that  motives  thereto 
appearing  substantial  were  wanting.  Jehoram  of  Israel 
held  the  same  correspondency  with  Jehoshaphat  that  his 
father  had  done,  and  made  use  of  it.  He  drew  the  Ju- 
daean  into  the  war  of  Moab,  at  which  time  it  might  well  be, 
that  the  young  prince  of  Juda  was  again  ordained  king  by 
his  father,  as  in  the  Syrian  expedition  he  had  been.  Or  if 
we  ought  rather  to  think,  that  the  preparations  for  the  en 
terprise  against  Moab  did  not  occupy  so  much  time  as  from 
the  eighteenth  of  Jehoshaphat,  in  which  year  that  nation  re- 
k  2  Chron.  xix.  4,  5,  &c. 


586  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

belled  against  Israel,  unto  his  two  and  twentieth ;  yet  the 
daily  negotiations  between  the  two  kings  of  Juda  and  Is 
rael,  and  the  affinity  between  them  contracted  in  the  person 
of  Jehoram,  might  offer  some  good  occasions  thereunto. 
Neither  is  it  certain  how  the  behaviour  of  the  younger  sons, 
in  their  elder  brother's  disgrace,  might  cause  their  father  to 
put  him  in  possession,  for  fear  of  tumult  after  his  death  ;  or 
the  deep  dissimulation  of  Jehoram  himself  might  win  the 
good  opinion  both  of  his  father  and  brethren  ;  it  being  a 
thing  usual  in  mischievous  fell  natures,  to  be  as  abject  and 
servile  in  time  of  adversity,  as  insolent  and  bloody  upon  ad 
vantage.  This  is  manifest,  that  being  repossessed  of  his 
former  estate,  he  demeaned  himself  in  such  wise  towards 
his  brethren,  as  caused  their  father  to  enable  them,  not  only 
with  store  ^  of  silver,  and  of  gold,  and  of  precious  things, 
(which  kind  of  liberality  other  kings  doubtless  had  used 
unto  their  younger  sons,)  but  with  the  custody  of  strong 
cities  in  Juda,  to  assure  them,  if  it  might  have  been,  by 
unwonted  means  against  unwonted  perils. 

SECT.    III. 

The  doings  of  Jehoram  when  he  reigned  alone;  and  the  rebellion 

of  Edom  and  Libna. 

BUT  all  this  providence  availed  nothing ;  for  an  higher 
Providence  had  otherwise  determined  of  the  sequel.  When 
once  the  good  old  man  their  father  was  dead,  the  younger 
sons  of  Jehoshaphat  found  strong  cities  a  weak  defence 
against  the  power  of  him  to  whom  the  citizens  were  obe 
dient.  If  they  came  in  upon  the  summons  of  the  king 
their  brother,  then  had  he  them  without  more  ado ;  if  they 
stood  upon  their  guard,  then  were  they  traitors,  and  so  un 
able  to  hold  out  against  him,  who,  besides  his  own  power, 
was  able  to  bring  the  forces  of  the  Israelitish  kingdom  against 
them ;  so  that  the  apparent  likelihood  of  their  final  over 
throw  sufficed  to  make  all  forsake  them  in  the  very  begin 
ning.  Howsoever  it  was,  they  were  all  taken  and  slain,  and 
with  them  for  company  many  great  men  of  the  land ;  such 

1  2  Chron.  xxi.  3. 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  687 

belike  as  either  had  taken  their  part,  when  the  tyrant 
sought  their  lives,  or  had  been  appointed  rulers  of  the  coun 
try  when  Jehoram  was  deposed  from  his  government ;  in 
which  office  they,  without  forbearing  to  do  justice,  could 
hardly  avoid  the  doing  of  many  things  derogatory  to  their 
young  master,  which  if  he  would  now  call  treason,  saying 
that  he  was  then  king,  who  durst  say  the  contrary  ? 

After  this,  Jehoram  took  upon  him,  as  being  now  lord 
alone,  to  make  innovations  in  religion  ;  wherein  he  was  not 
contented,  as  other  idolatrous  princes,  to  give  way  and  safe 
conduct  unto  superstition  and  idolatry,  nor  to  provoke  and 
encourage  the  people  to  that  sin,  whereto  it  is  wonderful 
that  they  were  so  much  addicted,  having  such  knowledge  of 
God,  and  of  his  detesting  that  above  all  other  sins  ;  but  he 
used  compulsion,  and  was  (if  not  the  very  first)  the  first 
that  is  registered  to  have  set  up  irreligion  by  force. 

Whilst  he  was  thus  busied  at  home  in  doing  what  he 
listed,  the  Edomites  his  tributaries  rebelled  against  him 
abroad ;  and  having  hitherto,  since  David's  time,  been  go 
verned  by  a  viceroy,  did  now  make  unto  themselves  a  king. 
Against  these  Jehoram  in  person  made  an  expedition,  taking 
along  with  him  his  princes,  and  all  his  chariots,  with  which 
he  obtained  victory  in  the  field,  compelling  the  rebels  to  fly 
into  their  places  of  advantage,  whereof  he  forced  no  one, 
but  went  away  contented  with  the  honour  that  he  had  gotten 
in  beating  and  killing  some  of  those  whom  he  should  have 
subdued,  and  kept  his  servants.  Now  began  the  prophecy 
of  Isaac  to  take  effect,  wherein  he  foretold,  that  Esau  in 
process  of  time  should  break  the  yoke  of  Jacob.  For  after 
this,  the  Edomites  could  never  be  reclaimed  by  any  of  the 
kings  of  Juda,  but  held  their  own  so  well,  that  when,  after 
many  civil  and  foreign  wars,  the  Jews  by  sundry  nations 
had  been  brought  low ;  Antipater  the  Edomite,  with  Herod 
his  son,  and  others  of  that  race  following  them,  became  lords 
of  the  Jews  in  the  decrepit  age  of  Israel,  and  reigned  as 
kings  even  in  Jerusalem  itself. 

The  freedom  of  the  Edomites,  though  purchased  some 
what  dearly,  encouraged  Libna,  a  great  city  within  Juda, 


588  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

which  in  the  time  of  Joshua  had  a  peculiar  king,  to  rebel 
against  Jehoram,  and  set  itself  at  liberty.  Libna  stood  in 
the  confines  of  Benjamin  and  of  Dan,  far  from  the  assist 
ance  of  any  bordering  enemies  to  Juda,  and  therefore  so  un 
likely  it  was  to  have  maintained  itself  in  liberty,  that  it  may 
seem  strange  how  it  could  escape  from  utter  destruction,  or 
at  the  least  from  some  terrible  vengeance,  most  likely  to 
have  been  taken  by  their  powerful,  cruel,  and  throughly  in 
censed  lord.  The  Israelite  held  such  good  intelligence  at 
that  time  with  Juda,  that  he  would  not  have  accepted  the 
town,  had  it  offered  itself  unto  him :  neither  do  we  read 
that  it  sought  how  to  cast  itself  into  a  new  subjection,  but 
continued  a  free  estate.  The  rebellion  of  it  against  Je 
horam  was  m  because  he  had  forsaken  the  Lord  God  of  his 
fathers;  which  I  take  to  have  not  only  been  the  first  and 
remote  cause,  but  even  the  next  and  immediate  reason, 
moving  the  inhabitants  to  do  as  they  did ;  for  it  was  a  town 
of  the  LeviteS)  who  must  needs  be  driven  into  great  extre 
mities,  when  a  religion  contrary  to  God's  law  had  not  only 
some  allowance  to  countenance  it  by  the  king,  but  compul 
sive  authority  to  force  unto  it  all  that  were  unwilling.  As 
for  the  use  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  (which,  being  de 
vout  men,  they  might  fear  to  lose  by  this  rebellion,)  it  was 
never  denied  to  those  of  the  ten  revolted  tribes  by  any  of 
the  religious  kings,  who  rather  invited  the  n  Israelites  thi 
ther,  and  gave  them  kind  entertainment :  under  idolaters 
they  must  have  been  without  it,  whether  they  lived  free  or 
in  subjection.  Yet  it  seems  that  private  reasons  were  not 
wanting,  which  might  move  them  rather  to  do  than  to  suffer 
that  which  was  unwarrantable.  For  in  the  general  visita 
tion  before  remembered,  wherein  Jehoshaphat  reformed  his 
kingdom,  the  good  old  king  appointing  new  governors,  and 
giving  them  especial  charge  to  do  justice  without  respect  of 
persons,  used  these  words ;  The  Lemtes  shall  be  officers  be 
fore  you  ;  be  of  good  courage  and  do  it,  and  the  Lord  shall 
be  with  the  good.  By  these  phrases,  it  seems,  that  he  en 
couraged  them  against  the  more  powerful  than  just  pro- 
ni  2  Chron.  xxi.  10.  n  2  chron.  xxx. 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  589 

ceedings  of  his  son ;  whom  if  the  Levites  did  (according  to 
the  trust  reposed  in  them)  neglect,  in  discharging  their 
duties,  likely  it  is  that  he  meant  to  be  even  with  them, 
and  make  them  now  to  feel,  as  many  princes  of  the  land 
had  done,  his  heavy  indignation.  How  it  happened  that 
Libna  was  not  hereupon  destroyed,  yea,  that  it  was  not  (for 
ought  that  we  can  read)  so  much  as  besieged  or  molested, 
may  justly  seem  very  strange.  And  the  more  strange  it 
is  in  regard  of  the  mighty  armies  which  Jehoshaphat  was 
able  to  raise,  being  sufficient  to  have  overwhelmed  any 
one  town,  and  buried  it  under  the  earth,  which  they  might 
in  one  month  have  cast  into  it  with  shovels  by  ordinary  ap 
proaches. 

But  it  seems  that  of  these  great  numbers  which  his  father 
could  have  levied,  there  were  not  many  whom  Jehoram 
could  well  trust ;  and  therefore  perhaps  he  thought  it  an 
easier  loss  to  let  one  town  go,  than  to  put  weapons  into 
their  hands,  who  were  more  likely  to  follow  the  example  of 
Libna,  than  to  punish  it.  So  desperate  is  the  condition  of 
tyrants,  who  thinking  it  a  greater  happiness  to  be  feared 
than  to  be  loved,  are  fain  themselves  to  stand  in  fear  of 
those,  by  whom  they  might  have  been  dreadful  unto  others. 

SECT.    IV. 

Of  the  miseries  falling  upon  Jehoram,  and  of  his  death. 
THESE  afflictions  not  sufficing  to  make  any  impression  of 
God's  displeasure  in  the  mind  of  the  wicked  prince ;  a  pro 
phecy  in  writing  was  delivered  unto  him,  which  threatened 
both  his  people,  his  children,  his  wives,  and  his  own  body. 
Hereby  likewise  it  appears,  that  he  was  a  cruel  persecutor 
of  God's  servants ;  inasmuch  as  the  prophets  durst  not  re 
prove  him  to  his  face,  as  they  had  done  many  of  his  prede 
cessors,  both  good  and  evil  kings,  but  were  fain  to  denounce 
God's  judgments  against  him  by  letters,  keeping  themselves 
close,  and  far  from  him.  This  epistle  is  said  to  have  been 
sent  unto  him  from  °  Elias  the  prophet;  but  Elias  was 
translated,  and  Elizeus  prophesied  in  his  stead  before  this 

0  2  Chron.  xxi.  12. 


590  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

time,  even  in  the  days  of  Jehoshaphat  P.  Wherefore  it  may 
be  that  Elias  left  this  prophecy  in  writing  behind  him,  or 
that  (as  some  conjecture)  the  error  of  one  letter  in  writing 
was  the  occasion  that  we  read  Elias  for  Elizeus.  Indeed 
any  thing  may  rather  be  believed  than  the  tradition  held  by 
some  of  the  Jewish  rabbins,  that  Elias  from  heaven  did  send 
this  epistle ;  a  tale  somewhat  like  to  the  fable  of  our  Lady's 
letters,  devised  by  Erasmus,  or  of  the  verse  that  was  sent 
from  heaven  to  St.  Giles. 

But  whosoever  was  the  author  of  this  threatening  epistle, 
the  accomplishment  of  the  prophecy  was  as  terrible  as  the 
sentence.  For  the  Philistines  and  Arabians  brake  into  Ju 
daea,  and  took  the  king's  house,  wherein  they  found  all  or 
many  of  his  children  and  wives,  all  which  they  slew  or 
carried  away,  with  great  part  of  his  goods.  These  Philis 
tines  had  not  presumed,  since  the  time  of  David,  to  make 
any  offensive  war  till  now;  for  they  were  by  him  almost 
consumed,  and  had  lost  the  best  of  their  towns,  maintaining 
themselves  in  the  rest  of  their  small  territory  by  defensive 
arms,  to  which  they  were  constrained  at  Gibbethon  by  the 
Israelites.  The  Arabians  were  likely  to  have  been  then, 
as  they  are  now,  a  naked  people,  all  horsemen,  and  ill 
appointed  ;  their  country  affording  no  other  furniture,  than 
such  as  might  make  them  fitter  to  rob  and  spoil  in  the  open 
fields,  than  to  offend  strong  cities,  such  as  were  thick  set  in 
Juda.  True  it  is,  that  in  ages  long  after  following  they 
conquered  all  the  south  parts  of  the  world  then  known,  in  a 
very  short  space  of  time,  destroying  some,  and  building 
other  some  very  stately  cities.  But  it  must  be  considered, 
that  this  was  when  they  had  learned  of  the  Romans  the  art 
of  war  ;  and  that  the  provisions  which  they  found,  together 
with  the  arts  which  they  learned,  in  one  subdued  province, 
did  make  them  able  and  skilful  in  pursuing  their  conquest, 
and  going  onward  into  regions  far  removed  from  them. 
At  this  day,  having  lost  in  effect  all  that  they  had  gotten, 
such  of  them  as  live  in  Arabia  itself  are  good  horsemen,  but 
ill  appointed,  very  dangerous  to  passengers,  but  unable  to 
v  2  Kings  ii.^.  ii. 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  691 

deal  with  good  soldiers,  as  riding  stark  naked,  and  rather 
trusting  in  the  swiftness  of  their  horses  than  in  any  other 
means  of  resistance,  where  they  are  well  opposed.  And 
such,  or  little  better,  may  they  seem  to  have  been,  that 
spoiled  Judaea  in  the  time  of  Jehoram.  For  their  country 
was  always  barren  and  desert,  wanting  manual  arts  whereby 
to  supply  the  naturals  with  furniture;  neither  are  these 
bands  named  as  chief  in  that  action,  but  rather  adherents 
of  the  Philistines.  Out  of  this  we  may  infer,  that  one  half, 
yea,  or  one  quarter  of  the  numbers  found  in  the  least  muster 
of  Juda  and  Benjamin  under  Jehoshaphat,  (wherein  were 
enrolled  three  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  fighting  men,) 
had  been  enough  to  have  driven  away  far  greater  forces 
than  these  enemies  are  likely  to  have  brought  into  the  field, 
had  not  the  people  been  unable  to  deal  with  them  for  lack 
of  weapons,  which  were  now  kept  from  them  by  their  prince's 
jealousy,  as  in  Saul's  time  by  the  policy  of  the  Philistines. 

It  may  seem  that  the  house  of  the  king,  which  these  in 
vaders  took,  was  not  his  palace  in  Jerusalem,  but  rather 
some  other  house  of  his  abroad  in  the  country,  where  his 
wives  and  children  at  that  time  lay  for  their  recreation ;  be 
cause  we  read  not  that  they  did  sack  the  city,  or  spoil  the 
temple,  which  would  have  invited  them  as  a  more  commo 
dious  booty,  had  they  got  possession  thereof.  Yet  perhaps 
they  took  Jerusalem  itself  by  surprise,  the  people  being  dis 
armed,  and  the  king's  guards  too  weak  to  keep  them  out ; 
yet  had  not  the  courage  to  hold  it,  because  it  was  so  large 
and  populous ;  and  therefore  having  done  what  spoil  they 
could,  withdrew  themselves  with  such  purchase  as  they 
were  able  safely  to  convey  away. 

The  slaughter  committed  by  Jehu  upon  the  two  and 
forty  brethren  of  Ahazia,  or  (as  they  are  called  elsewhere) 
so  many  of  his  brother's  sons,  and  the  cruel  massacre, 
wherein  all  the  royal  seed  perished  (only  Joas  excepted) 
under  the  tyranny  of  Athalia,  following  within  two  years 
after  this  invasion  of  the  Philistines  and  Arabians,  make  it 
seem  probable,  that  the  sons  of  Jehoram  were  not  all  slain 
at  once,  but  that  rather  the  first  murder  began  in  his  own 


592  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

time,  and  was  seconded  by  many  other  heavy  blows,  where 
with  his  house  was  incessantly  stricken,  until  it  was  in  a 
manner  quite  hewed  down. 

After  these  calamities,  the  hand  of  God  was  extended 
against  the  body  of  this  wicked  king,  smiting  him  with  a 
grievous  disease  in  his  bowels,  which  left  him  not  until  his 
guts  fell  out,  and  his  wretched  soul  departed  from  his  mi 
serable  carcass.  The  people  of  the  land,  as  they  had  small 
cause  of  comfort  in  his  life,  so  had  they  not  the  good  man 
ners  to  pretend  sorrow  for  his  death ;  wherefore  he  was  de 
nied  a  place  of  burial  among  his  ancestors  the  kings  of 
Juda,  though  his  own  son  succeeded  him  in  the  kingdom, 
who  was  guided  by  the  same  spirits  that  had  been  his  fa 
ther's  evil  angels.  Athalia  had  other  matters  to  trouble 
her  head,  than  the  pompous  interring  of  a  dead  husband. 
She  was  thinking  how  to  provide  for  the  future,  to  main 
tain  her  own  greatness,  to  retain  her  favourites  in  their  au 
thority,  and  to  place  about  her  son  such  q  counsellors  of 
the  house  of  Ahab  as  were  fittest  for  her  turn.  Wherefore 
she  thought  it  unreasonable  to  make  much  ado  about  a 
thing  of  nothing,  and  offend  the  people's  eyes  with  a  stately 
funeral  of  a  man  by  them  detested ;  but  rather  chose  to  let 
the  blame  of  things  past  be  laid  upon  the  dead,  than  to 
procure  an  ill  opinion  of  herself  and  hers,  which  it  now  did 
concern  her  to  avoid.  Such  is  the  quality  of  wicked  insti 
gators,  having  made  greedy  use  of  bad  employments,  to 
charge,  not  only  with  his  own  vices,  but  with  their  faults 
also,  the  man  whose  evil  inclinations  their  sinister  counsels 
have  made  worse,  when  once  he  is  gone,  and  can  profit 
them  no  longer.  The  death  of  Jehoram  fell  out  indeed  in 
a  busy  time,  when  his  friend  and  cousin  the  Israelite,  who 
had  the  same  name,  was  entangled  in  a  difficult  war  against 
the  Aramite ;  and  therefore  could  have  had  no  better  lei 
sure  to  help  Athalia  in  setting  of  things  according  to  her 
own  mind,  than  he  had  (perhaps  through  the  same  hinder- 
ance)  to  help  her  husband,  when  he  was  distressed  by  the 
Philistines.  Yea,  rather,  he  needed  and  craved  the  assist  - 

i  2  Chron.  xxii.  4. 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  593 

ance  of  the  men  of  Juda,  for  the  taking  in  of  Ramoth  Gi- 
lead,  where  they  had  not  sped  so  well  the  last  time,  that 
they  should  willingly  run  thither  again,  unless  they  were 
very  fairly  entreated. 

The  acts  of  this  wicked  man  I  have  thought  good  to 
handle  the  more  particularly,  (pursuing  the  examination  of 
all  occurrences,  as  far  as  the  circumstances  remembered  in 
holy  scripture  would  guide  me  by  their  directions,)  to  the 
end  that  it  might  more  plainly  appear  how  the  corrupted 
affections  of  men,  impugning  the  revealed  will  of  God,  ac 
complish  nevertheless  his  hidden  purpose,  and  without  mi 
raculous  means  confound  themselves  in  the  seeming  wise 
devices  of  their  own  folly :  as  likewise  to  the  end  that  all 
men  might  learn  to  submit  their  judgments  to  the  ordinance 
of  God,  rather  than  to  think  that  they  may  safely  dispense 
with  his  commandments,  and  follow  the  prudent  conceits 
which  worldly  wisdom  dictateth  unto  them.  For  in  such 
kind  of  unhappy  subtilties  it  is  manifest  that  Athaliah  was 
able  to  furnish  both  her  husband  and  her  son ;  but  the  issue 
of  them  partly  hath  appeared  already,  and  partly  will  ap 
pear  in  that  which  immediately  folio  we  th. 

SECT.  V. 

Of  the  reign  of  Ahaziah,  and  his  business  with  the  king  of  Israel. 
OCHAZIAS,  or  Ahaziah,  the  son  of  Jehoram  and  Atha 
liah,  began  his  reign  over  Juda  in  the  twelfth  year  of  Jeho 
ram,  the  son  of  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  and  reigned  but  that 
one  year.  Touching  his  age,  it  is  a  point  of  more  diffi 
culty  than  importance  to  know  it ;  yet  hath  it  bred  much 
disputation,  whereof  I  see  no  more  probable  conclusion  than 
that  of  Torniellus,  alleging  the  edition  of  the  Septuagint  at 
Rome,  anno  Domini  1588,  which  saith  that  he  was  twenty 
years  old  in  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom,  and  the  anno 
tations  thereupon,  which  cite  other  copies,  that  give  him  two 
years  more.  Like  enough  he  is  to  have  been  young ;  for 
he  was  governed  by  his  mother  and  her  ministers,  who  gave 
him  counsel  by  which  he  perished.  In  matter  of  religion, 
he  altered  none  of  his  father's  courses.  In  matter  of  state, 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  Q  q 


594  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

he  likewise  upheld  the  league  made  with  the  house  of  Ahab. 
He  was  much  busied  in  doing  little,  and  that  with  ill  suc 
cess.  He  accompanied  his  cousin  the  Israelite  against  Ra- 
moth  Gilead,  which  they  won,  but  not  without  blows ;  for 
the  Aramites  fought  so  well,  that  the  king  of  Israel  was 
fain  to  adventure  his  own  person,  which  scaped  not  un- 
wounded. 

The  town  being  won,  was  manned  strongly,  in  expecta 
tion  of  some  attempt  likely  to  be  made  by  Hazael  king  of 
Aram:  which  done,  Jehoram  king  of  Israel  withdrew  him 
self  to  the  city  of  Jezreel,  where  with  more  quiet  he  might 
attend  the  curing  of  his  wounds ;  and  Ahaziah  returned  to 
Jerusalem.  It  seems  that  he  was  but  newly  come  home, 
(for  he  reigned  in  all  scantly  one  year,  whereof  the  former 
expedition,  with  the  preparations  for  it,  had  taken  up  a 
great  part,)  when  he  made  a  new  journey,  as  it  were  for 
good  manners1  sake,  to  visit  the  king  of  Israel,  who  lay  sore 
of  his  wounds.  Belike  Athaliah  was  brewing  some  new 
plots,  which  his  presence  would  have  hindered,  and  there 
fore  sought  every  occasion  to  thrust  him  abroad :  for  other 
wise  it  was  but  a  vain  piece  of  work  so  to  leave  his  king 
dom,  having  no  other  business  than  by  way  of  compliment 
to  go  see  one  whom  he  had  seen  yesterday.  Certain  it 
is,  that  the  Lord  had  resolved  at  this  time  to  put  in  execu 
tion  that  heavy  judgment  which  he  had  laid  by  the  mouth  of 
Elias  the  prophet  upon  the  house  of  Ahab.  And  hereunto 
at  this  time  had  he  disposed,  not  only  the  concurrence  of  all 
other  things  which  in  man^s  eyes  might  seem  to  have  been 
accidental,  but  the  very  thoughts  and  affections  of  such  per 
sons  as  intended  nothing  less  than  the  fulfilling  of  his  high 
pleasure.  Of  these,  Athaliah  doubtless  was  one ;  whose 
mischievous  purposes  it  will  shortly  be  needful,  for  expla 
nation  of  some  difficulties  arising,  that  we  diligently  con 
sider  and  examine. 

SECT.   VI. 

How  Ahaziah  perished  with  the  house  of  Ahab;  and  how  that 
family  was  destroyed  by  Jehu. 

THE  whole  army  of  Israel,  with  all  the  principal  cap- 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  595 

tains,  lying  in  Ramoth  Gilead,  a  disciple  of  Elizaeus  the 
prophet  came  in  among  the  captains  that  were  sitting  to 
gether,  who  calling  out  from  among  them  Jehu,  a  principal 
man,  took  him  apart,  and  anointed  him  king  over  Israel ; 
rehearsing  unto  him  the  prophecy  of  Elias  against  the  house 
of  Ahab,  and  letting  him  understand  that  it  was  the  plea 
sure  of  God  to  make  him  executioner  of  that  sentence.  The 
fashion  of  the  messenger  was  such  as  bred  in  the  captains  a 
desire  to  know  his  errand,  which  Jehu  thought  meet  to  let 
them  know,  as  doubting  whether  they  had  overheard  all  the 
talk  or  no.  When  he  had  acquainted  them  with  the  whole 
matter,  they  made  no  delay,  but  forthwith  proclaimed  him 
king;  for  the  prophecy  of  Elias  was  well  known  among 
them,  neither  durst  any  one  oppose  himself  against  him  that 
was  by  God  ordained  to  perform  it. 

Jehu,  who  had  upon  the  sudden  this  great  honour  thrown 
upon  him,  was  not  slow  to  put  himself  in  possession  of  it, 
but  used  the  first  heat  of  their  affections  who  joined  with 
him  in  setting  on  foot  the  business  which  nearly  concerned 
him,  and  was  not  to  be  foreslowed,  being  no  more  his  own 
than  God's. 

The  first  care  taken  was,  that  no  news  of  the  revolt  might 
be  carried  to  Jezreel,  whereby  the  king  might  have  had  warn 
ing  either  to  fight  or  flee :  this  being  foreseen,  he  marched 
swiftly  away,  to  take  the  court  while  it  was  yet  secure.  King 
Jehoram  was  now  so  well  recovered  of  his  wounds,  that  he 
could  endure  to  ride  abroad,  for  which  cause  it  seems  that 
there  was  much  feasting  and  joy  made,  especially  by  queen 
Jezabel,  who  kept  her  state  so  well,  that  the  brethren  of 
Ahaziah  coming  hither  at  this  time,  did  make  it  as  well  their 
errand  to  salute  the  queen  as  to  visit  the  king. 

Certain  it  is,  that  since  the  rebellion  of  Moab  against  Is 
rael,  the  house  of  Ahab  did  never  so  much  flourish  as  at 
this  time.  Seventy  princes  of  the  blood  royal  there  were 
that  lived  in  Samaria ;  Jehoram,  the  son  of  queen  Jezabel, 
had  won  Ramoth  Gilead,  which  his  father  had  attempted  in 
vain,  with  loss  of  his  life;  and  he  won  it  by  valiant  fight, 
wherein  he  received  wounds,  of  which  the  danger  was  now 

ft  q  2 


596  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  H.- 

past,  but  the  honour  likely  to  continue.  The  amity  was  so 
great  between  Israel  and  Juda,  that  it  might  suffice  to 
daunt  all  their  common  enemies,  leaving  no  hope  of  success 
to  any  rebellious  enterpriser;  so  that  now  the  prophecy  of 
Elias  might  be  forgotten,  or  no  otherwise  remembered,  than 
as  an  unlikely  tale,  by  them  that  beheld  the  majestical  face 
of  the  court,  wherein  so  great  a  friend  as  the  king  of  Juda 
was  entertained,  and  forty  princes  of  his  blood  expected. 

In  the  midst  of  this  security,  whilst  these  great  estates 
were  (perhaps)  either  consulting  about  prosecution  of  their 
intents,  first  against  the  Aramites,  and  then  against  Moab, 
Edom,  and  other  rebels  and  enemies ;  or  else  were  triumph 
ing  in  joy  of  that  which  was  already  well  achieved,  and  the 
queen-mother  dressing  herself  in  the  bravest  manner  to 
come  down  amongst  them;  tidings  were  brought  in,  that 
the  watchman  had  from  a  tower  discovered  a  company 
coming.  These  news  were  not  very  troublesome ;  for  the 
army  that  lay  in  Ramoth  Gilead,  to  be  ready  against  all 
attempts  of  the  Aramites,  was  likely  enough  to  be  dis 
charged  upon  some  notice  taken  that  the  enemy  would  not 
or  could  not  stir.  Only  the  king  sent  out  an  horseman  to 
know  what  the  matter  was,  and  to  bring  him  word.  The 
messenger  coming  to  Jehu,  and  asking  whether  all  were 
well,  was  retained  by  him,  who  intended  to  give  the  king  as 
little  warning  as  might  be.  The  seeming  negligence  of  this 
fellow,  in  not  returning  with  an  answer,  might  argue  the 
matter  to  be  of  small  importance ;  yet  the  king,  to  be  satis 
fied,  sent  out  another,  that  should  bring  him  word  how  all 
went ;  and  he  was  likewise  detained  by  Jehu.  These  dumb 
shows  bred  some  suspicion  in  Jehoram,  whom  the  watch 
man  certified  of  all  that  happened.  And  now  the  company 
drew  so  near,  that  they  might,  though  not  perfectly,  be  dis 
cerned,  and  notice  taken  of  Jehu  himself  by  the  furious 
manner  of  his  marching.  Wherefore  the  king,  that  was 
loath  to  discover  any  weakness,  caused  his  chariot  to  be 
made  ready,  and  issued  forth,  with  Ahaziah  king  of  Juda 
in  his  company,  whose  presence  added  majesty  to  his  train, 
when  strength  to  resist,  or  expedition  to  flee,  had  been  more 


CHAP.  xx.  OF  THE  WORLD.  597 

needful.  This  could  not  be  done  so  hastily,  but  that  Jehu 
was  come  even  to  the  town's  end,  and  there  they  met  each 
other  in  the  field  of  Naboth.  Jehoram  began  to  salute 
Jehu  with  terms  of  peace,  but  receiving  a  bitter  answer,  his 
heart  failed  him,  so  that  crying  out  upon  the  treason  to  his 
fellow  king,  he  turned  away,  to  have  fled.  But  Jehu  soon 
overtook  him  with  an  arrow,  wherewith  he  struck  him  dead, 
and  threw  his  carcass  into  that  field,  which,  purchased  with 
the  blood  of  the  rightful  owner,  was  to  be  watered  with  the 
blood  of  the  unjust  possessor.  Neither  did  Ahaziah  escape 
so  well,  but  that  he  was  arrested  by  a  wound,  which  held 
him  till  death  did  seize  upon  him. 

The  king's  palace  was  joining  to  the  wall  by  the  gate  of 
the  cityv  where  Jezabel  might  soon  be  advertised  of  this 
calamity,  if  she  did  not  with  her  own  eyes  behold  it.  Now 
it  was  high  time  for  her  to  call  to  God  for  mercy,  whose 
judgment,  pronounced  against  her  long  before,  had  over 
taken  her  when  she  least  expected  it.  But  she,  full  of  in 
dignation  and  proud  thoughts,  made  herself  ready  in  all 
haste,  and  painted  her  face,  hoping  with  her  stately  and 
imperious  looks  to  daunt  the  traitor,  or  at  the  least  to  utter 
some  apophthegm  that  should  express  her  brave  spirit,  and 
brand  him  with  such  a  reproach  as  might  make  him  odious 
for  ever.  Little  did  she  think  upon  the  hungry  dogs  that 
were  ordained  to  devour  her,  whose  paunches  the  stibium, 
with  which  she  besmeared  her  eyes,  would  more  offend,  than 
the  scolding  language  wherewith  she  armed  her  tongue  could 
trouble  the  ears  of  him  that  had  her  in  his  power.  As  Jehu 
drew  near,  she  opened  her  window,  and  looking  out  upon 
him,  began  to  put  him  in  mind  of  Zimri,  that  had  not  long 
enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his  treason  and  murder  of  the  king  his 
master.  This  was,  in  mere  human  valuation,  stoutly  spoken, 
but  was  indeed  a  part  of  miserable  folly,  as  are  all  things, 
howsoever  laudable,  if  they  have  an  ill  relation  to  God  the 
Lord  of  all.  Her  own  eunuchs,  that  stood  by  and  heard 
her,  were  not  affected  so  much  as  with  any  compassion  of 
her  fortune ;  much  less  was  her  enemy  daunted  with  her 


598  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

proud  spirit.  When  Jehu  saw  that  she  did  use  the  little 
remainder  of  her  life  in  seeking  to  vex  him,  he  made  her 
presently  to  understand  her  own  estate  by  deeds  and  not  by 
words.  He  only  called  to  her  servants,  to  know  which  of 
them  would  be  of  his  side,  and  soon  found  them  ready  to 
offer  their  service  before  the  very  face  of  their  proud  lady. 
Hereupon  he  commanded  them  to  cast  her  down  headlong ; 
which  immediately  they  performed,  without  all  regard  of  her 
greatness  and  estate,  wherein  she  had  a  few  hours  before 
shined  so  gloriously  in  the  eyes  of  men ;  of  men  that  consi 
dered  not  the  judgments  of  God  that  had  been  denounced 
against  her. 

So  perished  this  accursed  woman  by  the  rude  hands  of 
her  own  servants,  at  the  commandment  of  her  greatest 
enemy,  that  was  yesterday  her  subject,  but  now  her  lord ; 
and  she  perished  miserably,  struggling  in  vain  with  base 
grooms,  who  contumeliously  did  hale  and  thrust  her,  whilst 
her  insulting  enemy  sat  on  horseback,  adding  indignity  to 
her  grief  by  scornfully  beholding  the  shameful  manner  of 
her  fall,  and  trampling  her  body  under  foot.  Her  dead 
carcass,  that  was  left  without  the  walls,  was  devoured  by 
dogs,  and  her  very  memory  was  odious.  Thus  the  venge 
ance  of  God  rewarded  her  idolatry,  murder,  and  oppres 
sion,  with  slow  but  sure  payment,  and  full  interest. 

Ahaziah  king  of  Juda  fleeing  apace  from  Jehu,  was  over 
taken  by  the  way  where  he  lurked ;  and  receiving  his  deadly 
wound  in  the  kingdom  of  Samaria,  was  suffered  to  get  him 
gone,  (which  he  did  in  all  haste,)  and  seek  his  burial  in  his 
own  kingdom ;  and  this  favour  he  obtained  for  his  grand 
father's  sake,  not  for  his  father's,  nor  his  own.  He  died  at 
Megiddo,  and  was  thence  carried  to  Jerusalem,  where  he 
was  interred  with  his  ancestors,  having  reigned  about  one 
year. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  599 

CHAP.   XXI. 

Of  Aihaliah)  and  whose  son  he  was  that  succeeded  unto  her. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  Athaliah' s  usurping  the  kingdom,  and  what  pretences  she  might 

forge. 

AFTER  the  death  of  Ahaziah,  it  is  said,  that  his  house 
was  not  able  to  retain  the  kingdom;  which  note,  and  the 
proceedings  of  rAthaliah  upon  the  death  of  her  son,  have 
given  occasion  to  divers  opinions  concerning  the  pedigree  of 
Joash,  who  reigned  shortly  after.  For  Athaliah  being  thus 
despoiled  of  her  son,  under  whose  name  she  had  ruled  at 
her  pleasure,  did  forthwith  lay  hold  upon  all  the  princes  of 
the  blood,  and  slew  them,  that  so  she  might  occupy  the 
royal  throne  herself,  and  reign  as  queen,  rather  than  live  a 
subject.  She  had  beforehand  put  into  great  place,  and 
made  counsellors  unto  her  son,  such  as  were  fittest  for  her 
purpose,  and  ready  at  all  times  to  execute  her  will :  that 
she  kept  a  strong  guard  about  her,  it  is  very  likely  ;  and  as 
likely  it  is  that  the  great  execution  done  by  Jehoram  upon 
the  princes  and  many  of  the  nobility,  had  made  the  people 
tame,  and  fearful  to  stir,  whatsoever  they  saw  or  heard. 

Yet  ambition,  how  violent  soever  it  be,  is  seldom  or  never 
so  shameless  as  to  refuse  the  commodity  of  goodly  pretences 
offering  themselves;  but  rather  scrapes  together  all  that 
will  any  way  serve  to  colour  her  proceedings.  Wherefore 
it  were  not  absurd  for  us  to  think  that  Athaliah,  when  she 
saw  the  princes  of  the  royal  blood  all  of  them  in  a  manner 
slain  by  her  husband,  and  afterwards  his  own  children  de 
stroyed  by  the  Philistines,  began  even  then  to  play  her  own 
game,  reducing  by  artificial  practice  into  fair  likelihoods 
those  possibilities  wherewith  her  husband's  bad  fortune  had 
presented  her.  Not  without  great  show  of  reason,  either  by 
her  own  mouth,  or  by  some  trusty  creature  of  hers,  might 
she  give  him  to  understand  how  needful  it  were  to  take  the 
best  order  whilst  as  yet  he  might,  for  fear  of  the  worst  that 
r  2  Chron.  xxii.  9. 
Q  q  4 


600 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 


might  happen.  If  the  issue  of  David,  which  now  remained 
only  in  his  family,  should  by  any  accident  fail,  (as  woful  ex- 
perience  had  already  shewed  what  might  after  come  to  pass,) 
the  people  of  Juda  were  not  unlikely  to  choose  a  king  of 
some  new  stock,  a  popular  seditious  man  peradventure,  one 
that,  to  countenance  his  own  unworthiness,  would  not  care 
what  aspersions  he  laid  upon  that  royal  house,  which  was 
fallen  down.  And  who  could  assure  him,  that  some  ambi 
tious  spirit,  foreseeing  what  might  be  gotten  thereby,  did 
not  already  contrive  the  destruction  of  him  and  all  his  seed  ? 
Wherefore  it  were  the  wisest  way  to  design  by  his  authority, 
not  only  his  successor,  but  also  the  reversioner,  and  so  to 
provide  that  the  crown  might  never  be  subject  to  any  rifling, 
but  remain  in  the  disposition  of  them  that  loved  him  best, 
if  the  worst  that  might  be  feared  coming  to  pass,  his  own 
posterity  could  not  retain  it. 

Such  persuasions  being  urged  and  earnestly  followed,  by 
the  importunate  solicitation  of  her  that  governed  his  affec 
tions,  were  able  to  make  the  jealous  tyrant  think  that  the 
only  way  to  frustrate  all  devices  of  such  as  gaped  after  a 
change,  was  to  make  her  heir  the  last  and  youngest  of  his 
house,  whom  it  most  concerned,  as  being  the  queen-mother, 
to  uphold  the  first  and  eldest. 

If  Athaliah  took  no  such  course  as  this  in  her  husband's 
times,  yet  might  she  do  it  in  her  son's.  For  Ahazia  (be 
sides  that  he  was  wholly  ruled  by  his  mother)  was  not  likely 
to  take  much  care  for  the  security  of  his  half  brethren,  or 
their  children;  as  accounting  his  father's  other  wives,  in 
respect  of  his  own  high  born  mother,  little  better  than  concu 
bines,  and  their  children  basely  begotten.  But  if  this  mis 
chievous  woman  forgat  herself  so  far  in  her  wicked  policy, 
that  she  lost  all  opportunity,  which  the  weakness  of  her 
husband  and  son  did  afford,  of  procuring  to  herself  some 
seeming  title ;  yet  could  she  afterwards  fain  some  such  mat 
ter,  as  boldly  she  might ;  being  sure  that  none  would  ask 
to  see  her  evidence,  for  fear  of  being  sent  to  learn  the  cer 
tainty  of  her  son  or  husband  in  another  world.  But  I  ra 
ther  think  that  she  took  order  for  her  affairs  beforehand. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  601 

For  though  she  had  no  reason  to  suspect  or  fear  the  sudden 
death  of  her  son,  yet  it  was  the  wisest  way  to  provide  be 
times  against  all  that  might  happen,  whilst  her  husband's 
issue  by  other  women  was  young,  and  unable  to  resist.  We 
plainly  find  that  the  brethren  or  nephews  of  Ahazia,  to  the 
number  of  two  and  forty,  were  sent  to  the  court  of  Israel 
only  to  salute  the  children  of  the  king  and  the  children  of 
the  queen.  The  slender  occasion  of  which  long  journey  con 
sidered,  together  with  the  quality  of  these  persons,  (being 
in  effect  all  the  stock  of  Jehoram  that  could  be  grown  to 
any  strength,)  makes  it  very  suspicious  that  their  entertain 
ment  in  JezabeFs  house  would  only  have  been  more  formal, 
but  little  differing  in  substance  from  that  which  they  found 
at  the  hand  of  Jehu.  He  that  looks  into  the  courses  held 
both  before  and  after  by  these  two  queens,  will  find  cause 
enough  to  think  no  less.  Of  such  as  have  aspired  unto 
lordships  not  belonging  to  them,  and  thrust  out  the  right 
heirs  by  pretence  of  testaments  that  had  no  other  validity 
than  the  sword  of  such  as  claimed  by  them  could  give,  his 
tories  of  late,  yea  of  many  ages,  afford  plentiful  examples ; 
and  the  rule  of  Salomon  is  true ;  s  Is  there  any  thing  where 
of  one  may  say,  Behold,  this  is  new  ?  It  hath  been  already 
in  the  old  time  that  was  before  us.  That  a  king  might  shed 
his  brother's  blood,  was  proved  by  Salomon  upon  Adonia ; 
that  he  might  aliene  the  crown  from  his  natural  heirs, 
David  had  given  proof :  but  these  had  good  ground  of  their 
doings.  They  which  follow  examples  that  please  them,  will 
neglect  the  reasons  of  those  examples,  if  they  please  them 
not,  and  rest  contented  with  the  practice,  as  more  willingly 
shewing  what  they  may  do,  than  acknowledging  why  Salo 
mon  slew  his  brother,  that  had  begun  one  rebellion,  and  was 
entering  into  another.  l  Jehoram  slew  all  his  brethren,  which 
were  better  than  he:  David  purchased  the  kingdom,  and 
might  the  more  freely  dispose  of  it;  yet  he  disposed  of  it  as 
the  Lord  appointed.  If  Jehoram,  who  had  lost  much  and 
gotten  nothing,  thought  that  he  might  aliene  the  remain 
der  at  his  pleasure ;  or  if  Ahazia  sought  to  cut  off  the  suc- 
•  Eccles.  i.  10.  'a  Chron.  xxi.  13. 


603  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

cession  of  his  brethren,  or  of  their  issue;  either  of  these 
was  to  be  answered  with  the  words  which  Jehoiada  the  priest 
used  afterwards,  in  declaring  the  title  of  Joash ;  Behold,  the 
Icing's  son  must  reign;  as  the  Lord  hath  said  of  the  sons  of 
David.  Wherefore,  though  I  hold  it  very  probable  that 
Athaliah  did  pretend  some  title,  whatsoever  it  might  be,  to 
the  crown  of  Juda;  yet  is  it  most  certain,  that  she  had 
thereunto  no  right  at  all,  but  only  got  it  by  treachery,  mur 
der,  and  open  violence ;  and  so  she  held  it  six  whole  years, 
and  a  part  of  the  seventh,  in  good  seeming  security. 

SECT.   II. 

How  Jehu  spent  his  time  in  Israel,  so  that  he  could  not  molest 
Athaliah. 

IN  all  this  time  Jehu  did  never  go  about  to  disturb  her ; 
which  in  reason  he  was  likely  to  desire,  being  an  enemy  to 
her  whole  house.  But  he  was  occupied  at  the  first  in  esta 
blishing  himself,  rooting  out  the  posterity  of  Ahab,  and  re 
forming  somewhat  in  religion ;  afterwards  in  wars  against 
the  Aramite,  wherein  he  was  so  far  overcharged,  that  hardly 
he  could  retain  his  own,  much  less  attempt  upon  others.  Of 
the  line  of  Ahab  there  were  seventy  living  in  Samaria,  out 
of  which  number  Jehu,  by  letter,  advised  the  citizens  to  set 
up  some  one  as  king,  and  to  prepare  themselves  to  fight  in 
his  defence.  Hereby  might  they  gather  how  confident  he 
was,  which  they  well  understood  to  proceed  from  greater 
power  about  him  than  they  could  gather  to  resist  him. 
Wherefore  they  took  example  by  the  two  kings  whom  he 
had  slain,  and  being  exceedingly  afraid  of  him,  they  offered 
him  their  service;  wherein  they  so  readily  shewed  them 
selves  obedient,  that  in  less  than  one  day's  warning,  they 
sent  him  the  heads  of  all  those  princes,  as  they  were  en 
joined  by  a  second  letter  from  him.  After  this,  he  sur 
prised  all  the  priests  of  Baal  by  a  subtilty,  feigning  a  great 
sacrifice  to  their  god,  by  which  means  he  drew  them  all  to 
gether  into  one  temple,  where  he  slew  them ;  and  in  the 
same  zeal  to  God  utterly  demolished  all  the  monuments  of 
that  impiety. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Concerning  the  idolatry  devised  by  Jeroboam,  no  king  of 
Israel  had  ever  greater  reason  than  Jehu  to  destroy  it.  For 
he  needed  not  to  fear  lest  the  people  should  be  allured  unto 
the  house  of  David ;  it  was  (in  appearance)  quite  rooted 
up,  and  the  crown  of  Juda  in  the  possession  of  a  cruel  ty- 
ranness :  he  had  received  his  kingdom  by  the  unexpected 
grace  of  God ;  and  further,  in  regard  of  his  zeal  expressed 
in  destroying  Baal  out  of  Israel,  he  was  promised,  notwith 
standing  his  following  the  sin  of  Jeroboam,  that  the  king 
dom  should  remain  in  his  family  to  the  fourth  generation. 
But  all  this  would  not  serve ;  he  would  needs  help  to  piece 
out  God's  providence  with  his  own  circumspection ;  doing 
therein  like  a  foolish  greedy  gamester,  who  by  stealing  a 
needless  card  to  assure  himself  of  winning  a  stake,  forfeits 
his  whole  rest.  He  had  questionless  displeased  many,  by 
that  which  he  did  against  Baal ;  and  many  more  he  should 
offend  by  taking  from  them  the  use  of  a  superstition  so  long 
practised  as  was  that  idolatry  of  Jeroboam.  Yet  all  these, 
how  many  soever  they  were,  had  never  once  thought  upon 
making  him  king,  if  God,  whom  (to  retain  them)  he  now 
forsook,  had  not  given  him  the  crown,  when  more  difficul 
ties  appeared  in  the  way  of  getting  it  than  could  at  any  time 
after  be  found  in  the  means  of  holding  it. 

This  ingratitude  of  Jehu  drew  terrible  vengeance  of  God 
upon  Israel,  whereof  Hazael  king  of  Damascus  was  the 
executioner.  The  cruelty  of  this  barbarous  prince  we  may 
find  in  the  prophecy  of  Elizaeus,  who  foretold  it,  saying, 
u  Their  strong  cities  shalt  ihou  set  on  jire,  and  their  young 
men  shalt  ihou  slay  with  the  sword,  and  shalt  dash  their 
infants  against  the  stones,  and  rent  in  pieces  their  women 
with  child.  So  did  not  only  the  wickedness  of  Ahab  cause 
the  ruin  of  his  whole  house,  but  the  obstinate  idolatry  of  the 
people  bring  a  lamentable  misery  upon  all  the  land.  For 
the  fury  of  Hazael's  victory  was  not  quenched  with  the  de 
struction  of  a  few  towns,  nor  wearied  with  one  invasion ; 
but  he  x  smote  them  in  all  the  coasts  of  Israel,  and  wasted 
all  the  country  beyond  the  river  of  Jordan.  Notwithstand- 
»  2  Kings  viii.  12.  *  a  Kings  x.  32. 


604  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ing  all  these  calamities,  it  seems  that  the  people  repented 
not  of  their  idolatry,  (for  in  those  days  the  Lord  began  to 
loathe  Israel,)  but  rather  it  is  likely  that  they  bemoaned  the 
noble  house  of  Ahab,  under  which  they  had  beaten  those 
enemies  to  whom  they  were  now  a  prey,  and  had  bravely 
fought  for  the  conquest  of  Syria,  where  they  had  enlarged 
their  border  by  winning  Ramoth  Gilead,  and  compelled 
Benhadad  to  restore  the  cities  which  his  father  had  won ; 
whereas  now  they  were  fain  to  make  woful  shifts,  living 
under  a  lord  that  had  better  fortune  and  courage  in  mur 
dering  his  master  that  had  put  him  in  trust,  than  in  defend 
ing  his  people  from  their  cruel  enemies.  Thus  it  commonly 
falls  out,  that  they  who  can  find  all  manner  of  difficulties  in 
serving  him  to  whom  nothing  is  difficult,  are,  instead  of  the 
ease  and  pleasure  to  themselves  propounded  by  contrary 
courses,  overwhelmed  with  the  troubles  which  they  sought 
to  avoid,  and  therein  by  God,  whom  they  first  forsook,  for 
saken,  and  left  unto  the  wretched  labours  of  their  own  blind 
wisdom,  wherein  they  had  reposed  all  their  confidence. 

SECT.    III. 

Of  Athaliah' s  government. 

THESE  calamities  falling  upon  Israel,  kept  Athaliah  safe 
on  that  side,  giving  her  leisure  to  look  to  things  at  home, 
as  having  little  to  do  abroad,  unless  it  were  so  that  she  held 
some  correspondency  with  Hazael,  pretending  therein  to 
imitate  her  husband's  grandfather  king  Asa,  who  had  done 
the  like.  And  some  probability  that  she  did  so  may  be 
gathered  out  of  that  which  is  recorded  of  her  doings.  For 
we  find,  that  this  y  wicked  Athaliah  and  her  children  brake  up 
the  house  of  God;  and  all  things  that  were  dedicate  for  the 
house  of  the  Lord  did  they  bestow  upon  Baalim.  Such  a 
sacrilege,  though  it  proceeded  from  a  desire  to  set  out  her 
own  idolatry,  with  such  pomp  as  might  make  it  the  more 
glorious  in  the  people's  eyes,  was  not  likely  to  want  some 
fair  pretext  of  necessity  of  the  state  so  requiring :  in  which 
case  others  before  her  had  made  bold  with  that  holy  place ; 

*  2  Chron.  xxiv.  7. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  605 

and  her  next  successor  was  fain  to  do  the  like,  being  there 
unto  forced  by  Hazael,  who  perhaps  was  delighted  with  the 
taste  of  that  which  was  formerly  thence  extracted  for  his 
sake. 

Under  this  impious  government  of  Athaliah,  the  devotion 
of  the  priests  and  Levites  was  very  notable,  and  served  (no 
doubt)  very  much  to  retain  the  people  in  the  religion  taught 
by  God  himself,  howsoever  the  queers  proceedings  advanced 
the  contrary.  For  the  poverty  of  that  sacred  tribe  of  Levi 
must  needs  have  been  exceeding  great  at  this  time,  all  their 
lands  and  possessions  in  the  ten  tribes  being  utterly  lost,  the 
oblations  and  other  perquisites  by  which  they  lived  being 
now  very  few  and  small ;  and  the  store  laid  up  in  better 
times  under  godly  kings  being  all  taken  away  by  shameful 
robbery.  Yet  they  upheld  in  all  this  misery  the  service  of 
God  and  the  daily  sacrifice,  keeping  duly  their  courses,  and 
performing  obedience  to  the  high  priest,  no  less  than  in  those 
days  wherein  their  entertainment  was  far  better. 

SECT.  IV. 

Of  the  preservation  of  Joash. 

JEHOIADA  then  occupied  the  high  priesthood,  an  ho 
nourable,  wise,  and  religious  man.  To  his  carefulness  it  may 
be  ascribed,  that  the  state  of  the  church  was  in  some  slender 
sort  upheld  in  those  unhappy  times.  His  wife  was  Jeho- 
shabeth,  who  was  daughter  of  king  Jehoram,  and  sister  to 
Ahaziah,  a  godly  lady  and  virtuous,  whose  piety  makes  it 
seem  that  Athaliah  was  not  her  mother,  though  her  access 
to  the  court  argue  the  contrary ;  but  her  discreet  carriage 
might  more  easily  procure  her  welcome  to  her  own  father's 
house,  than  the  education  under  such  a  mother  could  have 
permitted  her  to  be  such  as  she  was.  By  her  care  Joash,  the 
young  prince  that  reigned  soon  after,  was  conveyed  out  of 
the  nursery  when  Athaliah  destroyed  all  the  king's  children, 
and  was  carried  secretly  into  the  temple,  where  as  secretly 
he  was  brought  up.  How  it  came  to  pass  that  this  young 
child  was  not  hunted  out  when  his  body  was  missing,  nor 
any  great  reckoning  (for  ought  that  we  find)  made  of  his 


606  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

escape,  I  will  not  stand  to  examine;  for  it  was  not  good  in 
policy,  that  the  people  should  hear  say  that  one  of  the  chil 
dren  had  avoided  that  cruel  blow;  it  might  have  made 
them  hearken  after  innovations,  and  so  be  the  less  conform 
able  to  the  present  government.  So  Joash  was  delivered  out 
of  that  slaughter,  he  and  his  nurse  being  gone  no  man  could 
tell  whither,  and  might  be  thought  peradventure  to  be  cast 
away,  as  having  no  other  guard  than  a  poor  woman  that 
gave  him  suck,  who  foolishly  doubting  that  she  herself 
should  have  been  slain,  was  fled  away  with  him  into  some 
desolate  places,  where  it  was  like  enough  that  she  and  he 
should  perish.  In  such  cases  flatterers,  or  men  desirous  of 
reward,  easily  coin  such  tales,  and  rather  swear  them  to  be 
true  in  their  own  knowledge,  than  they  will  lose  the  thanks 
due  to  their  joyful  tidings. 

SECT.  V. 

Whose  son  Joash  was. 

§-  I- 
Whether  Joash  may  be  thought  likely  to  have  been  the  son  of  Ahaziah. 

NOW  concerning  this  7  Joash,  whose  son  he  was,  it  is  a 
thing  of  much  difficulty  to  affirm,  and  hath  caused  much 
controversy  among  writers.  The  places  of  scripture  which 
call  him  the  son  of  Ahaziah  seem  plain  enough.  How  any 
figure  of  the  Hebrew  language  might  give  that  title  of  son 
unto  him,  in  regard  that  he  was  his  successor,  I  neither  by 
myself  can  find,  nor  can  by  any  help  of  authors  learn  how 
to  answer  the  difficulties  appearing  in  the  contrary  opinions 
of  them  that  think  him  to  have  been,  or  not,  the  natural 
son  of  Ahaziah.  For  whereas  it  is  said,  that  a  the  house  of 
Aliaziah  was  not  able  to  retain  the  kingdom,  some  do  infer 
that  this  Joash  was  not  properly  called  his  son,  but  was  the 
next  of  his  kindred,  and  therefore  succeeded  him,  as  a  son 
in  the  inheritance  of  his  father.  And  hereunto  the  murder 
committed  by  Athaliah  doth  very  well  agree.  For  she  per 
ceiving  that  the  kingdom  was  to  fall  into  their  hands,  in 
whom  she  had  no  interest,  might  easily  find  cause  to  fear 

z  2  Kings  xi.  2.   2  Chron.  xxii.  n.  a  2  Chron.  xxii.Q. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  607 

that  the  tyranny  exercised  by  her  husband,  at  her  instiga 
tion,  upon  so  many  noble  houses,  would  now  be  revenged 
upon  herself.  The  ruin  of  her  idolatrous  religion  might  in 
this  case  terrify  both  her  and  her  minions ;  the  sentence  of 
the  law  rewarding  that  offence  with  death,  and  the  tragedy 
of  Jezabel  teaching  her  what  might  happen  to  another 
queen.  All  this  had  little  concerned  her,  if  her  own  grand 
child  had  been  heir  to  the  crown ;  for  she  that  had  power 
enough  to  make  herself  queen,  could  with  more  ease  and 
less  envy  have  taken  upon  her  the  office  of  a  protector,  by 
which  authority  she  might  have  done  her  pleasure,  and 
been  the  more  both  obeyed  by  others  and  secure  of  her 
own  estate,  as  not  wanting  an  heir.  Wherefore  it  was  not 
needful  that  she  should  be  so  unnatural  as  to  destroy  the 
child  of  her  own  son,  of  whose  life  she  might  have  made 
greater  use  than  she  could  of  his  death ;  whereas  indeed 
the  love  of  grandmothers  to  their  nephews  is  little  less  than 
that  of  mothers  to  their  children. 

This  argument  is  very  strong;  for  it  may  seem  incre 
dible  that  all  natural  affection  should  be  cast  aside,  when  as 
neither  necessity  urgeth,  nor  any  commodity  thereby  gotten 
requireth  it ;  yea,  when  all  human  policy  doth  teach  one  the 
same,  which  nature  without  reason  would  have  persuaded. 

§.2. 

That  Joash  did  not  descend  from  Nathan. 

BUT  (as  it  is  more  easy  to  find  a  difficulty  in  that  which 
is  related,  than  to  shew  how  it  might  have  otherwise  been) 
the  pedigree  of  this  Joash  is,  by  them  which  think  him  not 
the  son  of  Ahaziah,  set  down  in  such  sort  that  it  may  very 
justly  be  suspected.  They  say  that  he  descended  from  Na 
than  the  son  of  David,  and  not  from  Salomon;  to  which 
purpose  they  bring  a  history  (I  know  not  whence)  of  two 
families  of  the  race  of  David,  saying  that  the  line  of  Salo 
mon  held  the  kingdom  with  this  condition,  that  if  at  any 
time  it  failed,  the  family  of  Nathan  should  succeed  it.  Con 
cerning  this  Nathan,  the  son  of  David,  there  are  that  would 
have  him  to  be  Nathan  the  prophet,  who  (as  they  think) 


608  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

was  by  David  adopted.  And  of  this  opinion  was  Origen, 
as  also  St.  Augustine  sometime  was ;  but  afterwards  he  re 
voked  it,  as  was  meet ;  for  this  Nathan  is  reckoned  among 
the  sons  of  David  by  bBathshua,  the  daughter  of  Ammiel, 
and  therefore  could  not  be  the  prophet.  Gregory  Nazian- 
zene,  (as  I  find  him  cited  by  Peter  Martyr,)  and  after  him 
Erasmus  and  Faber  Stapulensis,  have  likewise  held  the 
same  of  Joash,  deriving  him  from  Nathan.  But  Nathan, 
and  those  other  brethren  of  Salomon  by  the  same  mother, 
are  thought,  upon  good  likelihoods,  to  have  been  the  chil 
dren  of  Uria  the  Hittite;  and  so  are  they  accounted  by 
sundry  of  the  fathers,  and  by  Lyra  and  Abulensis,  who 
follow  the  Hebrew  expositors  of  that  place  in  the  first  of 
Chronicles.  The  words  of  Salomon,  calling  himself  the 
only  begotten  of  his  mother,  do  approve  this  exposition; 
for  we  read  of  no  more  than  two  sons  which  Bathshua,  or 
Bathsheba,  did  bear  unto  David,  whereof  the  one,  begotten 
in  adultery,  died  an  infant,  and  Salomon  only  of  her  chil 
dren  by  the  king  did  live.  So  that  the  rest  must  needs 
have  been  the  children  of  Uria,  and  are  thought  to  have 
been  David's  only  by  adoption.  Wherefore,  if  Joash  had 
not  been  the  son  of  Ahaziah,  then  must  that  pedigree  have 
been  false,  wherein  St.  Matthew  deriveth  him  lineally  from 
Salomon;  yea,  then  had  not  our  blessed  Saviour  issued 
from  the  loins  of  David,  according  to  the  flesh,  but  had 
only  been  of  his  line  by  courtesy  of  the  nation,  and  form 
of  law,  as  any  other  might  have  been.  As  for  the  author 
ity  of  Philo,  which  hath  drawn  many  late  writers  into  the 
opinion  that  Joash  was  not  of  the  posterity  of  Salomon,  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  this  was  friar  Annius's  Philo ;  for  no 
other  edition  of  Philo  Tiath  any  such  matter :  but  Annius 
can  make  authors  to  speak  what  he  list. 

§•3- 
That  Joash  may  probably  be  thought  to  have  been  the  son  of 

Jehoram. 

IN  so  doubtful  a  case,  if  it  seem  lawful  to  hold  an  opin 
ion  that  no  man  hath  yet  thought  upon,  methinks  it  were 
b  i  Chron.  Hi.  5. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  609 

not  amiss  to  lay  open  at  once,  and  peruse  together  two 
places  of  scripture,  whereof  the  c  one  telling  the  wicked 
ness  of  Jehoram  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Juda,  for 
which  he  and  his  children  perished,  rehearseth  it  as  one  of 
God's  mercies  towards  the  house  of  David,  that  according 
to  his  promise  he  would  give  him  a  light,  and  to  his  chil 
dren  for  ever:  the  other  doth  say,  that  for  the  offences 
of  the  same  Jehoram,  there  was  not  a  son  left  him  save 
Jehoahaz  the  youngest  of  his  sons.  Now,  if  it  were  in  re 
gard  of  God's  promise  to  David,  that,  after  those  massacres 
of  Jehoram  upon  all  his  brethren,  and  of  the  Philistines  and 
Arabians  upon  the  children  of  Jehoram,  one  of  the  seed  of 
David  escaped,  why  may  it  not  be  thought  that  he  was  said 
to  have  escaped  in  whom  the  line  of  David  was  preserved  ? 
for  had  all  the  race  of  Salomon  been  rooted  up  in  these 
woful  tragedies,  and  the  progeny  of  Nathan  succeeded  in 
place  thereof,  like  enough  it  is  that  some  remembrance 
more  particular  would  have  been  extant  of  an  event  so  me 
morable.  That  the  race  of  Nathan  was  not  extinguished, 
it  is  indeed  apparent  by  the  genealogy  of  our  Lord,  as  it  is 
recounted  by  St.  Luke ;  but  the  preservation  of  the  house 
of  David,  mentioned  in  the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles, 
was  performed  in  the  person  of  Jehoahaz,  in  whom  the 
royal  branch  of  Salomon,  the  natural  and  not  only  legal 
issue  remaining  of  David,  was  kept  alive:  wherefore  it 
may  be  thought  that  this  Joash,  who  followed  Athaliah  in 
the  kingdom,  was  the  youngest  son  of  Jehoram,  whose  life 
Athaliah,  as  a  step-dame,  was  not  unlikely  to  pursue.  For 
it  were  not  easily  understood  why  the  preservation  of  Da 
vid's  line,  by  God's  especial  mercy  in  regard  of  his  promise 
made,  should  pertain  rather  to  that  time,  when  besides 
Ahaziah  himself  there  were  two  and  forty  of  his  d  brethren, 
or  (as  in  another  place  they  are  called)  sons  of  his  brethren, 
remaining  alive,  which  afterwards  were  all  slain  by  Jehu, 
than  have  reference  to  the  lamentable  e  destruction  and  lit 
tle  less  than  extirpation  of  that  progeny,  wherein  one  only 
did  escape.  Certainly  that  inhuman  murder  which  Jeho- 

c  2  Kings  viii.  19.  d  2  Kings  x.  13.  *  2  Chron.  xxii.  8. 

IIALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  E  r 


610  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ram  committed  upon  his  brethren,  if  it  were  (as  appeareth 
in  the  history)  revenged  upon  his  own  children,  then  was 
not  this  vengeance  of  God  accomplished  by  the  Philistines 
and  Arabians,  but,  being  only  begun  by  them,  was  after 
wards  prosecuted  by  Jehu,  and  finally  took  effect  by  the 
hands  of  that  same  wicked  woman,  at  whose  instigation  he 
had  committed  such  barbarous  outrage.  And  from  this  ex 
ecution  of  God's  heavy  judgment  laid  upon  f  Jehoram  and 
all  his  children,  only  Jehoahaz  his  youngest  son  was  exempt 
ed  ;  whom  therefore  if  I  should  affirm  to  be  the  same  with 
Joash,  which  is  called  the  son  of  Ahaziah,  I  should  not  want 
good  probability.  Some  further  appearance  of  necessity 
there  is,  which  doth  argue  that  it  could  no  otherwise  have 
been :  for  it  was  the  youngest  son  of  Jehoram  in  whom  the 
race  was  preserved,  which  could  not  in  any  likelihood  be 
Ahaziah,  seeing  that  he  was  twenty  years  old  at  the  least  (as 
is  already  noted)  when  he  began  to  reign,  and  consequently 
was  born  in  the  eighteenth  or  twentieth  year  of  his  father's 
age.  Now  I  know  not  whether  of  the  two  is  more  unlikely, 
either  that  Jehoram  should  have  begotten  many  children 
before  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  or  that  having  (as  he  had) 
many  wives  and  children,  he  should  upon  the  sudden  at  his 
eighteenth  year  become  unfruitful,  and  beget  no  more  in 
twenty  years  following :  each  of  which  must  have  been  true, 
if  this  were  true  that  Ahaziah  was  the  same  Jehoahaz  which 
was  his  youngest  son.  But  this  inconvenience  is  taken 
away,  and  those  other  doubts,  arising  from  the  causeless 
cruelty  of  Athaliah  in  seeking  the  life  of  Joash,  are  easily 
cleared,  if  Joash  and  Jehoahaz  were  one.  Neither  doth  his 
age  withstand  this  opinion,  for  he  was  8  seven  years  old 
when  he  began  to  reign;  which  if  we  understand  of  years 
complete,  he  might  have  been  a  year  old  at  the  death  of 
Jehoram,  being  begotten  somewhat  after  the  beginning  of 
his  sickness.  Neither  is  it  more  absurd  to  say  that  he  was 
the  natural  son  of  Jehoram,  though  called  the  son  of  Ahaziah, 
than  it  were  to  say,  as  great  authors  have  done,  this  diffi 
culty  notwithstanding,  that  he  was  of  the  posterity  of  Na- 
f  2  Chron.  xxi.  14.  ,  2  chron.  xjdv>  Jm 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  611 

than.  One  thing  indeed  I  know  not  how  to  answer;  which, 
had  it  concurred  with  the  rest,  might  have  served  as  the  very 
foundation  of  this  opinion.  The  name  of  Jehoahaz,  that 
soundeth  much  more  near  to  Joash  than  to  Ahaziah  in  an 
English  ear,  doth  in  the  Hebrew,  (as  I  am  informed  by 
some  skilful  in  that  language,)  through  the  diversity  of  cer 
tain  letters,  differ  much  from  that  which  it  most  resembleth 
in  our  western  manner  of  writing,  and  little  from  the  other. 
Now  although  it  be  so  that  Ahaziah  himself  be  also  called 
hAzariah,  and  must  have  had  three  names,  if  he  were  the 
same  with  Jehoahaz  ;  in  which  manner  Joash  might  also  have 
had  several  names;  yet  because  I  find  no  other  warrant 
hereof  than  a  bare  possibility,  I  will  not  presume  to  build 
an  opinion  upon  the  weak  foundation  of  mine  own  con 
jecture,  but  leave  all  to  the  consideration  of  such  as  have 
more  ability  to  judge  and  leisure  to  consider  of  this  point. 

§.4- 
Upon  what  reasons  Athaliah  might  seek  to  destroy  Joash,  if  he  were 

her  own  grandchild. 

IF  therefore  we  shall  follow  that  which  is  commonly 
received,  and  interpret  the  text  according  to  the  letter,  it 
may  be  said  that  Athaliah  was  not  only  blinded  by  the 
passions  of  ambition  and  zeal  to  her  idolatrous  worship  of 
Baalim,  but  pursued  the  accomplishment  of  some  natural 
desires,  in  seeking  the  destruction  of  her  grandchild,  and 
the  rest  of  the  blood  royal.  For  whether  it  were  so  that 
Athaliah  (as  proud  and  cruel  women  are  not  always  chaste) 
had  imitated  the  liberty  of  Jezabel,  her  sister-in-law,  whose 
'  whoredoms  were  upbraided  by  Jehu  to  her  son ;  or  whe 
ther  she  had  children  by  some  former  husband,  before  she 
was  married  unto  Jehoram,  (which  is  not  unlikely  in  regard 
of  her  age,  who  was  daughter  of  Omri  and  sister  to  Ahab,) 
certain  it  is  that  she  had  sons  of  her  own,  and  those  old 
enough  to  be  employed,  as  they  were,  in  robbing  of  the 
temple.  So  it  is  not  greatly  to  be  wondered  at,  that  to  set 
tle  the  crown  upon  her  own  children,  she  did  seek  to  cut 
off,  by  wicked  policy,  all  other  claims.  As  for  Joash,  if  she 
h  2  Cbron.  xxii.  6.  «  2  Kiugs  ix.  22. 

R  r  2 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

were  his  grandmother,  yet  she  might  mistrust  the  interest 
which  his  mother  would  have  in  him,  lest  when  he  came  to 
years  it  might  withdraw  him  from  her  devotion.  And 
hereof  (besides  that  women  do  commonly  better  love  their 
daughters1  husbands  than  their  sons'  wives)  there  is  some 
appearance  in  the  reign  of  her  son ;  for  she  made  him  spend 
all  his  time  in  idle  journeys,  to  no  other  apparent  end  than 
that  she  might  rule  at  home;  and  he  living  abroad  be 
estranged  from  his  wife,  and  entertain  some  new  fancies, 
wherein  Jezabel  had  cunning  enough  to  be  his  tutoress. 
But  when  the  sword  of  Jehu  had  rudely  cut  in  sunder  all 
these  fine  devices,  then  was  Athaliah  fain  to  go  roundly  to 
work,  and  do  as  she  did,  whereby  she  thought  to  make  all 
sure.  Otherwise,  if  (as  I  could  rather  think)  she  were  only 
step-dame  to  Joash,  we  need  not  seek  into  the  reasons  mov 
ing  her  to  take  away  his  life ;  her  own  hatred  was  cause 
enough  to  despatch  him  among  the  first. 

SECT.  VI. 

A  digression,  wherein  is  maintained  the  liberty  of  using  conjecture 
in  histories. 

THUS  much  concerning  the  person  of  Joash,  from  whom, 
as  from  a  new  root,  the  tree  of  David  was  propagated  into 
many  branches.  In  handling  of  which  matter,  the  more  I 
consider  the  nature  of  this  history,  and  the  diversity  between 
it  and  others,  the  less,  methinks,  I  need  to  suspect  mine  own 
presumption  as  deserving  blame  for  curiosity  in  matter  of 
doubt,  or  boldness  in  liberty  of  conjecture.  For  all  histo 
ries  do  give  us  information  of  human  counsels  and  events, 
as  far  forth  as  the  knowledge  and  faith  of  the  writers  can 
afford ;  but  of  God's  will,  by  which  all  things  are  ordered, 
they  speak  only  at  random,  and  many  times  falsely.  This 
we  often  find  in  profane  writers,  who  ascribe  the  ill  success 
of  great  undertakings  to  the  neglect  of  some  impious  rites, 
whereof  indeed  God  abhorred  the  performance  as  vehe 
mently,  as  they  thought  him  to  be  highly  offended  with  the 
omission.  Hereat  we  may  the  less  wonder,  if  we  consider 
the  answer  made  by  the  Jews  in  Egypt  unto  Jeremy  the  pro- 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  613 

phet,  reprehending  their  idolatry.  For,  howsoever  the 
written  law  of  God  was  known  unto  the  people,  and  his 
punishments  laid  upon  them  for  contempt  thereof  were  very 
terrible,  and  even  then  but  newly  executed ;  yet  were  they 
so  obstinately  bent  unto  their  own  wills,  that  they  would  not 
by  any  means  be  drawn  to  acknowledge  the  true  cause  of 
their  affliction :  but  they  told  the  prophet  roundly,  that 
they  would  worship  the  queen  of  heaven  as  they  and  their 
fathers,  their  kings  and  their  princes,  had  used  to  do  ;  ^For 
then,  said  they,  had  we  plenty  of  victuals,  and  were  well, 
and  felt  no  evil :  adding,  that  all  manner  of  miseries  were 
befallen  them  since  they  left  off  the  service  of  the  queen  of 
heaven.  So  blind  is  the  wisdom  of  man  in  looking  into  the 
counsel  of  God,  which  to  find  out  there  is  no  better  nor  other 
guide  than  his  own  written  will  not  perverted  by  vain 
additions. 

But  this  history  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  Juda  hath 
herein  a  singular  prerogative  above  all  that  have  been  writ 
ten  by  the  most  sufficient  of  merely  human  authors :  it 
setteth  down  expressly  the  true  and  first  causes  of  all  that 
happened;  not  imputing  the  death  of  Ahab  to  his  overforward- 
ness  in  battle,  the  ruin  of  his* family  to  the  security  of  Jero 
boam  in  Jezreel,  nor  the  victories  of  Hazael  to  the  great 
commotions  raised  in  Israel  by  the  coming  of  Jehu;  but 
referring  all  unto  the  will  of  God,  I  mean,  to  his  revealed 
will :  from  which,  that  his  hidden  purposes  do  not  vary,  this 
story,  by  many  great  examples,  gives  most  notable  proof. 
True  it  is,  that  the  concurrence  of  second  causes  with  their 
effects,  is  in  these  books  nothing  largely  described,  nor 
perhaps  exactly  in  any  of  those  histories  that  are  in  these 
points  most  copious.  For  it  was  well  noted  by  that  worthy 
gentleman  ]  sir  Philip  Sidney,  that  historians  do  borrow  of 
poets,  not  only  much  of  their  ornament,  but  somewhat  of 
their  substance.  Informations  are  often  false,  records  not 
always  true,  and  notorious  actions  commonly  insufficient  to 
discover  the  passions,  which  did  set  them  first  on  foot. 
Wherefore  they  are  fain  (I  speak  of  the  best,  and  in  that 

k  Jer.  xliv.  17,  18.  '  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  in  his  Apology  for  Poetry. 

Rr  3 


614  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

which  was  allowed :  for  to  take  out  of  Livy  every  one  cir 
cumstance  of  Claudius's  journey  against  Asdrubal  in  Italy, 
fitting  all  to  another  business,  or  any  practice  of  that  kind, 
is  neither  historical  nor  poetical)  to  search  into  the  particular 
humours  of  princes,  and  of  those  which  have  governed  their 
affections,  or  the  instruments  by  which  they  wrought,  from 
whence  they  do  collect  the  most  likely  motives  or  impedi 
ments  of  every  business  ;  and  so  figuring  as  near  to  the  life 
as  they  can  imagine  the  matter  in  hand,  they  judiciously 
consider  the  defects  in  council,  or  obliquity  in  proceeding. 

Yet  all  this,  for  the  most  part,  is  not  enough  to  give  as 
surance,  howsoever  it  may  give  satisfaction.     For  the  heart 
of  man  is  unsearchable ;  and  princes,  howsoever  their  intents 
be  seldom  hidden  from  some  of  those  many  eyes  which  pry 
both  into  them  and  into  such  as  live  about  them,  yet  some 
times,  either  by  their  own  close  temper,  or  by  some  subtle 
mist,  they  conceal  the  truth  from  all  reports.     Yea,  many 
times  the  affections  themselves  lie  dead  and  buried  in  ob 
livion,  when   the  preparations  which   they  begat  are  con 
verted  to  another  use.     The  industry  of  an  historian  hav 
ing   so  many  things   to   weary  it,  may  well   be    excused, 
when  finding  apparent  cause  enough  of  things  done,  it  for- 
beareth  to  make  further  search ;  though  it  often  fall  out, 
where  sundry  occasions  work  to  the  same  end,  that  one 
small  matter  in  a  weak  mind  is  more  effectual  than  many 
that  seem  far  greater.    So  comes  it  many  times  to  pass,  that 
great  fires,  which  consume  whole  houses  or  towns,  begin 
with  a  few  straws  that  are  wasted  or  not  seen ;  when  the 
flame  is  discovered,  having  fastened  upon  some  wood- pile 
that  catcheth  all  about  it.     Questionless  it  is,  that  the  war 
commenced  by  Darius,  and  pursued  by  Xerxes  against  the 
Greeks,  proceeded  from  a  desire  of  the  Persians  to  enlarge 
their  empire :  howsoever  the  enterprise  of  the  Athenians 
upon  Sardes  was  noised  abroad  as  the  ground  of  that  quar 
rel  ;  yet  m  Herodotus  telleth  us,  that  the  wanton  desire  of 
queen  Atossa,  to  have  the  Grecian  dames  her  bondwomen, 
did  first  move  Darius  to  prepare  for  this  war,  before  he  had 
m  Herod.  1.  i. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  615 

received  any  injury;  and  when  he  did  not  yet  so  much  de 
sire  to  get  more,  as  to  enjoy  what  was  already  gotten. 

I  will  not  here  stand  to  argue  whether  Herodotus  be 
more  justly  reprehended  by  some,  or  defended  by  others, 
for  alleging  the  vain  appetite  and  secret  speech  of  the  queen 
in  bed  with  her  husband,  as  the  cause  of  those  great  evils 
following;  this  I  may  boldly  affirm,  (having,  I  think,  in 
every  estate  some  sufficient  witnesses,)  that  matters  of  much 
consequence,  founded  in  all  seeming  upon  substantial  rea 
sons,  have  issued  indeed  from  such  petty  trifles,  as  no  his 
torian  would  either  think  upon,  or  could  well  search  out. 

Therefore  it  was  a  good  answer  that  Sixtus  Quintus  the 
pope  made  to  a  certain  friar  coming  to  visit  him  in  his  pope- 
dom,  as  having  long  before  in  his  meaner  estate  been  his 
familiar  friend.  This  poor  friar  being  emboldened  by  the 
pope  to  use  his  old  liberty  of  speech,  adventured  to  tell  him, 
that  he  very  much  wondered  how  it  was  possible  for  his 
holiness,  whom  he  rather  took  for  a  direct  honest  man  than 
any  cunning  politician,  to  attain  unto  the  papacy ;  in  com 
passing  of  which,  all  the  subtlety,  said  he,  of  the  most  crafty 
brains,  finds  work  enough :  and  therefore  the  more  I  think 
upon  the  art  of  the  conclave,  and  your  unaptness  thereto, 
the  more  I  needs  must  wonder.  Pope  Sixtus,  to  satisfy  the 
plain-dealing  friar,  dealt  with  him  again  as  plainly,  saying, 
Hadst  thou  lived  abroad  as  I  have  done,  and  seen  by  what 
folly  this  world  is  governed,  thou  wouldest  wonder  at  no 
thing. 

Surely,  if  this  be  referred  unto  those  exorbitant  engines, 
by  which  the  course  of  affairs  is  moved,  the  pope  said 
true ;  for  the  wisest  of  men  are  not  without  their  vanities, 
which,  requiring  and  finding  mutual  toleration,  work  more 
closely  and  earnestly  than  right  reason  either  needs  or  can. 
But  if  we  lift  up  our  thoughts  to  that  supreme  Governor,  of 
whose  empire  all  that  is  true  which  by  the  poet  was  said  of 
Jupiter, 

Qui  terrain  inertem,  qui  mare  temperat 
Ventosuvn,  et  urbes,  regnaque  tristia, 
B  r  4 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Divosque,  mortaUsque  turmas, 

Imperio  regit  unus  aquo  : 

Who  rules  the  duller  earth,  the  wind-swoln  streams, 

The  civil  cities,  and  th'  infernal  realms, 

Who  th'  host  of  heaven  and  the  mortal  band 

Alone  doth  govern  by  his  just  command : 

then  shall  we  find  the  quite  contrary.  In  him  there  is 
no  uncertainty  nor  change ;  he  foreseeth  all  things,  and  all 
things  disposeth  to  his  own  honour ;  he  neither  deceiveth 
nor  can  be  deceived  ;  but  continuing  one  and  the  same  for 
ever,  doth  constantly  govern  all  creatures  by  that  law  which 
he  hath  prescribed,  and  will  never  alter.  The  vanities  of 
men  beguile  their  vain  contrivers,  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
wicked  is  the  way  leading  to  their  destruction ;  yea,  this 
broad  and  headlong  passage  to  hell  is  not  so  delightful  as 
it  seemeth  at  the  first  entrance,  but  hath  growing  in  it,  be 
sides  the  poisons  which  infect  the  soul,  many  cruel  tborns 
deeply  wounding  the  body ;  all  which,  if  any  few  escape, 
they  have  only  this  miserable  advantage  of  otbers,  that  their 
descent  was  the  more  swift  and  expedite.  But  the  service 
of  God  is  the  path  guiding  us  to  perfect  happiness,  and  hath 
in  it  a  true,  though  not  complete  felicity,  yielding  such 
abundance  of  joy  to  the  conscience,  as  doth  easily  counter 
vail  all  afflictions  whatsoever :  though  indeed  those  brambles 
that  sometimes  tear  the  skin  of  such  as  walk  in  this  blessed 
way,  do  commonly  lay  hold  upon  them  at  such  time  as 
they  sit  down  to  take  their  ease,  and  make  them  wish  them 
selves  at  their  journey's  end,  in  presence  of  their  Lord, 
whom  they  faithfully  serve  ;  in  whose  presence  is  the  ful 
ness  of 'joy -,  and  at  whose  right  hand  are  pleasures  for 
evermore,  Psalm  xvi.  11. 

Wherefore  it  being  the  end  and  scope  of  all  history,  to 
teach  by  example  of  times  past  such  wisdom  as  may  guide 
our  desires  and  actions,  we  should  not  marvel  though  the 
chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Juda  and  Israel,  being  written 
by  men  inspired  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  instruct  us  chiefly  in 
that  which  is  most  requisite  for  us  to  know,  as  the  means  to 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  617 

attain  unto  true  felicity  both  here  and  hereafter,  propound 
ing  examples  which  illustrate  this  infallible  rule,  The  fear 
of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  Had  the  expedi 
tion  of  Xerxes  (as  it,  was  foretold  by  Daniel)  been  written 
by  some  prophet  after  the  captivity,  we  may  well  believe, 
that  the  counsel  of  God  therein,  and  the  execution  of  his 
righteous  will,  should  have  occupied  either  the  whole  or  the 
principal  room  in  that  narration.  Yet  had  not  the  purpose 
of  Darius,  the  desire  of  his  wife,  and  the  business  at  Sardes, 
with  other  occurrents,  been  the  less  true,  though  they  might 
have  been  omitted,  as  the  less  material :  but  these  things  it 
had  been  lawful  for  any  man  to  gather  out  of  profane  histo 
ries,  or  out  of  circumstances  otherwise  appearing,  wherein 
he  should  not  have  done  injury  to  the  sacred  writings,  as 
long  as  he  had  forborne  to  derogate  from  the  first  causes,  by 
ascribing  to  the  second  more  than  was  due. 

Such,  or  little  different,  is  the  business  that  I  have  now  in 
hand :  wherein  I  cannot  believe  that  any  man  of  judgment 
will  tax  me  as  either  fabulous  or  presumptuous.  For  he 
doth  not  feign,  that  rehearseth  probabilities  as  bare  conjec 
tures  ;  neither  doth  he  deprive  the  text,  that  seeketh  to  il 
lustrate,  and  make  good  in  human  reason,  those  things 
which  authority  alone,  without  further  circumstance,  ought 
to  have  confirmed  in  every  man's  belief.  And  this  may 
suffice  in  defence  of  the  liberty  which  I  have  used  in  con 
jectures,  and  may  hereafter  use  when  occasion  shall  require, 
as  neither  unlawful  nor  misbeseeming  an  historian. 

SECT.  VII. 

The  conspiracy  against  Athaliah. 

WHEN  Athaliah  had  now  six  years  and  longer  worn  the 
crown  of  Juda,  and  had  found  neither  any  foreign  enemy 
nor  domestical  adversary  to  disturb  her  possession,  suddenly 
the  period  of  her  glory  and  reward  of  her  wickedness  meet 
ing  together,  took  her  away  without  any  warning,  by  a  vio 
lent  and  shameful  death.  For  the  growth  of  the  young 
prince  began  to  be  such,  as  permitted  him  no  longer  to  be 
concealed  ;  and  it  had  been  very  unfitting  that  his  education 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

should  be  simple,  to  make  him  seem  the  child  of  some  poor 
man,  (as  for  his  safety  it  was  requisite,)  when  his  capacity 
required  to  have  been  endued  with  the  stomach  and  qualities 
meet  for  a  king.  All  this  Jehoiada  the  priest  considered, 
and  withal  the  great  increase  of  impiety,  which,  taking  deep 
root  in  the  court,  was  likely  to  spread  itself  over  all  the 
country,  if  care  were  not  used  to  weed  it  up  very  speedily. 
Wherefore  he  associated  unto  himself  five  of  the  captains, 
in  whose  fidelity  he  had  best  assurance,  and  having  taken  an 
oath  of  them,  and  shewed  them  the  king's  son,  he  made  a 
covenant  with  them  to  advance  him  to  the  kingdom.  These 
drew  in  others  of  the  principal  men  to  countenance  the 
action,  procuring  at  the  first  only  that  they  should  repair 
to  Jerusalem,  where  they  were  further  acquainted  with  the 
whole  matter.  There  needed  not  many  persuasions  to  win 
them  to  the  business :  the  promise  of  the  Lord  unto  the 
house  of  David  was  enough  to  assure  them,  that  the  action 
was  both  lawful  and  likely  to  succeed  as  they  desired. 

But  in  compassing  their  intent,  some  difficulties  appeared. 
For  it  was  not  to  be  hoped  that  with  open  force  they  should 
bring  their  purpose  to  good  issue ;  neither  were  the  captains, 
and  other  associates  of  Jehoiada,  able  by  close  working  to 
draw  together  so  many  trusty  and  serviceable  hands  as  would 
suffice  to  manage  the  business.  To  help  in  this  case,  the 
priest  gave  order  to  such  of  the  Levites  as  had  finished 
their  courses  in  waiting  on  the  divine  service  at  the  temple, 
and  were  now  relieved  by  others  that  succeeded  in  their 
turns,  that  they  should  not  depart  until  they  knew  his  fur 
ther  pleasure.  So  by  admitting  the  new  comers,  and  not 
discharging  the  old,  he  had,  without  any  noise,  made  up 
such  a  number  as  would  be  able  to  deal  with  the  queen's 
ordinary  guard,  and  that  was  enough ;  for  if  the  tyranness 
did  not  prevail  against  them  at  the  first  brunt,  the  favour 
of  the  people  was  like  to  shew  itself  on  their  side  who  made 
head  against  her.  These  Levites  were  placed  in  the  inner 
court  of  the  temple,  about  the  person  of  the  king,  who  as 
yet  was  kept  close ;  the  followers  of  the  captains,  and  other 
adherents  were  bestowed  in  the  outer  courts :  as  for  wea- 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  619 

pons,  the  temple  itself  had  store  enough ;  king  David  had 
left  an  armoury  to  the  place,  which  was  now  employed  in 
defence  of  his  issue. 

All  things  being  in  a  readiness,  and  the  day  come  where 
in  this  high  design  was  to  be  put  in  execution,  Jehoiada 
delivered  unto  the  captains  armour  for  them  and  their  adhe 
rents,  appointed  a  guard  unto  the  king's  person,  produced 
him  openly,  and  gave  unto  him  the  crown ;  using  all  cere 
monies  accustomed  in  such  solemnities,  with  great  applause 
of  the  people.  Of  these  doings  the  queen  was  the  last  that 
heard  any  word,  which  is  not  so  strange  as  it  may  seem  ;  for 
insolent  natures,  by  dealing  outrageously  with  such  as  bring 
them  ill  tidings,  do  commonly  lose  the  benefit  of  hearing 
what  is  to  be  feared  whilst  yet  it  may  be  prevented,  and 
have  no  information  of  danger  till  their  own  eyes,  amazed 
with  the  suddenness,  behold  it  in  the  shape  of  inevitable 
mischief. 

All  Jerusalem  was  full  of  the  rumour,  and  entertained  it 
with  very  good  liking.  Some  carried  home  the  news,  others 
ran  forth  to  see,  and  the  common  joy  was  so  great,  that 
without  apprehension  of  peril,  under  the  windows  of  the  court 
were  the  people  running  and  praising  the  king.  n  Athaliah 
hearing  and  beholding  the  extraordinary  concourse  and 
noise  of  folks  in  the  streets,  making  towards  the  temple 
with  much  unusual  passion  in  their  looks,  did  presently 
conceive  that  somewhat  worthy  of  her  care  was  happened ; 
though  what  it  might  be  she  did  not  apprehend.  Howso 
ever  it  were,  she  meant  to  use  her  own  wisdom  in  looking 
into  the  matter,  and  ordering  all  as  the  occasion  might  hap 
pen  to  require.  It  may  be,  that  she  thought  it  some  espe 
cial  solemnity  used  in  the  divine  service,  which  caused  this 
much  ado ;  and  hereof  the  unaccustomed  number  of  Levites, 
and  of  other  devout  men  about  the  town,  might  give  some 
presumption. 

Many  things  argue  that  she  little  thought  upon  her  own 
tragedy ;  although  Josephus  would  make  it  seem  otherwise. 
For  we  find  in  the  text,  °  she  came  to  the  people  into  the 

•  2  Chron.  xxiii.  12.  •  2  Chron.  xxiii.  12,  13.  2  Kings  xi.  13,  14. 


620  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

house  of  the  Lord,  (which  was  near  to  her  palace,)  and  that 
when  she  looked  and  saw  the  king  stand  by  his  pillar,  as 
the  manner  was,  with  the  princes  or  great  men  of  the  land 
by  him,  and  the  trumpeters  proclaiming  him,  she  rent  her 
clothes,  and  cried,  Treason !  Treason !  Hereby  it  appears, 
that  she  was  quietly  going,  without  any  mistrust  or  fear,  to 
take  her  place,  which  when  she  found  occupied  by  another, 
then  she  begun  to  afflict  herself,  as  one  cast  away,  and  cried 
out  in  vain  upon  the  treason  whereby  she  saw  that  she  must 
perish.  But  that  she  came  with  a  guard  of  armed  men  to 
the  temple,  (as  Josephus  reporteth,)  and  that  her  company 
being  beaten  back  she  entered  alone,  and  commanded  the 
people  to  kill  the  young  tyrant,  I  find  nowhere  in  scripture, 
neither  do  I  hold  it  credible.  For  had  she  truly  known  how 
things  went,  she  would  surely  have  gathered  her  friends 
about  her,  and  used  those  forces  in  defence  of  her  crown 
by  which  she  gat  it,  and  hitherto  had  held  it.  Certainly, 
if  it  were  granted  that  she,  like  a  new  Semiramis,  did  march 
in  the  head  of  her  troop,  yet  it  had  been  mere  madness  in 
her  to  enter  the  place  alone,  when  her  assistants  were  kept 
out ;  but  if  she,  perceiving  that  neither  her  authority  nor 
their  own  weapons  could  prevail  to  let  in  her  guard,  would 
nevertheless  take  upon  her  to  command  the  death  of  the 
new  king,  calling  a  child  of  seven  years  old  a  conspirator, 
and  bidding  them  to  kill  him  whom  she  saw  to  be  armed  in 
his  defence,  may  we  not  think  that  she  was  mad  in  the  most 
extreme  degree  ?  Certain  it  is,  that  the  counsel  of  God  would 
have  taken  effect  in  her  destruction,  had  she  used  the  most 
likely  means  to  disappoint  it :  yet  we  need  not  so  cut  her 
throat  with  any  moral  impossibilities.  It  is  enough  to  say, 
that  the  godly  zeal  of  Jehoiada  found  more  easy  success 
through  her  indiscretion,  than  otherwise  could  have  been 
expected ;  so  that  at  his  appointment  she  was  without  more 
ado  carried  out  of  the  temple  and  slain ;  yea  so,  that  no 
blood  save  her  own  was  shed  in  that  quarrel ;  her  small 
train,  that  she  brought  along  with  her,  not  daring  to  stand 
in  her  defence. 


CHAP.  xxi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  621 

SECT.  VIII. 

The  death  of  Athaliah,  with  a  comparison  of  her  and  Jezabel. 
MOST  like  it  is,  that  Athaliah  had  nfany  times,  with 
great  indignation,  bewailed  the  rashness  of  her  nephew  Je- 
horam  the  Israelite,  who  did  foolishly  cast  himself  into  the 
very  throat  of  danger,  gaping  upon  him,  only  through  his 
eager  desire  of  quickly  knowing  what  the  matter  meant : 
yet  she  herself,  by  the  like  bait,  was  taken  in  the  like  trap, 
and  having  lived  such  a  life  as  Jezabel  had  done,  was  re 
warded  with  a  suitable  death.  These  two  queens  were  in 
many  points  much  alike,  each  of  them  was  daughter,  wife, 
and  mother  to  a  king ;  each  of  them  ruled  her  husband ; 
was  an  idolatress  and  a  murderess.  The  only  difference 
appearing  in  their  conditions  is,  that  Jezabel  is  more  noted 
as  incontinent  of  body,  Athaliah  as  ambitious  ;  so  that  each 
of  them  surviving  her  husband  about  eight  years,  did  spend 
the  time  in  satisfying  her  own  affections  ;  the  one  using  ty 
ranny,  as  the  exercise  of  her  haughty  mind ;  the  other  paint 
ing  her  face,  for  the  ornament  of  her  unchaste  body.  In 
the  manner  of  their  death,  little  difference  there  was,  or  in 
those  things  which  may  seem  in  this  world  to  pertain  unto 
the  dead  when  they  are  gone.  Each  of  them  was  taken  on 
the  sudden  by  conspirators,  and  each  of  them  exclaiming 
upon  the  treason,  received  sentence  from  the  mouth  of  one 
that  had  lived  under  her  subjection ;  in  execution  whereof, 
Jezabel  was  trampled  under  the  feet  of  her  enemies1  horses; 
Athaliah  slain  at  her  own  horse-gate ;  the  death  of  Athaliah 
having  (though  not  much)  the  more  leisure  to  vex  her  proud 
heart;  that  of  Jezabel,  the  more  indignity  and  shame  of 
body.  Touching  their  burial,  Jezabel  was  devoured  by 
dogs,  as  the  Lord  had  threatened  by  the  prophet  Elias ; 
what  became  of  Athaliah  we  do  not  find.  Like  enough  it  is, 
that  she  was  buried,  as  having  not  persecuted  and  slain  the 
Lord's  prophets,  but  suffered  the  priests  to  exercise  their 
function  ;  yet  of  her  burial  there  is  no  monument ;  for  she 
was  a  church-robber.  The  service  of  Baal,  erected  by  these 
two  queens,  was  destroyed  as  soon  as  they  were  gone ;  and 
their  chaplains,  the  priests  of  that  religion,  slain.  Herein 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

also  it  came  to  pass  alike,  as  touching  them  both  when  they 
were  dead ;  the  kings  who  slew  them  were  afterwards  af 
flicted,  both  of  them  by  the  same  hand  of  Hazael  the  Sy 
rian  ;  in  which  point  Athaliah  had  the  greater  honour,  if  the 
Syrian  (who  seems  to  have  been  her  good  friend)  pretended 
her  revenge,  as  any  part  of  his  quarrel  to  Juda.  Concern 
ing  children,  all  belonging  to  Jezabel  perished  in  few  days 
after  her :  whether  Athaliah  left  any  behind  her,  it  is  un 
certain  ;  she  had  sons  living  after  she  was  queen ;  of  whom, 
or  of  any  other,  that  they  were  slain  with  her,  we  do  not 

find. 

This  is  a  matter  not  unworthy  of  consideration,  in  regard 

of  much  that  may  depend  upon  it.  For  if  the  children  of 
Athaliah  had  been  in  Jerusalem  when  their  mother  fell, 
their  death  would  surely  have  followed  hers  as  nearly,  and 
been  registered  as  well  as  the  death  of  Mattan  the  priest  of 
Baal.  That  law,  by  which  P  God  forbade  that  the  children 
should  die  for  the  father  s>  could  not  have  saved  these  un 
gracious  imps,  whom  the  clause  following  would  have  cut 
off,  which  commands  that  every  man  shall  die  for  his 
own  sin.  Seeing  therefore  that  they  had  been  professors 
and  advancers  of  that  vile  and  idolatrous  worship  of  Baal, 
yea  had  robbed  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  and  enriched  the 
house  of  Baal  with  the  spoil  of  it ;  likely  it  is,  that  they 
should  not  have  escaped  with  life,  if  Jehoiada  the  priest 
could  have  gotten  them  into  his  hands.  As  there  was  law 
ful  cause  enough  requiring  their  death,  so  the  security  of  the 
king  and  his  friends,  that  is,  of  all  the  land,  craved  as  much, 
and  that  very  earnestly.  For  these  had  been  esteemed  as 
heirs  of  their  mother's  crown,  and  being  reckoned  as  her 
assistants  in  that  particular  business  of  robbing  the  temple, 
may  be  thought  to  have  carried  a  great  sway  in  other  mat 
ters,  as  princes  and  fellows  with  their  mother  in  the  king 
dom.  Therefore  it  is  evident,  that  either  they  were  now 
dead,  or  (perhaps  following  Hazael  in  the  wars  against 
Jehu)  absent  from  Jerusalem;  whereby  Jehoiada  might 

*  Dent.  xxiv.  1 6. 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  G28 

with  the  more  confidence  adventure  to  take  arms  against 
their  mother,  that  was  desolate. 


CHAP.  XXII. 

Of  Joash  and  Amasia,  with  their  contemporaries;   where 
somewhat  of  the  building  of  Carthage. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  JoasKs  doings  whilst  Jehoiada  the  priest  lived. 

OY  the  death  of  Athaliah  the  whole  country  of  Juda 
was  filled  with  great  joy  and  quietness ;  wherein  Joash,  a 
child  of  seven  years  old  or  thereabout,  began  his  reign, 
which  continued  almost  forty  years*  During  his  minority, 
he  lived  under  the  protection  of  that  honourable  man  Je 
hoiada  the  priest,  who  did  as  faithfully  govern  the  kingdom, 
as  he  had  before  carefully  preserved  the  king's  life,  and  re 
stored  him  unto  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  When  he 
came  to  man's  estate,  he  took  by  appointment  of  Jehoiada 
two  wives,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters,  repairing  the  fa 
mily  of  David  which  was  almost  worn  out.  The  first  act 
that  he  took  in  hand,  when  he  began  to  rule  without  a  pro 
tector,  was  the  reparation  of  the  temple.  It  was  a  needful 
piece  of  work,  in  regard  of  the  decay  wherein  that  holy 
place  was  fallen  through  the  wickedness  of  ungodly  ty 
rants  ;  and  requisite  it  was  that  he  should  uphold  the  tem 
ple,  whom  the  temple  had  upheld.  This  business  he  followed 
with  so  earnest  a  zeal,  that  not  only  the  Levites  were  more 
slack  than  he,  but  even  Jehoiada  was  fain  to  be  quickened  by 
his  admonition.  Money  was  gathered  for  the  charges  of  the 
work,  partly  out  of  the  tax  imposed  by  Q  Moses,  partly  out 
of  the  liberality  of  the  people,  who  gave  so  freely,  that  the 
temple,  besides  all  reparations,  was  enriched  with  vessels  of 
gold  and  silver,  and  with  all  other  utensils.  The  sacrifices 
">  a  Chron.  xxiv. 


624  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

likewise  were  offered,  as  under  godly  kings  they  had  been, 
and  the  service  of  God  was  magnificently  celebrated. 

SECT.  II. 

The  death  of  Jehoiada,  and  apostasy  of  Joash. 

BUT  this  endured  no  longer  than  the  life  of  Jehoiada  the 
priest;  who  having  lived  an  hundred  and  thirty  years,  died 
before  his  country  could  have  spared  him.  He  was  buried 
among  the  kings  of  Juda,  as  he  well  deserved,  having  pre 
served  the  race  of  them,  and  restored  the  true  religion, 
which  the  late  princes  of  that  house,  by  attempting  to  era 
dicate,  failed  but  a  little  of  rooting  up  themselves  and  all 
their  issue.  Yet  his  honourable  funeral  seems  to  have 
been  given  to  him  at  the  motion  of  the  people;  it  being 
said,  they  buried  him  in  the  city  of  David.  As  for  the 
king  himself,  who  did  owe  to  him  no  less  than  his  crown 
and  life,  he  is  not  likely  to  have  been  author  of  it,  seeing 
that  he  was  as  easily  comforted  after  his  death,  as  if  he  had 
thereby  been  discharged  of  some  heavy  debt. 

For  after  the  death  of  Jehoiada,  when  the  princes  of 
Juda  began  to  flatter  their  king,  he  soon  forgat,  not  only 
the  benefits  received  by  this  worthy  man,  his  old  counsellor, 
but  also  the  good  precepts  which  he  had  received  from  him, 
yea  and  God  himself,  the  Author  of  all  goodness.  These 
princes  drew  him  to  the  worship  of  idols,  wherewith  Jeho- 
ram  and  Athaliah  had  so  infected  the  country  in  fifteen 
or  sixteen  years,  that  thirty  years  or  thereabout  of  the 
reign  of  Joash,  wherein  the  true  religion  was  exercised,  were 
not  able  to  clear  it  from  that  mischief.  The  king  himself, 
when  once  he  was  entered  into  these  courses,  ran  on  head 
long,  as  one  that  thought  it  a  token  of  his  liberty  to  despise 
the  service  of  God ;  and  a  manifest  proof  of  his  being  now 
king  indeed,  that  he  regarded  no  longer  the  sour  admoni 
tions  of  devout  priests.  Hereby  it  appears,  that  his  former 
zeal  was  only  counterfeited,  wherein,  like  an  actor  upon  the 
stage,  he  had  striven  to  express  much  more  lively  affection 
than  they  could  shew  that  were  indeed  religious. 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  625 

SECT.  III. 

The  causes  and  time  of  the  Syrians  invading  Juda  in  tfie  days  of 

Joash. 

BUT  God,  from  whom  he  was  broken  loose,  gave  him 
over  into  the  hands  of  men  that  would  not  easily  be  shaken 
off.  Hazael,  king  of  Aram,  having  taken  Gath,  a  town  of 
the  Philistines,  addressed  himself  towards  Jerusalem,  whi 
ther  the  little  distance  of  way,  and  great  hope  of  a  rich 
booty,  did  invite  him.  He  had  an  army  heartened  by  many 
victories  to  hope  for  more ;  and  for  ground  of  the  war,  (if 
his  ambition  cared  for  pretences,)  it  was  enough  that  the 
kings  of  Juda  had  assisted  the  Israelites,  in  their  enterprises 
upon  Aram,  at  Ramoth  Gilead.  Yet  I  think  he  did  not 
want  some  further  instigation.  For  if  the  kingdom  of  Juda 
had  molested  the  Aramites,  in  the  time  of  his  predecessor, 
this  was  throughly  recompensed  by  forbearing  to  succour 
Israel,  and  leaving  the  ten  tribes  in  their  extreme  misery,  to 
the  fury  of  Hazael  himself.  Neither  is  it  likely  that  Ha 
zael  should  have  gone  about  to  awake  a  sleeping  dog,  and 
stir  up  against  himself  a  powerful  enemy,  before  he  had  as 
sured  the  conquest  of  Israel,  that  lay  between  Jerusalem 
and  his  own  kingdom,  if  some  opportunity  had  not  pro 
mised  such  easy  and  good  success,  as  might  rather  advance, 
than  any  way  disturb,  his  future  proceedings  against  the 
ten  tribes.  Wherefore  I  hold  it  probable,  that  the  sons 
of  Athaliah,  mentioned  before,  were  with  him  in  this  action, 
promising  (as  men  expelled  their  countries  usually  do)  to 
draw  many  partakers  of  their  own  to  his  side ;  and  not  to 
remain,  as  Joash  did,  a  neutral  in  the  war  between  him  and 
Israel,  but  to  join  all  their  forces  with  his,  as  they  had 
cause,  for  the  rooting  out  of  Jehu's  posterity,  who,  like  a 
bloody  traitor,  had  utterly  destroyed  all  the  kindred  of  the 
queen's,  their  mother,  even  the  whole  house  of  Ahab,  to 
which  he  was  a  subject.  If  this  were  so,  Hazael  had  the 
more  apparent  reason  to  invade  the  kingdom  of  Juda. 
Howsoever  it  were,  we  find  it  plainly  that  Joash  was  afraid 
of  him,  and  therefore  T  took  all  the  hallowed  things^  and  all 
r  2  Kings  xii.  18. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  S  S 


626  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

the  gold  that  was  found  in  the  treasures  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  or  in  his  own  house,  with  which  present  he  redeemed 
his  peace:  the  Syrian  (questionless)  thinking  it  a  better 
bargain  to  get  so  much  readily  paid  into  his  hand  for  no 
thing,  than  to  hazard  the  assurance  of  this,  for  the  possi 
bility  of  not  much  more.  So  Hazael  departed  with  a  rich 
booty  of  unhappy  treasure,  which,  belonging  to  the  liv 
ing  God,  remained  a  small  while  in  the  possession  of  this 
mighty,  yet  corruptible  man,  but  sent  him  quickly  to  the 
grave.  For  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  Joash,  which  was 
the  fifteenth  of  Jehoahaz,  he  made  this  purchase ;  but  in 
the  same  or  the  very  next  year  he  died,  leaving  all  that  he 
had  unto  his  son  Benhadad,  with  whom  these  treasures 
prospered  none  otherwise  than  ill-gotten  goods  are  wont. 

This  enterprise  of  Hazael  is  by  some  confounded  with 
that  war  of  the  Aramites  upon  Juda  mentioned  in  the  se 
cond  book  of  Chronicles.  But  the  reasons  alleged  by  them 
that  hold  the  contrary  opinion  do  forcibly  prove  that  it 
was  not  all  one  war.  For  the  former  was  compounded  with 
out  bloodshed  or  fight ;  in  the  latter,  Joash  tried  the  fortune 
of  a  battle,  wherein  being  put  to  the  worst,  he  lost  all  his 
princes,  and  hardly  escaped  with  life :  in  the  one,  Hazael 
himself  was  present ;  in  the  other,  he  was  not  named :  but 
contrariwise,  the  king  of  Aram  then  reigning  (who  may 
seem  to  have  then  been  the  son  of  Hazael)  is  said  to  have 
been  at  Damascus.  The  first  army  came  to  conquer,  and 
was  so  great  that  it  terrified  the  king  of  Juda ;  the  second 
was  a  s  small  company  of  men,  which  did  animate  Joash  (in 
vain,  for  God  was  against  him)  to  deal  with  them,  as  hav 
ing  a  very  great  army. 

Now  concerning  the  time  of  this  former  invasion,  I  can 
not  perceive  that  God  forsook  him,  till  he  had  first  forsaken 
God.  There  are  indeed  some,  very  learned,  who  think  that 
this  expedition  of  Hazael  was  in  the  time  of  Jehoiada  the 
priest,  because  that  story  is  joined  unto  the  restauration  of 
the  temple.  This  had  been  probable,  if  the  death  of  Jehoiada 
had  been  afterwards  mentioned  in  that  place  of  the  second 

1  2  Chron.  xxiv.  24. 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  627 

book  of  Kings,  or  if  the  apostasy  of  Joash,  or  any  other 
matter  implying  so  much,  had  followed  in  the  relation. 
For  it  is  not  indeed  to  be  doubted,  that  the  Lord  of  all 
may  dispose  of  all  things  according  to  his  own  will  and 
pleasure;  neither  was  he  more  unjust  in  the  afflictions  of 
Job,  that  righteous  man,  or  the  death  of  Josias,  that  godly 
king,  than  in  the  plagues  which  he  laid  upon  Pharaoh,  or 
his  judgments  upon  the  house  of  Ahab.  But  it  appears 
plainly  that  the  rich  furniture  of  the  temple,  and  the  mag 
nificent  service  of  God  therewithal,  which  are  joined  to 
gether,  were  used  l  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  continually,  all 
the  days  of  Jehoiada ;  soon  after  whose  death,  if  not  im 
mediately  upon  it,  that  is  (as  some  very  learnedly  collect) 
in  the  thirty-sixth  or  thirty-seventh  year  of  this  Joash's 
reign,  the  king  falling  away  from  the  God  of  his  father,  be 
came  a  foul  idolater. 

And  indeed  we  commonly  observe,  that  the  crosses  which 
it  hath  pleased  God  sometimes  to  lay  upon  his  servants, 
without  any  cause  notorious  in  the  eyes  of  men,  have  al 
ways  tended  unto  the  bettering  of  their  good.  In  which 
respect,  even  the  sufferings  of  the  blessed  martyrs  ("the 
death  of  his  saints  being  precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord) 
are  to  their  great  advantage.  But  with  evil  and  rebellious 
men,  God  keepeth  a  more  even  and  more  strict  account; 
permitting  usually  their  faults  to  get  the  start  of  their  pu 
nishment,  and  either  delaying  his  vengeance  (as  with  the 
Amorites)  till  their  wickedness  be  full ;  or  not  working  their 
amendment  by  his  correction,  but  suffering  them  to  run  on 
in  their  wicked  courses  to  their  greater  misery.  So  hath  he 
dealt  with  many ;  and  so  it  appears  that  he  dealt  with  Joash. 
For  this  unhappy  man  did  not  only  continue  an  obstinate 
idolater,  but  grew  so  forgetful  of  God  and  all  goodness,  as 
if  he  had  striven  to  exceed  the  wickedness  of  all  that  went 
before  him,  and  to  leave  such  a  villainous  pattern  unto 
others,  as  few  or  none  of  the  most  barbarous  tyrants  should 
endure  to  imitate. 

1  2  Chron.  xxiv.  14.  "  Psalm  cxv.  15. 

S  S  2 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

SECT.  IV. 

Haw  Zacharia  was  murdered  by  Joash. 

SUNDRY  prophets  having  laboured  in  vain  to  reclaim 
the  people  from  their  superstition,  Zacharia,  the  son  of  Je- 
hoiada  the  priest,  was  stirred  up  at  length  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  to  admonish  them  of  their  wickedness,  and  make  them 
understand  the  punishment  due  unto  it,  whereof  they  stood 
in  danger.  This  Zacharia  was  a  man  so  honourable,  and 
son  to  a  man  so  exceeding  beloved  in  his  lifetime,  and  re 
verenced,  that  if  Joash  had  reputed  him  (as  Ahab  did  Elias) 
his  open  enemy,  yet  ought  he  in  common  honesty  to  have 
cloaked  his  ill  affection,  and  have  used  at  least  some  part  of 
the  respect  that  was  due  to  such  a  person:  on  the  other 
side,  the  singular  affection  which  he  and  his  father  had 
borne  unto  the  king,  and  the  unrecountable  benefits  which 
they  had  done  unto  him,  from  his  first  infancy,  were  such, 
as  should  have  placed  Zacharia  in  the  most  hearty  and  as 
sured  love  of  Joash,  yea  though  he  had  been  otherwise  a 
man  of  very  small  mark,  and  not  very  good  condition.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  message  of  a  prophet  sent  from  God 
should  be  heard  with  reverence,  how  simple  soever  he  ap 
pears  that  brings  it  But  this  king  Joash  having  already 
scorned  the  admonitions  and  protestations  of  such  prophets 
as  first  were  sent,  did  now  deal  with  Zacharia,  like  as  the 
wicked  husbandman,  in  that  parable  of  our  Saviour,  dealt 
with  the  heir  of  the  vineyard ;  who  said,  x  This  is  the  heir  : 
come,  let  us  kill  him,  that  the  inheritance  may  be  ours.  By 
killing  Zacharia  he  thought  to  become  an  absolute  com 
mander,  supposing  belike  that  he  was  no  free  prince,  as 
long  as  any  one  durst  tell  him  the  plain  truth,  how  great 
soever  that  man's  deserving  were  that  did  so,  yea,  though 
God's  commandment  required  it.  So  they  conspired  against 
this  holy  prophet,  and  stoned  him  to  death  at  the  king's 
appointment ;  but  whether  by  any  form  of  open  law,  as  was 
practised  upon  Naboth;  or  whether  surprising  him  by  any 
close  treachery,  I  do  neither  read  nor  can  conjecture.  The 
*  Luke  xx.  14. 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD. 

dignity  of  his  person,  considered  together  with  their  treach 
erous  conspiracy,  makes  it  probable  that  they  durst  not  call 
him  into  public  judgment;  though  the  manner  of  his  death 
being  such  as  was  commonly,  by  order  of  law,  inflicted  upon 
malefactors,  may  argue  the  contrary.  Most  likely  it  is,  that 
the  king's  commandment,  by  which  he  suffered,  took  place 
instead  of  law :  which  exercise  of  mere  power  (as  hath  been 
already  noted)  was  nothing  strange  among  the  kings  of  Juda. 

SECT.  V. 

How  Joash  was  shamefully  beaten  by  the  Aramites,  and  of  his  death. 

THIS  odious  murder,  committed  by  an  unthankful 
snake  upon  the  man  in  whose  bosom  he  had  been  fostered, 
as  of  itself  alone  it  sufficed  to  make  the  wretched  tyrant 
hateful  to  men  of  his  own  time,  and  his  memory  detested  in 
all  ages ;  so  had  it  the  well-deserved  curse  of  the  blessed 
martyr,  to  accompany  it  unto  the  throne  of  God,  and  to 
call  for  vengeance  from  thence,  which  fell  down  swiftly  and 
heavily  upon  the  head  of  that  ungrateful  monster.  It  was 
the  last  year  of  his  reign ;  the  end  of  his  time  coming  then 
upon  him,  when  he  thought  himself  beginning  to  live  how 
he  listed,  without  controlment.  When  that  year  was  ex 
pired,  the  Aramites  came  into  the  country,  rather  as  may 
seem  to  get  pillage  than  to  perform  any  great  action ;  for 
they  y  came  with  a  small  company  of  men ;  but  God  had 
intended  to  do  more  by  them  than  they  themselves  did  jiope 
for. 

That  Joash  naturally  was  a  coward,  his  bloody  malice 
against  his  best  friend  is,  in  my  judgment,  proof  sufficient : 
though  otherwise  his  base  composition  with  Hazael,  when 
he  might  have  levied  (as  his  son  after  him  did  muster) 
three  hundred  thousand  chosen  men  for  the  war,  doth  well 
enough  shew  his  temper.  Yet  now  he  would  needs  be  va 
liant,  and  make  his  people  know  how  stout  of  disposition 
their  king  was,  when  he  might  have  his  own  will.  But  his 
timorous  heart  was  not  well  cloaked.  For  to  encounter  with 
a  few  bands  of  rovers,  he  took  a  very  great  army ;  so  that 

y  a  Chron.  xxiv.  24. 

ss3 


630  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

wise  men  might  well  perceive  that  he  knew  what  he  did, 
making  show  as  if  he  would  fight  for  his  country,  and  ex 
pose  his  person  to  danger  of  war,  when  as  indeed  all  was 
mere  ostentation,  and  no  peril  to  be  feared ;  he  going  forth 
so  strongly  appointed  against  so  weak  enemies.  Thus 
might  wise  men  think  and  laugh  at  him  in  secret,  consider 
ing  what  ado  he  made  about  that,  which  in  all  apparent 
reason  was  (as  they  say)  a  thing  of  nothing.  But  God,  be 
fore  whom  the  wisdom  of  this  world  is  foolishness,  did 
laugh,  not  only  at  this  vain-glorious  king,  but  at  them  that 
thought  their  king  secure,  by  reason  of  the  multitude  that 
he  drew  along  with  him. 

When  the  Aramites  and  king  Joash  met,  whether  it  were 
by  some  folly  of  the  leaders,  or  by  some  amazement  hap 
pening  among  the  soldiers,  or  by  whatsoever  means  it 
pleased  God  to  work,  so  it  was,  that  that  great  army  of 
Juda  received  a  notable  overthrow,  and  all  the  princes  were 
destroyed;  the  princes  of  Juda,  at  whose  persuasion  the 
king  had  become  a  rebel  to  the  King  of  kings.  As  for  Joash 
himself,  (as  Abulensis  and  others  expound  the  story,)  he  was 
sorely  beaten  and  hurt  by  them,  being  (as  they  think)  taken, 
and  shamefully  tormented,  to  wring  out  of  him  an  excessive 
ransom. 

And  surely  all  circumstances  do  greatly  strengthen  this 
conjecture.  For  the  text  (in  the  old  translation)  saith,  they 
exercised  upon  Joash  ignominious  judgments;  and  that  de 
parting  from  him,  they  dismissed  him  in  great  languor.  All 
which  argues,  that  they  had  him  in  their  hands,  and  handled 
him  ill-favouredly.  Now  at  that  time  Joas  the  son  of  Je- 
hoahaz  reigned  over  Israel,  and  Benhadad  the  son  of  Ha- 
zael  over  the  Syrians  in  Damascus ;  the  one  a  valiant  un 
dertaking  prince,  raised  up  by  God  to  restore  the  state  of 
his  miserable  country;  the  other  inferior  every  way  to  his 
father,  of  whose  purchases  he  lost  a  great  part,  for  want  of 
skill  to  keep  it.  The  difference  in  condition  found  between 
these  two  princes,  promising  no  other  event  than  such  as 
after  followed,  might  have  given  to  the  king  of  Juda  good 
cause  to  be  bold,  and  pluck  up  his  spirits,  which  Hazael 


CHAP,  xxn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  631 

had  beaten  down,  if  God  had  not  been  against  him.  But 
his  fearful  heart  being  likely  to  quake  upon  any  apprehen 
sion  of  danger,  was  able  to  put  the  Syrian  king  in  hope,  that 
by  terrifying  him  with  some  show  of  war  at  his  doors,  it 
were  easy  to  make  him  crave  any  tolerable  conditions  of 
peace.  The  unexpected  good  success  hereof,  already  re 
lated,  and  the  (perhaps  as  unexpected)  ill  success,  which 
the  Aramites  found  in  their  following  wars  against  the  king 
of  Israel,  sheweth  plainly  the  weakness  of  all  earthly  might 
resisting  the  power  of  the  Almighty.  For  by  his  ordinance, 
both  the  kingdom  of  Juda,  after  more  than  forty  years 
time  of  gathering  strength,  was  unable  to  drive  out  a  small 
company  of  enemies;  and  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  having 
so  been  trodden  down  by  Hazael,  that  only  fifty  horsemen, 
ten  chariots,  and  ten  thousand  footmen  were  left,  prevailed 
against  his  son,  and  recovered  all  from  the  victorious  Ara 
mites.  But  examples  hereof  are  everywhere  found,  and 
therefore  I  will  not  insist  upon  this;  though  indeed  we 
should  not,  if  we  be  God's  children,  think  it  more  tedious 
to  hear  long  and  frequent  reports  of  our  heavenly  Father's 
honour,  than  of  the  noble  acts  performed  by  our  forefathers 
upon  earth. 

When  the  Aramites  had  what  they  listed,  and  saw  that 
they  were  not  able,  being  so  few,  to  take  any  possession  of 
the  country,  they  departed  out  of  Juda  loaden  with  spoil, 
which  they  sent  to  Damascus,  themselves  belike  falling 
upon  the  ten  tribes,  where  it  is  to  be  thought  that  they 
sped  not  half  so  well.  The  king  of  Juda  being  in  ill  case 
was  killed  on  his  bed  when  he  came  home,  by  the  sons  of 
an  Ammonitess  and  of  a  Moabitess,  whom  some  (because 
only  their  mothers  names,  being  strangers,  are  expressed) 
think  to  have  been  bondmen.  Whether  it  were  contempt 
of  his  fortune,  or  fear  lest  (as  tyrants  use)  he  should  re 
venge  his  disaster  upon  them,  imputing  it  to  their  fault,  or 
whatsoever  else  it  were  that  animated  them  to  murder  their 
king,  the  scripture  tells  us  plainly,  that  zjbr  the  blood  of 
the  children  qfJehoiada  this  befell  him.  And  the  same  ap- 
»  2  Chrou.  xxiv.  25. 
s  s  4 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

pears  to  have  been  used  as  the  pretence  of  their  conspiracy, 
in  excuse  of  the  fact  when  it  was  done.  For  Amaziah,  the 
son  and  successor  of  Joash,  durst  not  punish  them  till  his 
kingdom  was  established ;  but  contrariwise,  his  body  was 
judged  unworthy  of  burial  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings; 
whereby  it  appears,  that  the  death  of  Zachariah  caused  the 
treason,  wrought  against  the  king,  to  find  more  approbation 
than  was  requisite  among  the  people,  though  afterwards  it 
was  recompensed  by  his  son,  upon  the  traitors,  with  well- 
deserved  death. 

SECT.  VI. 

Of  the  princes  living  in  the  time  of  Joash  ;  of  the  time  when  Car 
thage  was  built ;  and  of  Dido. 

THERE  lived  with  Joash,  Mezades  and  Diognetus  in 
Athens ;  Eudemus  and  Aristomedes  in  Corinth :  about 
which  time  Agrippa  Sylvius,  and  after  him  Sylvius  Alla- 
dius,  were  kings  of  the  Albans  in  Italy.  Ocrazapes,  com 
monly  called  Anacyndaraxes,  the  thirty-seventh  king  suc 
ceeding  unto  Ophratanes,  began  his  reign  over  the  Assyri 
ans  about  the  eighteenth  year  of  Joash,  which  lasted  forty- 
two  years.  In  the  sixteenth  of  Joash,  Cephrenes,  the  fourth 
from  Sesac,  succeeded  unto  Cheops  in  the  kingdom  of 
Egypt,  and  held  it  fifty  years. 

In  this  time  of  Joash  was  likewise  the  reign  of  Pyg 
malion  in  Tyre,  and  the  foundation  of  Carthage  by  Dido ; 
the  building  of  which  city  is,  by  divers  authors,  placed  in 
divers  ages,  some  reporting  it  to  be  seventy  years  younger 
than  Rome,  others  above  four  hundred  years  elder,  few  or 
none  of  them  giving  any  reason  of  their  assertions,  but  leav 
ing  us  uncertain  whom  to  follow:  aJosephus,  who  had 
read  the  annals  of  Tyre,  counting  one  hundred  forty  and 
three  years  and  eight  months  from  the  building  of  Salo 
mon's  temple,  in  the  twelfth  year  of  Hyram  king  of  Tyre, 
to  the  founding  of  Carthage  by  Dido,  in  the  seventh  of 
Pygmalion.  The  particulars  of  this  account  (which  is  not 
rare  in  Josephus)  are  very  perplexed,  and  serve  not  very 
well  to  make  clear  the  total  sum.  But  whether  it  were  so 
»  Joseph,  cont.  App.  lib.  i . 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD. 

that  Josephus  did  omit,  or  else  that  he  did  miswrite  some 
number  of  the  years,  which  he  reckoneth  in  fractions,  as 
they  were  divided  among  the  kings  of  Tyre,  from  Hyram 
to  Pygmalion ;  we  may  well  enough  believe,  that  the  Ty- 
rian  writers,  out  of  whose  books  he  gives  us  the  whole 
sum,  had  good  means  to  know  the  truth,  and  could  rightly 
reckon  the  difference  of  time  between  two  works  no  longer 
following  one  the  other,  than  the  memory  of  three  or  four 
generations  might  easily  reach.  This  hundred  forty  and  four 
years  current,  after  the  building  of  Salomon's  temple,  being 
the  eleventh  year  of  Joash,  was  a  hundred  forty  and  three 
years  before  the  birth  of  Rome,  and  after  the  destruction  of 
Troy  two  hundred  eighty  and  nine :  a  time  so  long  after 
the  death  of  ^Eneas,  that  we  might  truly  conclude  all  to 
be  fabulous  which  Virgil  hath  written  of  Dido,  as  Ausonius 
noteth,  who  doth  honour  her  statue  with  this  epigram. 

b  Ilia  ego  sum  Dido  vultu  quam  conspicis  hospes, 

Assimulata  modis  pulchraque  mirificis. 
Tails  eram,  sed  non  Maro  quam  mihifinxit,  erat  mens, 

Vita  nee  incestis  Iceta  cupidinibus. 
(Namque  nee  &neas  vidit  me  Troius  unquam, 

Nee  Libyam  advenit,  classibus  Iliacis  : 
Sedfuriasfugiens,  atque  arma  procacis  larba, 

Servavi,  fateor,  morte  pudicitiam ; 
Pectore  transfixo,  castos  quod  per tu  lit  ernes :) 

Non  furor,  aut  l&so  crudus  amore  dolor. 
Sic  cecidisse  juvat :  vixi  sine  vulnere  fames, 

Ulta  virum,  positis  moenibus  oppetii. 
Invida  cur  in  me  stimuldsti  Musa  Maronem, 

Finger et  ut  nostrtE  damna  pudicitue  ? 
Vos  magis  historicis,  lectores,  credite  de  me, 

Quam  qui  furta  deum  concubitusque  canunt. 
Falsidici  vates,  temerant  qui  carmine  verum, 

Humanisque  deos  assimulant  vitiis. 

Which  in  effect  is  this : 

I  am  that  Dido  which  thou  here  dost  see, 
Cunningly  framed  in  beauteous  imagery. 
b  Auson.  Ep.  117. 


634  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Like  this  I  was,  but  had  not  such  a  soul 

As  Maro  feign'd,  incestuous  and  foul. 

JEneas  never  with  his  Trojan  host 

Beheld  my  face,  or  landed  on  this  coast : 

But  flying  proud  larba's  villany, 

Not  mov'd  by  furious  love  or  jealousy, 

I  did  with  weapon  chaste,  to  save  my  fame, 

Make  way  for  death  untimely,  ere  it  came. 

This  was  my  end ;  but  first  I  built  a  town, 

Reveng'd  my  husband's  death,  liv'd  with  renown. 

Why  did'st  thou  stir  up  Virgil,  envious  muse, 

Falsely  my  name  and  honour  to  abuse  ? 

Readers,  believe  historians ;  not  those 

Which  to  the  world  Jove's  thefts  and  vice  expose. 

Poets  are  liars,  and  for  verses  sake 

Will  make  the  gods  of  human  crimes  partake. 

From  the  time  of  Dido  unto  the  first  Punic  war,  that 
Carthage  grew  and  flourished  in  wealth  and  conquests,  we 
find  in  many  histories :  but  in  particular  we  find  little  of  the 
Carthaginian  affairs  before  that  war,  excepting  those  few 
things  that  are  recorded  of  their  attempts  upon  the  isle  of 
Sicily.  We  will  therefore  defer  the  relation  of  matters  con 
cerning  that  mighty  city,  until  sucli  time  as  they  shall  en 
counter  with  the  state  of  Rome,  by  which  it  was  finally  de 
stroyed,  and  prosecute  in  the  mean  while  the  history  that 
is  now  in  hand. 

SECT.   VII. 
The  beginning  of  Amaziah's  reign.     Of  Joash  king  of  Israel,  and 

Elisha  the  prophet. 

AMAZIAH,  the  son  of  Joash,  being  twenty-five  years 
old  when  his  father  died,  took  possession  of  the  kingdom  of 
Juda,  wherein  he  laboured  so  to  demean  himself,  as  his 
new  beginning  reign  might  be  least  offensive.  The  law  of 
Moses  he  professed  to  observe;  which  howsoever  it  had 
been  secretly  despised  since  the  time  of  Jehoram,  by  many 
great  persons  of  the  land,  yet  had  it,  by  provision  of  good 
princes,  yea  and  of  bad  ones  (in  their  best  times)  imitating 
the  good,  but  especially  by  the  care  of  holy  priests,  taken 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  635 

such  deep  root  in  the  people's  hearts,  that  no  king  might 
hope  to  be  very  plausible,  who  did  not  conform  himself 
unto  it.    And  at  that  present  time,  the  slaughter,  which  the 
Aramites  had  made  of  all  the  princes,  who  had  withdrawn 
the  late  king  from  the  service  of  God,  being  seconded  by 
the  death  of  the  king  himself,  even  whilst  that  execrable 
murder,  committed  by  the  king  upon  Zechariah,  was  yet 
fresh  in  memory,  did  serve  as  a  notable  example  of  God's 
justice  against  idolaters,  both  to  animate  the  better  sort  of 
the  people  in  holding  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  and  to 
discourage  Amaziah  from  following  the  way  which  led  to 
such  an  evil  end.    He  therefore,  having  learned  of  his  fa 
ther  the  art  of  dissimulation,  did  not  only  forbear  to  punish 
the  traitors  that  had  slain  king  Joash,  but  gave  way  to  the 
time,  and  suffered  the  dead  body  to  be  interred,  as  that  of 
Jehoram  formerly  had  been,  in  the  city  of  David,  yet  not 
among  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  of  Juda.    Nevertheless 
after  this,  when  (belike)  the  noise   of  the  people  having 
wearied  itself  into  silence,  it  was  found  that  the  conspira 
tors   (howsoever   their   deed   done  was   applauded  as  the 
handywork  of  GOD)  had  neither  any  mighty  partakers  in 
their  fact,  nor  strong  maintainers  of  their  persons,  but  rested 
secure,  as  having  done  well,  seeing  it  was  not  ill  taken ;  the 
king,  who  perceived  his  government  well  established,  called 
them  into  question,  at  such  a  time  as  the  heat  of  men's  af 
fections,  being  well  allayed,  it  was  easy  to  distinguish  be 
tween  their  treasons  and  God's  judgments,  which,  by  their 
treasons,  had  taken  plausible  effect.    So  they  were  put  to 
death  without  any  tumult,  and  their  children  (as  the  law  did 
require)  were  suffered  to  live;  which  could  not  but  give 
contentment  to  the  people,  seeing  that  their  king  did  the  of 
fice  of  a  just  prince,  rather  than  of  a  revenging  son.    This 
being  done,  and  his  own  life  the  better  secured,  by  such  ex 
emplary  justice,  against  the  like  attempts ;  Amaziah  carried 
himself  outwardly  as  a  prince  well  affected  to  religion,  and 
so  continued  in  rest  about  twelve  or  thirteen  years. 

As  Amaziah  gathered  strength  in  Juda  by  the  commodity 
of  a  long  peace,  so  Joash  the  Israelite  grew  as  fast  in  power 


636  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

by  following  the  war  hotly  against  the  Aramites.  He  was 
a  valiant  and  fortunate  prince,  yet  an  idolater,  as  his  prede 
cessors  had  been,  worshipping  the  calves  of  Jeroboam.  For 
this  sin  had  God  so  plagued  the  house  of  Jehu,  that  the  ten 
tribes  wanted  little  of  being  utterly  consumed  by  Hazael 
and  Benhadad,  in  the  time  of  Jehu  and  his  son  Jehoahaz. 
But  as  God's  benefits  to  Jehu  sufficed  not  to  withdraw  him 
from  this  politic  idolatry,  so  were  the  miseries  rewarding 
that  impiety  unable  to  reclaim  Jehoahaz  from  the  same  im 
pious  course ;  yet  the  mercy  of  God  beholding  the  trouble 
of  Israel,  condescended  unto  the  prayers  of  this  ungodly 
prince,  even  then  when  he  and  his  miserable  subjects  were 
obstinate  in  following  their  own  abominable  ways.  There 
fore  in  temporal  matters  the  ten  tribes  recovered  apace,  but 
the  favour  of  God,  which  had  been  infinitely  more  worth, 
I  do  not  find  nor  believe  that  they  sought ;  that  they  had 
it  not,  I  find  in  the  words  of  the  prophet,  saying  plainly  to 
Amaziah,  c  The  Lord  is  not  with  Israel,  neither  with  all  the 
house  ofEphraim. 

Whether  it  were  so  that  the  great  prophet  Elisha,  who 
lived  in  those  times,  did  foretell  the  prosperity  of  the  Israel 
ites  under  the  reign  of  Joash  ;  or  whether  Jehoahaz,  wearied 
and  broken  with  long  adversity,  thought  it  the  wisest  way 
to  discharge  himself  in  part  of  the  heavy  cares  attending 
those  unhappy  Syrian  wars,  by  laying  the  burden  upon  his 
hopeful  son ;  we  find,  that  d  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of 
Joash  king  of  Juda  Joash  the  son  of  Jehoahaz  began  to 
reign  over  Israel  in  Samaria,  which  was  in  the  fifteenth  of 
his  father's  reign,  and  some  two  or  three  years  before  his 
death. 

It  appears  that  this  young  prince,  even  from  the  begin 
ning  of  his  rule,  did  so  well  husband  that  poor  stock  which 
he  received  from  his  father,  of  ten  chariots,  fifty  horsemen, 
and  ten  thousand  foot,  that  he  might  seem  likely  to  prove  a 
thriver.  Among  other  circumstances,  the  words  which  he 
spake  to  Elisha  the  prophet  argue  no  less.  For  Joash  visit 
ing  the  prophet,  who  lay  sick,  spake  unto  him  thus :  e  O 
c  2  Chron.  xxv.  7.  A  2  Kings  xiii  IQ  e 


CHAP.  xxn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  637 

my  father ',  my  father •,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horse 
men  of  the  same :  by  which  manner  of  speech  he  did  ac 
knowledge  that  the  prayers  of  this  holy  man  had  stood  his 
kingdom  in  more  stead  than  all  the  horses  and  chariots 
could  do. 

This  prophet,  who  succeeded  unto  Elias  about  the  first 
year  of  Jehoram  the  son  of  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  died  (as 
some  have  probably  collected)  about  the  third  or  fourth 
year  of  this  Joash,  the  nephew  of  Jehu.  To  shew  how  the 
spirit  of  Elias  was  doubled,  or  did  rest  upon  him,  it  ex- 
ceedeth  my  faculty.  This  is  recorded  of  him,  that  he  did 
not  only  raise  a  dead  child  unto  life,  as  Elias  had  done,  but 
when  he  himself  was  dead,  it  pleased  God  that  his  dead 
bones  should  restore  life  unto  a  carcass  which  touched  them 
in  the  grave.  In  fine,  he  bestowed,  as  a  legacy,  three  vic 
tories  upon  king  Joash,  who  thereby  did  set  Israel  in  a  fair 
way  of  recovering  all  that  the  Aramites  had  usurped,  and 
weakening  the  kings  of  Damascus  in  such  sort,  that  they 
were  never  after  terrible  to  Samaria. 

SECT.   VIII. 

Of  Amazia's  war  against  Edom;  his  apostasy,  and  overthrow  by 

Joash. 

THE  happy  success  which  Joash  had  found  in  his  war 
against  the  Aramites,  was  such  as  might  kindle  in  Amaziah 
a  desire  of  undertaking  some  expedition,  wherein  himself 
might  purchase  the  like  honour.  His  kingdom  could  fur 
nish  three  hundred  thousand  serviceable  men  for  the  wars ; 
and  his  treasures  were  sufficient  for  the  payment  of  these  and 
the  hire  of  many  more.  Cause  of  war  he  had  very  just 
against  the  Edomites,  who  having  rebelled  in  the  time  of 
his  grandfather  Jehoram,  had  about  fifty  years  been  unre 
claimed  ;  partly  by  means  of  the  troubles  happening  in 
Juda,  partly  through  the  sloth  and  timorousness  of  his 
father  Joash.  Yet,  forasmuch  as  the  men  of  Juda  had  in 
many  years  been  without  all  exercise  of  war,  (excepting 
that  unhappy  fight  wherein  they  were  beaten  by  a  few 
bands  of  the  Aramites,)  he  held  it  a  point  of  wisdom  to 


638  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  IT. 

increase  his  forces  with  soldiers  waged  out  of  Israel,  whence 
he  hired  for  an  hundred  talents  of  silver  f  an  hundred  thou 
sand  valiant  men,  as  the  scripture  telleth  us,  though  gJo- 
sephus  diminish  the  number,  saying,  that  they  were  but 
twenty  thousand. 

This  great  army,  which  with  so  much  cost  Amaziah  had 
hired  out  of  Israel,  he  was  fain  to  dismiss  before  he  had 
employed  it,  being  threatened  by  a  prophet  with  ill  success 
if  he  strengthened  himself  with  the  help  of  those  men  whom 
God  (though  in  mercy  he  gave  them  victory  against  the 
cruel  Aramites)  did  not  love,  because  they  were  idolaters. 
The  Israelites  therefore  departed  in  great  anger,  taking  in 
ill  part  this  dismission,  as  an  high  disgrace ;  which  to  re 
venge,  they  fell  upon  a  piece  of  Juda  in  their  return,  and 
shewed  their  malice  in  the  slaughter  of  three  thousand  men, 
and  some  spoil,  which  they  carried  away.  But  Amaziah 
with  his  own  forces,  knowing  that  God  would  be  assistant 
to  their  journey,  entered  courageously  into  the  Edomites 
country ;  over  whom  obtaining  victory,  he  slew  ten  thou 
sand,  and  took  other  ten  thousand  prisoners,  all  which  he 
threw  from  an  high  rock ;  holding  them,  it  seems,  rather 
as  traitors  than  as  just  enemies.  This  victory  did  not  seem 
to  reduce  Edom  under  the  subjection  of  the  crown  of  Juda, 
which  might  be  the  cause  of  that  severity  which  was  used 
to  the  prisoners ;  the  Edomites  that  had  escaped,  refusing  to 
buy  the  lives  of  their  friends  and  kinsmen  at  so  dear  a  rate 
as  the  loss  of  their  own  liberty.  Some  towns  in  mount  Seir 
Amaziah  took,  as  appears  by  his  carrying  away  the  idols 
thence ;  but  it  is  like  they  were  the  places  most  indefensible, 
in  that  he  left  no  garrisons  there,  whereby  he  might  another 
year  the  better  have  pursued  the  conquest  of  the  whole 
country.  Howsoever  it  were,  he  got  both  honour  by  the 
journey  and  gains  enough,  had  he  not  lost  himself. 

Among  other  spoils  of  the  Edomites  were  carried  away 
their  gods,  which  being  vanquished  and  taken  prisoners, 
did  deserve  well  to  be  led  in  triumph.  But  they  contrari 
wise,  I  know  not  by  what  strange  witchcraft,  so  besotted 

f  2  Chrou  xxr.  6.  e  Joseph.  Ant.  Jud.  1.  9.  cap.  10. 


CHAP.  xxn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  639 

this  unworthy  king  Amaziah,  that  he  h  set  them  up  to  be  his 
.  gods,  and  worshipped  them,  and  burnt  incense  unto  them. 

For  this  when  he  was  rebuked  by  a  prophet  sent  from 
God,  he  gave  a  churlish  and  threatening  answer;  asking 
the  prophet,  who  made  him  a  counsellor,  and  bidding  him 
hold  his  peace  for  fear  of  the  worst.  If  either  the  costly 
stuff  whereof  these  idols  were  made,  or  the  curious  work 
manship  and  beauty  with  which  they  were  adorned  by  arti 
ficers,  had  ravished  the  king's  fancy,  methinks  he  should 
have  rather  turned  them  to  matter  of  profit,  or  kept  them 
as  household  ornaments  and  things  of  pleasure,  than  there 
by  have  suffered  himself  to  be  blinded  with  such  unreason 
able  devotion  towards  them.  If  the  superstitious  account 
wherein  the  Edomites  had  held  them  were  able  to  work 
much  upon  his  imagination,  much  more  should  the  bad  ser 
vice  which  they  had  done  to  their  old  clients  have  moved 
him  thereupon  to  laugh  both  at  the  Edomites  and  them. 
Wherefore  it  seems  to  me,  that  the  same  affections  carried 
him  from  God  unto  the  -service  of  idols,  which  afterwards 
moved  him  to  talk  so  roughly  to  the  prophet  reprehending 
him.  He  had  already  obeyed  the  warning  of  God  by  a 
prophet,  and  sent  away  such  auxiliary  forces  as  he  had  ga 
thered  out  of  Israel ;  which  done,  it  is  said  that  he  l  was  en 
couraged,  and  led  forth  his  people,  thinking  belike  that  God 
would  now  rather  assist  him  by  miracle,  than  let  him  fail  of 
obtaining  all  his  heart's  desire.  But  with  better  reason  he 
should  have  limited  his  desires  by  the  will  of  God,  whose 
pleasure  it  was  that  Esau,  having  broken  the  yoke  of  Jacob 
from  his  neck,  accordingly  as  Isaac  had  foretold,  should  no 
more  become  his  servant.  If  therefore  Amaziah  did  hope  to 
reconquer  all  the  country  of  Edom,  he  failed  of  his  expec 
tation  ;  yet  so,  that  he  brought  home  both  profit  and  ho 
nour,  which  might  have  well  contented  him. 

But  there  is  a  foolish  and  a  wretched  pride,  wherewith 

men  being  transported  can  ill  endure  to  ascribe  unto  God 

the  honour  of  those  actions  in  which  it  hath  pleased  him  to 

use  their  own  industry,  courage,  or  foresight.     Therefore  it 

h  2  Chron.  xxv.  14.  '  ^  Chron.  xxv.  n. 


640  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

is  commonly  seen,  that  they,  who,  entering  into  battle,  are 
careful  to  pray  for  aid  from  heaven,  with  due  acknowledg 
ment  of  his  power  who  is  the  giver  of  victory,  when  the  field 
is  won,  do  vaunt  of  their  own  exploits  :  one  telling  how  he 
got  such  a  ground  of  advantage;  another,  how  he  gave 
check  to  such  a  battalion ;  a  third,  how  he  seized  on  the 
enemies'*  cannon;   every  one  striving  to  magnify  himself, 
whilst  all  forget  God,  as  one  that  had  not  been  present  in 
the  action.     To  ascribe  to  fortune  the  effects  of  another 
man's  virtue,  is,  I  confess,  an  argument  of  malice.     Yet 
this  is  true,  that  as  he,  which  findeth  better  success  than  he 
did  or  in  reason  might  expect,  is  deeply  bound  to  acknow 
ledge  God  the  author  of  his  happiness ;  so  he,  whose  mere 
wisdom  and  labour  hath  brought  things  to  a  prosperous 
issue,  is  doubly  bound  to  shew  himself  thankful  both  for 
the  victory  and  for  those  virtues  by  which  the  victory  was 
gotten.     And  indeed,  so  far  from  weakness  is  the  nature  of 
such  thanksgiving,  that  it  may  well  be  called  the  height  of 
magnanimity ;  no  virtue  being  so  truly  heroical  as  that  by 
which  the  spirit  of  a  man  advanceth  itself  with  confidence  of 
acceptation  unto  the  love  of  God.     In  which  sense  it  is  a 
brave  speech  that  Evander  in  Virgil  useth  to  ^Eneas,  none 
but  a  Christian  being  capable  of  the  admonition  : 
Aude  hospes  contemnere  opes,  et  te  quoque  dignum 
Finge  Deo. 

With  this  philosophy  Amaziah  (as  appears  by  his  carriage) 
troubled  not  his  head :  he  had  shewed  himself  a  better  man 
of  war  than  any  king  of  Juda  since  the  time  of  Jehosha- 
phat,  and  could  be  well  contented  that  his  people  should 
think  him  little  inferior  to  David ;  of  which  honour  he  saw 
no  reason  why  the  prophets  should  rob  him,  who  had  made 
him  lose  an  hundred  talents,  and  done  him  no  pleasure,  he 
having  prevailed  by  plain  force  and  good  conduct,  without 
any  miracle  at  all.  That  he  was  distempered  with  such 
vain  thoughts  as  these,  (besides  the  witness  of  his  impiety 
following,)  k  Josephus  doth  testify,  saying,  that  he  despised 
God,  and  that  being  puffed  up  with  his  good  success,  of 
k  Joseph.  Ant.  1.  9.  c.  10. 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  641 

which  nevertheless  he  would  not  acknowledge  God  to  be 
the  author,  he  commanded  Joash  king  of  Israel  to  become 
his  subject,  and  to  let  the  ten  tribes  acknowledge  him  their 
sovereign,  as  they  had  done  his  ancestors  king  David  and 
king  Salomon.  Some  think  that  his  quarrel  to  Joash  was 
rather  grounded  upon  the  injury  done  to  him  by  the  Israel 
ites,  whom  he  dismissed  in  the  journey  against;  mount  Seir. 
And  likely  it  is,  that  the  sense  of  a  late  wrong  had  more 
power  to  stir  him  up,  than  the  remembrance  of  an  old  title, 
forgotten  long  since,  and  by  himself  neglected  thirteen  or 
fourteen  years.  Nevertheless  it  might  so  be,  that  when  he 
was  thus  provoked,  he  thought  it  not  enough  to  requite 
new  wrongs,  but  would  also  call  old  matters  into  question ; 
that  so  the  kings  of  Israel  might  at  the  least  learn  to  keep 
their  subjects  from  offending  Juda,  for  fear  of  endangering 
their  own  crowns.  Had  Amaziah  desired  only  recompense 
for  the  injury  done  to  him,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
should  have  had  some  reasonable  answer  from  Joash,  who 
was  not  desirous  to  fight  with  him.  But  the  answer  which 
Joash  returned,  likening  himself  to  a  cedar,  and  Amaziah  in 
respect  of  him  to  no  better  than  a  thistle,  shews  that  the  chal 
lenge  was  made  in  insolent  terms,  stuffed  perhaps  with  such 
proud  comparison  of  nobility,  as  might  be  made  (according 
to  that  which  Josephus  hath  written)  between  a  king  of 
ancient  race  and  one  of  less  nobility  than  virtue. 

It  is  by  Sophocles  reported  of  Ajax,  that  when  going  to 
the  war  of  Troy  his  father  did  bid  him  to  be  valiant,  and 
get  victory  by  God's  assistance,  he  made  answer,  that  by 
God's  assistance  a  coward  could  get  victory,  but  he  would 
get  it  alone  without  such  help ;  after  which  proud  speech, 
though  he  did  many  valiant  acts,  he  had  small  thanks,  and 
finally  killing  himself  in  a  madness,  whereinto  he  fell  upon 
disgrace  received,  was  hardly  allowed  the  honour  of  burial. 
That  Amaziah  did  utter  such  words,  I  do  not  find ;  but  hav 
ing  once  entertained  the  thoughts  which  are  parents  of  such 
words,  he  was  rewarded  with  success  according.  The  very 
first  council  wherein  this  war  was  concluded  serves  to  prove 
1  Sophocles  in  Ajacc  Lor. 

RALEGH,  HIST.   WORLD.   VOL.   IT.  T  t 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

that  he  was  a  wise  prince  indeed  at  Jerusalem,  among  his 
parasites,  but  a  fool  when  he  had  to  deal  with  his  equals 
abroad.     For  it  was  not  all  one  to  fight  with  the  Edomites, 
a  weak  people,  trusting  more  in  the  site  of  their  country 
than   the  valour  of  their  soldiers,  and  to  encounter  with 
Joash,  who  from  so  poor  beginnings  had  raised  himself  to 
such  strength,  that  he  was  abk  to  lend  his  friend  a  hun 
dred  thousand  men,  and  had  all  his  nation  exercised  and 
trained  up  in  a  long  victorious  war.    But  as  Amaziah  disco 
vered  much  want  of  judgment  in  undertaking  such  a  match, 
so  in  prosecuting  the  business,  when  it  was  set  on  foot,  he 
behaved  himself  as  a  man  of  little  experience,  who,  having 
once  only  tried  his  fortune,  and  found  it  to  be  good,  thought 
that  in  war  there  was  nothing  else  to  do  than  send  a  de 
fiance,  fight,  and  win.     Joash,  on  the  contrary  side,  having 
been  accustomed  to  deal  with  a  stronger  enemy  than  the 
king  of  Juda,  used  that  celerity  which  peradventure  had 
often  stood  him  in  good  stead  against  the  Aramite.    He  did 
not  sit  waiting  till  the  enemies  brake  in  and  wasted  his 
country,  but  presented  himself  with  an  army  in  Juda,  ready 
to  bid  battle  to  Amaziah,  and  save  him  the  labour  of  a  long 
journey.     This  could  not  but  greatly  discourage  those  of 
Juda,  who,  (besides  the  impression  of  fear  which  an  inva 
sion  beats  into  people  not  inured  to  the  like,)  having  de 
voured,  in  their  greedy  hopes,  the  spoil  of  Israel,  fully  per 
suading  themselves  to  get  as  much,  and  at  as  easy  a  rate,  as 
in  the  journey  of  Edom,  were  so  far  disappointed  of  their 
expectation,  that  well  they  might  suspect  all  new  assurance 
of  good  luck  when  the  old  had  thus  beguiled  them.     All 
this  notwithstanding,  their  king,  that  had  stomach  enough 
to  challenge  the  patrimony  of  Salomon,  thought,  like  an 
other  David,  to  win  it  by  the  sword.     The  issue  of  which 
foolhardiness  might  easily  be  foreseen  in  human  reason, 
comparing  together  either  the  two  kings,  or  the  quality  of 
their  armies,  or  the  first  and  ominous  beginning  of  the  war. 
But  mere  human  wisdom,  howsoever  it  might  foresee  much, 
could  not  have  prognosticated  all  the  mischief  that  fell  upon 
Amaziah.  For  as  soon  as  the  two  armies  came  in  sight,  God, 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  643 

whose  help  this  wretched  man  had  so  despised,  did  (as  m  Jo- 
sephus  reports  it)  strike  such  terror  and  amazement  into  the 
men  of  Juda,  that  without  one  blow  given  they  fled  all 
away,  leaving  their  king  to  shift  for  himself,  which  he  did 
so  ill,  that  his  enemy  had  soon  caught  him,  and  made  him 
change  his  glorious  humour  into  most  abject  baseness.  That 
the  army  which  fled  sustained  any  other  loss  than  of  honour, 
I  neither  find  in  the  scriptures  nor  in  Josephus ;  it  being 
likely  that  the  soon  beginning  of  their  flight,  which  made 
it  the  more  shameful,  made  it  also  the  more  safe.  But  of 
the  mischief  that  followed  this  overthrow,  it  was  God's  will 
that  Amaziah  himself  should  sustain  the  whole  disgrace.  For 
Joash  carried  him  directly  to  Jerusalem,  where  he  bade  him 
procure  that  the  gates  might  be  opened,  to  let  him  in  and 
his  army,  threatening  him  otherwise  with  present  death.  So 
much  amazed  was  the  miserable  caitiff  with  these  dreadful 
words,  that  he  durst  do  none  other  than  persuade  the  citizens 
to  yield  themselves  to  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror.  The 
town,  which  afterwards  being  in  weaker  state  held  out  two 
years  against  Nebuchadnezzar,  was  utterly  dismayed,  when 
the  king,  that  should  have  given  his  life  to  save  it,  used  all 
his  force  of  command  and  entreaty  to  betray  it.  So  the 
gates  of  Jerusalem  were  opened  to  Joash,  with  which  honour 
(greater  than  any  king  of  Israel  had  ever  obtained)  he  could 
not  rest  contented,  but,  the  more  to  despite  Amaziah  and  his 
people,  he  caused  four  hundred  cubits  of  the  wall  to  be 
thrown  down,  and  entered  the  city  in  his  chariot  through 
that  breach,  carrying  the  king  before  him,  as  in  triumph. 
This  done,  he  sacked  the  temple  and  the  king's  palace,  and 
so,  taking  hostages  of  Amaziah,  he  dismissed  the  poor  crea 
ture  that  was  glad  of  his  life,  and  returned  to  Samaria. 

SECT.  IX. 

A  discourse  of  the  reasons  hindering  Joash  from  uniting  Juda  to  the 
crown  of  Israel,  when  he  had  won  Jerusalem,  and  held  Amaziah 
prisoner.  The  end  of  Joash's  reign. 

WE  may  justly  marvel  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Joash, 
m  Jos.  Ant.  1. 9.  c.  10. 
T  t2 


644  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

being  thus  in  possession  of  Jerusalem,  having  the  king  in 
his  hands,  his  enemies'  forces  broken,  and  his  own  entire, 
could  be  so  contented  to  depart  quietly  with  a  little  spoil, 
when  he  might  have  seized  upon  the  whole  kingdom.  The 
reign  of  Athaliah  had  given  him  cause  to  hope  that  the  issue 
of  David  might  be  dispossessed  of  that  crown ;  his  own  no 
bility,  being  the  son  and  grandchild  of  kings,  together  with 
the  famous  acts  that  he  had  done,  were  enough  to  make  the 
people  of  Juda  think  highly  of  him  ;  who  might  also  have 
preferred  his  form  of  government  before  that  of  their  own 
king's,  especially  at  such  a  time,  when  a  Jong  succession  of 
wicked  princes  had  smothered  the  thanks  which  were  due 
to  the  memory  of  a  few  good  ones.  The  commodity  that 
would  have  ensued  upon  the  union  of  all  the  twelve  tribes 
under  one  prince  is  so  apparent,  that  I  need  not  to  insist 
on  it.  That  any  message  from  God  forbade  the  Israelites 
(as  afterwards  in  the  victory  which  Peka  the  son  of  Romelia 
got  upon  Ahaz)  to  turn  his  present  advantage  to  the  best  use, 
we  do  not  read.  All  this  makes  it  the  more  difficult  to  resolve 
the  question,  why  a  prince  so  well  exercised  as  Joash  had 
been,  in  recovering  his  own  and  winning  from  his  enemy, 
should  forsake  the  possession  of  Jerusalem,  and  wilfully 
neglect  the  possibilities,  or  rather  cast  away  the  full  assur 
ance  of  so  fair  a  conquest  as  the  kingdom  of  Juda. 

But  concerning  that  point  which  of  all  others  had  been 
most  material,  I  mean  the  desire  of  the  vanquished  people 
to  accept  the  Israelite  for  their  king,  it  is  plainly  seen,  that 
entering  Jerusalem  in  triumphant  manner,  Joash  was  unable 
to  concoct  his  own  prosperity.  For  the  opening  of  the  gates 
had  been  enough  to  have  let  him,  not  only  into  the  city,  but 
into  the  royal  throne,  and  the  people's  hearts,  whom  by  fair 
entreaty  (especially  having  sure  means  of  compulsion)  he 
might  have  made  his  own,  when  they  saw  themselves  be 
trayed,  and  basely  given  away  by  him  whose  they  had  been 
before.  The  fair  mark  which  this  opportunity  presented 
he  did  not  aim  at,  because  his  ambition  was  otherwise  and 
more  meanly  busied  in  levelling  at  the  glory  of  a  triumph 
ant  entry  through  a  breach.  Yet  this  error  might  after- 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  645 

wards  have  been  corrected  well  enough,  if,  entering  as  an 
enemy,  and  shewing  what  he  could  do  by  spending  his 
anger  upon  the  walls,  he  had  within  the  city  done  offices  of 
a  friend,  and  laboured  to  shew  good-will  to  the  inhabitants. 
But  when  his  pride  had  done,  his  covetousness  began,  and 
sought  to  please  itself  with  that  which  is  commonly  most 
ready  to  the  spoiler,  yet  should  be  most  forborne.  The 
treasure  wherewith  Sesac,  Hazael,  and  the  Philistines,  men 
ignorant  of  the  true  God  and  his  religion,  had  quenched 
their  greedy  thirst,  ought  not  to  have  tempted  the  appetite 
of  Joash,  who,  though  an  idolater,  yet  acknowledged  also 
and  worshipped  the  eternal  God,  whose  temple  was  at  Jeru 
salem.  Therefore  when  the  people  saw  him  take  his  way 
directly  to  that  holy  place,  and  lay  his  ravenous  hands  upon 
the  consecrated  vessels,  calling  the  family  of  "Obed  Edom 
(whose  children  had  hereditary  charge  of  the  treasury)  to  a 
strict  account,  as  if  they  had  been  officers  of  his  own  exche 
quer,  they  considered  him  rather  as  an  execrable  church 
robber  than  as  a  noble  prince,  an  Israelite,  and  their  bro 
ther,  though  of  another  tribe.  Thus  following  that  course 
which  the  most  virtuous  king  of  our  age  (taxing  it  with  the 
same  phrase)  hath  wisely  avoided,  by  stealing  a  few  apples, 
he  lost  the  inheritance  of  the  whole  orchard.  The  people 
detested  him,  and  after  the  respite  of  a  few  days,  might,  by 
comparing  themselves  one  to  one,  perceive  his  soldiers  to  be 
no  better  than  men  of  their  own  mould,  and  inferior  in  num 
ber  to  the  inhabitants  of  so  great  a  city.  It  is  not  so  easy 
to  hold  by  force  a  mighty  town  entered  by  capitulation,  as 
to  enter  the  gates  opened  by  unadvised  fear.  For  when  the 
citizens,  not  being  disarmed,  recover  their  spirits,  and  begin 
to  understand  their  first  error,  they  will  think  upon  every  ad 
vantage,  of  place,  of  provisions,  of  multitude,  yea  of  women 
armed  with  tile-stones,  and  rather  choose  by  desperate  reso 
lution  to  correct  the  evils  grown  out  of  their  former  cow 
ardice,  than  suffer  those  mischiefs  to  poison  the  body,  which 
in  such  half  conquests  are  easily  tasted  in  the  mouth.  A 
"  j  Chron.  xxvi.  15. 
T  tS 


646  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

more  lively  example  hereof  cannot  be  desired  than  the  city 
of  Florence,  which,  through  the  weakness  of  Peter  de  Me- 
dices,  governing  therein  as  a  prince,  was  reduced  into  such 
hard  terms,  that  it  opened  the  gates  unto  the  French  king 
Charles  the  Eighth,  who,  not  plainly  professing  himself 
either  friend  or  foe  to  the  estate,  entered  the  town  with  his 
army  in  triumphant  manner,  himself  and  his  horse  armed, 
with  his  lance  upon  his  thigh.  Many  insolencies  were  there 
in  committed  by  the  French,  and  much  argument  of  quarrel 
ministered  between  them  and  the  townsmen ;  so  far  forth, 
that  the  Florentines,  to  preserve  their  liberty,  were  driven 
to  prepare  for  fight.  To  conclude  the  matter,  Charles  pro 
pounds  intolerable  conditions,  demanding  huge  sums  of 
ready  money,  and  the  absolute  seignory  of  the  state,  as 
conquered  by  him,  who  entered  the  city  in  arms.  But 
Peter  Caponi,  a  principal  citizen,  catching  these  articles 
from  the  king's  secretary,  and  tearing  them  before  his  face, 
bade  him  sound  his  trumpets,  and  they  would  ring  their 
bells ;  which  peremptory  words  made  the  French  bethink 
themselves,  and  come  readily  to  this  agreement,  that  for 
forty  thousand  pounds,  and  not  half  of  that  money  to  be 
paid  in  hand,  Charles  should  not  only  depart  in  peace,  but 
restore  whatsoever  he  had  of  their  dominion,  and  continue 
their  assured  friend.  So  dangerous  a  matter  did  it  seem 
for  that  brave  army,  which  in  few  months  after  won  the 
kingdom  of  Naples,  to  fight  in  the  streets  against  the  armed 
multitude  of  that  populous  city.  It  is  true  that  Charles  had 
other  business  (and  so  perhaps  had  Joash,  as  shall  anon  be 
shewed)  that  called  him  away ;  but  it  was  the  apprehension 
of  imminent  danger  that  made  him  come  to  reason.  In 
such  cases  the  firing  of  houses  usually  draws  every  citizen 
to  save  his  own,  leaving  victory  to  the  soldier ;  yet  where 
the  people  are  prepared  and  resolved,  women  can  quench 
as  fast  as  the  enemy,  having  other  things  to  look  unto,  can 
set  on  fire.  And  indeed  that  commander  is  more  given  to 
anger  than  regardful  of  profit,  who,  upon  the  uncertain  hope 
of  destroying  a  town,  forsakes  the  assurance  of  a  good  com- 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  647 

position.  Diversity  of  circumstance  may  alter  the  case :  it 
is  enough  to  say,  that  it  might  be  in  Jerusalem  as  we  know 
it  was  in  Florence. 

How  strongly  soever  Joash  might  hold  himself  within  Jeru 
salem,  he  could  not  easily  depart  from  thence  with  his  booty 
safe,  if  the  army  of  Juda,  which  had  been  more  terrified 
than  weakened  in  the  late  encounter,  should  reinforce  itself, 

!and  give  him  a  check  upon  the  way.  Wherefore  it  was 
wisely  done  of  him  to  take  hostages  for  his  better  security, 
his  army  being  upon  return,  and  better  loaden  than  when 
it  came  forth ;  for  which  causes  it  was  the  more  unapt  to 
fight. 

Besides  these  impediments,  within  the  city  and  without, 
serving  to  cool  the  ambition  of  Joash,  and  keep  it  down  from 
aspiring  to  the  crown  of  Juda,  it  appears  that  somewhat 
was  newly  fallen  out  which  had  reference  to  the  anger  of 
Elisha  the  prophet ;  who,  when  this  Joash  had  smitten  the 
ground  with  his  arrows  thrice,  told  him  that  he  should  no 
oftener  smite  the  Aramites.  The  three  victories  which  Is 
rael  had  against  Aram,  are  by  some,  and  with  great  proba 
bility,  referred  unto  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  years  of 
Joash,  after  which  time,  if  any  losses  ensuing  had  blemished 
the  former  good  success,  ill  might  the  king  of  Israel  have 
likened  himself  to  a  stately  cedar,  and  worse  could  he  have 
either  lent  the  Judaean  one  hundred  thousand  men,  or  meet 
him  in  battle,  who  was  able  to  bring  into  the  field  three 
hundred  thousand  of  his  own.  Seeing  therefore  it  is  made 
plain  by  the  words  of  Elisha,  that  after  three  victories  Joash 
should  find  some  change  of  fortune,  and  suffer  loss;  we 
must  needs  conclude,  that  the  Aramite  prevailed  upon  him 
this  year,  it  being  the  last  of  his  reign.  That  this  was  so, 
and  that  the  Syrians,  taking  advantage  of  Joash's  absence, 
gave  such  a  blow  to  Israel  as  the  king  at  his  return  was  not 
able  to  remedy,  but  rather  fell  himself  into  new  misfortunes, 
which  increased  the  calamity,  we  may  evidently  perceive 
in  that  which  is  spoken  of  Jeroboam's  son :  for  it  is  said, 
tliat  the  Lord  saw  the  exceeding'  bitter  afflictions  of  Israel, 
and  that  having  not  decreed  to  put  out  the  name  of  Israel 

T  t  4 


648  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

from  under  the  heaven,  he  preserved  them  by  the  hand  of 
Jeroboam  the  son  ofJoash.  This  is  enough  to  prove,  that 
the  victorious  reign  of  Joash  was  concluded  with  a  sad  ca 
tastrophe  ;  the  riches  of  the  temple  hastening  his  misery  and 
death,  as  they  had  done  with  Sesac,  Athaliah,  and  Hazael, 
and  as  afterwards  they  wrought  with  Antiochus,  Crassus, 
and  other  sacrilegious  potentates. 

Thus  either  through  indignation  conceived  against  him 
by  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  and  courage  which  they  took 
to  set  upon  him  within  the  walls ;  or  through  preparation 
of  the  army  that  lay  abroad  in  the  country  to  bid  him  bat 
tle  in  open  field,  and  recover  by  a  new  charge  the  honour 
which  was  lost  at  the  former  encounter;  or  through  the 
miseries  daily  brought  upon  his  own  country  by  the  Syrian 
in  his  absence,  if  not  by  all  of  these,  Joash  was  driven  to  lay 
aside  all  thought  of  winning  the  kingdom  of  Juda;  and 
taking  hostages  for  his  quiet  passage,  made  all  haste  home 
wards,  where  he  found  a  sad  welcome,  and  being  utterly 
forsaken  of  his  wonted  prosperity,  forsook  also  his  life  in 
few  months  after,  leaving  his  kingdom  to  Jeroboam  the  se 
cond,  his  fortunate  and  valiant  son. 

SECT.    X. 

The* end  of  AmaziaKs  reign  and  life. 

ANY  man  is  able  to  guess  how  Amaziah  looked  when 
the  enemy  had  left  him.  He  that  had  vaunted  so  much  of 
his  own  great  prowess  and  skill  in  arms,  threatening  to  work 
wonders,  and  set  up  anew  the  glorious  empire  of  David,  was 
now  uncased  of  his  lion's  hide,  and  appeared  nothing  so 
terrible  a  beast  as  he  had  been  painted.  Much  argument 
of  scoffing  at  him  he  had  ministered  unto  such  as  held  him 
in  dislike,  which  at  this  time,  doubtless,  were  very  many : 
for  the  shame  that  falls  upon  an  insolent  man  seldom  fails 
of  meeting  with  abundance  of  reproach.  As  for  Amaziah, 
(besides  that  the  multitude  are  always  prone  to  lay  the 
blame  upon  their  governors,  even  of  those  calamities  which 
happened  by  their  own  default,)  there  was  no  child  in  all 
Jerusalem  but  knew  him  to  be  the  root  of  all  this  mischief. 


CHAP.  xxn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  649 

He  had  not  only  challenged  a  good  man  of  war,  being  himself 
a  dastard,  but  when  he  was  beaten  and  taken  by  him,  had 
basely  pleaded  for  the  common  enemy  to  have  him  let  into 
the  city,  that  with  his  own  eyes  he  might  see  what  spoil 
there  was,  and  not  make  a  bad  bargain  by  hearsay.  The 
father  of  this  Amaziah  was  a  beastly  man ;  yet  when  the 
Aramites  took  him  and  tormented  him,  he  did  not  offer  to 
buy  his  own  life  at  so  dear  a  rate  as  the  city  and  temple  of 
Jerusalem.  Had  he  offered,  should  they  have  made  his 
promise  good  ?  Surely  the  haste  which  they  had  made,  in 
condescending  to  this  hard  match,  was  very  unfortunate; 
for  by  keeping  out  the  Israelite  (which  was  easy  enough) 
any  little  while,  they  should  soon  have  been  rid  of  him,  see 
ing  that  the  Aramites  would  have  made  him  run  home  with 
greater  speed  than  he  came  forth.  Then  also,  when  having 
trussed  up  his  baggage,  he  was  ready  to  be  gone,  a  little 
courage  would  have  served  to  persuade  him  to  leave  his 
load  behind,  had  not  their  good  king  delivered  up  hostages 
to  secure  his  return,  as  loath  to  defraud  him  of  the  recom 
pense  due  to  his  pains  taken. 

Such  exprobrations  could  not  but  vex  the  heart  of  this 
unhappy  king :  it  had  been  well  for  him  if  they  had  made 
him  acknowledge  his  faults  unto  God,  that  had  punished 
him  by  all  this  dishonour.  But  we  find  no  mention  of  his 
amendment.  Rather  it  appears  that  he  continued  an  idol 
ater  to  the  very  last.  For  it  is  said  of  him,  that  after  his 
turning  away  from  the  Lord,  °  they  wrought  treason  against 
him  in  Jerusalem ;  a  manifest  proof  that  he  was  not  re 
claimed  unto  his  life's  end.  And  certainly  they,  which  ^tell 
a  man  in  his  adversity  of  his  faults  past,  shall  sooner  be 
thought  to  upbraid  him  with  his  fortune,  than  to  seek  his 
reformation.  Wherefore  it  is  no  marvel,  that  priests  and 
prophets  were  less  welcome  to  him  than  ever  they  had  been. 
On  the  other  side,  flatterers,  and  such  as  were  desirous  to 
put  a  heart  into  him,  whereof  themselves  might  always  be 
masters,  wanted  not  plausible  matter  to  revive  him.  For 
he  was  not  first  nor  second  of  the  kings  of  Juda  that  had 
0  2  Chron.  xxv.  27. 


650  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

been  overcome  in  battle.  David  himself  had  abandoned 
the  city,  leaving  it,  before  the  enemy  was  in  sight,  unto 
Absalom  his  rebellious  son.  Many  besides  him  had  re 
ceived  losses,  wherein  the  temple  bare  a  part.  If  Joash 
might  so  easily  have  been  kept  out,  why  did  their  ancestors 
let  Sesac  in  ?  Asa  was  reputed  a  virtuous  prince,  yet  with 
his  own  hands  he  emptied  the  temple,  and  was  not  blamed, 
but  held  excusable  by  necessity  of  the  state.  Belike  these 
traducers  would  commend  no  actions  but  of  dead  princes; 
if  so,  he  should  rather  live  to  punish  them  than  die  to 
please  them.  Though  wherein  had  he  given  them  any 
cause  of  displeasure  ?  It  was  he  indeed  that  commanded  to 
set  open  the  gates  to  Joash,  but  it  was  the  people  that  did 
it.  Good  servants  ought  not  to  have  obeyed  their  master's 
commandments  to  his  disadvantage,  when  they  saw  him  not 
master  of  his  own  person.  As  his  captivity  did  acquit  him 
from  blame,  of  all  things  that  he  did  or  suffered  in  that  con 
dition  ;  so  was  that  misfortune  itself,  in  true  estimation,  as 
highly  to  his  honour  as  deeply  to  his  loss.  For  had  he 
been  as  hasty  to  fly  as  others  were,  he  might  have  escaped 
as  well  as  others  did.  But  seeking  to  teach  the  base  mul 
titude  courage  by  his  royal  example,  he  was  shamefully 
betrayed  by  those  in  whom  he  trusted.  Unworthy  crea 
tures,  that  could  readily  obey  him  when  speaking  another 
man's  words,  being  prisoner,  he  commanded  them  to  yield ; 
having  neglected  his  charge,  when  leading  them  in  the  field, 
he  bade  them  stand  to  it,  and  fight  like  men.  The  best 
was,  that  they  must  needs  acknowledge  his  mischance  as 
the  occasion  whereby  many  thousand  lives  were  saved ;  the 
enemy  having  wisely  preferred  the  surprise  of  a  lion  that 
was  captain,  before  the  chase  and  slaughter  of  an  army  of 
stags  that  followed  him. 

These  or  the  like  words  comforting  Amaziah  were  able  to 
persuade  him  that  it  was  even  so  indeed.  And  such  ex 
cuses  might  have  served  well  enough  to  please  the  people, 
if  the  king  had  first  studied  how  to  please  God.  But  he 
that  was  unwilling  to  ascribe  unto  God  the  good  success 
foretold  by  a  prophet,  could  easily  find  how  to  impute  this 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  651 

late  disaster  unto  fortune,  and  the  fault  of  others.  Now 
concerning  fortune,  it  seems  that  he  meant  to  keep  himself 
safe  from  her  by  sitting  still ;  for  in  fifteen  years  following 
(so  long  he  outlived  his  honour)  we  find  not  that  he  stirred. 
As  for  his  subjects,  though  nothing  henceforth  be  recorded 
of  his  government,  yet  we  may  see  by  his  end,  that  the 
middle  time  was  ill  spent  among  them,  increasing  their  ha 
tred  to  his  own  ruin.  He  that  suspecteth  his  own  worth, 
or  other  men's  opinions,  thinking  that  less  regard  is  had  of 
his  person  than  he  believeth  to  be  due  to  his  place,  will 
commonly  spend  all  the  force  of  his  authority  in  purchasing 
the  name  of  a  severe  man.  For  the  affected  sourness  of  a 
vain  fellow  doth  many  times  resemble  the  gravity  of  one 
that  is  wise ;  and  the  fear  wherein  they  live,  which  are  sub 
ject  unto  oppression,  carries  a  show  of  reverence  to  him  that 
does  the  wrong ;  at  least  it  serves  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  un 
derlings,  keeping  them  from  prying  into  the  weakness  of 
such  as  have  jurisdiction  over  them.  Thus  the  time,  where 
in,  by  well  using  it,  men  might  attain  to  be  such  as  they 
ought,  they  do  usually  mispend  in  seeking  to  appear  such 
as  they  are  not.  This  is  a  vain  and  deceivable  course ;  pro 
curing,  instead  of  the  respect  that  was  hoped  for,  more  in 
dignation  than  was  feared :  which  is  a  thing  of  dangerous 
consequence ;  especially  when  an  unable  spirit,  being  over- 
parted  with  high  authority,  is  too  passionate  in  the  exe 
cution  of  such  an  office  as  cannot  be  checked  but  by  vio 
lence.  If  therefore  Amaziah  thought  by  extreme  rigour  to 
hold  up  his  reputation,  what  did  he  else  than  strive  to  make 
the  people  think  he  hated  them,  when  of  themselves  they 
were  apt  enough  to  believe  that  he  did  not  love  them  ?  The 
best  was,  that  he  had ,  by  revenging  his  father's  death,  pro 
vided  well  enough  for  his  own  security :  but  who  should 
take  vengeance  (or  upon  whom)  of  such  a  murder,  wherein 
every  one  had  a  part?  Surely  God  himself;  who  had  not 
given  commandment  or  leave  unto  the  people  to  take  his 
office  out  of  his  hand,  in  shedding  the  blood  of  his  anointed. 
Yet  as  Amaziah,  careless  of  God,  was  carried  headlong  by 
his  own  affections,  so  his  subjects,  following  the  same  ill 


652  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

example,  without  requiring  what  belonged  unto  their  duties, 
rose  up  against  him  with  such  headlong  fury,  that  being 
unable  to  defend  himself  in  Jerusalem,  he  was  driven  to 
forsake  the  city,  and  fly  to  Lachis  for  safeguard  of  his  life. 
But  so  extreme  was  the  hatred  conceived  against  him,  and 
so  general,  that  neither  his  absence  could  allay  the  rage  of 
it  in  the  capital  city,  nor  his  presence  in  the  country  abroad 
procure  friends  to  defend  his  life.  Questionless  he  chose 
the  town  of  Lachis  for  his  refuge,  as  a  place  of  all  other 
best  affected  to  him ;  yet  found  he  there  none  other  favour, 
than  that  the  people  did  not  kill  him  with  their  own  hands : 
for  when  the  conspirators  (who  troubled  not  themselves 
about  raising  an  army  for  the  matter)  sent  pursuers  after 
him,  he  was  abandoned  to  death.  Lachis  was  the  utmost 
city  of  his  dominion  westward,  standing  somewhat  without 
the  border  of  Juda ;  so  that  he  might  have  made  an  easy 
escape  (if  he  durst  adventure)  into  the  territory  of  the  Phi 
listines  or  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  Therefore  it  may  seem  that 
he  was  detained  there,  where  certain  it  is  that  he  found  no 
kind  of  favour :  for  had  not  the  people  of  this  town  added 
their  own  treason  to  the  general  insurrection,  the  murderers 
could  not,  at  so  good  leisure  as  they  did,  have  carried  away 
his  body  to  Jerusalem,  where  they  gave  him  burial  with  his 
fathers. 

SECT.  XI. 

Of  the  interregnum  or  vacancy  that  was  in  the  kingdom  of  Juda 

after  the  death  of  Amaziah.  ' 

IT  hath  already  been  shewed,  that  the  reigns  of  the 
kings  of  Juda  and  Israel  were  sometimes  to  be  measured 
by  complete  years,  otherwhiles  by  years  current ;  and  that 
the  time  of  one  king  is  now  and  then  confounded  with  the 
last  years  of  his  father's  reign,  or  the  foremost  of  his  son's. 
But  we  are  now  arrived  at  a  mere  vacation,  wherein  the 
crown  of  Juda  lay  void  eleven  whole  years  ;  a  thing  not 
plainly  set  down  in  scriptures,  nor  yet  remembered  by  Jo- 
sephus,  and  therefore  hard  to  be  believed,  were  it  not  proved 
by  necessary  consequence. 


CHAP.  xxn.  OF  THE  WORLD.  653 

Twice  we  find  it  written,  that  P  Amaziah  king  of  Juda 
lived  after  the  death  of  Joash  king  of  Israel  Jifteen  years  ; 
whereupon  it  follows,  that  the  death  of  Amaziah  was  about 
the  end  of  fifteen  years  complete,  which  Jeroboam  the  second 
(who  (iin  thejifteenth  year  of  Amaziah  was  made  If  ing  over 
Israel)  had  reigned  in  Samaria.  But  the  succession  of  Uz- 
ziah,  who  is  also  called  Azariah,  unto  his  father  in  the  king 
dom  of  Juda,  was  eleven  years  later  than  the  sixteenth  of 
Jeroboam :  for  it  is  expressed,  that  r Azariah  began  to  reign 
in  the  seven  and  twentieth  year  of  Jeroboam;  the  sixteenth 
year  of  his  life  being  joined  with  the  first  of  two  and  fifty 
that  he  reigned.  So  the  interregnum  of  eleven  years  cannot 
be  divided,  without  some  hard  means  used  of  interpreting 
the  text  otherwise  than  the  letter  sounds. 

Yet  some  conjectures  there  are  made,  which  tend  to  keep 
all  even,  without  acknowledging  any  void  time.  For  it  is 
thought  that  in  the  place  last  of  all  cited,  by  the  seven  and 
twentieth  year  of  Jeroboam  we  should  perhaps  understand 
the  seven  and  twentieth  year  of  his  life ;  or  else  (because 
the  like  words  are  no  where  else  interpreted  in  the  like 
sense)  that  Azariah  was  eleven  years  under  age,  that  is,  five 
years  old  when  his  father  died,  and  so  his  sixteenth  year 
might  concur  with  the  seven  and  twentieth  of  Jeroboam ; 
or,  that  the  text  itself  may  have  suffered  some  wrong  by 
mis  writing  twenty-seven  for  seventeen  years,  and  so,  by 
making  the  seventeenth  year  of  Jeroboam  to  be  newly  be 
gun,  all  may  be  solved.  These  are  the  conjectures  of  that 
worthy  man  Gerard  Mercator :  concerning  the  first  of  which 
it  may  suffice,  that  the  author  himself  doth  easily  let  it  pass 
as  improbable ;  the  last  is  followed  by  none  that  I  know, 
neither  is  it  fit  that  upon  every  doubt  we  should  call  the 
text  in  question,  which  could  not  be  satisfied  in  all  copies, 
if  perhaps  it  were  in  one :  as  for  the  second,  it  may  be  held 
with  some  qualification,  that  Azariah  began  his  reign  being 
five  years  old ;  but  then  must  we  add  those  eleven  years 
which  passed  in  his  minority  to  the  fifty-two  that  followed 

P  2  Chron.  xxv.  25.  and  2  Kings  xiv.  17. 

«  2  Kings  xiv.  23.  r  2  Kings  xr.  i. 


654  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

his  sixteenth  year,  which  is  all  one  in  a  manner  with  al 
lowing  an  interregnum. 

But  why  should  we  be  so  careful  to  avoid  an  interregnum 
in  Juda,  seeing  that  the  like  necessity  hath  enforced  all  good 
writers  to  acknowledge  the  like  vacancy  twice  happening 
within  few  years  in  the  kingdom  of  Israel  ?  The  space  of 
time  between  Jeroboam's  death  and  the  beginning  of  Za- 
chariah's  reign,  and  such  another  gap  found  between  the 
death  of  Peka  and  the  beginning  of  Hosea,  have  made  it 
easily  to  be  admitted  in  Samaria,  which  the  consideration 
of  things  as  they  stood  in  Juda,  when  Amaziah  was  slain, 
doth  make  more  probable  to  have  happened  there,  yea  al 
though  the  necessity  of  computation  were  not  so  apparent. 

For  the  public  fury  having  so  far  extended  itself  as  unto 
the  destruction  of  the  king's  own  person,  was  not  like  to  be 
appeased  without  order  taken  for  obtaining  some  redress  of 
those  matters  which  had  caused  it  at  the  first  to  break  forth 
into  such  extremity.  We  need  not  therefore  wonder  how  it 
came  to  pass  that  they,  which  already  had  thrown  them 
selves  into  such  an  horrible  treason,  should  afterwards  dare 
to  withhold  the  crown  from  a  prince  of  that  age,  which  be 
ing  invested  in  all  ornaments  of  regality,  is  nevertheless  'ex 
posed  to  many  injuries,  proceeding  from  headstrong  and 
forgetful  subjects. 

As  for  their  conjecture  who  make  Azariah  to  have  been 
king  but  forty-one  years,  after  he  came  out  of  his  nonage, 
I  dare  not  allow  it,  because  it  agrees  too  harshly  with  the 
text.  The  best  opinion  were  that  which  gives  unto  Jero 
boam  eleven  years  of  reign  with  his  father,  before  he  began 
to  reign  single  in  the  fifteenth  of  Amaziah  ;  did  it  not  swal 
low  up  almost  the  whole  reign  of  Joash,  and  extending  the 
years  of  those  which  reigned  in  Israel,  (by  making  such  of 
them  complete  as  were  only  current,)  and  take  at  the  short 
est  the  reigns  of  princes  ruling  in  other  nations.  But  I 
will  not  stand  to  dispute  further  of  this ;  every  man  may 
follow  his  own  opinion,  and  see  mine  more  plainly  in  the 
chronological  table  drawn  for  these  purposes. 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  655 

SECT.  XII. 

Of  princes  contemporary  with  Amaziah,  and  more  particularly  of 
Sardanapalus. 

THE  princes  living  with  Amaziah,  and  in  the  eleven 
years  that  followed  his  death,  were,  Joash  and  Jeroboam  in 
Israel;  Cephrenesand  Mycerinus  in  Egypt;  Sylvius  Alladius 
and  Sylvius  Aventinus  in  Alba ;  Agamemnon  in  Corinth ; 
Diognetus  Pheredus  and  Ariphron  in  Athens ;  in  Lacedae- 
mon  Thelectus,  in  whose  time  the  Spartans  won  from  the 
Achaians,  Gerauthae,  Amyclae  and  some  other  towns. 

But  more  notable  than  all  these  was  Assyrian  Sardana 
palus,  who  in  the  one  and  twentieth  year  of  Amaziah  suc 
ceeding  his  father  Ocrazapes,  or  Anacyndaraxes,  reigned 
twenty  years,  and  was  slain  the  last  of  the  eleven  void  years 
which  forewent  the  reign  of  Azariah.  In  him  ended  (as  most 
agree)  the  line  of  Ninus,  which  had  held  that  empire  one 
thousand  two  hundred  and  forty  years.  A  most  luxurious 
and  effeminate  palliard  he  was,  passing  away  his  time 
among  strumpets,  whom  he  imitated  both  in  apparel  and 
behaviour. 

In  these  voluptuous  courses  he  lived  an  unhappy  life, 
knowing  himself  to  be  so  vile,  that  he  durst  not  let  any  man 
have  a  sight  of  him ;  yet  seen  he  was  at  length,  and  the 
sight  of  him  was  so  odious  that  it  procured  his  ruin.  For 
Arbaces,  who  governed  Media  under  him,  finding  means  to 
behold  the  person  of  his  king,  was  so  incensed  with  that 
beastly  spectacle,  of  a  man  disguised  in  woman's  attire,  and 
striving  to  counterfeit  an  harlot,  that  he  thought  it  great 
shame  to  live  under  the  command  of  so  unworthy  a  crea 
ture.  Purposing  therefore  to  free  himself  and  others  from 
so  base  subjection,  he  was  much  encouraged  by  the  pre 
diction  of  Belesis,  or  Belosus,  a  Chaldaean,  who  told  him 
plainly,  that  the  kingdom  of  Sardanapalus  should  fall  into 
his  hands.  Arbaces,  well  pleased  with  this  prophecy,  did 
promise  unto  Belosus  himself  the  government  of  Babylon  ; 
and  so  concluding  how  to  handle  the  business,  one  of  them 
stirred  up  the  Medes  and  allured  the  Persians  into  the 


656  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

quarrel,  the  other  persuaded  the  Babylonians  and  Arabians 
to  venture  themselves  in  the  same  cause.  These  four  na 
tions  armed  forty  thousand  men  against  Sardanapalus,  who 
in  this  danger  was  not  wanting  to  himself,  but  gathering 
such  forces  as  he  could  out  of  other  nations,  encountered 
the  rebels,  as  one  that  would  by  deeds  refute  the  tales  that 
they  had  told  of  him.  Neither  did  his  carriage  in  the  be 
ginning  of  that  war  answer  to  the  manner  of  his  retiredness. 
For  in  three  battles  he  carried  away  the  better,  driving  Ar- 
baces  and  his  followers  into  such  fearful  terms,  that  had  not 
Belosus  promised  them  constantly  some  unexpected  suc 
cours,  they  would  forthwith  have  broken  up  their  camp. 
About  the  same  time,  an  army  out  of  Bactria  was  coming 
to  assist  the  king,  but  Arbaces  encountering  it  upon  the 
way,  persuaded  so  strongly  by  promise  of  liberty,  that  those 
forces  joined  themselves  with  his.  The  sudden  departure 
of  the  enemy  seeming  to  be  a  flight,  caused  Sardanapalus 
to  feast  his  army,  triumphing  before  victory.  But  the  rebels, 
being  strengthened  with  this  new  supply,  came  upon  him  by 
night,  and  forced  his  camp,  which  through  over-great  secu 
rity  was  unprepared  for  resistance. 

This  overthrow  did  so  weaken  the  king's  heart,  that  leav 
ing  his  wife's  brother  Salamenus  to  keep  the  field,  he  with 
drew  himself  into  the  city  of  Nineveh;  which,  till  new  aids 
that  he  sent  for  should  come,  he  thought  easily  to  defend  ; 
it  having  been  prophesied,  that  Nineveh  should  never  be 
taken  till  the  river  were  enemy  to  the  town.  Of  the  great 
ness  and  strength  of  Nineveh,  enough  hath  been  spoken  in 
our  discourse  of  Ninus.  It  was  so  well  victualled,  that 
Arbaces  (having  in  two  battles  overthrown  the  king's  army 
and  slain  Salamenus)  was  fain  to  lie  two  whole  years  before 
it,  in  hope  to  win  it  by  famine,  whereof  yet  he  saw  no  ap 
pearance.  It  seems  that  he  wanted  engines  and  skill  to 
force  those  walls,  which  were  a  hundred  foot  high,  and 
thick  enough  for  three  chariots  in  front  to  pass  upon  the 
rampire.  But  that  which  he  could  not  do  in  two  years,  the 
river  of  Tigris  did  in  the  third  ;  for  being  high  swollen  with 


CHAP.  xxii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  657 

rains,  it  not  only  drowned  a  part  of  the  city  through  which 
it  ran,  but  threw  down  twenty  furlongs  of  the  wall,  and 
made  a  fair  breach  for  Arbaces  to  enter. 

Sardanapalus,  either  terrified  with  the  accomplishment 
of  the  old  oracle,  or  seeing  no  means  of  resistance  left, 
shutting  up  himself  into  his  palace,  with  his  wives,  eunuchs, 
and  all  his  treasures,  did  set  the  house  on  fire,  wherewith 
he  and  they  were  together  consumed.  s  Strabo  speaks  of 
a  monument  of  his  that  was  in  Anchiale,  a  city  of  Cilicia, 
whereon  was  found  an  inscription,  shewing  that  he  built  that 
city  and  Tharsus  upon  one  day :  but  the  addition  hereto, 
bidding  men  eat  and  drink  and  make  merry,  encouraging 
other,  with  verses  well  known,  to  a  voluptuous  life,  by  his 
own  example,  testified  that  his  nature  was  more  prone  to 
sensuality  than  to  any  virtue  beseeming  a  prince. 

There  are  some  that  faintly  report  otherwise  of  his  end ; 
saying  that  Arbaces,  when  he  first  found  him  among  his 
concubines,  was  so  enraged,  that  suddenly  he  slew  him  with 
a  dagger.  But  the  more  general  consent  of  writers  agrees 
with  this  relation  of  l  Diodorus  Siculus,  who  citeth  Ctesias, 
a  Greek  writer,  that  lived  in  the  court  of  Persia,  where  the 
truth  might  best  be  known. 

Concerning  the  princes  which  reigned,  in  Assyria,  from 
the  time  of  Semiramis  unto  Sardanapalus,  though  I  believe 
that  they  were  sometimes  (yet  not,  as  Orosius  hath  it,  in 
cessantly)  busied  in  offensive  or  else  defensive  arms;  yet 
for  the  most  part  of  them  I  do  better  trust  u  Diodorus  Si 
culus,  who  saith,  that  their  names  were  overpassed  by  Cte 
sias,  because  they  did  nothing  worthy  of  memory.  What 
soever  they  did,  that  which  x  Theophilus  Antiochenus  hath 
said  of  them  is  very  true,  "  Silence  and  oblivion  hath  op- 
4t  pressed  them." 

•  Strab.  1.  9.  "  Diod.  1.  2.  c.  6. 

«  Diod.  Sic.  1.  2.  c.  7.  *  Tbcophilns  Antiochenus,  1. 8. 


RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II,  U  U 


658  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

CHAP.  XXIII. 

Of  Uzziah. 

SECT.   I. 

The  prosperity  of  Uzziah,  and  of  Jeroboam  the  second,  who  reigned 
with  him  in  Israel.  Of  the  anarchy  that  was  in  the  ten  tribes 
after  the  death  of  Jeroboam.  Of  Zachariah,  Sallum,  Menahem, 
and  Pekahia. 

UzZIAH,  who  is  also  called  Azariah,  the  son  of  Jotham, 
was  made  king  of  Juda  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  in 
the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Joash  king 
of  Israel.  He  served  the  God  of  his  father  David,  and  had 
therefore  good  success  in  all  his  enterprises.  He  built  Eloth, 
a  town  that  stood  near  to  the  Red  sea,  and  restored  it  to 
Juda.  He  overcame  the  Philistines,  of  whose  towns  he 
dismantled  some,  and  built  others  in  sundry  parts  of  their 
territories.  Also  he  got  the  mastery  over  some  parts  of 
Arabia,  and  brought  the  Ammonites  to  pay  him  tribute. 
Such  were  the  fruits  of  his  prosperous  wars,  wherein  (as 
Josephus  rehearseth  his  acts)  he  began  with  the  Philistines, 
and  then  proceeded  unto  the  Arabians  and  Ammonites. 
His  army  consisted  of  three  hundred  and  seven  thousand 
men  of  war,  over  which  were  appointed  two  thousand  six 
hundred  captains.  For  all  this  multitude  the  king  prepared 
y  shields,  and  spears,  and  helmets,  and  other  arms  requisite; 
following  therein  happily  a  course  quite  opposite  unto  that 
which  some  of  his  late  predecessors  had  held,  who  thought 
it  better  policy  to  use  the  service  of  the  nobility  than  of 
the  multitude,  carrying  forth  to  war  the  princes  and  all  the 
chariots,  %  Chron.  xxi.  9. 

As  the  victories  of  Uzziah  were  far  more  important  than 
the  achievements  of  all  that  had  reigned  in  Juda,  since  the 
time  of  David,  so  were  his  riches  and  magnificent  works 
equal,  if  not  superior,  to  any  of  theirs  that  had  been  kings 
between  him  and  Salomon.  For  besides  that  great  con 
quests  are  wont  to  repay  the  charges  of  war  with  triple  in- 

y  2  Chron.  xxvi.  1. 


CHAP.  xxin.        OF  THE  WORLD.  659 

terest,  he  had  the  skill  to  use,  as  well  as  the  happiness  to 
get.  He  turned  his  lands  to  the  best  use,  keeping  plough 
men  and  dressers  of  vines,  in  grounds  convenient  for  such 
husbandry.  In  other  places  he  had  cattle  feeding,  where 
of  he  might  well  keep  great  store,  having  won  so  much  from 
the  Ammonites  and  Arabians,  that  had  abundance  of  waste 
ground  serving  for  pasturage.  For  defence  of  his  cattle 
and  herdsmen,  he  built  towers  in  the  wilderness.  He  also 
digged  many  cisterns  or  ponds.  Josephus  calls  them  wa- 
tercJourses;  but  in  such  dry  grounds,  it  was  enough  that 
he  found  water  by  digging  in  the  most  likely  places.  If 
by  these  towers  he  so  commanded  the  water,  that  none  could, 
without  his  consent,  relieve  themselves  therewith,  question 
less  he  took  the  only  course  by  which  he  might  securely 
hold  the  lordship  over  all  the  wilderness ;  it  being  hardly 
passable,  by  reason  of  the  extreme  drought,  when  the  few 
springs  therein  found  are  left  free  to  the  use  of  travellers. 

Besides  all  this  cost,  and  the  building  both  of  Eloth  by 
the  Red  sea,  and  of  sundry  towns  among  the  Philistines, 
he  repaired  the  wall  of  Jerusalem,  which  Joash  had  broken 
down,  and  fortified  it  with  towers,  whereof  some  were  an 
hundred  and  fifty  cubits  high. 

The  state  of  Israel  did  never  so  flourish  as  at  this  time, 
since  the  division  of  the  twelve  tribes  into  two  kingdoms. 
For  as  Uzziah  prevailed  in  the  south,  so  (if  not  more)  Je 
roboam  the  son  of  Joash,  king  of  the  ten  tribes,  enlarged 
his  border  on  the  north;  where,  obtaining  many  victories 
against  the  Syrians,  he  won  the  royal  city  of  Damascus, 
and  he  won  Hamath,  with  all  the  country  thereabout 
TJrom  the  entering  of  Hamath  unto  the  sea  of  the  wilder 
ness;  that  is,  (as  the  most  expound  it,)  unto  the  vast  de 
serts  of  Arabia,  the  end  whereof  was  undiscovered.  So  the 
bounds  of  Israel  in  those  parts  were,  in  the  time  of  this  Je 
roboam,  the  same  (or  not  much  narrower)  which  they  had 
been  in  the  reign  of  David. 

But  it  was  not  for  the  piety  of  Jeroboam  that  he  thrived 
so  well,  for  he  was  an  idolater ;  it  was  only  the  compassion 
1  2  Kings  xir.  25,  28. 

u  u  % 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

which  the  Lord  had  on  Israel,  seeing  the  exceeding  bitter 
affliction  whereinto  the  Aramites  had  brought  his  people, 
which  caused  him  to  alter  the  success  of  war,  and  to  throw 
the  victorious  Aramites  under  the  feet  of  those  whom  they 
had  so  cruelly  oppressed.  The  line  of  Jehu,  to  which  God 
had  promised  the  kingdom  of  a Israel  unto  the  fourth  gene 
ration^  was  now  not  far  from  the  end ;  and  now  again  it  was 
invited  unto  repentance  by  new  benefits,  as  it  had  been  at 
the  beginning.  But  the  sin  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat 
was  held  so  precious,  that  neither  the  kingdom  itself,  given 
to  him  by  God,  was  able  to  draw  Jehu  from  that  politic 
idolatry ;  nor  the  misery  falling  upon  him  and  his  posterity, 
to  bring  them  to  a  better  course  of  religion ;  nor  yet,  at  the 
last,  this  great  prosperity  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Joash  to 
make  him  render  the  honour  that  was  due  to  the  only  Giver 
of  victory.  Wherefore  the  promise  of  God,  made  unto  Jehu, 
that  his  sons,  unto  the  fourth  generation,  should  sit  on  the 
throne  of  Israel,  was  not  enlarged  ;  but,  being  almost  ex 
pired,  gave  warning  of  the  approaching  end,  by  an  accident 
(so  strange,  that  we,  who  find  no  particulars  recorded,  can 
hardly  guess  at  the  occasions)  foregoing  the  last  accom 
plishment. 

When  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Joash,  after  a  victorious 
reign  of  forty-one  years,  had  ended  his  life,  it  seems  in  all 
reason  that  Zachariah  his  son  should  forthwith  have  been 
admitted  to  reign  in  his  stead ;  the  nobility  of  that  race 
having  gotten  such  a  lustre  by  the  immediate  succession  of 
four  kings,  that  any  competitor,  had  the  crown  passed  by 
election,  must  needs  have  appeared  base ;  and  the  virtue  of 
the  last  king  having  been  so  great,  as  might  well  serve  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  house,  much  more  to  establish 
the  already  confirmed  right  of  a  family  so  rooted  in  posses 
sion.  All  this  notwithstanding,  two  or  three  and  twenty 
years  did  pass,  before  Zachariah  the  son  of  Jeroboam  was 
by  uniform  consent  received  as  king.  The  true  original 
causes  hereof  were  to  be  found  at  Dan  and  Bethel,  where 
the  golden  calves  did  stand :  yet  second  instruments  of  this 
a  2  Kings  x.  30. 


CHAP,  xxiii.          OF  THE  WORLD.  661 

disturbance  are  likely  not  to  have  been  wanting,  upon  which 
the  wisdom  of  man  was  ready  to  cast  an  eye.  Probable  it 
is  that  the  captains  of  the  army  (who  afterwards  slew  one 
another  so  fast,  that  in  fourteen  years  there  reigned  five 
kings)  did  now  by  headstrong  violence  rent  the  kingdom 
asunder,  holding  each  what  he  could,  and  either  despising 
or  hating  some  qualities  in  Zachariah ;  until,  after  many 
years,  wearied  with  dissension,  and  the  principal  of  them 
perhaps  being  taken  out  of  the  way  by  death,  for  want  of 
any  other  eminent  man,  they  consented  to  yield  all  quietly 
to  the  son  of  Jeroboam.  That  this  anarchy  lasted  almost 
twenty-three  years,  we  find  by  the  difference  of  time  between 
the  fifteenth  year  of  Uzziah,  which  was  the  last  of  Jeroboam 's 
forty-first,  (his  twenty-seventh  concurring  with  the  first  of 
Uzziah,)  and  the  thirty-eighth  of  the  same  Uzziah,  in  the  last 
six  months  whereof  Zachariah  reigned  in  Samaria.  There 
are  some  indeed,  that  by  supposing  Jeroboam  to  have  reigned 
with  his  father  eleven  years,  do  cut  off  the  interregnum  in 
Juda,  (before  mentioned,)  and  by  the  same  reason  abridge 
this  anarchy,  that  was  before  the  reign  of  Zachariah  in  Israel. 
Yet  they  leave  it  twelve  years  long,  which  is  time  sufficient 
to  prove  that  the  kingdom  of  the  ten  tribes  was  no  less  dis 
tempered  than  as  is  already  noted.  But  I  choose  rather  to 
follow  the  more  common  opinion,  as  concurring  more  ex 
actly  with  the  times  of  other  princes  reigning  abroad  in  the 
world,  than  this  doubtful  conjecture,  that  gives  to  Jero 
boam  fifty-two  years,  by  adding  three  quarters  of  his  fa 
ther's  reign  unto  his  own,  which  was  itself  indeed  so  long, 
that  he  may  well  seem  to  have  begun  it  very  young ;  for  I 
do  not  think  that  God  blessed  this  idolater  both  with  a  longer 
reign  and  with  a  longer  life,  than  he  did  his  servant  David. 
Thus  much  being  spoken  of  the  time  wherein  the  throne 
of  Israel  was  void,  before  the  reign  of  Zachariah,  little  may 
suffice  to  be  said  of  his  reign  itself,  which  lasted  but  a  little 
while.  Six  months  only  was  he  king,  in  which  time  he  de 
clared  himself  a  worshipper  of  the  golden  calves,  which  was 
enough  to  justify  the  judgment  of  God,  whereby  he  was 
slain.  He  was  the  last  of  Jehu's  house,  being  (inclusively) 

u  u3 


662  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  first  of  that  line;  which  may  have  been  some  cause  of 
the  troubles  impeaching  his  orderly  succession;  the  pro 
phecy  having  determined  that  race  in  the  fourth  genera 
tion.  But  (besides  that  God's  promise  was  extended  unto 
the  utmost)  there  was  no  warrant  given  to  Sallum,  or  to 
any  other,  for  the  death  of  Zachariah,  as  has  been  given  to 
Jehu  for  the  slaughter  of  Jehoram  and  for  the  eradication 
of  Ahab's  house. 

Zachariah  having  been  six  months  a  king,  was  then  slain 
by  Sallum,  who  reigned  after  him  *ihe  space  of  a  month  in 
Samaria.  What  this  Sallum  was,  I  do  not  find ;  save  only 
that  he  was  a  traitor,  and  the  son  of  one  Jabesh,  whereby 
his  father  got  no  honour.  It  seems  that  he  was  one  of  those 
who  in  time  of  faction  had  laboured  for  himself;  and  now, 
when  all  other  competitors  were  sitten  down,  thought  easily 
to  prevail  against  that  king,  in  whose  person  the  race  of 
Jehu  was  to  fail.  Manifest  it  is  that  Sallum  had  a  strong 
party ;  for  Tiphsah,  or  Thapsa,  and  the  coast  thereof  even 
from  Tirzah,  where  Menahem,  his  enemy  and  supplanter, 
then  lay,  refused  to  admit,  as  king  in  his  stead,  the  man 
that  murdered  him.  Yet  at  the  end  of  one  month  Sallum 
received  the  reward  of  his  treason,  and  was  slain  by  Mena 
hem,  who  reigned  in  his  place. 

Menahem  the  son  of  Gadi  reigned  after  Sallum  ten  years. 
In  opposition  to  Sallum,  his  hatred  was  deadly  and  inhu 
man  ;  for  he  not  only  destroyed  Tiphsah,  and  all  that  were 
therein  or  thereabouts,  but  he  ripped  up  all  their  women 
with  child,  because  they  did  not  open  their  gates  and  let 
him  in.  Had  this  cruelty  been  used  in  revenge  of  Zacha- 
riah^s  d«ath,  it  is  like  that  he  would  have  been  as  earnest  in 
procuring  unto  him  his  father's  crown  when  it  was  first  due. 
But  in  performing  that  office  there  was  used  such  long  deli 
beration,  that  we  may  plainly  discover  ambition,  disdain, 
and  other  private  passions  to  have  been  the  causes  of  this 
beastly  outrage, 

In  the  time  of  Menahem,  and  (as  it  seems)  in  the  begin 
ning  of  his  reign,  Pul,  king  of  Assyria,  came  against  the 

b  2  Kings  xv,  13. 


CHAP,  xxiii.          OF  THE  WORLD.  663 

land  of  Israel;  whom  this  new  king  appeased  with  a  thou 
sand  talents  of  silver,  levied  upon  all  the  substantial  men  in 
his  country.  With  this  money  the  Israelite  purchased,  not 
only  the  peace  of  his  kingdom,  but  \)is  own  establishment 
therein;  some  factious  man  (belike)  having  either  invited 
Pul  thither,  or  (if  he  came  uncalled)  sought  to  use  his  help 
in  deposing  this  ill-beloved  king.  c  Josephus  reports  of  this 
Menahem,  that  his  reign  was  no  milder  than  his  entrance. 
But  after  ten  years  his  tyranny  ended  with  his  life,  and 
Pekahia  his  son  occupied  his  room. 

Of  this  Pekahia  the  story  is  short,  for  he  reigned  only 
two  years ;  at  the  end  whereof  he  was  slain  by  Peka,  the 
son  of  Kemalia,  whose  treason  was  rewarded  with  the  crown 
of  Israel,  as,  in  time  coming,  another  man's  treason  against 
himself  shall  be.  There  needs  no  more  to  be  said  of  Mena 
hem  and  his  son,  save  that  they  were  both  of  them  idolaters, 
and  the  son  (as  we  find  in  d  Josephus)  like  to  his  father  in 
cruelty.  Concerning  Pul  the  Assyrian  king,  who  first 
opened  unto  those  northern  nations  the  way  into  Palaestina, 
it  will  shortly  follow,  in  order  of  the  story,  to  deliver  our 
opinion :  whether  he  were  that  Belosus  (called  also  Beleses, 
and  by  some  Phul  Belochus)  who  joined  with  Arbaces  the 
Median  against  Sardanapalus,  or  whether  he  were  some 
other  man.  At  the  present  it  is  more  fit  that  we  relate  the 
end  of  Uzziah's  life,  who  outlived  the  happiness  wherein  we 
left  him. 

SECT.   II. 
The  end  of  Uzziah's  reign  and  life. 

AS  the  zeal  of  Jehoiada,  that  godly  priest,  was  the  mean 
to  preserve  the  lineage  of  David  in  the  person  of  Joash,  so  it 
appears  that  the  care  of  holy  men  was  not  wanting  to  Uz- 
ziah,  to  bring  him  up,  and  advance  him  to  the  crown  of  Juda, 
when  the  hatred  borne  to  his  father  Amaziah  had  endangered 
his  succession.  For  it  is  said  of  Uzziah,  that  ehe  sought 
God  in  the  days  of  Zachariah,  (which  understood  the  visions 
of  God,)  and  when  as  he  sought  the  Lord,  God  made  him 
prosper. 

c  Jos.  Ant.  1.  9.  c.  ii.    •          a  Jos.  ibid.  •  *  Cbron.  xxvi.  5. 

U  U  4 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

f  But  when  he  was  strong,  his  heart  was  lifted  up  to  his 
destruction  .-for  he  transgressed  against  the  Lord  his  God, 
and  went  into  the  temple  of  the  Lord  to  burn  incense  upon 
the  altar  of  incense.  Thus  he  thought  to  enlarge  his  own 
authority  by  meddling  in  the  priest's  office,  whose  power 
had  in  every  extremity  been  so  helpful  to  the  kings  of  Juda, 
that  mere  gratitude  and  civil  policy  should  have  held  back 
Uzziah  from  encroaching  thereupon,  yea  though  the  law  of 
God  had  been  silent  in  this  case,  and  not  forbidden  it. 
Howsoever  the  king  forgot  his  duty,  the  priests  remem 
bered  theirs,  and  God  forgot  not  to  assist  them.  Azariah 
the  high  priest  interrupted  the  king's  purpose,  and  gave 
him  to  understand  how  little  to  his  honour  it  would  prove 
that  he  took  upon  him  the  office  of  the  sons  of  Aaron. 
There  were  with  Azariah  fourscore  other  priests,  valiant  men, 
but  their  valour  was  shewed  only  in  assisting  the  high  priest 
when  (according  to  his  duty)  he  reprehended  the  king's 
presumption.  This  was  enough,  the  rest  God  himself  per 
formed.  We  find  in  Josephus,  1.  9.  c.  11.  that  the  king  had 
apparelled  himself  in  priestly  habit,  and  that  he  threatened 
Azariah  and  his  companions  to  punish  them  with  death,  un- 
kss  they  would  be  quiet.  Josephus  indeed  enlargeth  the 
story  by  inserting  a  great  earthquake,  which  did  tear  down 
half  an  hill,  that  rolled  four  furlongs,  till  it  rested  against 
another  hill,  stopping  up  the  highways,  and  spoiling  the 
king's  garden  in  the  passage.  With  this  earthquake,  he 
saith,  that  the  roof  of  the  temple  did  cleave,  and  that  a  sun 
beam  did  light  upon  the  king's  face,  which  was  presently 
infected  with  leprosy.  All  this  may  have  been  true ;  and 
some  there  are  who  think  that  this  earthquake  is  the  same 
which  is  mentioned  by  the  prophet  Amos,  wherein  they  do 
much  misreckon  the  times,  For  the  earthquake  spoken  of 
by  Amos  was  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam  king  of  Israel,  who 
died  thirty-seven  years  before  Uzziah  ;  so  that  Jotham  the 
son  of  Uzziah,  which  supplied  his  father's  place  in  govern 
ment  of  the  land,  should,  by  this  account,  have  been  then 
unborn ;  for  he  was  but  twenty-five  years  old  when  he  be- 
f  2  ChroiK  xxvi.  16. 


CHAP,  xxiii.          OF  THE  WORLD.  665 

gan  to  reign  as  king.  Therefore  thus  far  only  we  have  as 
surance,  that  while  Uzziah  was  wroth  with  the  priests,  the 
leprosy  rose  up  in  his  forehead  before  the  priests,  2  Chron. 
xxvi.  20.  Hereupon  he  was  caused  in  all  haste  to  depart 
the  place,  and  to  live  in  a  house  by  himself  until  he  died ; 
the  rule  over  the  king's  house  and  over  all  the  land  being 
committed  to  Jotham,  his  son  and  successor.  Jotham  took 
not  upon  himself  the  style  of  king  till  his  father  was  dead ; 
whom  they  buried  in  the  same  field  wherein  his  ancestors 
lay  interred,  yet  in  a  monument  apart  from  the  rest,  because 
he  was  a  leper. 

SECT.  III. 
Of  the  prophets  which  lived  in  the  time  of  Uzziah;  and  of  princes 

then  ruling  in  Egypt,  and  in  some  other  countries. 
IN  the  time  of  Uzziah  were  the  first  of  the  lesser  prophets, 
Hosea,  Joel,  Amos,  Obadiah,  and  Jonas.  It  is  not  indeed 
set  down  when  Joel  or  Obadiah  did  prophesy ;  but  if  the 
prophets  whose  times  are  not  expressed  ought  to  be  ranged 
(according  to  St.  Jerome's  rule)  with  the  next  before  them, 
then  must  these  two  be  judged  contemporary  with  Hosea 
and  Amos,  who  lived  under  king  Uzziah.  To  inquire  which 
of  these  five  was  the  most  ancient,  it  may  perhaps  be  thought 
at  least  a  superfluous  labour ;  yet  if  the  age  wherein  Homer 
lived  hath  so  painfully  been  sought  without  reprehension, 
how  can  he  be  taxed,  which  offers  to  search  out  the  anti 
quity  of  these  holy  prophets  ?  It  seems  to  me,  that  the  first 
of  these,  in  order  of  time,  was  the  prophet  Jonas,  who  fore 
told  the  great  victories  of  Jeroboam  king  of  Israel;  and 
therefore  is  like  to  have  prophesied  in  the  days  of  Joash, 
whilst  the  affliction  of  Israel  was  exceeding'  bitter,  the  Stext 
itself  intimating  no  less ;  by  which  consequence  he  was  elder 
than  the  other  prophets  whose  works  are  now  extant.  But 
his  prophecies  that  concerned  the  kingdom  of  Israel  are  now  , 
lost.  That  which  remaineth  of  him  seems,  not  without  rea 
son,  unto  some  very  learned,  to  have  belonged  unto  the  time 
of  Sardanapalus,  in  whose  days  Nineveh  was  first  of  all  de 
stroyed.  This  prophet  rather  taught  Christ  by  his  suffer- 
K  2  Kings  xiv.  25,  26. 


666  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ings,  than  by  his  writings  now  extant:  in  all  the  rest  are 
found  express  promises  of  the  Messias. 

In  the  reign  of  Uzziah  likewise  it  was  that  Isaiah,  the  first 
of  the  four  great  prophets,  began  to  see  his  visions.  This 
difference  of  greater  and  lesser  prophets  is  taken  from  the 
volumes  which  they  have  left  written,  (as  h  St.  Augustine 
gives  reason  of  the  distinction,)  because  the  greater  have 
written  larger  books.  The  prophet  Isaiah  was  great  in 
deed,  not  only  in  regard  of  his  much  writing,  or  of  his  no 
bility,  (for  their  opinion  is  rejected  who  think  him  to  have 
been  the  son  of  Amos  the  prophet,)  and  the  high  account 
wherein  he  lived,  but  for  the  excellency  both  of  his  style  and 
argument,  wherein  he  so  plainly  foretelleth  the  birth,  mira 
cles,  passion,  and  whole  history  of  our  Saviour,  with  the  call 
ing  of  the  Gentiles,  that  he  might  as  well  be  called  an  evan 
gelist  as  a  prophet;  having  written  in  such  wise,  that  (as 
1  Jerome  saith)  "  one  would  think  he  did  not  foretell  of 
"  things  to  come,  but  compile  an  history  of  matters  already 
"  past." 

Bocchoris  was  king  of  Egypt,  and  the  ninth  year  of  his 
reign,  by  our  computation,  (whereof  in  due  place  we  will 
give  reason,)  was  current  when  Uzziah  took  possession  of  the 
kingdom  of  Juda. 

After  the  death  of  Bocchoris,  Asychis  followed  in  the 
kingdom  of  Egypt ;  unto  him  succeeded  Anysis ;  and  these 
two  occupied  that  crown  six  years.  Then  Sabacus,  an 
Ethiopian,  became  king  of  Egypt,  and  held  it  fifty  years, 
whereof  the  ten  first  ran  along  with  the  last  of  Uzziah's  reign 
and  life.  Of  these  and  other  Egyptian  kings  more  shall  be 
spoken  when  their  affairs  shall  come  to  be  intermeddled  with 
the  business  of  Juda. 

In  Athens,  the  two  last  years  of  Ariphron's  twenty,  the 
seven  and  twentieth  of  Thespeius,  the  twentieth  of  Agamne- 
stor,  and  three  the  first  of  JEschylus's  three  and  twenty, 
made  even  with  the  two  and  fifty  of  Uzziah ;  as  likewise  did 
in  Alba  the  last  seven  of  Sylvius  Aventinus's  seven  and 
thirty,  together  with  the  three  and  twenty  of  Sylvius  Pro- 

h  Aug.  d€  Civit.  Dei,  1. 18.  c.  19.  i  Hier.  in  Praef.  super  Esaiam. 


CHAP.  xxni.          OF  THE  WORLD.  667 

cas,  and  two  and  twenty  the  first  of  Sylvius  Amulius.  In 
Media,  Arbaces  began  his  new  kingdom,  in  the  first  of  Uz- 
ziah,  wherein,  after  eight  and  twenty  years,  his  son  Sosarmus 
succeeded  him,  and  reigned  thirty  years.  Of  this  Arbaces, 
and  the  division  of  the  Assyrian  empire  between  him  and 
others,  when  they  had  oppressed  Sardanapalus,  I  hold  it 
convenient  to  use  more  particular  discourse,  that  we  may 
not  wander  in  too  great  uncertainty  in  the  story  of  the  As 
syrian  kings,  who  have  already  found  the  way  into  Palaes- 
tina,  and  are  not  likely  to  forget  it. 

SECT.  IV. 

Of  the  Assyrian  kings  descending  from  Phul ;  and  whether  Phul 
and  Belosus  were  one  person,  or  heads  of  sundry  families ,  that 
reigned  apart  in  Nineveh  and  Babylon. 

BY  that  which  hath  formerly  been  shewed  of  Sardana- 
palus's  death,  it  is  apparent  that  the  chief  therein  was  Ar 
baces  the  Median ;  to  whom  the  rest  of  the  confederates  did 
not  only  submit  themselves  in  that  war,  but  were  contented 
afterwards  to  be  judged  by  him,  receiving  by  his  authority 
sentence  of  death,  or  pardon  of  their  forfeited  lives.  The 
first  example  of  this  his  power  was  shewn  upon  Belosus  the 
Babylonian,  by  whose  especial  advice  and  help  Arbaces 
himself  was  become  so  great.  Yet  was  not  this  power  of 
Arbaces  exercised  in  so  tyrannical  manner  as  might  give 
offence  in  that  great  alteration  of  things,  either  to  the  princes 
that  had  assisted  him,  or  to  the  generality  of  the  people. 
For  in  the  condemnation  of  Belosus,  he  used  the  counsel  of 
his  other  captains,  and  then  pardoned  him  of  his  own  grace ; 
allowing  him  tg  hold,  not  only  the  city  and  province  of  Ba 
bylon,  but  also  those  treasures,  for  embezzling  whereof  his 
life  had  been  endangered. 

In  like  manner  he  gave  rewards  to  the  rest  of  his  par 
takers,  and  made  them  rulers  of  provinces ;  retaining  (as  it 
appears)  only  the  sovereignty  to  himself,  which  to  use  im 
moderately  he  did  naturally  abhor.  He  is  said  indeed  to 
have  excited  the  Medes  against  Sardanapalus,  by  propound 
ing  unto  them  hope  of  transferring  the  empire  to  their  na- 


668  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

tion.  And  to  make  good  this  his  promise,  he  destroyed  the 
city  of  Nineveh ;  permitting  the  citizens  nevertheless  to  take 
and  carry  away  every  one  his  own  goods.  The  other  na 
tions  that  joined  with  him,  as  the  Persians  and  Bactrians, 
he  drew  to  his  side  by  the  allurement  of  liberty,  which  he 
himself  so  greatly  loved,  that  by  slackening  too  much  the 
reins  of  his  own  sovereignty,  he  did  more  harm  to  the  gene 
ral  estate  of  Media,  than  the  pleasure  of  the  freedom  which 
it  enjoyed  could  recompense.  For  both  the  territory  of 
that  country  was  pared  narrower  by  Salmanassar,  (or  per 
haps  by  some  of  his  progenitors,)  whom  we  find  in  the  scrip 
tures  to  have  held  some  towns  of  the  Medes ;  and  the  civil 
administration  was  so  disorderly,  that  the  people  themselves 
were  glad  to  see  that  reformation  which  Deioces,  the  fifth  of 
Arbaces's  line,  did  make  in  that  government,  by  reducing 
them  into  stricter  terms  of  obedience. 

How  the  force  of  the  Assyrians  grew  to  be  such  as  might 
in  fourscore  years,  if  not  sooner,  both  extend  itself  unto  the 
conquest  of  Israel,  and  tear  away  some  part  of  Media,  it  is 
a  question  hardly  to  be  answered ;  not  only  in  regard  of  the 
destruction  of  Nineveh  and  subversion  of  the  Assyrian  king 
dom,  whereof  the  Medes  under  Arbaces  had  the  honour, 
who  may  seem  at  that  time  to  have  kept  the  Assyrians 
under  their  subjection,  when  the  rest  of  the  provinces  were 
set  at  liberty ;  but  in  consideration  of  the  kings  themselves, 
who  reigning  afterwards  in  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  are  con 
founded  by  some,  and  distinguished  by  others;  whereby 
their  history  is  made  uncertain. 

I  will  first  therefore  deliver  the  opinion  generally  received, 
and  the  grounds  whereupon  it  stands ;  then,  producing  the 
objections  made  against  it,  I  will  compare  together  the  de 
termination  of  that  worthy  man  Joseph  Scaliger,  with  those 
learned  that  subscribe  thereunto,  and  the  judgment  of  others 
that  were  more  ancient  writers,  or  have  followed  the  ancients 
in  this  doubtful  case.  Neither  shall  it  be  needful  to  set 
down  apart  the  several  authorities  and  arguments  of  sundry 
men,  adding  somewhat  of  weight  or  of  clearness  one  to  an 
other:  it  will  be  enough  to  relate  the  whole  substance  of 


CHAP.  xxui.          OF  THE  WORLD.  669 

each  discourse,  which  I  will  do  as  briefly  as  I  can,  and 
without  fear  to  be  taxed  of  partiality,  as  being  no  more  ad 
dicted  to  the  one  opinion  than  to  the  other,  by  any  fancy  of 
mine  own,  but  merely  led  by  those  reasons  which,  upon  ex 
amination  of  each  part,  seemed  to  me  most  forcible,  though 
to  others  they  may  perhaps  appear  weak. 

That  which  until  of  late  hath  passed  as  current,  is  this : 
that  Belosus  was  the  same  king  who  first  of  the  Assyrians 
entered  Palaestina  with  an  army ;  being  called  Pul,  or  Phul, 
in  the  scriptures,  and  by  Annius^s  authors,  with  such  as 
follow  them,  Phul  Belochus.  Of  this  man  it  is  said  that  he 
was  a  skilful  astrologer,  subtle  and  ambitious ;  that  he  got 
Babylon  by  composition  made  with  Arbaces ;  and  that  not 
therewith  content,  he  got  into  his  hand  part  of  Assyria ; 
finally,  that  he  reigned  eight  and  forty  years,  and  then 
dying  left  the  kingdom  to  Teglat  Phalasar  his  son,  in  whose 
posterity  it  continued  some  few  descents,  till  the  house  of 
Merodach  prevailed.  The  truth  of  this,  if  Annius^s  Me- 
tasthenes  were  sufficient  proof,  could  not  be  gainsaid ;  for 
that  author,  such  as  he  is,  is  peremptory  herein.  But  how 
soever  Annius's  authors  deserve  to  be  suspected,  it  stands 
with  no  reason  that  we  should  conclude  all  to  be  false  which 
they  affirm.  They  who  maintain  this  tradition  justify  it  by 
divers  good  allegations,  as  a  matter  confirmed  by  circum 
stances  found  in  all  authors,  and  repugnant  unto  no  history 
at  all.  For  it  is  manifest  by  the  relation  of  Diodorus, 
(which  is  indeed  the  foundation  whereupon  all  have  built,) 
that  Arbaces  and  Belosus  were  partners  in  the  action  against 
Sardanapalus ;  and  that  the  Bactrians,  who  joined  with 
them,  were  thought  well  rewarded  with  liberty,  as  likewise 
other  captains  were  with  governments :  but  that  any  third 
person  was  so  eminent  as  to  have  Assyria  itself,  the  chief 
country  of  the  empire,  bestowed  upon  him,  it  is  a  thing 
whereof  not  the  least  appearance  is  found  in  any  history. 
And  certainly  it  stood  with  little  reason,  that  the  Assyrians 
should  be  committed  unto  a  peculiar  king  at  such  time  as  it 
was  not  thought  meet  to  trust  them  in  their  own  walls  and 
houses.  Rather  it  is  apparent,  that  the  destruction  of  Ni- 


670  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  H. 

neveh  by  Arbaces,  and  the  transplantation  of  the  citizens, 
was  held  a  needful  policy,  because  thereby  the  people  of 
that  nation  might  be  kept  down  from  aspiring  to  recover 
the  sovereignty,  which  else  they  would  have  thought  to  be 
long^  as  of  right,  unto  the  seat  of  the  empire. 

Upon  such  considerations  did  the  Romans,  in  ages  long 
after  following,  destroy  Carthage,  and  dissolve  the  corpora 
tion,  or  body  politic,  of  the  citizens  of  Capua,  because  those 
two  towns  were  capable  of  the  empire ;  a  matter  esteemed 
over-dangerous  even  to  kRome  itself,  that  was  mistress  of 
them  both.  This  being  so,  how  can  it  be  thought  that  the 
Assyrians  in  three  or  four  years  had  erected  their  kingdom 
anew,  under  one  Pul?  or  what  must  this  Pul  have  been, 
(of  whose  deserving,  or  intermeddling,  or  indeed  of  whose 
very  name  we  find  no  mention  in  the  war  against  Sardana- 
palus,)  to  whom  the  principal  part  of  the  empire  fell,  either 
by  general  consent  in  division  of  the  provinces,  or  by  his 
own  power  and  purchase  very  soon  after  ?  Surely  he  was 
none  other  than  Belosus;  whose  near  neighbourhood  gave 
him  opportunity  (as  he  was  wise  enough  to  play  his  own 
game)  both  to  get  Assyria  to  himself,  and  to  impeach  any 
other  man  that  should  have  attempted  to  seize  upon  it.  The 
province  of  Babylon,  which  Belosus  held,  being,  as  Hero 
dotus  reports,  in  riches  and  power  as  good  as  the  third  part 
of  the  Persian  empire,  was  able  to  furnish  him  with  all  that 
was  requisite  for  such  a  business :  if  that  were  not  enough, 
he  had  gotten  into  his  own  hands  all  the  gold  and  silver  that 
had  been  in  the  palace  of  Nineveh.  And  questionless  to 
restore  such  a  city  as  Nineveh  was  an  enterprise  fit  for  none 
to  take  in  hand,  except  he  had  such  means  as  Belosus  had ; 
which  Pul,  if  he  were  not  Belosus,  is  likely  to  have  wanted. 

Besides  all  this,  had  Pul  been  a  distinct  person  from  Be 
losus,  and  lord  of  Assyria,  which  lay  beyond  the  countries 
of  Babylon  and  Mesopotamia,  it  would  not  have  been  an 
easy  matter  for  him  to  pass  quite  through  another  man's 
kingdom  with  an  army,  seeking  booty  afar  off  in  Israel ; 
the  only  action  by  which  the  name  of  Phul  is  known.  But 
k  Tull.  contra  Rullum,  Or.  2.  1  Herod.  1. 1. 


CHAP.  xxin.          OF  THE  WORLD.  671 

if  we  grant  that  he  whom  the  scriptures  call  Pul,  or  Phul, 
was  the  same  whom  profane  writers  have  called  Belosus, 
Beleses,  and  Belestis,  in  like  manner,  as  m  Josephus  acknow- 
ledgeth,  that  he  whom  the  scriptures  called  never  other 
wise  than  Darius  the  Mede  was  the  son  of  Astyages,  and 
called  of  the  Greeks  by  another  name,  (that  is,  Cyaxares,) 
then  is  this  scruple  utterly  removed.  For  Babylon  and 
Mesopotamia  did  border  upon  Syria  and  Palaestina ;  so  that 
Belosus,  having  settled  his  affairs  in  Assyria  towards  the 
east  and  north,  might  with  good  leisure  encroach  upon  the 
countries  that  lay  on  the  other  side  of  his  kingdom  to  the 
south  and  west.  He  that  looks  into  all  particulars,  may 
find  every  one  circumstance  concurring  to  prove  that  Phul, 
who  invaded  Israel,  was  none  other  than  Belosus.  For  the 
prince  of  the  Arabians,  who  joined  with  Arbaces,  and 
brought  no  small  part  of  the  forces  wherewith  Sardanapa- 
lus  was  overthrown,  did  enter  into  that  action  merely  for 
the  love  of  Belosus.  The  friendship  of  these  Arabians  was 
a  thing  of  main  importance  to  those  that  were  to  pass  over 
Euphrates  with  an  army  into  Syria.  Wherefore  Belosus, 
that  held  good  correspondence  with  them,  and  whose  most 
fruitful  province,  adjoining  to  their  barren  quarters,  might 
yearly  do  them  inestimable  pleasures,  was  not  only  like  to 
have  quiet  passage  through  their  borders,  but  their  utmost 
assistance ;  yea,  it  stands  with  good  reason,  that  they  who 
loved  not  Israel  should,  for  their  own  behoof,  have  given 
him  intelligence  of  the  destruction  and  civil  broils  among 
the  ten  tribes ;  whereby,  as  this  Phul  got  a  thousand  talents, 
so  it  seems  that  the  Syrians  and  Arabians,  that  had  felt  an 
heavy  neighbour  of  Jeroboam,  recovered  their  own,  setting 
up  a  new  king  in  Damasco,  and  clearing  the  coast  of  Ara 
bia  (from  the  sea  of  the  wilderness  to  Hamath)  of  the  He 
brew  garrisons.  Neither  was  it  any  new  acquaintance  that 
Jnade  the  nations  divided  by  Euphrates  hold  together  in  so 
good  terms  of  friendship :  it  was  ancient  consanguinity;  the 
memory  whereof  was  available  to  the  Syrians  in  the  time  of 
David,  when  the  Aramites  beyond  the  river  came  over  wil- 
m  Joseph.  Ant.  1. 10.  cap.  12. 


6*72  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

lingly  to  the  succour  of  Hadadezer,  and  the  Aramites  about 
Damasco.  So  Belosus  had  good  reason  to  look  into  those 
parts ;  what  a  king,  reigning  so  far  off  as  Nineveh,  should 
have  to  do  in  Syria,  if  the  other  end  of  his  kingdom  had  not 
reached  to  Euphrates,  it  were  hard  to  shew. 

But  concerning  this  last  argument  of  the  business,  which 
might  allure  the  Chaldeans  into  Palaestina,  it  may  be  doubt 
ed,  lest  it  should  seem  to  have  ill  coherence  with  that  which 
hath  been  said  of  the  long  anarchy  that  was  in  the  ten  tribes. 
For  if  the  crown  of  Israel  were  worn  by  no  man  in  three 
and  twenty  years,  then  is  it  likely  that  Belosus  was  either 
unwilling  to  stir,  or  unable  to  take  the  advantage  when  it 
was  fairest  and  first  discovered.  This  might  have  com 
pelled  those,  who  alone  were  not  strong  enough,  to  seek 
after  help  from  some  prince  that  lay  further  off;  and  so  the 
opinion  of  those  that  distinguish  Phul  from  Belosus  would 
be  somewhat  confirmed.  On  the  other  side,  if  we  say  that 
Belosus  did  pass  the  river  of  Euphrates  as  soon  as  he  found 
likelihood  of  making  a  prosperous  journey,  then  may  it  seem 
that  the  interregnum  in  Israel  was  not  so  long  as  we  have 
made  it;  for  three  and  twenty  years  leisure  would  have 
afforded  better  opportunity,  which  ought  not  to  have  been 
lost. 

For  answer  hereunto,  we  are  to  consider  what  Orosius 
and  Eusebius  have  written  concerning  the  Chaldees:  the 
one,  that  after  the  departure  of  Arbaces  into  Media,  they 
laid  hold  on  a  part  of  the  empire ;  the  other,  that  they  pre 
vailed  and  grew  mighty  between  the  times  of  Arbaces  and 
Deioces  the  Medes.  Now,  though  it  be  held  an  error  of 
Orosius,  where  he  supposeth  that  the  occupying  of  Babylo 
nia  by  the  Chaldeans  was  in  manner  of  a  rebellion  from  the 
Medes;  yet  herein  he  and  Eusebius  do  concur,  that  the 
authority  of  Arbaces  did  restrain  the  ambition  which  by  his 
absence  grew  bold,  and  by  his  death  regardful  only  of  itself. 
Now,  though  some  have  conjectured  that  all  Assyria  was 
given  to  Belosus  (as  an  overplus,  besides  the  province  of 
Babylon,  which  was  his  by  plain  bargain  made  aforehand) 
in  regard  of  his  high  deservings ;  yet  the  opinion  more  com- 


CHAP.  xxin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  673 

monly  received  is,  that  he  did  only  encroach  upon  that  pro 
vince  by  little  and  little  whilst  Arbaces  lived,  and  after 
wards  dealing  more  openly,  got  it  all  himself.  Seeing  there 
fore  that  there  passed  but  twelve  years  between  the  death 
of  Arbaces  and  the  beginning  of  Menahem's  reign,  mani 
fest  it  is  that  the  conquest  of  Assyria,  and  settling  of  that 
country,  was  work  enough  to  hold  Belosus  occupied,  besides 
the  restauration  of  Nineveh,  which  alone  was  able  to  take  up 
all  the  time  remaining  of  his  reign,  if  perhaps  he  lived  to 
see  it  finished  in  his  own  days.  So  that  this  argument  may 
rather  serve  to  prove  that  Phul  and  Belosus  were  one  per 
son  ;  forasmuch  as  the  journey  of  Phul  against  Israel  was 
not  made  until  Belosus  could  find  leisure ;  and  the  time  of 
advantage  which  Belosus  did  let  slip  argued  his  business 
in  some  other  quarter,  namely,  in  that  province  of  which 
Phul  is  called  king.  Briefly,  it  may  be  said,  that  he  who 
conquered  Assyria,  and  performed  somewhat  upon  a  coun 
try  so  far  distant  as  Palsestina,  was  likely  to  have  been  at 
least  named  in  some  history,  or  if  not  himself,  yet  his  coun 
try  to  have  been  spoken  of  for  those  victories :  but  we  nei 
ther  hear  of  Phul  in  any  profane  author,  neither  doth  any 
writer,  sacred  or  profane,  once  mention  the  victories  or  acts 
whatsoever  of  the  Assyrians  done  in  those  times ;  whereas 
of  Belosus,  and  the  power  of  the  Chaldeans,  we  find  good 
record. 

Surely  that  great  slaughter  of  so  many  thousand  Assy 
rians,  in  the  quarrel  of  Sardanapalus,  together  with  other 
calamities  of  that  long  and  unfortunate  war,  which  over 
whelmed  the  whole  country,  not  ending  but  with  the  ruin 
and  utter  desolation  of  Nineveh,  must  needs  have  so  weak 
ened  the  state  of  Assyria,  that  it  could  not  in  thirty  years 
space  be  able  to  invade  Palaestina,  which  the  ancient  kings, 
reigning  in  Nineveh,  had  in  all  their  greatness  forborne  to 
attempt.  Yet  these  afflictions,  disabling  that  country,  did 
help  to  enable  Berosus  to  subdue  it ;  who  having  once  ex 
tended  his  dominion  to  the  borders  of  Medea,  and  being, 
(especially  if  he  had  compounded  with  the  Medes,)  by  the 
interposition  of  that  country,  secure  of  the  Scythians  and 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  X  X 


674  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

other  warlike  nations  on  that  side,  might  very  well  turn 
southward,  and  try  his  fortune  in  those  kingdoms  where- 
into  civil  dissension  of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  bordering 
envy  of  the  Arabians  and  Aramites  about  Damasco,  friends 
and  cousins  to  the  Chaldeans  and  Mesopotamians,  did  in 
vite  him.  For  these  and  the  other  before-alleged  reasons, 
it  may  be  concluded,  that  what  is  said  of  Phul  in- the  scrip 
tures  ought  to  be  understood  of  Belosus ;  even  as  by  the 
names  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  Darius  the  Mede,  Artashasht, 
and  Ahashuerosh,  with  the  like,  are  thought  or  known  to 
be  meant  the  same  whom  profane  historians,  by  names  bet 
ter  known  in  their  own  countries,  have  called  Nabopollas- 
sar,  Cyaxares,  and  Artaxerxes ;  especially  considering,  that 
hereby  we  shall  neither  contradict  any  thing  that  hath  been 
written  of  old,  nor  need  to  trouble  ourselves  and  others  with 
framing  new  conjectures.  This  in  effect  is  that  which  they 
allege  in  maintenance  of  the  opinion  commonly  received. 

Now  this  being  once  granted,  other  things  of  more  im 
portance  will  of  themselves  easily  follow.  For  it  is  a  matter 
of  no  great  consequence  to  know  the  truth  of  this  point, 
(considering  it  apart  from  that  which  depends  thereon,) 
whether  Phul  were  Belosus  or  some  other  man :  the  whole 
race  of  these  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  kings,  wherein  are 
found  those  famous  princes  Nabonassar,  Mardocempadus, 
and  Nabopollassar,  (famous  for  the  astronomical  observa 
tions  recorded  from  their  times,)  is  the  main  ground  of  this 
contention.  If  therefore  Belosus,  or  Belesis,  were  that  Phul 
which  invaded  Israel ;  if  he  and  his  posterity  reigned  both 
in  Nineveh  and  in  Babylon ;  if  he  were  father  of  Teglat- 
Phul-Asar,  from  whom  Salmariassar,  Sennacherib,  and  Asar- 
haddon  descended ;  then  is  it  manifest,  that  we  must  seek 
Nabonassar,  the  Babylonian  king,  among  these  princes; 
yea,  and  conclude  him  to  be  none  other  than  Salmanassar, 
who  is  known  to  have  reigned  in  those  years  which  Ptolomy 
the  mathematician  hath  assigned  unto  Nabonassar.  As  for 
Merodach,  who  supplanted  Asar-haddon,  manifest  it  is  that 
he  and  his  successors  were  of  another  house.  This  is  the 
scope  and  end  of  all  this  disputation. 


CHAP,  xxiir.  OF  THE  WORLD.  675 

But  they  that  maintain  the  contrary  part  will  not  be  sa 
tisfied  with  such  conjectures.  They  lay  hold  upon  the  con 
clusion,  and  by  shaking  that  into  pieces,  hope  to  overthrow 
all  the  premises  upon  which  it  is  inferred.  For  (say  they) 
if  Nabonassar,  that  reigned  in  Babylon,  could  not  be  Sal- 
manassar,  or  any  of  those  other  Assyrian  kings,  then  is  it 
manifest  that  the  races  were  distinct,  and  that  Phul  and 
Belosus  were  several  kings.  This  consequence  is  so  plain, 
that  it  needs  no  confirmation.  To  prove  that  Nabonassar 
was  a  distinct  person  from  Salmanassar,  are  brought  such 
arguments  as  would  stagger  the  resolution  of  him  that  had 
sworn  to  hold  the  contrary.  For  first,  Nabonassar  was  king 
of  Babylon,  and  not  of  Assyria.  This  is  proved  by  his 
name,  which  is  merely  Chaldean,  whereas  Salman,  the  first 
part  of  Salmanassar's  name,  is  proper  to  the  Assyrians.  It 
is  likewise  proved  by  the  astronomical  observations,  which 
proceeding  from  the  Babylonians,  not  from  the  Assyrians, 
do  shew  that  Nabonassar,  from  whom  Ptolomy  draws  that 
epocha,  or  account  of  times,  was  a  Babylonian,  and  no  As 
syrian.  Thirdly,  and  more  strongly,  it  is^  confirmed  by  the 
successor  of  Nabonassar,  which  was  Mardocempadus,  called 
in  his  own  language  Merodac-ken-pad,  but  more  briefly,  in 
"Esay's  prophecy,  Merodach,  by  the  former  part  of  his 
name,  or  Merodach  Baladan  the  son  of  Baladan.  Now  if 
Merodach,  the  son  of  Baladan,  king  of  Babel,  were  the  son 
of  Nabonassar,  then  was  Nabonassar  none  other  than  Ba 
ladan  king  of  Babel,  and  not  Salmanassar  king  of  Assyria. 

What  can  be  plainer  ?  As  for  the  cadence  of  these  two 
names,  Nabonassar  and  Salmanassar,  which  in  Greek  or 
Latin  writing  hath  no  difference,  we  are  taught  by  Scaliger, 
that  in  the  Hebrew  letters  there  is  found  no  affinity  therein. 
So  concerning  the  places  of  Babylonia,  whereinto  Salmanas 
sar  carried  captive  some  part  of  the  ten  tribes,  it  may  well 
be  granted,  that  in  the  province  of  Babylon  Salmanassar 
had  gotten  somewhat,  yet  will  it  not  follow  that  he  was  king 
of  Babylon  itself.  To  conclude,  Merodach  began  his  reign 
over  Babylon  in  the  sixth  year  of  Hezekiah,  at  which  time 
»Esay  xxxix.  i. 

x  x  2 


676  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Salmanassar  took  Samaria ;  therefore  if  Salmanassar  were 
king  of  Babylon,  then  must  we  say  that  he  and  Merodach, 
yea  and  Nabonassar,  were  all  one  man.  These  are  the  argu 
ments  of  that  noble  and  learned  writer  Joseph  Scaliger,  who, 
not  contented  to  follow  the  common  opinion,  founded  upon 
likelihood  of  conjectures,  hath  drawn  his  proofs  from  matter 
of  more  necessary  inference. 

Touching  all  that  was  said  before  of  Phul  Belosus,  for 
the  proving  that  Phul  and  Belosus  were  not  sundry  kings ; 
Joseph  Scaliger  pities  their  ignorance,  that  have  spent  their 
labour  to  so  little  purpose.  Honest  and  painful  men  he 
confesseth  that  they  were,  who  by  their  diligence  might 
have  won  the  good  liking  of  their  readers,  had  they  not  by 
mentioning  Annius's  authors  given  such  offence,  that  men 
refused  thereupon  to  read  their  books  and  chronologies.  A 
short  answer. 

For  mine  own  part,  howsoever  I  believe  nothing  that  An- 
nius's  Berosus,  Metasthenes,  arid  others  of  that  stamp  af 
firm,  in  respect  of  their  bare  authority;  yet  am  I  not  so 
squeamish,  but  that  I  can  well  enough  digest  a  good  book, 
though  I  find  the  names  of  one  or  two  of  these  good  fellows 
alleged  in  it :  I  have  (somewhat  peradventure  too  often)  al 
ready  spoken  my  mind  of  Annius's  authors  ;  nevertheless,  I 
may  say  here  again,  that  where  other  histories  are  silent,  or 
speak  not  enough,  there  may  we  without  shame  borrow  of 
these,  as  much  as  agrees  with  that  little  which  elsewhere 
we  find,  and  serveth  to  explain  or  enlarge  it  without  impro 
babilities. 

Neither  indeed  are  those  honest  and  painful  men,  (as  Sca 
liger  terms  them,  meaning,  if  I  mistake  him  not,  good  silly 
fellows,)  who  set  down  the  Assyrian  kings  from  Pul  for 
wards,  as  lords  also  of  Babylon,  taking  Pul  for  Belosus, 
and  Salmanassar  for  Nabonassar,  such  writers  as  a  man 
should  be  ashamed  or  unwilling  to  read.  For  (to  omit  a 
multitude  of  others,  that  herein  follow  Annius,  though  dis 
liking  him  in  general)  Gerard  Mercator  is  not  so  slight  a 
chronologer  that  he  should  be  laughed  out  of  doors,  with 
the  name  of  an  honest-meaning  fellow. 


CHAP,  xxiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  677 

But  I  will  not  make  comparisons  between  Scaliger  and 
Mercator ;  they  were  both  of  them  men  notably  learned :  let 
us  examine  the  arguments  of  Scaliger,  and  see  whether  they 
be  of  such  force  as  cannot  either  be  resisted  or  avoided.  It 
will  easily  be  granted,  that  Nabonassar  was  king  of  Baby 
lon  ;  that  he  was  not  king  of  Assyria,  some  men  doubt  whe 
ther  Scaliger's  reasons  be  enough  to  prove.  For  though 
Nabonassar  be  a  Chaldean  name,  and  Salmanassar  an  As 
syrian,  yet  what  hinders  us  from  believing,  that  one  man 
in  two  languages  might  be  called  by  two  several  names? 
That  astronomy  flourished  among  the  Chaldees,  is  not 
enough  to  prove  Nabonassar  either  an  astrologer  or  a  Chal 
dean.  So  it  is,  that  Scaliger  himself  calls  them  °prophetas 
nescio  quos,  qui  Nabonassarum  astronomumfuisse  in  som- 
nis  viderunt ;  "  prophets  I  know  not  who,  that  in  their 
"  sleep  have  dreamt  of  Nabonassar,  that  he  was  an  astro- 
"  loger." 

Whether  Nabonassar  were  an  astrologer  or  no,  I  cannot 
tell ;  it  is  hard  to  maintain  the  negative.  But  as  his  being 
lord  over  the  Chaldeans  doth  not  prove  him  to  have  been 
learned  in  their  sciences ;  so  doth  it  not  prove  him  not  to 
have  been  also  king  of  Assyria.  The  emperor  Charles  the 
Fifth,  who  was  born  in  Gant,  and  Philip  his  son,  king  of 
Spain,  and  lords  of  the  Netherlands,  had  men  far  more 
learned  in  all  sciences,  and  particularly  in  the  mathematics, 
among  their  subjects  of  the  Low  Countries,  than  were  any 
that  I  read  of  then  living  in  Spain,  if  Spain  at  that  time 
had  any ;  yet  I  think  posterity  will  not  use  this  as  an  ar 
gument  to  prove  that  Spain  was  none  of  theirs.  It  may 
well  be,  that  Salmanassar,  or  Nabonassar,  did  use  the  Assy 
rian  soldiers  and  Babylonian  scholars:  but  it  seems  that 
he  and  his  posterity,  by  giving  themselves  wholly  to  the 
more  warlike  nation,  lost  the  richer,  out  of  which  they  first 
issued ;  as  likewise  king  Philip  lost  partly,  and  partly  did 
put  to  a  dangerous  hazard,  all  the  Netherlands,  by  such  a 
course.  As  for  the  two  unanswerable  arguments,  (as  Scali 
ger  terms  them,  being  methinks  none  other  than  answers  to 

0  Scalig.  Canon.  1.  3. 

xx3 


678  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

somewhat  that  is  or  might  be  alleged  on  the  contrary  side,) 
one  of  them  which  is  drawn  from  the  unlike  sound  and 
writing  of  those  names,  Salmanassar  and  Nabonassar  in  the 
Hebrew,  I  hold  a  point  about  which  no  man  will  dispute ; 
for  it  is  not  likeness  of  sound,  but  agreement  of  time,  and 
many  circumstances  else,  that  must  take  away  the  distinc 
tion  of  persons :  the  other  likewise  may  be  granted ;  which 
is,  that  Salmanassar  might  be  lord  of  some  places  in  the 
province  of  Babylon,  yet  not  king  of  Babylon  itself:  this 
indeed  might  be  so,  and  it  might  be  otherwise.  Hitherto 
there  is  nothing  save  conjecture  against  conjecture.  But  in 
that  which  is  alleged  out  of  the  prophet  Esay,  concerning 
Merodach  the  son  of  Baladan ;  and  in  that  which  is  said  of 
this  Merodach,  or  Mardokenpadus,  his  being  the  successor 
of  Nabonassar,  and  his  beginning  to  reign  in  the  sixth  year 
of  Hezekiah,  I  find  matter  of  more  difficulty  than  can  be 
answered  in  haste.  I  will  therefore  defer  the  handling  of 
these  objections,  until  I  meet  with  their  subject  in  its  pro 
per  place ;  which  will  be  when  we  come  to  the  time  of  He 
zekiah,  wherein  Merodach  lived  and  was  king.  Yet  that  I 
may  not  leave  too  great  a  scruple  in  the  mind  of  the  reader, 
thus  far  will  I  here  satisfy  him ;  that  how  strong  soever  this 
argument  may  seem,  Scaliger  himself  did  live  to  retract  it, 
ingenuously  confessing,  that  in  thinking  Merodach  to  be  the 
son  of  Nabonassar,  he  had  been  deceived. 

Now  therefore  let  us  consider  in  what  sort  they  have 
fashioned  their  story,  who  taking  Pul  to  be  a  distinct  per 
son  from  Belosus  or  Belestis,  have  in  like  sort,  as  was  neces 
sary,  distinguished  their  offspring,  making  that  of  Pul  to  fail 
in  Asarhaddon,  which  left  all  to  Merodach  the  Babylonian. 
And  here  I  must  first  confess  mine  own  want  of  books,  if 
perhaps  there  be  many,  that  have  gone  about  to  reduce  this 
narration  into  some  such  order,  as  might  present  unto  us 
the  body  of  this  history  in  one  view.  Divers  indeed  there 
are,  whom  I  have  seen,  that  since  Joseph  Scaliger  delivered 
his  opinion  have  written  in  favour  of  some  one  or  other 
point  thereof;  but  Sethus  Calvisius  himself,  who  hath 
abridged  Scaliger's  learned  work,  De  Emendatione  Tempo- 


CHAP,  xxiii.          OF  THE  WORLD.  679 

rum,  hath  not  been  careful  to  give  us  notice  how  long  Be. 
losus,  Baladan,  Pul,  or  Tiglat  Pulassar  did  reign,  (perhaps 
because  he  found  it  not  expressed  in  Scaliger,)  but  is  con 
tent  to  set  down  Baladan  for  the  same  person  with  Nabo- 
nassar,  which  Scaliger  himself  revoked.  In  this  case  there 
fore  I  must  lay  down  the  plot  of  these  divided  kingdoms,  in 
such  sort  as  I  find  it  contrived  by  August  in  us  Torniellus ; 
who  only  of  all  that  I  have  seen  sets  down  the  succession, 
continuance,  and  acts  of  those  that  reigned  in  Assyria  after 
Sardanapalus,  distinguishing  them  from  Belosus  and  his 
posterity,  of  whom  he  hath  the  like  remembrance.  This 
Torniellus  is  a  regular  clerk  of  the  congregation  of  St.  Paul, 
whose  annals  were  printed  the  last  year ;  he  appears  to  me 
a  man  of  curious  industry,  sound  judgment,  and  free  spirit; 
yet  many  times,  and,  I  take  it,  wilfully,  forgetful  of  thank 
ing  or  mentioning  those  protestant  writers,  by  whose  books 
he  hath  received  good  information,  and  enriched  his  works 
by  inserting  somewhat  of  theirs.  But  in  this  business  he 
hath  openly  professed  to  follow  Scaliger,  whose  help,  with 
out  wrong  or  dishonour  to  himself,  he  hath  both  used  and 
acknowledged.  For  mine  own  part,  I  will  not  spare  to  do 
right  unto  Torniellus,  but  confess  myself  to  have  received 
benefit  by  his  writing,  and  wish  that  his  annals  had  sooner 
come  to  light ;  for  that  as  he  hath  much  confirmed  me  in 
some  things,  so  would  he  have  instructed  and  emboldened 
me  to  write  more  fully  and  less  timorously  in  other  things, 
which  now  I  have  not  leisure  to  revise.  Particularly  in  that 
conjecture  (which  I  had  faintly  delivered,  and  yet  feared 
lest  it  had  over-hastily  passed  out  of  my  hand,  and  been 
exposed  to  other  men's  constructions)  of  the  four  kings  that 
invaded  the  valley  of  Siddiin,  and  were  slain  by  Abraham, 
I  find  him  adventuring,  as  I  have  done,  to  say,  P  that  they 
may  probably  be  thought  to  have  been  some  petty  lords ; 
the  contrary  opinion  of  all  writers  notwithstanding.  But 
now  let  us  consider  how  he  hath  ordered  these  last  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  kings. 

After  the  destruction  of  Sardanapalus,  Arbaces  being 
P  Chap.  i.  section  13. 

x  x  4 


680  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  most  mighty,  sought  to  get  all  to  himself,  but  was  op 
posed  by  Belosus ;  in  which  contention  one  Phul,  a  power 
ful  man  in  Assyria,  sided  with  Belosus,  and  they  two  pre 
vailed  so  far,  that  finally  Arbaces  was  content  to  share  the 
empire  with  them,  making  such  a  division  thereof,  as  was 
long  after  made  of  the  Roman  empire  between  Octavian, 
Anthony,  and  Lepidus. 

Another  conjecture  is,  (for  Torniellus  offers  not  this,  or 
the  rest,  as  matter  of  certainty,)  that  Arbaces  made  himself 
sovereign  lord  of  all,  and  placed  the  seat  of  his  empire  in 
Media,  appointing  Belosus  his  lieutenant  in  Babylonia,  and 
Phul  in  Assyria.  But  in  short  space,  that  is  in  four  years, 
it  came  to  pass,  by  the  just  judgment  of  God,  that  Phul 
and  Belosus  rebelled  against  Arbaces,  like  as  Arbaces  had 
done  against  Sardanapalus,  and,  instead  of  being  his  vice 
roys,  made  themselves  absolute  kings.  And  to  this  latter 
opinion  Torniellus  himself  leans,  holding  it  much  the  more 
probable,  as  being  more  agreeable  to  that  which  is  found  in 
profane  histories.  Why  he  did  make  and  publish  the  for 
mer  supposition,  resolving  to  hold  the  latter,  I  shall  anon, 
without  any  wrong  to  him,  make  bold  to  guess.  Having 
thus  devised  how  Phul  and  Belosus  might,  at  the  first,  at 
tain  to  be  kings,  he  orders  their  time  and  their  successors 
in  this  manner. 

Four  years  after  Arbaces,  Phul  begins  to  reign,  and 
continues  eight  and  forty  years.  Theglat-phalasar  (whose 
name,  and  the  names  of  other  princes,  I  write  diversely,  ac 
cording  as  the  authors  whom  I  have  in  hand  are  pleased  to 
diversify  them)  succeeding  unto  Phul,  reigned  three  and 
twenty.  Salmanassar  followed  him,  and  reigned  ten.  After 
him  Sennacherib  reigned  seven.:  and  when  he  was  slain, 
Asarhaddon  his  son  ten  years ;  in  whom  that  line  failed. 

The  same  time  that  Phul  took  upon  him  as  king  of  As 
syria,  or  not  long  after,  (why  not  rather  afore  ?  for  so  it  had 
been  more  likely,)  Belosus  usurped  the  kingdom  of  Babylon, 
and  held  it  threescore  and  eight  years ;  at  the  least  three 
score  and  eight  years  did  pass  before  Nabonassar  followed 
him  in  the  possession. 


CHAP,  xxiii.          OF  THE  WORLD.  681 

To  Nabonassar,  whom,  with  Scaliger,  he  thinks  to  be  Ba- 
ladan,  are  assigned  six  and  twenty  years ;  then  two  and  fifty 
to  Merodach,or  Mardocempadus ;  four  and  twenty  to  Ben 
Merodach  ;  and  lastly,  one  and  twenty  to  Nabolassar,  the 
father  of  Nabuchodonosor,  who  is  like  to  offer  matter  of 
further  disputation. 

Concerning  the  original  of  these  Assyrian  and  Babylo 
nian  kingdoms,  I  may  truly  say,  that  the  conjectures  of 
other  men,  who  give  all  to  Belosus,  and  confound  him  with 
Phul,  appear  to  me  more  nearly  resembling  the  truth.  Nei 
ther  do  I  think  that  Torniellus  would  have  conceived  two 
different  ways,  by  which  Phul  might  have  gotten  Assyria, 
(for  how  Belosus  came  to  get  Babylon,  it  is  plain  enough,) 
if  either  of  them  alone  could  have  contented  him.  He  ad 
heres  to  the  latter  of  the  two,  as  better  agreeing  with  Dio- 
dore  and  other  historians.  But  he  perceived  that  to  make 
Phul  on  the  sudden  king  of  Assyria,  or  to  give  him  so 
noble  a  province,  as  would  of  itself  invite  him  to  accept  the 
name  and  power  of  a  king,  was  a  thing  most  unlikely  to  have 
happened,  unless  his  deserts  (whereof  we  find  no  mention) 
had  been  proportionable  to  so  high  a  reward.  And  for  this 
cause  (as  I  take  it)  hath  he  devised  the  means,  whereby 
Phul  might  be  made  capable  of  so  great  a  share  in  the  em 
pire.  If  this  were  a  true  or  probable  supposition,  then 
would  a  new  doubt  arise,  Why  this  Phul,  being  one  of  the 
three  that  divided  all  between  them,  was  utterly  forgotten 
by  all  historians?  yea,  why  this  division  itself,  and  the 
civil  wars  that  caused  it,  were  never  heard  of.  Questionless 
the  intervening  of  some  treasures  by  Belosus,  with  his 
judgment,  condemnation,  and  pardon  following,  were  mat 
ters  of  far  less  note.  Therefore  I  do  not  see  how  one  of 
the  two  inconveniences  can  this  way  be  avoided ;  but  that 
either  we  'must  confess  the  dominion  given  to  Phul  to  have 
been  exceeding  his  merits,  or  else  his  merits,  and  name 
withal,  to  have  been  strangely  forgotten ;  either  of  which  is 
enough  to  make  us  think,  that  rather  the  conjecture  infer 
ring  such  a  sequel  is  wide  of  the  truth.  As  for  the  rebel 
lion  of  Phul  and  Belosus  against  Arbaces,  it  was  almost  im- 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

possible  for  the  Assyrians  to  recover  such  strength  in  four 
years,  as  might  serve  to  hold  out  in  rebellion  :  for  Belosus 
it  was  needless  to  rebel,  considering  that  Arbaces  did  not 
seek  to  molest  him,  but  rather  permitted  (as  being  an  over- 
great  favourer  of  liberty)  even  the  Medes,  that  were  under 
his  own  government,  to  do  what  they  listed. 

But  it  is  now  fit  that  we  peruse  the  catalogue  of  these 
kings ;  not  passing  through  them  all,  (for  some  will  require 
a  large  discourse  in  their  own  times,)  but  speaking  of  their 
order  and  time  in  general.  If  it  be  so  unlawful  to  think 
that  some  of  Annius's  tales  (let  them  all  be  counted  his 
tales  which  are  not  found  in  other  authors  as  well  as  in  his) 
may  be  true,  especially  such  as  contradict  no  acknowledged 
truth,  or  apparent  likelihood,  why  then  is  it  said  that  Phul 
did  reign  in  Assyria  eight  and  forty  years?  For  this  hath 
no  other  ground  than  Annius.  It  is  true,  that  painful  and 
judicious  writers  have  found  this  number  of  years  to  agree 
fitly  with  the  course  of  things  in  history ;  yet  all  of  them 
took  it  from  Annius.  Let  it  therefore  be  the  punishment 
of  Annius's  forgery,  (as  questionless  he  is  often  guilty  of 
this  crime,)  that  when  he  tells  truth  or  probability,  he  be 
not  believed  for  his  own  sake;  though  for  our  own  sakes 
we  make  use  of  his  boldness,  taking  his  words  for  good, 
whereas  (nothing  else  being  offered)  we  are  unwilling  our 
selves  to  be  authors  of  new,  though  not  unprobable  conjec 
tures.  Herein  we  shall  have  this  commodity,  that  we  may 
without  blushing  alter  a  little  to  help  our  own  opinions,  and 
lay  the  blame  upon  Annius,  against  whom  we  shall  be  sure 
to  find  friends  that  will  take  our  part. 

The  reigns  of  Theglathphalassar  and  Salmanassar  did 
reach,  by  Annius's  measure,  to  the  length  of  five  and  twenty 
years  the  one,  and  seventeen  the  other;  Torniellus  hath 
cut  off  two  from  the  former,  and  seven  from  the  latter  of 
them,  to  fit  (as  I  think)  his  own  computation ;  using  the 
liberty  whereof  I  spake  last:  for  that  any  author,  save  our 
good  Metasthenes,  or  those  that  borrowed  of  him,  hath 
gone  about  to  tell  how  long  each  of  these  did  reign,  it  is 
more  than  I  have  yet  found.  To  Sennacherib  and  Asarhad- 


CHAP.  xxin.          OF  THE  WORLD.  683 

don,  Torniellus  gives  the  same  length  of  reign  which  is 
found  in  Metasthenes.  I  think  there  are  not  many  that 
will  arrogate  so  much  unto  themselves,  as  may  well  be 
allowed  unto  a  man  so  judicious  as  is  Torniellus :  yet 
could  I  wish  that  he  had  forborne  to  condemn  the  followers 
of  Annius  in  this  business,  wherein  he  himself  hath  chosen, 
in  part,  rather  to  become  one  of  them,  than  to  say,  as  else 
he  must  have  done,  almost  nothing. 

The  like  liberty  we  find  that  he  hath  used  in  measuring 
the  reigns  of  the  Chaldeans ;  filling  up  all  the  space  between 
the  end  of  Sardanapalus  and  the  beginning  of  Nabonassar, 
with  the  threescore  and  eight  years  of  Belosus.  In  this  re 
spect  it  was,  perhaps,  that  he  thought  Belosus  might  have 
begun  his  reign  somewhat  later  than  Phul ;  for  sixty-eight 
years  would  seem  a  long  time  for  him  to  hold  a  kingdom, 
that  was  no  young  man  when  he  took  possession  of  it.  But 
how  is  any  whit  of  his  age  abated  by  shortening  his  reign, 
seeing  his  life  reacheth  to  the  end  of  such  a  time,  as  were 
alone,  without  adding  the  time  wherein  he  was  a  private 
man,  enough  for  a  long  liver.  Indeed  forty-eight  years 
had  been  somewhat  of  the  most,  considering  that  he  seems 
by  the  story  to  have  been  little  less  at  such  time  as  he 
joined  with  Arbaces ;  and  therefore  the  addition  of  twenty 
years  did  well  deserve  that  note,  (which  Torniellus  advisedly 
gives,)  that  if  his  reign  extended  not  so  far,  then  the  reign 
of  such  as  came  after  him  occupied  the  middle  time  unto 
Nabonassar. 

I  neither  do  reprehend  the  boldness  of  Torniellus  in  con 
jecturing,  nor  the  modesty  of  Scaliger  and  Sethus  Calvisius 
in  forbearing  to  set  down  as  warrantable,  such  things  as  de 
pend  only  upon  likelihood.  For  things,  whereof  the  per 
fect  knowledge  is  taken  away  from  us  by  antiquity,  must 
be  described  in  history,  as  geographers  in  their  maps  de 
scribe  those  countries,  whereof  as  yet  there  is  made  no  true 
discovery ;  that  is,  either  by  leaving  some  part  blank,  or  by 
inserting  the  land  of  pigmies,  rocks  of  loadstone,  with  head 
lands,  bays,  great  rivers,  and  other  particularities,  agreeable 
to  common  report,  though  many  times  controlled  by  fol- 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

lowing  experience,  and  found  contrary  to  truth.  Yet  in- 
deed  the  ignorance  growing  from  distance  of  plare  allows 
not  such  liberty  to  a  describer,  as  that  which  ariseth  from 
the  remediless  oblivion  of  consuming  time.  For  it  is  true 
that  the  poet  saith ;  f 

.__ Neque  fervidis 

Pars  inclusa  caloribus 

Mundi,  nee  borea  Jinitimum  latus, 

Duratteque  sole  nives, 

Mercatorem  abigunt :  horrida  callidi 

Vincunt  cequora  navita. 

Nor  southern  heat,  nor  northern  snow, 
That  freezing  to  the  ground  doth  grow, 
The  subject  regions  can  fence, 
And  keep  the  greedy  merchant  thence. 
The  subtle  shipmen  way  will  find, 
Storm  never  so  the  seas  with  wind. 

Therefore  the  fictions  (or  let  them  be  called  conjectures) 
painted  in  maps  do  serve  only  to  mislead  such  discoverers 
as  rashly  believe  them,  drawing  upon  the  publishers  either 
some  angry  curses  or  well  deserved  scorn;  but  to  keep 
their  own  credit,  they  cannot  serve  always.  To  which  pur 
pose  I  remember  a  pretty  jest  of  Don  Pedro  de  Sarmiento, 
a  worthy  Spanish  gentleman,  who  had  been  employed  by  his 
king  in  planting  a  colony  upon  the  straits  of  Magellan : 
for  when  I  asked  him,  being  then  my  prisoner,  some  ques 
tion  about  an  island  in  those  straits,  which  methought 
might  have  done  either  benefit  or  displeasure  to  his  enter 
prise,  he  told  me  merrily,  that  it  was  to  be  called  the 
Painter's  Wife's  Island ;  saying,  that  whilst  the  fellow  drew 
that  map,  his  wife  sitting  by  desired  him  to  put  in  one 
country  for  her ;  that  she,  in  imagination,  might  have  an 
island  of  her  own.  But  in  filling  up  the  blanks  of  old  his 
tories,  we  need  not  be  so  scrupulous.  For  it  is  not  to  be 
feared  that  time  should  run  backward,  and  by  restoring 
the  things  themselves  to  knowledge,  make  our  conjectures 
appear  ridiculous:  what  if  some  good  copy  of  an  ancient 


CHAP.  xxin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  685 

author  could  be  found,  shewing  (if  we  have  it  not  already) 
the  perfect  truth  of  these  uncertainties  ?  would  it  be  more 
shame  to  have  believed  in  the  mean  while  Annius  or  Tor- 
niellus,  than  to  have  believed  nothing.  Here  I  will  not  say 
that  the  credif  which  we  give  to  Annius  may  chance  other- 
whiles  to  be  given  to  one  of  those  authors  whose  names  he 
pretendeth.  Let  it  suffice,  that  in  regard  of  authority,  I 
had  rather  trust  Scaliger  or  Torniellus  than  Annius;  yet 
him  than  them,  if  his  assertion  be  more  probable,  and  more 
agreeable  to  approved  histories  than  their  conjecture,  as  in 
this  point  it  seems  to  me ;  it  having  moreover  gotten  some 
credit,  by  the  approbation  of  many,  and  those  not  meanly 
learned. 

To  end  this  tedious  disputation  ;  I  hold  it  a  sure  course  in 
examination  of  such  opinions  as  have  once  gotten  the  cre 
dit  of  being  general,  so  to  deal  as  Pacuvius  in  Capua  did 
with  the  multitude,  finding  them  desirous  to  put  all  the 
senators  of  the  city  to  death.  He  locked  the  senators  up 
within  the  state-house,  and  offered  their  lives  to  the  peopled 
mercy ;  obtaining  thus  much,  that  none  of  them  should  pe 
rish,  until  the  commonalty  had  both  pronounced  him  wor 
thy  of  death,  and  elected  a  better  in  his  place.  The  con 
demnation  was  hasty ;  for  as  fast  as  every  name  was  read, 
all  the  town  cried,  Let  him  die :  but  the  execution  re 
quired  more  leisure ;  for  in  substituting  another,  some  no 
torious  vice  of  the  person,  or  baseness  of  his  condition,  or 
insufficiency  of  his  quality,  made  each  new  one  that  was  of 
fered  to  be  rejected ;  so  that  finding  the  worse  and  less 
choice,  the  further  and  the  more  that  they  sought,  it  was 
finally  agreed,  that  the  old  should  be  kept  for  lack  of  better. 

SECT.  V. 

Of  the  Olympiads,  and  the  time  when  they  began. 
AFTER  this  division  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  follows 
the  installation  of  the  Olympian  games,  by  Iphitus,  in  the 
reign  of  the  same  king  Uzziah,  and  in  his  fifty-first  year.  It 
is,  I  know,  the  general  opinion,  that  these  games  were 
established  by  Iphitus,  in  the  first  of  Jotham :  yet  is  not 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

that  opinion  so  general,  but  that  authors,  weighty  enough, 
have  given  to  them  a  more  early  beginning.  The  truth  is, 
that  in  fitting  those  things  unto  the  sacred  history,  which 
are  found  in  profane  authors,  we  should  not  be  too  care 
ful  of  drawing  the  Hebrews  to  those  works  of  time,  which 
had  no  reference  to  their  affairs ;  it  is  enough,  that  setting 
in  due  order  these  beginnings  of  accounts,  we  join  them  to 
matters  of  Israel  and  Juda,  where  occasion  requires. 

These  Olympian  games  and  exercises  of  activity  were 
first  instituted  by  Hercules,  who  measured  the  length  of  the 
race  by  his  own  foot ;  by  which  Pythagoras  found  out  the 
stature  and  likely  strength  of  Hercules's  body.  They  took 
name,  not  from  the  mountain  Olympus,  but  from  the  city 
Olympia,  otherwise  Pisa,  near  unto  Elis ;  where  also  Jupi 
ter's  temple  in  Elis,  famous  among  the  Grecians,  and  re 
puted  among  the  wonders  of  the  world,  was  known  by  the 
name  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius.  These  games 
were  exercised  from  every  fourth  year  complete,  in  the 
plains  of  Elis,  a  city  of  Peloponnesus,  near  the  river  Al- 
pheus. 

After  the  death  of  Hercules,  these  meetings  q  were  dis 
continued  for  many  years,  till  Iphitus,  by  advice  from  the 
oracle  of  Apollo,  reestablished  them,  Lycurgus  the  law 
giver  then  living :  from  which  time  they  were  continued  by 
the  Grecians,  till  the  reign  of  Theodosius  the  emperor,  ac 
cording  to  Cedrenus ;  other  think  that  they  were  dissolved 
under  Constantine  the  Great. 

From  this  institution,  Varro  accounted  the  Grecian  times 
and  their  stories  to  be  certain;  but  reckoned  all  before 
either  doubtful  or  fabulous;  and  yet  r Pliny  gives  little 
credit  to  all  that  is  written  of  Greece,  till  the  reign  of  Cy 
rus,  who  began  in  the  fifty-fifth  Olympiad,  as  Eusebius  out 
of  Diodore,  Castor,  Polybius,  and  others  have  gathered,  in 
whose  time  the  seven  wise  Grecians  flourished.  For  Solon 
had  speech  with  Croesus,  and  Croesus  was  overthrown  and 
taken  by  Cyrus. 

<>  Aul.  Gell.  1. 1.  c.  i.  ex  Plut.    Pint,  out  of  Hermippus. 
r  Plin.  1.  36.  c.  4. 


CHAP,  xxiii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  687 

Many  patient  and  piercing  brains  have  laboured  to  find 
out  the  certain  beginning  of  these  Olympiads ;  namely,  to 
set  them  in  the  true  year  of  the  world,  and  the  reign  of  such 
and  such  kings :  but  seeing  they  all  differ  in  the  first  ac 
count,  that  is,  of  the  world's  year,  they  can  hardly  jump  in 
particulars  thereon  depending. 

Cyril  against  Julian,  and  Didymus,  begin  the  Olympiads 
the  forty-ninth  of  Osias  or  Azariah. 

s  Eusebius,  who  is  contrary  to  himself  in  this  reckoning, 
accounts  with  those  that  find  the  first  Olympiad  in  the  be 
ginning  of  the  four  hundred  and  sixth  year  after  Troy;  yet 
he  telleth  us  that  it  was  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  Uzziah,  which 
is  (as  I  find  it)  two  years  later. 

*  Eratosthenes  placeth  the  first  Olympiad  four  hundred 
and  seven  years  after  Troy,  reckoning  the  years  that  passed 
between  ;  to  whom  Dionysius  Halicarnassseus,  Diodorus  Si- 
culus,  Solinus,  and  many  others  adhere. 

The  distance  between  the  destruction  of  Troy  and  the 
first  Olympiad  is  thus  collected  by  Eratosthenes.  From 
the  taking  of  Troy  to  the  descent  of  Hercules's  posterity 
into  Peloponnesus  were  fourscore  years;  thence  to  the 
Ionian  expedition,  threescore  years;  from  that  expedition 
to  the  time  of  Lycurgus's  government  in  Sparta,  one  hun 
dred  fifty-nine;  and,  thence  to  the  first  Olympiad,  one 
hundred  and  eight  years.  In  this  account  the  first  year  of 
the  first  Olympiad  is  not  included. 

But  vain  labour  it  were  to  seek  the  beginning  of  the 
Olympiads  by  numbering  the  years  from  the  taking  of 
Troy,  which  is  of  a  date  far  more  uncertain.  Let  it  suffice, 
that  by  knowing  the  instauration  of  these  games  to  have 
been  in  the  four  hundred  and  eighth  year  current  after 
Troy,  we  may  reckon  back  to  the  taking  of  that  city,  set 
ting  that  and  other  accidents,  which  have  reference  there 
to,  in  their  proper  times.  The  certainty  of  things  follow 
ing  the  Olympiads  must  teach  us  how  to  find  when  they 
began. 

•  Euseb.  de  Praep.  Evang.  1. 10.  c.  3. 

'  Eratosth.  apud  Clem.  Alexand.  Strom.  1. 1. 


688  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

To  this  good  use  we  have  the  ensuing  years,  unto  the 
death  of  Alexander  the  Great,  thus  divided  by  the  same 
Eratosthenes.  From  the  beginning  of  the  Olympiads  to 
the  passage  of  Xerxes  into  Greece,  two  hundred  fourscore 
and  seventeen  years;  from  thence  to  the  beginning  of  the 
Peloponnesian  war,  eight  and  forty  years ;  forwards  to  the 
victory  of  Lysander,  seven  and  twenty ;  to  the  battle  of 
Leuctra,  thirty-four;  to  the  death  of  Philip  king  of  Ma- 
cedon,  five  and  thirty;  and  finally  to  the  death  of  Alexander, 
twelve.  The  whole  sum  ariseth  to  four  hundred  fifty- 
three  years ;  which  number  he  otherwise  also  collecteth,  and 
it  is  allowed  by  the  most. 

Now  for  placing  the  institution  of  the  Olympiads  in 
the  one  and  fiftieth  year  of  Uzziah,  we  have  arguments 
grounded  upon  that  which  is  certain  concerning  the  be 
ginning  of  Cyrus's  reign  and  the  death  of  Alexander ;  as 
also  upon  the  astronomical  calculation  of  sundry  eclipses  of 
the  sun ;  as  of  that  which  happened  when  Xerxes  set  out 
of  Sardis  wwith  his  army  to  invade  Greece  ;  and  of  divers 
other. 

Touching  Cyrus,  it  is  generally  agreed  that  his  reign  as 
king,  before  he  was  lord  of  the  great  monarchy,  began  the 
first  year  of  the  five  arid  fiftieth  Olympiad,  and  that  he 
reigned  thirty  years;  they  who  give  him  but  twenty-nine 
years  of  reign  (following  Herodotus,  rather  than  u  Tully, 
Justin,  Eusebius,  and  others)  begin  a  year  later,  which 
comes  all  to  one  reckoning.  So  is  the  death  of  Alexander 
set  by  all  good  writers  in  the  first  year  of  the  hundred  and 
fourteenth  Olympiad.  This  later  note  of  Alexander's  death 
serves  well  to  lead  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  Cyrus,  as 
many  the  like  observations  do.  For  if  we  reckon  upwards 
from  the  time  of  Alexander,  we  shall  find  all  to  agree  with 
the  years  of  the  Olympiads,  wherein  Cyrus  began  his  reign, 
either  as  king,  or  (taking  the  word  monarch  to  signify  a 
lord  of  many  kingdoms)  as  a  great  monarch.  From  the  be 
ginning  of  Cyrus,  in  the  first  year  of  the  fifty-fifth  Olympiad, 

"  Tull.  de   Div.  1.  i.    Just.  ].    i.      de  Dem.  Evang.  1.  8.  c.  2. 
Euseb,  de  Praep.  Evang.  1.  10.  c  3.  et 


CHAP.  xxni.          OF  THE  WORLD.  689 

unto  the  end  of  the  Persian  empire,  which  was  in  the  third 
of  the  hundred  and  twelfth  Olympiad,  we  find  two  hundred 
and  thirty  years  complete :  from  the  beginning  of  Cyrus's 
monarchy,  which  lasted  but  seven  years,  we  find  complete 
two  hundred  and  seven  years  which  was  the  continuance 
of  the  Persian  empire. 

Now  therefore  seeing  that  the  first  year  of  Cyrus's  mon 
archy  (which  was  the  last  of  the  sixtieth  Olympiad,  and 
the  two  hundred  and  fortieth  year  from  the  institution  of 
those  games  by  Iphitus)  followed  the  last  of  the  seventy 
years  of  the  captivity  of  Juda,  and  desolation  of  the  land  of 
Israel ;  manifest  it  is,  that  we  must  reckon  back  those  seventy 
years,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy  years  more,  the  last 
which  passed  under  the  kings  of  Juda,  to  find  the  first  of 
these  Olympiads ;  which  by  this  account  is  the  fifty-first  of 
Uzziah,  as  we  have  already  noted. 

The  eclipses  whereof  we  made  mention  serve  well  to  the 
same  purpose.  For  example's  sake,  that  which  was  seen 
when  Xerxes  mustered  his  army  at  Sardis,  in  the  two  hun 
dred  and  sixty-seventh  year  of  Nabonassar,  being  the  last  of 
the  seventy-fourth  Olympiad,  leads  us  back  unto  the  begin 
ning  of  Xerxes,  and  from  him  to  Cyrus ;  whence  we  have 
a  fair  way  through  the  seventy  years  unto  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem ;  and  so  upwards  through  the  reigns  of  the 
last  kings  of  Juda,  to  the  fifty-first  year  of  Uzziah. 

Thus  much  may  suffice  concerning  the  time  wherein 
these  Olympiads  began. 

To  tell  the  great  solemnity  of  them,  and  with  what  ex 
ceeding  great  concourse  of  all  Greece  they  were  celebrated, 
I  hold  it  a  superfluous  labour.  It  is  enough  to  say,  that  all 
bodily  exercises,  or  the  most  of  them,  were  therein  practised; 
as  running,  wrestling,  fighting,  and  the  like.  Neither  did 
they  only  contend  for  the  mastery  in  those  feats,  whereof 
there  was  good  use,  but  in  running  of  chariots,  fighting  with 
whirlbats,  and  other  the  like  ancient  kinds  of  exercises, 
that  served  only  for  ostentation.  Thither  also  repaired 
orators,  poets,  musicians,  and  all  that  thought  themselves 
excellent  in  any  laudable  quality,  to  make  trial  of  their 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  Y  y 


690  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

skill.  Yea,  the  very  criers,  which  proclaimed  the  victories, 
contended  which  of  them  should  get  the  honour  of  having 
played  the  best  part. 

The  Eleans  were  presidents  of  those  games;  whose 
justice,  in  pronouncing  without  partiality  who  did  best,  is 
highly  commended.  As  for  the  rewards  given  to  the  vic 
tors,  they  were  none  other  than  garlands  of  palm  or  olive, 
without  any  other  commodity  following  than  the  reputa 
tion.  Indeed  there  needed  no  more.  For  that  was  held 
so  much,  that  when  Diagoras  had  seen  his  three  sons  crown 
ed  for  their  several  victories  in  those  games,  one  came  run 
ning  to  him  with  this  gratulation ;  Morere,  Diagoras,  non 
enim  in  ccdum  ascensurus  es ;  that  is,  "  Die,  Diagoras,  for 
"  thou  shalt  not  climb  up  to  heaven  ;"  as  if  there  could  be 
no  greater  happiness  on  earth,  than  what  already  had  be 
fallen  him.  In  the  like  sense  x  Horace  speaks  of  these 
victors,  calling  them, 

Quos  Elaea  domum  reducit 
Palma  ccelestes. 

Such  as  like  heavenly  wights  do  come 
With  an  Elean  garland  home. 

Neither  was  it  only  the  voice  of  the  people,  or  the  songs 
of  poets,  that  so  highly  extolled  them  which  had  won  these 
Olympian  prizes,  but  even  grave  historians  thought  it  a 
matter  worthy  of  their  noting.  Such  was  (as  y  Tully  counts 
it)  the  vanity  of  the  Greeks,  that  they  esteemed  it  almost 
as  great  an  honour  to  have  won  the  victory  at  running  or 
wrestling  in  those  games,  as  to  have  triumphed  in  Rome 
for  some  famous  victory,  or  conquest  of  a  province. 

That  these  Olympian  games  were  celebrated  at  the  full 
of  the  moon,  and  upon  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month  He- 
catombaeon,  which  doth  answer  to  our  June;  and  what 
means  they  used  to  make  the  month  begin  with  the  new 
moon,  that  the  fifteenth  day  might  be  the  full,  I  have  shewed 
in  another  place.  Wherefore  I  may  now  return  unto  the 
kings  of  Juda,  and  leave  the  merry  Greeks  at  their  games, 
whom  I  shall  meet  in  more  serious  employments,  when  the 

x  Horat.  Carm,  1.  4.  ode  2.  y  Tull.  in  Orat.  pro  Flacco. 


CHAP,  xxiii.          OF  THE  WORLD.  691 

Persian  quarrels  draw  the  body  of  this  history  into  the  coasts 
of  Ionia  and  Hellespont. 

SECT.    VI. 
Of  Jotham  and  his  contemporaries. 

JOTHAM  the  son  of  Uzziah,  when  he  was  twenty-five 
years  old,  and  in  the  second  of  z  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  was 
anointed  king  in  Jerusalem,  his  father  yet  living.  He  built 
an  exceeding  high  gate  to  the  temple,  of  threescore  cubits 
upright,  and  therefore  called  Ophel ;  besides  divers  cities  in 
the  hills  of  Juda,  and  in  the  forests,  towers,  and  palaces : 
he  enforced  the  Ammonites  to  pay  him  tribute,  to  wit,  of 
silver  an  hundred  talents,  and  of  wheat  and  barley  two  thou 
sand  measures :  he  reigned  twenty-six  years ;  of  whom  Jo- 
sephus  gives  this  testimony :  Ejusmodi  vero  princeps  hie 
fuit,  ut  nullum  in  eo  virtutis  genus  desideres :  ut  qui  Deum 
adeo  pie  coluerit,  hominibus  suis  adeo  juste  pr&fuerit, 
urbem  ipsam  tantce  sibi  cures  esse  passus  sit,  et  tantopere 
auxerit,  ut  universum  regnum  hostibus  quidem  minime 
contemnendum,  domesticis  autem  ejus  incolis  atque  civibus 
feliX)  faustum  et  Jbrtunatum  sua  virtute  effecerit;  "  This 
"  was  such  a  prince,  as  a  man  could  find  no  kind  of  virtue 
"  wanting  in  him :  he  worshipped  God  so  religiously,  he 
"  governed  his  men  so  righteously,  he  was  so  provident  for 
"  the  city,  and  did  so  greatly  amplify  it,  that  by  his  virtue 
"  and  prowess  he  made  his  whole  kingdom  not  contemptible 
"  to  his  enemies,  but  to  his  servants,  inhabitants,  and  citi- 
"  zens,  prosperous  and  happy." 

This  is  all  that  I  find  of  Jotham :  his  reign  was  not  long, 
but  as  happy  in  all  things  as  he  himself  was  devout  and 
virtuous. 

Auchomenes  about  this  time  succeeded  Phelesteus  in 
Corinth :  after  whom  the  Corinthians  erected  magistrates, 
which  governed  from  year  to  year.  And  yet  Pausanias  in 
his  second  book,  with  Strabo  and  Plutarch  in  many  places, 
are  of  opinion,  that  Corinth  was  governed  by  kings  of  the 
race  of  the  Bacidae,  to  the  time  of  Cypselus,  who  drove 
them  out. 

1  2  Kings  xv.  33. 

Y  y  % 


692  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

aTeglathphalassar,  or  Tiglathpeleser,  the  son  of  Phul,  the 
second  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  that  was  of  this 
new  race,  about  this  time  invaded  Israel,  while  Pekah  (who 
murdered  his  master  Pekaiah)  was  king  thereof.  In  which 
expedition  he  took  most  of  the  cities  of  Nephthali  and  Ga 
lilee,  with  those  of  Gilead,  over  Jordan,  and  carried  the  in 
habitants  captive.  This  Tiglath  reigned  five  and  twenty 
years,  according  to  Metasthenes.  But  Krentzhemius  finds, 
that  with  his  son  Salmanassar  he  reigned  yet  two  years 
longer ;  which  years  I  would  not  ascribe  to  the  son,  because 
the  era  of  Nabonassar  begins  with  his  single  reign,  but 
reckon  them  to  Tiglath  Phulassar  himself,  who  therewith 
reigned  seven  and  twenty  years. 

^Eschylus  the  son  of  Agamnestor,  about  the  same  time, 
the  twelfth  archon  in  Athens,  ruled  five  and  twenty  years. 
Alcamenes  governed  Sparta :  after  whom  the  estate  changed, 
according  to  Eusebius :  but  therein  surely  Eusebius  is  mis 
taken;  for  Diodore,  Plutarch,  Pausanias,  and  others,  witness 
the  contrary.  b Pausanias  affirmeth,  that  Polydorus,  a  prince 
of  eminent  virtues,  succeeded  his  father,  and  reigned  three 
score  years,  and  outlived  the  Messeniac  war,  which  was  ended 
by  Theopompus  the  son  of  Nicandcr,  his  royal  companion. 

At  this  time  lived  Nahum  the  prophet,  who  foretold  the 
destruction  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  and  of  the  city  of  Ni 
neveh  ;  which  succeeded  (saith  Josephus)  an  hundred  and 
fifteen  years  after.  The  cities  of  Cyrene  and  of  Aradus 
were  built  at  this  time,  while  in  Media  Sosarmus  and  Me- 
didus  reigned,  being  the  second  and  third  kings  of  those 
parts. 

SECT.  VII. 
Of  Ahaz  and  his  contemporaries. 

AHAS,  or  Achaz,  succeeded  unto  Jotham  in  the  c  seven 
teenth  year  of  Pekah  the  son  of  Remalia ;  the  same  being 
also  the  last  year  of  his  father's  reign,  who  began  in  the  se 
cond  of  the  same  Pekah,  and  reigned  sixteen,  but  not  com 
plete  years.  This  Ahaz  was  an  idolater,  exceeding  all  his 
predecessors.  He  made  molten  images  for  Baalim,  and 
a  a  Kings  xv.  b  Paus.  1.  3.  *  2  Kings  xvi.  i.  2  Chron.  xxviii. 


CHAP.  xxin.  OF  THE  WORLD.  693 

burnt  his  son  for  sacrifice  before  the  idol  Moloch,  or  Saturn, 
which  was  represented  by  a  manlike  brasen  body,  bearing 
the  head  of  a  calf,  set  up  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  in  a  valley 
shadowed  with  woods,  called  Gehinnon,  or  Tophet,  from 
whence  the  word  Gehenna  is  used  for  hell.     The  children 
offered  were  enclosed  within  the  carcass  of  this  idol,  and  as 
the  fire  increased,  so  the  sacrificers,  with  a  noise  of  cymbals 
and  other  instruments,  filled  the  air,  to  the  end  the  pitiful 
cries  of  the  children  might  not  be  heard  :  which  unnatural, 
cruel,  and  devilish  oblation, d  Jeremy  the  prophet  vehemently 
reprehendeth,  and  of  which  St.  Jerome  upon  the  tenth  of 
Matthew  hath  written  at  large.     By  the  prohibition  in  Le 
viticus  the  eighteenth,  it  appeareth  that  this  horrible  sin 
was  ancient:  in  the  twelfth  of  Deuteronomy,  it  is  called  an 
abomination  which  God  hateth.     That  it  was  also  practised 
elsewhere,  and  by  many  nations  remote  from  Judaea,  divers 
authors  witness;    as  Virgil  in  the   second  of  his  ^neids, 
Sanguine  placdstis,  &c.   and    Silius,   Poscere   ccede  deos. 
Saturn  is  said  to  have  brought  this  custom  into  Italy,  be 
sides  the  casting  of  many  souls  into  the  river  of  Tiber,  in 
stead  of  which  Hercules  commanded  that  the  waxen  images 
of  men  should  be  thrown  in  and  drowned.    The  Devil  also 
taught  the  Carthaginians  this  kind  of  butchery,  insomuch 
that  when  their  city  was  besieged  and  in  distress,  the  priest 
made  them  believe,  that  because  they  had  spared  their  own 
children,  and  had  bought  and  brought  up  others  to  be  of 
fered,  that  therefore  Saturn  had  stirred  up  and  strengthened 
their  enemies  against  them:  whereupon  they  presently  caused 
two  hundred  of  the  noblest  youths  of  their  city  to  be  slain, 
and  offered  to  Saturn,  or  Satan,  to  appease  him ;  who,  be 
sides  these  forenamed  nations,  had  instructed  the  eRhodians, 
the  people  of  Crete  and  Chios,  of  Messena,  of  Galatia,  with 
the  Massagets,  and  others,  in  these  his  services :  further,  as 
if  he  were  not  content  to  destroy  the  souls  of  many  nations 
in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  (asfAcosta  writeth,)  the  Mex 
icans,  and  other  people  of  America,  were  brought  by  the 

d  2  Chron.  vii.  19 — 32.  on.  1.  2.  Diod.  1.  20. 

«  Euseb.  de  Prsep.  Evang.  1.  6.  Di-          f  Acost.  de  Hist.  nat.  et  inor.  Ind. 


694  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Devil  under  this  fearful  servitude,  in  which  he  also  holdeth 
the  Floridans  and  Virginians  at  this  day. 

For  the  wickedness  of  this  king  Ahaz,  God  stirred  up 
Rezin  of  Damascus,  and  Pekah  the  son  of  Remalia,  king  of 
Israel,  against  him,  who  invaded  Judaea,  and  besieged  Je 
rusalem,  but  entered  it  not. 

The  king  of  Syria,  Rezin,  possessed  himself  of  Elah  by 
the  Red  sea,  and  cast  the  Jews  out  of  it;  and  Pekah 
slaughtered  in  one  day  £  an  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
Judseans,  of  the  ablest  of  the  kingdom;  at  which  time 
Maaseiah  the  son  of  Achaz  was  also  slain  by  Zichri,  with 
Azrikam  the  governor  of  his  house,  and  Elcanah  the  se 
cond  person  unto  the  king.  Besides  all  this,  two  hundred 
thousand  prisoners  of  women  and  children  the  Israelites 
led  away  to  Samaria ;  but  by  the  counsel  of  the  prophet 
Oded  they  were  returned  and  delivered  back  again. 

As  Irsael  and  Aram  vexed  Juda  on  the  north,  so  the 
Edomites  and  the  Philistines,  who  evermore  attended  the 
ruin  of  Judaea,~entered  upon  them  from  the  south,  and  took 
Bethsemes,  Ajalon,  Gaderoth,  Socho,  Timnah,  and  Gemzo, 
h  slew  many  people,  and  carried  away  many  prisoners. 
Whereupon,  when  Achaz  saw  himself  environed  on  all 
sides,  and  that  his  idols  and  dead  gods  gave  him  no  com 
fort,  he  sent  to  the  Assyrian  Tiglathpileser,  to  desire  some 
aid  from  him  against  the  Israelites  and  Aramites,  present 
ing  him  with  the  silver  and  gold  both  of  the  » temple  and 
king's  house. 

Tiglathpileser  wanted  not  a  good  example  to  follow,  in 
making  profit  of  the  troubles  that  rose  in  Palsestina.  His 
father  having  lately  made  himself,  from  a  provincial  lieute 
nant,  king  of  Babylon  and  Assyria,  had  a  little  before  led 
him  the  way  into  Judaea,  invited  by  Menahem  king  of  Is 
rael.  Wherefore  now  the  son  willingly  hearkened  to  Achaz, 
and  embraced  the  advantage.  As  for  Belochus  himself,  he 
was  content  to  assign  some  other  time  for  going  through 
with  this  enterprise ;  because  (as  I  have  said  before)  he  was 
not  firmly  settled  at  home,  and  the  Syrian  kings  lay  directly 
*  2  Chron.  xxviii.  6.  '•  2  Chron.  xxviii.  '  2  King  xvi. 


CHAP.  xxin.          OF  THE  WORLD.  695 

in  his  way,  who  were  yet  strong  both  in  men  and  fame.  But 
Tiglath,  having  now  with  the  treasures  of  Jerusalem  pre 
pared  his  army,  first  invaded  the  territory  of  Damascus,  won 
the  city,  and  killed  Rezin,  the  last  of  the  race  of  the  Adads, 
who  began  with  David,  and  ended  with  this  Achaz.  At 
Damascus  Achaz  met  Tiglath,  and  taking  thence  a  pattern 
of  the  altar,  sent  it  to  Uriah  the  priest,  commanding  the  like 
to  be  made  at  Jerusalem,  whereon  at  his  return  he  burnt 
sacrifice  to  the  gods  of  the  Syrians.  In  the  mean  while 
Tiglath  possessed  all  Basan,  and  the  rest  beyond  Jordan, 
which  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Reuben,  Gad,  and  Manas- 
seh.  And  then  passing  the  river,  he  mastered  the  cities  of 
Galilee,  invaded  Ephraim,  and  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  and 
made  them  his  vassals.  And  notwithstanding  that  he  was 
invited  and  waged  by  Achaz,  yet  after  the  spoil  of  Israel 
he  possessed  himself  of  the  greater  part  of  Juda,  and  as  it 
seemeth  enforced  Achaz  to  pay  him  tribute.  For  in  the 
second  of  Kings,  the  eighteenth,  it  is  written  of  Ezechiah, 
that  he  revolted  from  Ashur,  or  rebelled  against  him,  and 
therefore  was  invaded  by  Sennacherib.  After  Ahaz  had 
beheld  and  borne  these  miseries,  in  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
year  of  his  reign  he  died,  but  was  not  buried  in  the  sepul 
chres  of  the  kings  of  Juda. 

With  Ahaz  lived  Medidus,  the  third  prince  in  Media, 
who  governed  forty  years,  saith  k  Eusebius :  Diodorus  and 
Ctesias  find  Anticarmus,  instead  of  this  Medidus,  to  have 
been  Sosarmus's  successor,  to  whom  they  give  fifty  years. 

Tiglath  Phileser  held  the  kingdom  of  Assyria  all  the 
reign  of  Ahaz ;  yet  so,  that  Salmanassar  his  son  may  seem 
to  have  reigned  with  him  some  part  of  the  time :  for  we 
find  that  Ahaz  did  }  send  unto  the  kings  of  Ashur  to  help 
him.  The  Geneva  note  says,  that  these  kings  of  Ashur 
were  Tiglath  Pileser,  and  those  kings  that  were  under  his 
dominion.  But  that  he  or  his  father  had  hitherto  made 
such  conquests,  as  might  give  him  the  lordship  over  other 
kings,  I  do  neither  find  any  history  nor  circumstance  that 
proveth.  Wherefore  I  think  that  these  kings  of  Ashur 
k  Euseb.  in  Chron.  »  2  Chron.  xxviii.  16. 

Y  y  4 


696  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

were  Tiglath,  and  Salmanassar  his  son,  who  reigned  with 
his  father,  as  hath  been  said  before :  though  how  long  he 
reigned  with  his  father,  it  be  hard  to  define. 

At  this  time  began  the  ephori  in  Lacedaemon,  a  hundred 
and  thirty  years  after  Lycurgus,  according  to  m  Plutarch. 
Eusebius  makes  their  beginning  far  later,  namely,  in  the 
fifteenth  Olympiad.  Of  these,  ephori,  Elalus  was  the  first, 
Theopompus  and  Polydorus  being  then  joint  kings.  These 
ephori,  chosen  every  year,  were  comptrollers  as  well  of 
their  senators  as  of  their  kings,  nothing  being  done  without 
their  advice  and  consent.  For  (saith  Cicero)  they  were 
opposed  against  their  kings,  as  the  Roman  tribunes  against 
the  consuls.  In  the  time  of  Ahaz  died  JEschylus,  who  had 
ruled  in  Athens  ever  since  the  fiftieth  year  of  Uzziah.  Al- 
camenon,  the  thirteenth  of  the  Medontidse,  or  governors 
of  the  Athenians,  (so  called  of  Medon,who  followed  Codrus,) 
succeeded  his  father  ^Eschylus,  and  was  the  last  of  these 
governors :  he  ruled  only  two  years.  For  the  Athenians 
changed  first  from  kings  (after  Codrus)  to  governors  for 
life ;  which  ending  in  this  Alcamenon,  they  erected  a  ma 
gistrate  whom  they  termed  an  archon,  who  was  a  kind  of 
burgomaster,  or  governor  of  their  city,  for  ten  years. 

This  alteration  Pausanias,  in  his  fourth  book,  begins  in 
the  first  year  of  the  eighth  Olympiad.  Eusebius  and  Hali- 
carnassaeus,  in  the  first  of  the  seventh  Olympiad ;  at  which 
time  indeed  Carops  the  first  of  these  began  his  ten  years 
rule. 

The  kingdom  of  the  Latins,  governed  about  three  hun 
dred  year  by  the  Sylvii,  of  the  race  of  JEneas,  took  end 
in  the  same  Ahaz's  time ;  the  foundation  of  Rome  being 
laid  by  Romulus  and  Remus  in  the  eighth  year  of  the  same 
king.  Codoman  builds  it  the  eleventh  of  Ahaz,  Bucholzer 
in  the  eighth,  (as  I  think  he  should,)  others  somewhat  later, 
and  in  the  reign  of  Ezechias.  Cicero,  Eutropius,  Orosius, 
and  others,  square  the  time  of  the  foundation  to  the  third 
year  of  the  sixth  Olympiad.  But  Halicarnassgeus,  Solinus 
Antiochenus,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and  Eusebius,  to  the 

m  Plut.  in  Vita  Sol. 


CHAP.  xxiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  697 

first  year  of  the  seventh ;  who  seem  not  only  to  me,  but  to 
many  very  learned  chronologers,  to  have  kept  herein  the 
best  account. 


CHAP.    XXIV. 

Of  the  antiquities  of  Italy ,  and  foundation  of  Rome  in  the 
time  ofAhaz. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  the  old  inhabitants,  and  of  the  name  of  Italy. 

AND  here  to  speak  of  the  more  ancient  times  of  Italy, 
and  what  nations  possessed  it  before  the  arrival  of  ^Eneas, 
the  place  may  seem  to  invite  us ;  the  rather  because  much 
fabulous  matter  hath  been  mixed  with  the  truth  of  those 
elder  plantations.  Italy,  before  the  fall  of  Troy,  was  known 
to  the  Greeks  by  divers  names ;  as  first  Hesperia,  then  Au- 
sonia,  the  one  name  arising  of  the  seat,  the  other  of  the 
Ausones,  a  people  inhabiting  part  of  it :  one  ancient  name 
of  it  was  also  GEnotria,  which  it  had  of  the  CEnotri ;  whom 
n  Halicarnassaeus  thinks  to  have  been  the  first  that  brought 
a  colony  of  Arcadians  into  that  land.  Afterwards  it  was 
called  Italy,  of  I  talus :  concerning  which  changes  of  names 
Virgil  speaks  thus  : 

Est  locus  Hesperiam  Graii  cognomine  dicunt  : 

Terra  antiqua,  potens  armis,  atque  ubere  glebte  : 

(Enotrii  coluere  viri,  nunc  fama  minores 

Italiam  dixisse,  duds  de  nomine,  gentem. 

There  is  a  land  which  Greeks  Hesperia  name, 

Ancient  and  strong,  of  much  fertility. 

CEnotrians  held  it,  but  we  hear  by  fame, 

That  by  late  ages  of  posterity, 

'Tis  from  a  captain's  name  call'd  Italy. 

Who  this  captain  or  king  may  have  been,  it  is  very  un 
certain  :  for  Virgil  speaks  no  more  of  him,  and  the  opinions 
of  others  are  many  and  repugnant.  But  like  enough  it  is, 
that  the  name  which  hath  continued  so  long  upon  the  whole 

"  Halicar.  1.  i. 


698  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

country,  and  worn  out  all  other  denominations,  was  not  at 
the  first  accepted  without  good  cause.  Therefore  to  find 
out  the  original  of  this  name,  and  the  first  planters  of  this 
noble  country,  Reineccius  hath  made  a  very  painful  search, 
and  not  improbable  conjecture.  And  first  of  all  he  grounds 
upon  that  of  °  Halicarnassaeus,  who  speaks  of  a  colony  which 
the  Eleans  did  lead  into  Italy,  before  the  name  of  Italy  was 
given  to  it ;  secondly,  upon  that  of  P  Justin,  who  saith,  that 
Brundusium  was  a  colony  of  the  ^Etolians ;  thirdly,  upon 
that  of  <l  Strabo,  who  affirms  the  same  of  Temesa,  or  Temp- 
sa,  a  city  of  the  Brutii  in  Italy  ;  lastly,  upon  the  authority 
of  r  Pliny,  who  shews  that  the  Italians  did  inhabit  only  one 
region  of  the  land,  whence  afterwards  the  name  was  de 
rived  over  all.  Concerning  that  which  is  said  of  the  Eleans 
and  ^Etolians,  who  (as  he  shews)  had  one  original ;  from 
them  he  brings  the  name  of  Italy.  For  the  word  Italia 
differs  in  nothing  from  Aitolia,  save  that  the  first  letter  is 
cast  away,  which  in  the  Greek  words  is  common,  and 
the  letter  o  is  changed  into  a ;  which  change  is  found  in 
the  name  of  Ethalia,  an  island  near  Italy,  peopled  by  the 
Etholians:  and  the  like  changes  are  very  familiar  in  the 
jEolic  dialect ;  of  which  dialect  (being  almost  proper  to  the 
JStolians)  the  accent  and  pronunciation,  together  with  many 
words  little  altered,  were  retained  by  the  Latins,  as  Diony- 
sius  Halicarnassseus,  Quintilian,  and  Priscian  the  gram 
marian  teach.  Hereunto  appertains  that  of  Julian  the 
apostate,  who  called  the  Greeks  cousins  of  the  Latins.  Also 
the  common  original  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins  from  Javan ; 
and  the  fable  of  Janus,  whose  image  had  two  faces,  looking 
east  and  west,  as  Greece  and  Italy  lay,  and  was  stamped  on 
coins,  with  a  ship  on  the  other  side ;  all  which  is,  by  inter 
pretation,  referred  to  Javan,  father  of  the  Greeks  and  La 
tins;  who  sailing  over  the  Ionian  sea,  that  lies  between 
jEtolia  and  the  western  parts  of  Greece  and  Italy,  planted 
colonies  in  both.  Now  whereas  Reineccius  thinks  that  the 
names  of  Atlas  and  Italus  belonged  both  to  one  man,  and 
thereto  applies  that  of  Berosus,  who  called  Cethim  Italus  ; 
0  Halicar.  1.  i.  i>  Justin.  1.  12.  i  Strabo,  1.  6.  '  r  Plin.  1.  3.  c.  5. 


CHAP.  xxiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  699 

though  it  may  seem  strengthened  by  the  marriage  of  Dar- 
danus,  whilst  he  abode  in  Italy  with  Electra,  the  daughter 
of  Atlas ;  yet  is  it  by  arguments,  in  my  valuation  greater 
and  stronger,  easily  disproved.  For  they  who  make  men 
tion  of  Atlas,  place  him  before  the  time  of  Moses:  and  if 
Atlas  were  Cethim,  or  Kittim,  then  was  he  the  son  of  Javan, 
and  nephew  of  Japheth,  the  eldest  son  of  Noah ;  which  an 
tiquity  far  exceeds  the  name  of  Italy,  that  began  after  the 
departure  of  Hercules  out  of  the  country,  not  long  before 
the  war  of  Troy. 

Likewise  Virgil,  who  speaks  of  Atlas,  arid  of  Dardanus^s 
marriage  with  Electra,  hath  nothing  of  his  meeting  with  her 
in  Italy,  but  calleth  Electra  and  her  sister  Maia  (poetically) 
daughters  of  the  mountain  Atlas  in  Africa,  naming  Italus 
among  the  kings  of  the  aborigines;  which  he  would  not 
have  done,  had  Atlas  and  Italus  been  one  person. 

As  for  the  authority  of  Berosus  in  this  case,  we  need  the 
less  to  regard  it,  for  that  Reineccius  himself,  whose  conjec 
tures  are  more  to  be  valued  than  the  dreams  wherewith  An- 
nius  hath  filled  Berosus,  holds  it  but  a  figment. 

That  the  name  of  Italy  began  long  after  Atlas,  it  ap 
pears  by  the  verses  of  Virgil  last  rehearsed,  wherein  he 
would  not  have  said,  Nunc  fama  minores  Italiam  dixisse, 
Duds  de  nomine,  gentem,  had  that  name  been  heard  of  ere 
Dardanus  left  the  country.  But  seeing  that  when  Hercules, 
who  died  a  few  years  before  the  war  of  Troy,  had  left  in 
Italy  a  colony  of  the  Eleans,  (who  in  a  manner  were  one  and 
the  same  nation  with  the  ^Etolians,  as  Strabo,  Herodotus, 
and  Pausanias  teach,)  then  the.  name  of  Italy  began :  and 
seeing  Virgil  makes  mention  of  Italus  among  the  Italian 
kings,  it  were  no  great  boldness  to  say,  that  Italus  was 
commander  of  these  Eleans.  For  though  I  remember  not 
that  I  have  read  of  any  such  Greek  as  was  named  Italus, 
yet  the  name  of  ^Etolus,  written  in  Greek  Aitolos,  was 
very  famous  both  among  the^Etolians  and  among  the  Eleans, 
he  being  son  of  a  king  of  Elis,  and  founder  of  the  ^Etolian 
kingdom.  Neither  is  it  more  hard  to  derive  the  name  Italus 
from  ^Etolus,  than  Italia  from  vEtolia.  So  may  Virgil's 


700  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

authority  stand  well  with  the  collections  of  Reineccius ;  the 
name  of  Italy  being  taken  both  from  a  captain,  and  from 
the  nation  of  which  he  and  his  people  were. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  the  aborigines,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Latium,  and  of  the 
reason  of  the  names  of  Latini  and  Latium. 

IN  Italy  the  Latins  and  Hetrurians  were  most  famous; 
the  Hetrurians  having  held  the  greatest  part  of  it  under  their 
subjection  ;  and  the  Latins,  by  the  virtue  and  felicity  of  the 
Romans,  who  were  a  branch  of  them,  subduing  all  Italy,  and 
in  few  ages  whatsoever  nation  was  known  in  Europe ;  toge 
ther  with  all  the  western  parts  of  Asia  and  north  of  Africk. 

The  region  called  Latium  was  first  inhabited  by  the 
aborigines,  whom  Halicarnassaeus,  Varro,  and  Reineccius, 
following  them,  think  to  have  been  Arcadians :  and  this 
name  of  aborigines  (to  omit  other  significations  that  are 
strained)  imports  as  much  as  original,  or  native  of  the  place, 
which  they  possessed :  which  title  the  Arcadians  are  known 
in  vaunting  manner  to  have  always  usurped,  fetching  their 
antiquity  from  beyond  the  moon,  because  indeed  neither 
were  the  inhabitants  of  Peloponnesus  enforced  to  forsake 
their  seats  so  oft  as  other  Greeks  were,  who  dwelt  without 
that  half-island,  neither  had  the  Arcadians  so  unsure  a 
dwelling  as  the  rest  of  the  Peloponnesians,  because  their 
country  was  less  fruitful  in  land,  mountainous,  and  hard  of 
access,  and  they  themselves  (as  in  such  places  commonly 
are  found)  very  warlike  men.  Some  of  these  therefore  hav 
ing  occupied  a  great  part  of  Latium,  and  held  it  long,  did 
according  to  the  Arcadian  manner  style  themselves  abori 
gines,  in  that  language,  which  either  their  new  seat  or  their 
neighbours  thereby  had  taught  them.  How  it  might  be 
that  the  Acardians  who  dwelt  somewhat  far  from  sea,  and 
are  always  noted  as  unapt  men  to  prove  good  mariners, 
should  have  been  authors  of  new  discoveries,  were  a  question 
not  easy  to  be  answered,  were  it  not  so,  that  both  fruitful- 
ness  of  children,  in  which  those  ages  abounded,  enforced)  a 
superfluous  company  to  seek  another  seat,  and  that  some 


CHAP.  xxiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  701 

expeditions  of  the  Arcadians,  as  especially  that  of  Evander, 
into  the  same  parts  of  Italy,  are  generally  acknowledged. 

After  the  aborigines  were  the  Pelasgi,  an  ancient  nation, 
who  sometimes  gave  name  to  all  Greece  :  but  their  antiqui 
ties  are  long  since  dead  for  lack  of  good  records.  Neither 
was  their  glory  such  in  Italy,  as  could  long  sustain  the 
name  of  their  own  tribe ;  for  they  were  in  short  space  ac 
counted  one  people  with  the  former  inhabitants.  The  Si- 
cani,  Ausones,  Aurunci,  Rutili,  and  other  people,  did  in  ages 
following  disturb  the  peace  of  Latium,  which  by  Saturn 
was  brought  to  some  civility,  and  he  therefore  canonized 
as  a  God. 

This  Saturn  St.  Augustine  calleth  Sterces,  or  Sterculius, 
others  term  him  Stercutius,  and  say,  that  he  taught  the 
people  to  dung  their  grounds.  That  Latium  took  his  name 
of  Saturn,  because  he  did  latere,  that  is,  lie  hidden  there, 
when  he  fled  from  Jupiter,  it  is  questionless  a  fable.  For 
as  in  heathenish  superstition  it  was  great  vanity  to  think 
that  any  thing  could  be  hidden  from  God,  or  that  there 
were  many  gods  of  whom  one  fled  from  another ;  so  in  the 
truth  of  history  it  is  well  known,  that  no  king  reigning  in 
those  parts  was  so  mighty,  that  it  should  be  hard  to  find 
one  country  or  another  wherein  a  man  might  be  safe  from 
his  pursuit.  And  yet,  as  most s  fables  and  poetical  fictions 
were  occasioned  by  some  ancient  truth,  which  either  by 
ambiguity  of  speech  or  some  allusion,  they  did  maimedly 
and  darkly  express ;  (for  so  they  feigned  a  passage  over  a 
river  in  hell,  because  death  is  a  passage  to  another  life,  and 
because  this  passage  is  hateful,  lamentable,  and  painful, 
therefore  they  named  the  river  Styx  of  hate,  Cocytus  of 
lamentation,  and  Acheron  of  pain  ;  so  also  because  men  are 
stony-hearted,  and  because  the  Greek  A«o»  people,  and  Aasj 
stones,  are  near  in  sound,  therefore  they  feigned  in  the  time 
of  Deucalion  stones  converted  into  men,  as  at  other  times 
men  into  stones ;)  in  like  manner  it  may  be,  that  the  ori 
ginal  of  Saturn's  hiding  himself  was  some  allusion  to  that 
old  opinion  of  the  wisest  of  the  heathen,  that  the  true  God 

1  See  lib.  i.  cap.  6.  sect.  i.  et  seq. 


702  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

was  ignotus  Deus,  as  it  is  noted  in  Acts  xvii.  23.  whence 
also  *  Isaiah  of  the  true  God  says,  Tu  Deus  abdens  te.  For 
it  cannot  be  in  vain  that  the  word  Saturnus  should  also 
have  this  very  signification,  if  it  be  derived  (as  some  think) 
from  the  Hebrew  Satar,  which  is  to  hide :  howbeit  I  deny 
not,  but  that  the  original  of  this  word  Latium  ought  rather 
to  be  sought  elsewhere. 

Reineccius  doth  conjecture,  that  the  Cetean,  who  de 
scended  of  Cethim  the  son  of  Javan,  were  the  men  who 
gave  the  name  to  Latium.  For  these  Ceteans  are  remem 
bered  by  Homer  as  aiders  of  the  Trojans  in  their  war. 
Strabo,  interpreting  the  place  of  Homer,  calls  them  subjects 
to  the  crown  of  Troy.  Hereupon  Reineccius  gathers,  that 
their  abode  was  in  Asia,  viz.  in  agro  Elaitico ;  "  in  theElai- 
"  tian  territory ,"  which  agreeth  with  Strabo.  Of  a  city 
which  the  JSolians  held  in  Asia,  called  Elaea,  or  Elaia,  Pau- 
sanias  makes  mention :  Stephanus  calls  it  Cida?mis,  or  (ac 
cording  to  the  Greek  writing)  Cidamis,  which  name  last  re 
hearsed  hath  a  very  near  sound  to  Cethim,  Citim,  or  Cithim; 
the  Greek  letter  d  having  (as  many  teach)  a  pronunciation 
very  like  to  th,  differing  only  in  the  strength  or  weakness 
of  utterance,  which  is  found  between  many  English  words 
written  with  the  same  letters.  Wherefore  that  these  Ce 
teans  being  descended  of  Cethim,  Cittim,  or  Kittim,  the  son 
of  Javan,  who  was  progenitor  of  the  Greeks,  might  very 
well  take  a  denomination  from  the  city  and  region  which 
they  inhabited,  and  from  thence  be  called  Elaeites,  or  Elaites, 
it  is  very  likely,  considering  that  among  the  Arcadians, 
Phocians,  ^Etolians,  and  Eleans,  who  all  were  of  the^Eolic 
tribe,  are  found  the  names  of  the  mountain  Elseus,  the 
haven  Eleas,  the  people  Elaitag,  the  cities  Elaeus,  Elaia, 
and  Elateia,  of  which  last  it  were  somewhat  harsh  in  the 
Latin  tongue  to  call  the  inhabitants  by  any  other  name  than 
Elatini,  from  whence  Latini  may  come.  Now  whereas  both 
the  Ceta-i  and  Arcadians  had  their  original  from  Cethim,  it 
is  nothing  unlikely,  that  agreeing  in  language  and  similitude 

'  Isaiah  xlv.  is. 


CHAP.XXIV.  OF  THE  WORLD.  703 

of  names,  they  might  nevertheless  differ  in  sound  and  pro 
nunciation  of  one  and  the  same  word.  So  that  as  he  is  by 
many  called  Sabinus,  to  whom  some  (deriving  the  Sabines 
from  him)  give  the  name  of  Sabus :  in  the  like  manner  might 
he  whom  the  Arcadians  would  call  Elatus,  (of  which  name 
they  had  a  prince  that  founded  the  city  Elateia,)  be  named 
of  the  Ceteans,  Latinus.  Reineccius,  pursuing  this  likeli 
hood,  thinks,  that  when  Euripylus,  lord  of  the  Ceteans,  be 
ing  the  son  of  Telephus,  whom  Hercules  begat  upon  Auge, 
the  daughter  of  Aleus  king  of  Arcadia,  was  slain  by  Achilles 
in  the  Trojan  war :  then  did  Telephus,  brother  to  Euripy- 
lus,  conduct  the  Ceteans,  who  (fearing  what  evil  might 
befall  themselves  by  the  Greeks,  if  the  affairs  of  Troy  should 
go  ill)  passed  into  that  part  of  Italy  where  the  Arcadians 
were  planted  by  QEnotrus.  And  Reineccius  further  thinks, 
that  Telephus  being  the  more  gracious  among  the  (Enotrian 
Arcadians,  by  the  memory  of  his  grandmother  Auge,  an 
Arcadian  lady,  was  well  contented  to  take  an  Arcadian 
name,  and  to  be  called  Elatus,  which  in  the  dialect  and  pro 
nunciation  either  of  the  Ceteans  or  of  the  CEnotrians  was 
first  Elatinus,  and  then  Latinus :  that  this  name  of  Elatus 
may  have  been  taken  or  imposed  by  the  Arcadians,  it  is  the 
more  easy  to  be  thought,  for  that  there  were  then  two  fa 
milies,  the  one  of  Aphidus,  the  other  of  Elatus,  who  were 
sons  of  Areas  king  of  Arcadia,  which  gave  name  to  the 
country ;  and  between  these  two  families  the  succession  in 
that  kingdom  did  pass  almost  interchangeably  for  many 
ages,  till  at  the  end  of  the  Trojan  war  it  fell  into  the  hand 
of  Hippothous  of  the  race  of  Elatus,  in  whose  posterity  it 
continued  until  the  last.  Again,  the  name  Latinus  having 
a  derivative  sound,  agrees  the  better  with  the  supposition 
of  such  an  accident.  This  is  the  conjecture  of  Reineccius, 
which  if  he  made  over-boldly,  yet  others  may  follow  it  with 
the  less  reproof,  considering  that  it  is  not  easy  to  find  either 
an  apparent  truth  or  fair  probability  among  these  disagree 
ing  authors,  which  have  written  the  originals  of  Latium. 


704  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

SECT.   III. 

Of  the  ancient  kings  of  the  Latins  until  JEneas's  coming. 

THE  kings  which  reigned  in  Latiura  before  the  arrival 
of  JSneas,  were  Saturnus,  Picus,  Faunus,  and  Latinus.  Of 
Saturn  there  is  nothing  remembered,  save  what  is  mentioned 
already,  and  many  fables  of  the  Greeks,  which  whether  they 
be  appliable  to  this  man,  it  is  for  him  to  judge  who  shall 
be  able  to  determine  whether  this  were  the  Saturn  of  the 
Greeks,  called  by  them  Kpwos,  or  some  other,  styled  Saturn 
by  the  aborigines.  For  the  age  wherein  he  lived  may 
very  well  admit  him  to  have  been  the  same  ;  but  the  names 
of  u  Sterces  and  Stercutius,  (for  it  may  be  this  name  was  not 
borrowed  from  the  skill  which  he  taught  the  people,  but 
rather  the  soil  which  they  laid  on  their  grounds,  had  that 
appellation  from  him,)  do  rather  make  him  seem  some  other 
man. 

Of  Picus  it  is  said  that  he  was  a  good  horseman.  The 
fable  of  his  being  changed  into  a  bird,  which  we  call  a  pie, 
may  well  seem  (as  it  is  interpreted)  to  have  grown  from  the 
skill  which  he  had  in  soothsaying,  or  divination,  by  the 
flight  and  chattering  of  fowls.  Faunus  the  son  of  Picus 
reigned  after  his  father.  He  gave  to  Evander  the  Arcadian 
(who  having  slain  by  mischance  his  father  Echemus  king  of 
Arcadia,  fled  into  Italy)  the  waste  grounds  on  which  Rome 
was  afterward  built. 

Fauna,  called  Fatua,  the  sister  of  Faunus,  was  also  his 
wife,  as  all  historians  agree  ;  she  was  held  a  prophetess,  and 
highly  commended  for  her  chastity;  which  praise  in  her 
must  needs  have  been  much  blemished  by  her  marriage, 
itself  being  merely  incestuous. 

It  is  not  mentioned  that  Faunus  had  by  his  sister  any 
child,  neither  do  we  read  of  any  other  wife  which  he  had, 
save  only  that  Virgil,  JEneid  7,  gives  unto  him  Latinus  as 
his  son,  by  a  nymph  called  Marica. 

u  Ezekiel  often  calls  the  idols  of  the  it  may  be  that  after  that  Saturn  be- 

heathen  Deos  stercoreos ;   and  hence  came  the  name  of  an  idol,  it  pleased 

it  may  be,  that  in  the  Evangelist  we  God  that  in  a  like  sense  this  name 

read  for  Belzebub,  Belzebul,  which  is  Stercutius  should  stick  unto  him. 
interpreted  Dominus  stercoreus  :  and 


CHAP.  xxiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  705 

But  who  this  Marica  was,  it  is  not  found,  save  only  that 
her  abode  was  about  the  river  Liris  near  Minturnae. 

Of  the  name  Latinus,  there  are  by  Pomponius  Sabinus 
recounted  four;  one,  the  son  of  Faunus;  another,  of  Her 
cules;  a  third,  of  Ulysses  by  Circe;  the  fourth,  of  Telemachus. 
x  Suidas  takes  notice  only  of  the  second,  of  whom  he  saith, 
that  his  name  was  Telephus,  and  the  people,  anciently 
named  the  Cetii,  were  from  his  surname  called  Latini. 
This  agrees  in  effect  with  the  opinion  of  Reineccius,  the 
difference  consisting  almost  in  this  only,  that  Suidas  calls 
Telephus  the  son  of  Hercules,  whereas  Reineccius  makes 
him  his  nephew,  by  a  son  of  the  same  name.  This  Latinus 
having  obtained  the  succession  in  that  kingdom  after  Faunus, 
did  promise  his  only  daughter  and  heir  Lavinia  to  Turnus 
the  son  of  Venilia,  who  was  sister  to  Amata,  Latinus^s  wife. 

But  when  ^Eneas  arrived  in  those  parts  with  fifteen  ships, 
or  perhaps  fewer,  wherein  might  be  embarked,  according  to 
the  rate  which  Thucydides  allows  to  the  vessels  then  used, 
about  one  thousand  and  two  hundred  men:  then  Latinus 
finding  that  it  would  stand  best  with  his  assurance  to  make 
alliance  with  the  Trojan,  and  moved  with  the  great  reputa 
tion  of  ^Eneas,  which  himself  had  heard  of  in  the  war  of 
Troy,  gave  his  daughter  to  him,  breaking  off  the  former 
appointment  with  Turnus,  who  incensed  herewith  sought 
to  avenge  himself  by  war,  which  was  soon  ended  with  his 
own  death. 

Of  Amata  the  wife  of  Latinus,  it  is  very  certain,  that 
were  she  an  Italian,  she  could  not  have  borne  a  daughter 
marriageable  at  the  arrival  of  ^Eneas;  unless  we  should 
wholly  follow  Suidas,  and  rather  give  the  conduct  of  the 
Cetii  into  Italy  to  Telephus  the  father,  than  to  his  son, 
who  served  in  the  last  year  of  the  Trojan  war.  But  Rei 
neccius  holds  her  an  Asiatic,  and  thinks  withal  that  Lavi 
nia  was  born  before  Telephus  came  into  Italy.  That  this 
name  Amata,  by  which  Virgil  and  Halicarnassaeus  call  her, 
was  not  proper,  but  rather  a  surname,  it  may  seem  by  Varro, 
who  calleth  her  Palatia ;  which  name  very  well  might  be 

x  Suidas  in  the  word  Latini. 
RALEGH,  HIST.   WORLD.   VOL.   II.  Z  Z 


706  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

derived  from  the  Greek  name  Pallas.  Amata,  which  signi- 
fieth  beloved,  or  dear,  was  the  name  by  which  the  high  priest 
called  every  virgin  whom  he  took  to  serve  as  a  nun  of  Vesta; 
wherefore  it  is  the  more  easily  to  be  thought  a  surname, 
howsoever  Virgil  discourse  of  her  and  Venilia  her  sister. 

Lavinia,  the  daughter  of  Latinus,  being  given  in  mar 
riage  to  JEneas,  the  kingdom  of  Latium,  or  the  greatest 
part  of  that  country,  was  established  in  that  race ;  wherein 
it  continued  until  it  was  overgrown  by  the  might  and  great 
ness  of  the  Romans. 

SECT.  IV. 
Of  jfEneas,  and  of  the  kings  and  governors  of  Alba. 

JENEAS  himself  being  of  the  royal  blood  of  Troy,  had 
the  command  of  the  Dardanians;  he  was  a  valiant  man, 
very  rich,  and  highly  honoured  among  the  Trojans.  By 
his  wife  Creusa,  the  daughter  of  Priamus,  he  had  a  son 
called  Ascanius,  whose  surname  was  lulus,  having  before 
the  ruin  of  Troy  (as  Virgil  notes)  been  surnamed  Ilus.  But 
when  jEneas  was  dead,  his  wife  Lavinia,  the  daughter  of 
Latinus,  being  great  with  child  by  him,  and  fearing  the 
power  of  this  Ascanius,  fled  into  the  woods,  where  she  was 
delivered  of  a  son,  called  thereupon  Sylvius,  and  surnamed 
Posthumus,  because  he  was  born  after  his  father's  funeral. 
This  flight  of  Lavinia  was  so  evil  taken  by  the  people,  that 
Ascanius  procured  her  return,  entreated  her  honourably, 
and  using  her  as  a  queen,  did  foster  her  young  son,  his  half 
brother  Sylvius.  Yet  afterwards,  whether  to  avoid  all  oc 
casions  of  disagreement,  or  delighted  with  the  situation  of 
the  place,  Ascanius  leaving  to  his  mother-in-law  the  city 
of  Lavinium,  which  JEneas  had  built,  and  called  after  his 
new  wife's  name,  founded  the  city  Alba  Longa,  and  therein 
reigned.  The  time  of  his  reign  was,  according  to  some, 
eight  and  twenty  years ;  Virgil  gives  him  thirty ;  others,  five 
and  thirty,  and  eight  and  thirty.  After  his  decease,  there 
arose  contention  between  Sylvius  the  son  of  ./Eneas  and 
lulus  the  son  of  Ascanius  about  the  kingdom ;  but  the 
people  inclining  to  the  son  of  Lavinia,  lulus  was  contented 
to  hold  the  priesthood,  which  he  and  his  race  enjoyed, 


CHAP.  xxiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  TOT 

leaving  the  kingdom  to  Sylvius  Posthumus,  whose  posterity 
were  afterwards  called  Sylvii. 

The  reign  of  the  Alban  kings,  with  the  continuance  of 
each  man's  reign,  I  find  thus  set  down  : 

Years. 

1.  Sylvius  Posthumus  -                            -29 

2.  Sylvius  Mneas  -  -  31 

3.  Sylvius  Latinus  -  -                            -  50 

4.  Sylvius  Alba     -  ...  39 

5.  Sylvius  Atis      -  -  26 

6.  Sylvius  Capys     -  -  28 
T.  Sylvius  Capetus  -  13 

8.  Sylvius  Tiberinus  -  8 

9.  Sylvius  Agrippa  -  -  41 
10.  Sylvius  Alladius  -  -  19 
Jl.  Sylvius  Aventin us  -  -  3T 

12.  Sylvius  Procas  -     23 

13.  Sylvius  Amulius  -     44 
Sylvius  Numitor. 

Ilia,  called  also  Rhea  and  Sylvia. 

Ronlulus,  Remus. 

The  most  of  these  kings  lived  in  peace,  and  did  little  or 
nothing  worthy  of  remembrance. 

Latinus  founded  many  towns  in  the  borders  of  Latium ; 
who,  standing  much  upon  the  honour  of  their  original, 
grew  thereby  to  be  called  Prisci  Latini.  Of  Tiberinus  some 
think  that  the  river  Tiber  had  name,  being  formerly  called 
Albula ;  but  Virgil  gives  it  that  denomination  of  another 
called  Tibris,  before  the  coming  of  ^Eneas  into  Italy.  The 
mountain  Aventinus  had  name,  as  many  write,  from  Aven- 
tinus  king  of  the  Albans,  who  was  buried  therein ;  but 
Virgil  hath  it  otherwise.  Julius,  the  brother  of  Aventinus, 
is  named  by  Eusebius  as  father  of  another  Julius,  and 
grandfather  of  Julius  Proculus ;  who  leaving  Alba,  dwelt 
with  Romulus  in  Rome.  Numitor,  the  elder  son  of  Procas, 
was  deprived  of  the  kingdom  by  his  brother  Amulius ;  by 
whom  also  his  son  ^Egesthus  was  slain,  and  Ilia  his  daughter 
made  a  nun  of  Vesta,  that  thereby  the  issue  of  Numitor 

7/2 


708  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

might  be  cut  off.  But  she  conceived  two  sons,  either  by 
her  uncle  Amulius,  as  some  think,  or  by  Mars,  as  the  poets 
feign,  or  perhaps  by  some  man  of  war.  Both  the  children 
their  uncle  commanded  to  be  drowned,  and  the  mother  bu 
ried  quick,  according  to  the  law ;  which  so  ordained,  when 
the  vestal  virgins  brake  their  chastity.  Whether  it  was  so, 
that  the  mother  was  pardoned  at  the  entreaty  of  Antho 
the  daughter  of  Amulius,  or  punished  as  the  law  required, 
(for  authors  herein  do  vary,)  it  is  agreed  by  all,  that  the  two 
children  were  preserved,  who  afterwards  revenged  the  cru 
elty  of  their  uncle  with  the  slaughter  of  him  and  all  his, 
and  restored  Numitor  their  grandfather  to  the  kingdom  : 
wherein  how  long  he  reigned  I  find  not,  neither  is  it  greatly 
material  to  know,  forasmuch  as  the  estates  of  Alba  and  of 
Latium  were  presently  eclipsed  by  the  swift  increase  of 
Rome ;  upon  which  the  computation  of  time  following  (as 
far  as  concerns  the  things  of  Italy)  is  dependant.  After 
the  death  of  Numitor  the  kingdom  of  Alba  ceased,  for 
Numitor  left  no  male  issue.  Romulus  chose  rather  to  live 
in  Rome,  and  of  the  line  of  Sylvius  none  else  remained  :  so 
the  Albans  were  governed  by  magistrates,  of  whom  only 
two  dictators  are  mentioned,  namely  Caius  Cluilius,  who  in 
the  days  of  Tullus  Hostilius,  king  of  the  Romans,  making 
war  upon  Rome,  died  in  the  camp ;  and  Metius  Suffetius, 
the  successor  of  Cluilius,  who  surrendered  the  estate  of 
Alba  unto  the  Romans,  having  committed  the  hazard  of 
both  signiories  to  the  success  of  three  men  of  each  side, 
who  decided  the  quarrel  by  combat ;  in  which  the  three 
brethren  Horatii,  the  champions  of  the  Romans,  prevailed 
against  the  Curiatii,  champions  of  the  Albans.  After  this 
combat,  when  Metius  (following  Tullus  Hostilius  with  the 
Alban  forces  against  the  Veientes  and  Fidenates)  withdrew 
his  companies  out  of  the  battle,  hoping  thereby  to  leave  the 
Romans  to  such  an  overthrow  as  might  make  them  weak 
enough  for  the  Albans  to  deal  with ;  Tullus,  who  notwith 
standing  this  falsehood  obtained  the  victory,  did  reward 
Metius  with  a  cruel  death,  causing  him  to  be  tied  to  two 
chariots,  and  so  torn  in  pieces.  Then  was  Alba  destroyed, 


CHAP.  xxrv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  709 

and  the  citizens  carried  to  Rome,  where  they  were  made 
free  denizens,  the  noble  families  being  made  patricians; 
among  which  were  the  Julii ;  of  whom  C.  Julius  Caesar 
being  descended,  not  only  gloried  in  his  ancient,  royal,  and 
forgotten  pedigree,  in  full  assembly  of  the  Romans,  then 
governed  by  a  free  estate  of  the  people,  but  by  his  rare  in 
dustry,  valour,  and  judgment,  obtained  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Roman  empire  (much  by  him  enlarged)  to  himself  and 
his  posterity;  whereby  the  name  of  ^Eneas,  and  honour  of 
the  Trojan  and  Alban  race  was  so  revived,  that  seldom, 
if  ever,  any  one  family  hath  attained  to  a  proportionable 
height  of  glory. 

SECT.   V. 

Of  the  beginning  of  Rome,  and  of  Romulus' 's  birth  and  death. 

OF  Rome,  which  devoured  the  Alban  kingdom,  I  may 
here  best  shew  the  beginnings,  which  (though  somewhat 
uncertain)  depend  much  upon  the  birth  and  education  of 
Romulus,  the  grandchild  of  Numitor,  the  last  that  reigned 
in  Alba.  For  how  not  only  the  bordering  people,  but  all 
nations  between  Euphrates  and  the  ocean,  were  broken  in 
pieces  by  the  iron  teeth  of  this  fourth  beast,  it  is  not  to  be 
described  in  one  place,  having  been  the  work  of  many  ages; 
whereof  I  now  do  handle  only  the  first,  as  incident  unto  the 
discourse  preceding.  Q.  Fabius  Pictor,  Porcius  Cato,  Cal- 
phurnius  Piso,  Sempronius,  and  others,  seek  to  derive  the 
Romans  from  Janus  ;  but  Herodotus,  Marsylus,  and  many 
others  of  equal  credit,  give  the  Grecians  for  their  ancestors: 
and  as  y  Strabo  reporteth  in  his  fifth  book,  C&cilius  rerum 
Romanarum  scriptor  eo  argumento  colUgit,  Romam  a  Gratis 
esse  conditam,  quod  Romani,  Grccco  ritu9  antique  institute 
Herculi  rem  sacram  faciunt ;  matrem  quoque  Evandri  ve- 
nerantur  Romani;  "  Caecilius,"  saith  he,  "  a  Roman  histo- 
"  riographer,  doth  by  this  argument  gather  that  Rome  was 
"  built  by  the  Greeks,  because  the  Romans,  after  Greekish 
"  fashion,  by  ancient  ordinance  do  sacrifice  to  Hercules;  the 
"  Romans  also  worship  the  mother  of  Evander." 

Plutarch,  in  the  life  of  Romulus,  remembers  many  found- 
*  Strabo,  1.5.  fol.  159. 
z  z  3 


710  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ers  of  that  city;  as,  Romanus  the  son  of  Ulysses  and  Circe ; 
Romus  the  son  of  Emathion,  whom  Diomedes  sent  thither 
from  Troy,  or  that  one  Romus,  a  tyrant  of  the  Latins,  who 
drave  the  Tuscans  out  of  that  country,  built  it.     Solinus 
bestows  the  honour  of  building  Rome  upon  Evander,  say 
ing,  that  it  was  beforetimes  called  Valentia.    Heraclides  gives 
the  denomination  to  a  captive  lady,  brought  thither  by  the 
Grecians ;  others  say,  that  it  was  anciently  called  Febris, 
after  the  name  of  Februa,  the  mother  of  Mars ;  witness  St. 
Augustine  in  his  third  book  de  Civitate  Dei.     But  Livy 
will  have  it  to  be  the  work  of  Romulus,  even  from  the 
foundation ;  of  whom  and  his  consorts,  Juvenal  to  a  Roman 
citizen,  vaunting  of  their  original,  answered  in  these  verses : 
Attamen  ut  longe  repetas,  longeque  revolvas, 
Majorum  quisquis  primus  fuit  ille  tuorum, 
Aut  pastor  fuit,  aut  illud  quod  dicere  nolo. 
Yet  though  thou  fetch  thy  pedigree  so  far, 
Thy  first  progenitor,  whoe'er  he  were, 
Some  shepherd  was,  or  else,  that  I'll  forbear  : 
meaning  either  a  shepherd  or  a  thief. 

Now  of  Romulus's  begetting,  of  his  education  and  pre 
servation,  it  is  said  that  he  had  Rhea  for  his  mother,  and 
Mars  was  supposed  to  be  his  father ;  that  he  was  nursed 
by  a  wolf,  found  and  taken  away  by  Faustula,  a  shepherd's 
wife.  The  same  unnatural  nursing  had  Cyrus ;  the  same 
incredible  fostering  had  Semiramis ;  the  one  by  a  bitch,  the 
other  by  birds.  But,  as  Plutarch  saith,  it  is  like  enough 
that  Amulius  came  covered  with  armour  to  Rhea,  the  mo 
ther  of  Romulus,  when  he  begat  her  with  child  :  and  there 
in  it  seemeth  to  me,  that  he  might  have  two  purposes ;  the 
one,  to  destroy  her,  because  she  was  the  daughter  and  heir 
of  his  elder  brother,  from  whom  he  injuriously  held  the 
kingdom  ;  the  other,  to  satisfy  his  appetite,  because  she  was 
fair  and  goodly.  For  she  being  made  a  nun  of  the  goddess 
Vesta,  it  was  death  in  her,  by  the  law,  to  break  her  chastity. 
I  also  find  in  a  FaucheCs  Antiquitez  de  Gaule,  that  Merovee 
king  of  the  Francs  was  begotten  by  a  monster  of  the  sea ; 
*  Fauchet,  fol.  114. 


CHAP.  xxiv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  711 

but  Fauchet  says,  "  Let  them  believe  it  that  list;"  //  le  croira 
qui  voudra :  also  of  Alexander,  and  of  Scipio  African,  there 
are  poetical  inventions :  but  to  answer  these  imaginations  in 
general,  it  is  true  that  in  those  times,  when  the  world  was 
full  of  this  barbarous  idolatry,  and  when  there  were  as  many 
gods  as  there  were  kings  or  passions  of  the  mind,  or  as 
there  were  of  vices  and  virtues;  then  did  many  women, 
greatly  born,  cover  such  slips  as  they  made,  by  protesting 
to  be  forced  by  more  than  human  power :  so  did  CEnone 
confess  to  Paris  that  she  had  been  ravished  by  Apollo; 
and  Anchises  boasted  that  he  had  known  Venus.  But  Rhea 
was  made  with  child  by  some  man  of  war  or  other,  and 
therefore  called  Mars,  the  god  of  battle,  according  to  the 
sense  of  the  time.  CEnone  was  overcome  by  a  strong  wit, 
and  by  such  a  one  as  had  those  properties  ascribed  to  Apollo. 
The  mother  of  Merovee  might  fancy  a  sea  captain  to  be 
gotten  with  young  by  such  an  one;  as  the  daughter  of  Inachus 
fancied,  according  to  Herodotus.  ^Eneas  was  a  bastard, 
and  begotten  upon  some  fair  harlot,  called  for  her  beauty 
Venus,  and  was  therefore  the  child  of  lust,  which  is  Venus. 
Romulus  was  nursed  by  a  wolf,  which  was  Lupa,  or  Lupina, 
for  the  courtesans  in  those  days  were  called  wolves;  quce 
nunc  (saith  Halicarnassaeus)  honestiori  vocabulo  arnica  ap- 
pellantur;  "  which  are  now  by  an  honester  name  called 
"  friends.""  It  is  also  written,  that  Romulus  was  in  the  end 
of  his  life  taken  up  into  heaven,  or  rather  out  of  the  world 
by  his  father  Mars,  in  a  great  storm  of  thunder  and  light 
ning  :  so  was  it  said  that  JEneas  vanished  away  by  the  river 
Numicus ;  but  thereof  Livy  also  speaketh  modestly,  for  he 
rehearseth  the  other  opinion,  that  the  storm  was  the  fury  of 
the  senators,  but  seemeth  to  adhere  partially  to  this  taking 
up ;  and  many  authors  agree  that  there  was  an  unnatural 
darkness,  both  at  his  birth  and  at  his  death  ;  and  that  he 
might  be  slain  by  thunder  and  lightning  it  is  not  unlikely. 
For  the  emperor  Anastasius  was  slain  with  lightning ;  so 
was  Strabo,  the  father  of  Pompey,  slain  with  a  thunderbolt ; 
so  Carus  the  emperor,  (who  succeeded  Probus,)  whilst  he 
lodged  with  his  army  upon  the  river  Tigris,  was  there  slain 

z  z  4 


712  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

with  lightning.  But  a  Mars  of  the  same  kind  might  end 
him  that  began  him  ;  for  he  was  begotten  by  a  man  of  war, 
and  by  violence  destroyed.  And  that  he  died  by  violence, 
(which  destiny  followed  most  of  the  Roman  emperors,)  it 
appeareth  by  Tarquinius  Superbus,  who  was  but  the  seventh 
king  after  him ;  who  when  he  had  murdered  his  father-in- 
law,  commanded  that  he  should  not  be  buried,  for,  said  he, 
Romulus  himself  died,  and  was  not  buried.  But  let  Halicar- 
nassseus  end  this  dispute,  whose  words  are  these :  "  They/' 
saith  he,  "  who  draw  nearest  to  the  truth,  say  that  he  was 
"  slain  by  his  own  citizens,  and  that  his  cruelty  in  punish- 
u  ments  of  offenders,  together  with  his  arrogancy,  were  the 
"  cause  of  his  slaughter.  For  it  is  reported,  that  both  when 
"  his  mother  was  ravished,  whether  by  some  man,  or  by  a 
"  god,  the  whole  body  of  the  sun  was  eclipsed,  and  all  the 
"  earth  covered  with  darkness  like  unto  night,  and  that  the 
"  same  did  happen  at  his  death." 

Such  were  the  birth  and  death  of  Romulus,  whose  life, 
historified  by  Plutarch,  doth  contain  (besides  what  is  here 
already  spoken  of  him)  the  conquest  of  a  few  miles,  which 
had  soon  been  forgotten,  if  the  Roman  greatness  built  upon 
that  foundation  had  not  given  it  memory  in  all  ages  fol 
lowing,  even  unto  this  day.  A  valiant  man  he  was,  very 
strong  of  body,  patient  of  travel,  and  temperate  in  diet,  as 
forbearing  the  use  of  wine  and  delicacies :  but  his  raging 
ambition  he  knew  not  how  to  temper,  which  caused  him  to 
slay  his  brother,  and  neglect  to  revenge  the  death  of  Tatius 
his  companion  in  the  kingdom,  that  he  himself  might  be 
lord  alone  in  those  narrow  territories.  He  reigned  seven 
and  thirty  years,  first  alone,  then  with  Tatius,  and  after  his 
death  single,  till  he  was  slain,  as  is  already  shewed :  after 
which  time  the  sovereignty  fell  into  the  hands  of  Numa,  a 
man  to  him  unknown,  and  more  priestlike  than  kinglike ; 
wherein  Rome  itself  in  her  later  times  hath  somewhat  re 
sembled  this  king.  For  having  long  been  sole  governess,  till 
Constantinople  shared  with  her;  afterwards,  when  as  the 
Greek  emperor  was  crushed  by  foreign  enemies,  and  the 
Latins  despoiled  of  imperial  power,  she  fell  into  the  sub- 


CHAP.  xxv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  713 

jection  of  a  prelate,  swelling  by  degrees  from  the  sheep- 
hook  to  the  sword,  and  therewith  victorious  to  excessive 
magnificence,  from  whence  by  the  same  degrees  it  fell,  being 
driven  from  luxury  to  defensive  arms,  and  therein  having 
been  unfortunate,  at  length  betakes  herself  again  to  the 
crosiers  staff. 

And  thus  much  of  Rome  in  this  place,  by  occasion  of  the 
story  of  the  times  of  king  Ahaz,  during  whose  reign  in 
Jewry  the  foundations  of  this  famous  city  were  laid. 


CHAP.  XXV. 

Of  Ezekias  and  his  contemporaries. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  the  beginning  of  Ezekias,  and  of  the  agreeing  of  Ptolomy's 
Nabonassar,  Nabopolassar,  and  Mardocempadus,  with  the  history 
of  the  Bible. 


the  first  year  of  Ahaz's  reign  was  confounded  with  the 
last  of  his  father  Jotham,  so  was  the  latter  end  of  his  six 
teen  years  taken  up  in  the  three  first  of  Ezekias  his  son. 
This  appears  by  the  reign  of  Hosea  over  Israel,  which  be 
gan  in  the  twelfth  of  Ahaz,  and  therefore  the  third  thereof 
was  concurrent  with  Ahaz's  fourteenth.  But  the  third  of 
Hosea  was  the  first  of  Ezekias  ;  so  it  follows,  that  Ezekias 
began  to  reign  in  his  father's  fourteenth  year.  Like  enough 
it  is,  that  the  third  year  of  Hosea,  the  same  being  the  four 
teenth  of  Ahaz,  was  almost  spent  when  Ezekias  began,  and 
so  the  fifteenth  year  of  Ahaz  may  have  been  concurrent,  for 
the  most  part,  with  the  first  of  Ezekias. 

By  supposing  that  Hosea  began  his  kingdom  when  the 
twelfth  year  of  Ahaz  was  almost  complete,  some  would  find 
the  means  how  to  disjoin  the  first  of  Ezekias  from  the  fif 
teenth  of  Ahaz,  placing  him  yet  one  year  later,  of  which 
year  Ahaz  may  perhaps  have  lived  not  many  days.  But 
seeing  that  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  years  of  Ezekias 


714  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

may  not  be  removed  out  of  their  places,  it  is  vain  labour  to 
alter  the  first  year. 

bln  the  fourteenth  of  Ezekias,    Sennacherib  invading 
Juda  and  the   countries  adjoining,  lost  his  army  by  a  mi 
raculous  stroke  from  Heaven,  fled  home,  and  was   slain. 
The  year  following  it  was,  that  God  added  fifteen  years  to 
the  life  of  Ezekias,  when  he  had  already  reigned  fourteen 
of  his  nine  and  twenty ;  and  the  same  year  was  that  miracle 
seen  of  the  sun's  going  back,  of  which  wonder  (as  I  hear) 
one  Bartholomew  Scultet,  who  is  much    commended  for 
skill  in  astronomy,  hath  by  calculation  found  the  very  day, 
which  answered  unto  the  twenty-fifth  of  April  in  the  Julian 
year,  being  then  Thursday.     I  have  not  seen  any  works  of 
Scultet ;  but  surely  to  find  a  motion  so  irregular  and  mira 
culous,  it  is  necessary  that  he  produce  some  record  of  ob 
servation  made  at  such  a  time.     Howsoever  it  be,  the  fif 
teenth  year  of  Ezekias  is  agreed  upon,  and  therefore  we 
may  not  alter  the  first.     As  for  that  saying,  which  is  usual 
in  the  like  cases,  that  c  Ahaz  slept  with  his  father tf,  and 
Ezekias  his  son  reigned  in  his   stead,  it  doth  no  more 
prove  that  Ezekias  reigned  not  with  his  father,  than  the 
like  saying  doth  infer  the  like  at  the  death  of  Jehoshaphat, 
and  succession  of  Jehoram  ;  whereof,  as  concerning  the  be 
ginning  of  the  son  to  reign  whilst  his  father  lived,  we  have 
already  said  enough. 

'Of  this  godly  king  Ezekias,  we  find  that  his  very  begin 
ning  testified  his  devotion  and  zeal.  For  whether  it  were 
so  that  his  unfortunate  and  ungracious  father  (who  had 
outworn  his  reputation)  gave  way  to  his  son's  proceedings, 
which  perhaps  it  lay  not  in  him  to  hinder ;  or  whether  (as 
I  rather  think)  the  first  year  and  first  month  of  his  reign, 
wherein  d  Ezekias  opened  the  doors  of  the  temple,  were  to 
be  understood  as  the  beginning  of  his  sole  government ;  we 
plainly  find  it  to  have  been  his  first  work,  that  he  opened 
the  doors  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  which  Ahaz  had  shut 
up,  cleansed  the  city  and  kingdom  of  the  idols,  restored  the 
h  2  Kings  xix.  35.  c  2  Cbron>  xxviH  2  ,, 


CHAP.  xxv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  715 

<  priests  to  their  offices  and  estates,  commanded  the  sacri 
fices  to  be  offered  which  had  been  for  many  years  neglected, 
and  brake  down  the  brasen  f  serpent  of  Moses,  because  the 
people  burnt  incense  before  it,  and  he  called  it  Nehushtan, 
which  signifieth  a  lump  of  brass.  He  did  also  celebrate  the 
passover  with  great  magnificence,  inviting  thereunto  the 
Israelites  of  the  ten  tribes:  many  there  were  even  out  of 
those  tribes  that  came  up  to  Jerusalem  to  this  feast.  But 
the  general  multitude  of  Israel  did  laugh  the  messengers  of 
Ezekias  to  scorn. 

It  was  not  long  ere  they  that  scorned  to  solemnize  the 
memorial  of  their  deliverance  out  of  the  Egyptian  servitude 
fell  into  a  new  servitude,  out  of  which  they  never  were  de 
livered.  For  in  the  fourth  of  Ezekias's  reign,  Salmanassar 
the  son  of  Tiglath,  the  son  of  Belochus,  hearing  that  Ho- 
sea  king  of  Israel  had  practised  with  Soe  king  of  Egypt 
against  him,  invaded  Israel,  besieged  Samaria,  and  in  the 
third  year  (after  the  inhabitants  had  endured  all  sorts  of 
miseries)  forced  it,  and  carried  thence  the  ten  idolatrous 
tribes  into  Assyria  and  Media ;  among  whom  Tobias,  and 
his  son  of  the  same  name,  with  Anna  his  wife,  were  sent 
to  Nineveh,  in  whose  seats  and  places  the  Assyrians  sent 
strangers  of  other  nations,  and  among  them  many  of  the 
ancient  enemies  of  the  Israelites ;  as  those  of  Cutha,  Ana, 
Hamah,  and  Sphernaim,  besides  Babylonians ;  whose  places 
and  nations  I  have  formerly  described  in  the  treatise  of 
the  Holy  Land. 

These  latter  Assyrian  kings,  and  the  Persians  which 
followed  them,  are  the  first  of  whom  we  find  mention  made 
both  in  profane  and  sacred  books.  These  therefore  serve 
most  aptly  to  join  the  times  of  the  old  world  (whereof  none 
but  the  prophets  have  written  otherwise  than  fabulously) 
with  the  ages  following  that  were  better  known  and  de 
scribed  in  course  of  history.  True  it  is,  that  of  Cyrus  and 
some  other  Persians,  we  find  in  the  Bible  the  same  names 
by  which  other  authors  have  recorded  them ;  but  of  Phul 
and  Salmanassar,  with  other  Assyrian,  Chaldean  kings,  di- 
•  2  Chron.  xxx.  f  a  Kings  xviii. 


716  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

versity  of  name  hath  bred  question  of  the  persons.  There 
fore,  whereas  the  scriptures  do  speak  of  Salmanassar  king 
of  Assur,  who  reigned  in  the  time  of  Ahaz  and  Ezekias 
kings  of  Juda,  and  of  Hosea  king  of  Israel,  whom  he  carried 
into  captivity ;  and  whereas  Ptolomy  makes  mention  of  Na- 
bonassar,  speaking  precisely  of  the  time  wherein  he  lived ; 
it  is  very  pertinent  to  shew,  that  Salmanassar  and  Nabonas- 
sar  were  one  and  the  same  man.  The  like  reason  also  re- 
quireth,  that  it  be  shewed  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  that  he  was 
the  same  whom  Ptolomy  calleth  Nabopolassar. 

Of  both  these  points,  Bucholerus  hath  well  collected  suf 
ficient  proof  from  the  exact  calculations  of  sundry  good 
mathematicians.  For  by  them  it  appears,  that  between  Na- 
bonassar  and  the  birth  of  Christ,  there  passed  746  years ; 
at  which  distance  of  time  the  reign  of  Salmanassar  was. 
One  great  proof  hereof  is  this,  which  the  same  Bucholerus 
allegeth  out  of  Erasmus  Reinholdus,  in  the  Prutenick 
tables.  Mardocempadus  king  of  Babylon  (whom  Ptolomy, 
speaking  of  three  eclipses  of  the  moon  which  were  in  his 
time,  doth  mention)  was  the  same  whom  the  scriptures  call 
Merodach,  who  sent  ambassadors  to  Ezekias  king  of  Juda. 
So  that  if  we  reckon  backwards  to  the  difference  of  time  be 
tween  Merodach  and  Salmanassar,  we  shall  find  it  the  same 
which  is  between  Mardocempadus  and  Nabonassar.  Like 
wise  Functius  doth  shew,  that  whereas  from  the  destruction 
of  Samaria  to  the  devastation  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  nineteenth 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  we  collect  out  of  the  scriptures  the  dis 
tance  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  years ;  the  selfsame 
distance  of  time  is  found  in  Ptolomy,  between  Nabonassar 
and  Nabopolassar.  For  whereas  Ptolomy  seems  to  differ 
from  this  account,  making  Nabonassar  more  ancient  by  an 
hundred  and  forty  years  than  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
we  are  to  understand  that  he  took  Samaria  in  the  eighth  year 
of  his  reign;  so  that  the  seven  foregoing  years  added  to 
these  one  hundred  thirty-three,  make  the  accounts  of  the 
scriptures  fall  even  with  that  of  Ptolomy.  Ptolomy's  com 
putation  is,  that  from  the  first  of  Nabonassar  to  the  fifth 
of  Nabopolassar,  there  passed  one  hundred  twenty-seven 


CHAP.  xxv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  717 

years.  Now  if  we  add  to  these  one  hundred  twenty-seven 
the  thirteen  ensuing  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  years,  before 
the  city  and  temple  were  destroyed,  we  have  the  sum  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  years.  In  so  plain  a  case  more 
proofs  are  needless,  though  many  are  brought,  of  which 
this  may  serve  for  all,  that  Ptolomy  placeth  the  first  of  Na- 
bopolassar  one  hundred  twenty-two  years  after  the  first  of 
Nabonassar,  which  agreeth  exactly  with  the  scriptures.  To 
these  notes  are  added  the  consent  of  all  mathematicians, 
which  in  account  of  times  I  hold  more  sure  than  the  au 
thority  of  any  history;  and  therefore  I  think  it  folly  to 
make  doubt,  whereas  historians  and  mathematical  observa 
tions  do  so  throughly  concur. 

Yet  forasmuch  as  that  argument  of  the  learned  Scaliger 
doth  rest  unanswered,  whereby  he  proved  Baladan  the  fa 
ther  of  Merodach  to  have  been  this  Nabonassar,  I  will  not 
spare  to  lose  a  word  or  two  in  giving  the  reader  satisfac 
tion  herein.  It  is  true,  that  the  next  observations  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  which  Ptolomy  recorded,  after  the  time  of 
Nabonassar,  were  in  the  reign  of  Mardocempadus ;  the  se 
cond  year  of  whose  reign  is,  according  to  &  Ptolomy,  con 
current  in  part  with  the  twenty- seventh  of  Nabonassar. 
For  the  second  of  three  ancient  eclipses  which  he  calculates, 
being  in  the  second  year  of  Mardocempadus,  was  from 
the  beginning  of  Nabonassar  twenty-seven  years,  seventeen 
days,  and  eleven  hours ;  the  account  from  Nabonassar,  be 
ginning  at  high  noon  the  first  day  of  the  Egyptian  month 
Thot,  then  answering  to  the  twenty-sixth  of  February; 
and  this  eclipse  being  fifty  minutes  before  midnight,  on  the 
eighteenth  day  of  that  month,  when  the  first  day  thereof 
agreed  with  the  nineteenth  of  February;  so  that  the  dif 
ference  of  time  between  the  two  kings  Nabonassar  and  Mar 
docempadus  is  noted  by  Ptolomy  according  to  the  Egyp 
tian  years.  But  how  does  this  prove  that  Mardocempadus, 
or  Merodach,  was  the  son  of  Nabonassar  ?  yea,  how  doth  it 
prove  that  he  was  his  next  successor,  or  any  way  of  his 
lineage  ?  It  was  enough  to  satisfy  me  in  this  argument, 
K  Ptol.Alraag.  1.4.  c.8. 


718  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

that  Scaliger  himself  did  afterwards  believe  Mardocempa- 
dus  to  have  been  rather  the  nephew  than  the  son  of  Bala- 
dan  or  Nabonassar.    For  if  he  might  be  either  the  nephew 
or  the  son,  he  might  perhaps  be  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other.    But  because  our  countryman  Lidyate  hath  repre 
hended  Scaliger  for  changing  his  opinion;  and  that  both 
Torniellus,  who  follows  Scaliger  herein,  and  Sethus  Calvi- 
sius,  who  hath  drawn  into  form  of  chronology  that  learned 
work  De  Emendatione  Temporum,  do  hold  up  the   same 
assertion,  confounding  Baladan  with  Nabonassar;  I  have 
taken  the  pains  to  search,  as  far  as  my  leisure  and  diligence 
could  reach,  after  any  sentence  that  might  prove  the  kin 
dred  or  succession  of  these  two.    Yet  cannot  I  find  in  the 
Almagest  (for  the  scriptures  are  either  silent  in  this  point, 
or  adverse  to  Scaliger ;  and  other  good  authority,  I  know 
none,  in  this  business)  any  sentence  more  nearly  proving 
the  succession  of  Merodach  to  Nabonassar,  than  the  place 
now  last  rehearsed ;  which  makes  no  more,  to  shew  that  the 
one  of  these  was  father  to  the  other,  than  (that  I  may  use 
a  like  example)  the  as  near  succession  of  William  the  Con 
queror  declares  him  to  have  been  son  or  grandchild  to  Ed 
ward  the  Confessor.    This  considered,  we  may  safely  go  on 
with  our  account  from  Nabonassar,  taking  him  for    Sal- 
manassar;  and  not  fearing  that  the  readers  will  be  driven 
from  our  book,  when   they  find  something  in  it  agreeing 
with  Annius,  forasmuch  as  these  kings  mentioned  in  scrip 
tures  reigned  in  Babylon  and  Assyria,  in  those  very  times 
which  by  Diodorus  and  Ptolomy  are  assigned  to  Belosus, 
Nabonassar,  and  Mardocempadus,  and  the  rest;  no  good 
history  naming  any  others  that  reignedthere  in  those  ages, 
and  all  astronomical  observations,  fitly  concurring  with  the 
years  that  are  attributed  to  these,  or  numbered  from  them. 

SECT.  II. 

Of  the  danger  and  deliverance  ofJudaafrom  Sennacherib. 
WHEN  Salmanassar  was  dead,  and  his  son  Sennacherib 
in  possession  of  the  empire,  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  Eze- 
kias,  he  demanded  of  him  such  tribute  as  was  agreed  on  at 


CHAP.  xxv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  719 

such  time  as  Tiglath,  the  grandfather  of  Sennacherib  and 
father  of  Salmanassar,  invited  by  Ahaz,  invaded  Rezen 
king  of  Damascus,  and  delivered  him  from  the  dangerous 
war  which  Israel  had  undertaken  against  him.  This  tri 
bute  and  acknowledgment  when  Ezekias  denied,  Senna 
cherib,  having  (as  it  seems)  a  purpose  to  invade  Egypt,  sent 
one  part  of  his  army  to  lie  before  Jerusalem.  Now  though 
Ezekias  (fearing  this  powerful  prince)  had  acknowledged 
his  fault,  and  purchased  his  peace,  as  he  hoped,  with  thirty 
hundred  talents  of  silver  and  thirty  talents  of  gold,  where 
with  he  presented  Sennacherib,  now  set  down  before  La- 
chis  in  Judaea ;  yet  under  the  colour  of  better  assurance, 
and  to  force  the  h  king  of  Judaea  to  deliver  hostages,  the  As 
syrian  environed  Jerusalem  with  a  gross  army,  and  having 
his  sword  in  his  hand,  thought  it  the  fittest  time  to  write 
his  own  conditions. 

Ezekias  directed  his  three  greatest  counsellors  to  parley 
with  Rabsaces  over  the  wall,  and  to  receive  his  demands; 
who  used  three  principal  arguments  to  persuade  the  people 
to  yield  themselves  to  his  master  Sennacherib.  For  though 
the  chancellor,  steward,  and  secretary,  sent  by  Ezekias,  de 
sired  Rabsaces  to  speak  unto  them  in  the  Syrian  tongue, 
and  not  in  the  Jewish,  yet  he  with  a  more  loud  voice  di 
rected  his  speech  to  the  multitude  in  their  own  language. 
And  for  the  first  he  made  them  know,  That  if  they  con 
tinued  obstinate,  and  adhered  to  their  king,  that  they  would, 
in  a  short  time,  be  enforced  to  eat  their  own  dung  and 
drink  their  own  urine;  secondly,  he  altogether  disabled 
the  king  of  Egypt,  from  whom  the  Judseans  hoped  for  suc 
cour,  and  compared  him  to  a  >  broken  staff,  on  which  who 
soever  leaneth  pierceth  his  own  hand;  thirdly,  that  the 
gods  who  should  help  them,  Ezekias  had  formerly  broken 
and  defaced,  meaning  chiefly  (as  it  is  thought  by  some) 
the  brasen  serpent,  which  had  been  preserved  ever  since 
Moseses  time :  and  withal  he  bade  them  remember  the  gods 
of  other  nations;  whom,  notwithstanding  any  power  of 
theirs,  his  master  had  conquered  and  thrown  down;  and 

'•  2  Kin srs  \viii.2i.  'Ibid. 


720  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

for  God  himself,  in  whom  they  trusted,  he  persuaded  them 
by  no  means  to  rely  on  him,  for  he  would  deceive  them. 
But  finding  the  people  silent  (for  so  the  king  had  com 
manded  them)  after  a  while,  when  he  had  understood  that 
the  king  of  Arabia  was  marching  on  with  a  powerful  army, 
he  himself  left  the  Assyrian  forces  in  charge  to  others,  and 
sought  Sennacherib  at  Lebnah  in  Judaea,  either  to  inform 
him  of  their  resolution  in  Jerusalem,  or  to  confer  with  him 
concerning  the  army  of  Terhaca  the  Arabian.  Soon  upon 
this  there  came  letters  from  Sennacherib  to  Ezekias, 
whom  he  partly  advised,  and  partly  threatened  to  submit 
himself;  using  the  same  blasphemous  outrage  against  the 
all-powerful  God  as  before.  But  Ezekias,  sending  those 
counsellors  to  the  prophet  Isaiah,  which  had  lately  been 
sent  to  Rabsaces,  received  from  him  comfort  and  assurance, 
that  this  heathen  idolater  should  not  prevail ;  against  whom 
the  king  also  besought  aid  from  Almighty  God,  repeating 
the  most  insolent  and  blasphemous  parts  of  Sennacherib's 
letter,  before  the  altar  of  God  in  the  temple,  confessing  this 
part  thereof  to  be  true,  k  That  the  'king  of  Ashur  had  de 
stroyed  the  nations  and  their  lands,  and  had  set  fire  on  their 
gods9  for  they  were  no  gods,  but  the  work  of  men's  hands , 
even  wood  and  stone,  &c. 

The  reason  that  moved  Sennacherib  to  desire  to  possess 
himself  in  haste  of  Jerusalem,  was,  that  he  might  thereinto 
have  retreated  his  army,  which  was  departed,  as  it  seemeth, 
from  the  siege  of  Pelusium  in  Egypt,  for  fear  of  Terhaca  t 
and  though  the  scriptures  are  silent  of  that  enterprise, 
(which  in  these  books  of  the  Kings  and  of  the  Chronicles 
speak  but  of  the  affairs  of  Jews  in  effect,)  yet  the  ancient 
Berosus,  and  out  of  him  Josephus  and  St.  Jerome,  together 
with  Herodotus,  remember  it  as  followeth  :  1  Herodotus 
calleth  Sennacherib  king  of  Arabia  and  Assyria ;  which  he 
might  justly  do,  because  Tiglath  his  grandfather  held  a 
great  part  thereof,  which  he  wrested  from  Pekah  king  of 
Israel ;  as  Gilead  over  Jordan,  and  the  rest  of  Arabia  Pe- 
traea  adjoining:  the  same  Herodotus  also  maketh  Sethon 
k  2  Kin£S  xix.  i  Herod.  1.  2.  p.  69. 


CHAP.  xxv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  721 

king  of  Egypt  to  be  Vulcan's  priest,  and  reporteth  that  the 
reason  of  Sennacherib's  return  frotoi  Pelusium  in  Egypt, 
which  he  also  besieged,  was,  that  an  innumerable  multitude 
of  rats  had  in  one  night  eaten  in  sunder  the  bowstrings  of 
his  archers,  and  spoiled  the  rest  of  their  weapons  of  that 
kind ;  which  no  doubt  might  greatly  amaze  him :  but  the 
approach  of  Terhaca,  remembered  by  m  Josephus  and  Be- 
rosus,  was  the  more  urgent.  St.  Jerome  upon  Isaiah  xxxvii. 
out  of  the  same  Berosus,  as  also  in  part  out  of  n  Herodotus, 
whom  Josephus  citeth  somewhat  otherwise  than  his  words 
lie,  reports  Sennacherib's  retreat  in  these  words :  Pugnasse 
autem  Sennacherib  regem  Assyriorum  contra  JEgyptios,  et 
obsedisse  Pelusium,  jamque  extructis  aggeribus,  urbi  ca- 
piendce,  venisse  Taracham  regem  JEthiopum  in  auxilium, 
et  una  node  juxta  Jerusalem  centum  octoginta  quinque 
millia  exercitus  Assyrii  pestilentia  corruisse  narrat  Hero 
dotus:  et  plenissime  Berosus  Chaldaicce  scriptor  historic, 
quorum. Jides  de  propriis  libris  petenda  est;  "  That  Senna- 
"  cherib  king  of  the  Assyrians  fought  against  the  Egyptians, 
"  and  besieged  Pelusium,  and  that  when  his  mounts  were 
"  built  for  taking  of  the  city,  Tarhacas  king  of  the  Ethiopians 
"  came  to  help  them,  and  that  in  one  night  near  Jerusalem 
"  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  of  the  Assyrian  army 
"  perished  by  pestilence.  Of  these  things  (saith  Jerome) 
"  °  Herodotus  reports ;  and  more  at  large  Berosus,  a  writer 
"  of  Chaldean  story,  whose  credit  is  to  be  taken  from  their 
"  own  books."  Out  of  Isaiah  it  is  gathered,  that  this  destruc 
tion  of  the  Assyrian  army  was  in  this  manner  :  P  Thou  shalt 
be  visited  of  the  Lord  of 'hosts  with  thunder  and  shaking •, 
and  a  great  noise,  a  whirlwind  and  a  tempest,  and  ajiame  of 
devouring Jire.  But  9  Josephus  hath  it  more  largely  out  of 
the  same  Berosus,  an  authority  (because  so  well  agreeing 
with  the  scriptures)  not  to  be  omitted  :  Sennacheribus  au 
tem  ab  JEgyptiaco  bello  revertens,  ostendit  ibi  exercitum, 

m  Joseph,  Ant.  1. 10.  c.  i.  baca  nor  of  Jerusalem,  nor  of  the 

">  Herod.  Euterp.  1.  2.  army  there. 
0  To  wit  in  part ;  for  Herodotus         P  Isa.  xxix.  6. 
mentioneth  nothing,  neither  of  Tar-         i  Joseph.  Ant.  1. 10.  c.  i. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  A 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

quern  sub  Rabsacis  imperio  reliquerat,  peste  divinitus  im- 
missa  deletum,  prima  nocte  posteaquam  urbem  oppugnare 
cceperat,  absumptis  cum  ducibus  et  tribunis  centum  octo- 
ginta  quinque  mittibus  militum,  qua  clade  territus,  et  de  re- 
liquis  copiis  sollicitus,  maximis  itineribus  in  regnum  suum 
contendit  ad  regiam  quce  Ninus  dicitur.  Ubi  paulo  post  per 
insidias  seniorum  e  filiis  suis,  Adramelechi  et r  Selennari, 
vitam  amisit :  occisus  in  ipso  templo  quod  dicitur  Arasci ; 
quern  prcecipuo  cultu  dignabatur :  quibus  ob  patricidium  a 
popularibus  pulsis  et  in  Armemamfugientibus^  Asaracoldas 
minor  Jtlius  in  regnum  successit ;  "  Sennacherib,"  saith  Jo- 
sephus,  "  returning  from  the  Egyptian  war,  found  there  his 
"  army,  which  he  had  left  under  the  command  of  Rabsaces, 
"  destroyed  by  a  pestilence  sent  from  God  the  first  night  that 
"  he  had  begun  to  assault  the  town ;  one  hundred  four- 
"  score  and  five  thousand  of  the  soldiers  being  consumed 
"  with  their  chieftains  and  colonels.  With  which  destruction 
"  being  terrified,  and  withal  afraid  what  might  become  of  the 
"  rest  of  his  army,  he  made  great  marches  into  his  kingdom 
"  to  his  royal  city,  which  is  called  Ninus ;  where  shortly  after, 
"  by  the  treason  of  two  of  the  eldest  of  his  sons,  Adramelech 
"  and  Selennar,  or  Sharezer,  he  lost  his  life  in  the  temple 
"  dedicated  to  Arasces,  or  Nesroch ;  whom  he  especially  wor- 
"  shipped.  These  his  sons  being  for  their  parricide  chased 
"  away  by  the  people,  and  flying  into  s  Armenia,  Asara- 
"  coldas  his  younger  son  succeeded  in  the  kingdom;"  who 
in  the  beginning  of  his  reign  sent  new  troops  out  of  Assyria 
and  Samaria,  to  fortify  the  colony  therein  planted  by  his 
grandfather  Salmanassar.  What  this  Nesroch  was,  it  is  un 
certain  ;  Jerome  in  his  Hebrew  traditions  hath  somewhat  of 
him,  but  nothing  positively.  It  is  certain,  that  Venus 
Urania  was  worshipped  by  the  Assyrians ;  and  so  was  Ju 
piter  Belus,  as  Dion,  Eusebius,  and  Cyrillus  witness.  Many 
fancies  there  are,  what  cause  his  sons  had  to  murder  him ; 
but  the  most  likely  is,  that  he  had  formerly  disinherited 

r  Selennar,  otherwise  Sharezer,  who     roe  his  god,  2  Kings  xix. 
slew  him  as  he  was  praying  to  Nis-          s  2  Kings  xix.  37. 


CHAP.  xxv.          OF  THE  WORLD.  723 

those  two,  and  conferred  the  empire  on  Assarhaddon.  To- 
bit  tells  us,  that  it  was  fifty-five  days  after  Sennacherib's  re 
turn,  ere  he  was  murdered  by  his  sons ;  during  which  time 
he  slew  great  numbers  of  the  Israelites  in  Nineveh,  till  the 
most  just  God  turned  the  sword  against  his  own  breast. 

SECT.    III. 

Of  Ezekias's  sickness  and  recovery ;  and  of  the  Babylonian  king 
that  congratulated  him. 

AFTER  this  marvellous  delivery,  Ezekias  sickened, 
and  was  told  by  Isaiah,  that  he  must  die;  but  after  he 
had  besought  God  with  tears  for  his  delivery,  Isaiah,  as 
he  was  going  from  him,  returned  again,  and  had  warrant 
from  the  Spirit  of  God  to  promise  him  recovery  after  three 
days,  and  a  prolongation  of  his  life  for  fifteen  years.  But 
Ezekias,  somewhat  doubtful  of  this  exceeding  grace,  pray- 
eth  a  *  sign  to  confirm  him ;  whereupon,  at  the  prayer  of 
Isaiah,  the  shadow  of  the  sun  cast  itself  the  contrary  way, 
and  went  back  ten  degrees  upon  the  dial  of  Ahaz.  The 
cause  that  moved  Ezekias  to  lament  (saith  St.  Jerome) 
was,  because  he  had  as  yet  no  son,  and  then  in  despair  that 
the  Messias  should  come  out  of  the  house  of  David,  or  at 
least  of  his  seed.  His  disease  seemeth  to  be  the  pestilence, 
by  the  medicine  given  him  by  the  prophet,  to  wit,  a  mass 
of  figs,  laid  to  the  botch  or  sore. 

This  wonder  when  the  wise  men  of  Chaldaea  had  told  to 
Merodach  king  of  Babylon,  the  first  of  that  house,  he  sent 
to  Ezekias,  to  be  informed  of  the  cause:  at  which  time 
Ezekias  shewed  him  all  the  treasure  he  had,  both  in 
the  court  and  in  the  kingdom;  for  which  he  was  repre 
hended  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  who  told  him ;  u  The  days 
are  at  hand,  that  all  that  is  in  thine  house,  and  whatsoever 
thy  fathers  have  laid  up  in  store  to  this  day,  shall  be  carried 
into  Babel:  nothing  shall  be  left,  saith  the  Lord.  It  may 
seem  strange,  how  Ezekias  should  have  got  any  treasure 
worth  the  shewing ;  for  Sennacherib  had  robbed  him  of  all 

*  2  Kings  xx.  u  Isai.  xxxix. 

3  A  2 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

the  year  before.  But  the  spoil  of  the  same  Sennacherib's 
camp  repaid  all  with  advantage,  and  made  Ezekias  richer 
upon  the  sudden  than  ever  he  had  been  ;  which  unexpected 
wealth  was  a  strong  temptation  to  boasting.  After  this  time 
Ezekias  had  rest,  and  spending  without  noise  that  addition 
which  God  had  made  unto  his  life,  he  died,  having  reigned 
nine  and  twenty  years.  One  only  offensive  war  he  made, 
which  was  against  the  Philistines  with  good  success.  Among 
his  other  acts,  (shortly  remembered  in  Ecclesiasticus  xlviii.) 
he  devised  to  bring  water  to  Jerusalem. 

In  two  respects  they  say  that  he  offended  God ;  the  one, 
that  he  rejoiced  too  much  at  the  destruction  and  lament 
able  end  of  his  enemy ;  the  other,  that  he  so  much  gloried 
in  his  riches,  as  he  could  not  forbear  to  shew  them  to 
strangers.  But  the  reason  which  moved  Ezekias  (speaking 
humanly)  to  entertain  the  ambassadors  of  Merodach  in  this 
friendly  and  familiar  manner,  was,  because  he  came  to  visit 
him,  and  brought  him  a  present,  congratulating  the  re 
covery  of  his  health ;  as  also  in  that  Merodach  had  weak 
ened  the  house  of  Sennacherib  his  fearful  enemy.  For  Me 
rodach,  who  was  commander  and  lieutenant  under  Senna 
cherib  in  Babylon,  usurped  that  state  himself  in  the  last 
year  of  that  king,  and  held  it  by  strong  hand  against  his 
son  Assarhaddon ;  who  was  not  only  simple,  but  impaired 
in  strength  by  the  molestation  of  his  brothers.  This  ad 
vantage  Merodach  espied,  and  remembering  that  their  an 
cestor  Phul  Belochus  had  set  his  own  master  Sardanapalus 
besides  the  cushion,  thought  it  as  lawful  for  himself  to  take 
the  opportunity  which  this  king's  weakness  did  offer,  as  it 
had  been  for  Belochus  to  make  use  of  the  other's  wicked 
ness  ;  and  so,  finding  himself  beloved  of  the  Babylonians, 
and  sufficiently  powerful,  he  did  put  the  matter  to  hazard, 
and  prevailed.  The  assertion  of  this  history  is  made  by  the 
same  arguments  that  were  used  in  maintaining  the  common 
opinion  of  writers,  touching  Phul  Belochus;  which  I  will 
not  here  again  rehearse.  So  of  this  new  race,  which  cut 
asunder  the  line  of  Ninus,  there  were  only  five  kings : 


CHAP.  xxv.  OF  THE  WORLD.  725 

Phul  Belochus         who  reigned  48    years. 

Tiglath  Philassar 27 

Salmanassar 10 

Sennacherib 7 

Assarhaddon 10 

But  forasmuch  as  the  last  year  of  Salmanassar  was  also 
the  first  of  Sennacherib  his  son,  we  reckon  the  time,  wherein 
the  house  of  Phul  held  the  Assyrian  kingdom,  to  have  been 
an  hundred  and  one  years ;  of  which,  the  last  five  and  twenty 
were  spent  with  Ezekias,  under  Salmanassar,  Sennacherib, 
and  Assarhaddon. 

SECT.   IV. 
The  kings  that  were  in  Media  during  the  reign  of  Ezekias :  of 

the  difference  found  between  sundry  authors,  in  rehearsing  the 

Median  kings.     Other  contemporaries  of  Ezekias :  of  Candaules* 

Gyges,  and  the  kings  descended  from  Hercules. 

IN  the  time  of  Ezekias,  Medidus,  and  after  him  Cardi- 
ceas,  reigned  in  Media.  Whether  it  were  so,  that  variety 
of  names,  by  which  these  kings  were  called  in  several  his 
tories,  hath  caused  them  to  seem  more  than  indeed  they 
were ;  or  whether  the  sons  reigning  with  the  fathers  have 
caused  not  only  the  names  of  kings,  but  the  length  of  time, 
wherein  they  governed  Media,  to  exceed  the  due  propor 
tion  ;  or  whether  the  copies  themselves,  of  Ctesias  and  An- 
nius's  Metasthenes,  have  been  faulty,  as  neither  of  these 
two  authors  is  over-highly  commended  of  trustiness ;  so  it 
is,  that  the  names,  number,  and  length  of  reign,  are  all 
very  diversely  reported  of  these  Median  kings  that  followed 
Arbaces  ;  therefore  it  need  not  seem  strange,  that  I  reckon 
Medidus  and  Cardiceas  as  contemporaries  with  Ezekias. 
For  to  reconcile  so  great  a  difference  as  is  found  in  those 
writers  that  vary  from  Eusebius,  is  more  than  I  dare  un 
dertake.  I  will  only  here  set  down  the  roll  of  kings  that 
reigned  in  Media,  accordingly  as  sundry  authors  have  de 
livered  it. 

Annius^s    Metasthenes   orders    them    and    their   reigns 

thus: 

3A3 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Arbaces  who  reigned  28    years. 

Mandanes      ......  50 

Sosarmon       ......  30 

Articarmin 50 

Arbianes %® 

Artaeus 40 

Attines 22 

Astybarus,  with")  gQ 
his  son  ApandaJ 

Apanda  alone 30 

Darius,  with  Cyrus       ...  36 

Diodorus  Siculus  following  Ctesias  (as  perhaps  Annius 
made  his  Metasthenes  follow  Diodore,  with  some  little  vari 
ation,  that  he  might  not  seem  a  borrower)  placeth  them  thus : 

Arbaces  who  reigned     28    years. 

Mandanes 50 

Sosarmus 30 

Artycas 50 

Arbianes 22 

Arfams .     40 

Artynes 22 

Artabanus 40 

Astyabara  ")    The  continuance  of  these  two  he  doth 

Astyages    J        not  mention. 

Mercator  hath  laboured  with  much  diligence  to  reconcile 
these  catalogues,  and  to  make  them  also  agree  with  Euse- 
bius.  But  forasmuch  as  it  seems  to  me  an  impossible  matter 
to  attain  unto  the  truth  of  these  forgotten  times,  by  con 
jectures  founded  upon  Ctesias  and  Metasthenes,  I  will  lay 
the  burden  upon  Eusebius,  who  lived  in  an  age  better  fur 
nished  than  ours  with  books  of  this  argument.  Let  it 
therefore  suffice,  that  these  two  kings,  (whom  I  have  reck 
oned  as  contemporaries  with  Ezekias,)  Medidus  and  Car- 
diceas,  are  found  in  Eusebius ;  for  whether  Cardiceas  were 
Diodorus's  Arbianes,  I  will  not  stay  to  search.  The  kings 
of  Media,  according  to  Eusebius,  reigned  in  this  order : 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  727 

Arbaces  who  reigned     28   years. 

Sosarmus 30 

Medidus 40 

Cardiceas  ......     15 

Deioces 54 

Phraortes 24 

Cyaxares 32 

Astyages 38 

These  names,  and  this  course  of  succession,  I  retain ;  but 
add  unto  these  Cyaxares,  the  son  of  Astyages,  according  to 
Xenophon;  and  sometimes  follow  Herodotus,  in  setting 
down  the  length  of  a  king's  reign  otherwise  than  Eusebius 
hath  it :  of  which  variations  I  will  render  my  reasons  in  due 
place. 

The  twenty-nine  years  of  Ezekias  were  concurrent,  in 
part,  with  the  rule  of  the  four  first  that  were  chosen  gover 
nors  of  Athens  for  ten  years;  that  is,  of  Charops,  JEsi- 
medes,  Elidicus,  and  Hippones.  Touching  the  first  of  these 
I  hear  nothing,  save  that  Rome  was  built  in  his  first  year ; 
of  which  perhaps  himself  did  not  hear.  Of  the  second  and 
third  I  find  only  the  names.  The  fourth  made  himself 
known  by  a  strange  example  of  justice,  or  rather  of  cruelty, 
that  he  shewed  upon  his  own  daughter.  For  he,  finding  that 
she  had  offended  in  unchastity,  caused  her  to  be  locked  up 
with  an  horse,  giving  to  neither  of  them  any  food ;  so  the 
horse,  constrained  by  hunger,  devoured  the  unhappy  wo 
man. 

In  Rome,  the  first  king  and  founder  of  that  city,  Romu 
lus,  did  reign  both  before  and  somewhat  after  Ezekias. 

In  Lydia,  Candaules,  the  last  king,  ruled  in  the  same 
age. 

This  region  was  first  called  Maeonia.  Lydus  the  son  of 
Atys  reigning  in  it,  gave  the  name  of  Lydia,  if  we  believe 
such  authority  as  we  find.  This  kingdom  was  afterwards, 
by  the  appointment  of  an  oracle,  conferred  upon  Argon, 
who  came  of  Alcaeus  the  son  of  Hercules,  by  Jardana,  a 
bondwoman.  The  race  of  these  Heraclidae  continued  reign 
ing  fifty-five  years,  (in  which  two  and  twenty  generations 

SA  4 


728  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

passed,)  the  son  continually  succeeding  the  father.  Can- 
daules  the  son  of  Myrsus  was  the  last  of  this  race,  who 
doated  so  much  upon  the  beauty  of  his  own  wife,  that  he 
could  not  be  content  to  enjoy  her,  but  would  needs  enforce 
one  Gyges,  the  son  of  Dascylus,  to  behold  her  naked  body, 
and  placed  the  unwilling  man  secretly  in  her  chamber, 
where  he  might  see  her  preparing  to  bedward.  This  was 
not  so  closely  carried,  but  that  the  queen  perceived  Gyges 
at  his  going  forth,  and  understanding  the  matter,  took  it  in 
such  high  disdain,  that  she  forced  him  the  next  day  to  re 
quite  the  king's  folly  with  treason.  So  Gyges,  being  brought 
again  into  the  same  chamber  by  the  queen,  slew  Candaules, 
and  was  rewarded,  not  only  with  his  wife,  but  with  the 
kingdom  of  Lydia.  He  reigned  thirty-eight  years,  begin 
ning  in  the  last  of  Ezekias,  one  year  before  the  death  of 
Romulus. 

After  Gyges,  his  son  Ardys  reigned  nine  and  forty  years; 
then  Sadyattes,  twelve ;  Halyattes,  fifty-seven  ;  and  finally 
Croesus  the  son  of  Halyattes,  fourteen  years ;  who  lost  the 
kingdom,  and  was  taken  by  Cyrus  of  Persia. 

And  here  by  the  way  we  may  note,  that  as  the  Lydian 
kings,  whom  Croesus's  progenitor  dispossessed,  are  deduced 
from  Hercules,  so  of  the  same  Hercules  there  sprang  many 
other  kings,  which  governed  several  countries  very  long ; 
as  in  Asia,  the  Mysians ;  in  Greece,  the  Lacedaemonians, 
Messenians,  Rhodians,  Corinthians,  and  Argives;  and  from 
the  Argives,  the  Macedonians;  as  likewise  from  the  Co 
rinthians,  the  Syracusans ;  besides  many  great  and  famous 
though  private  families. 

But  of  the  Heraclidae  that  reigned  in  Lydia,  I  have  not 
troubled  myself  to  take  notice  in  the  time  of  their  several 
reigns ;  for  little  is  found  of  them  besides  the  bare  names, 
and  the  folly  of  this  last  king  Candaules. 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  729 

CHAP.  XXVI. 

Of  the  king-s  that  reigned  in  Egypt,  between  the  deliver 
ance  of  Israel  from  thence  and  the  reign  of  EzeJcias  in 
Juda,  when  Egypt  and  Juda  made  a  league  against  the 
Assyrians. 

SECT.    I. 

That  many  names  of  Egyptian  kings,  found  in  history,  are  like  to 
have  belonged  only  to  viceroys.  An  example  proving  this  out  of 
William  of  Tyre's  History  of  the  Holy  War. 

J.  HE  emulation  and  quarrels  arising  in  these  times,  be 
tween  the  mighty  kingdoms  of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  do  re 
quire  our  pains  in  collecting  the  most  memorable  things  in 
Egypt,  and  setting  down  briefly  the  state  of  that  country, 
which  had  continued  long  a  flourishing  region,  and  was  of 
great  power  when  it  contended  with  Assyria  for  the  mastery. 
Of  Cham  the  son  of  Noah,  who  first  planted  that  country, 
and  of  Osiris,  Orus,  and  other  ancient  kings  that  reigned 
there  until  the  Israelites  were  thence  delivered,  more  hath 
been  said  already  than  I  can  stand  to ;  though  I  hold  it  no 
shame  to  fail  in  such  conjectures.  That  which  I  have  de 
livered,  in  speaking  mine  opinion  of  the  Egyptian  dynasties, 
must  here  again  help  me.  For  it  may  truly  be  affirmed, 
that  the  great  number  of  kings,  which  are  said  to  have 
reigned  in  Egypt,  were  none  other  than  viceroys  or  stew 
ards,  such  as  Joseph  was,  and  such  as  were  the  soldans  in 
later  ages.  Therefore  I  will  not  only  forbear  to  seek  after 
those  whom  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  have  reckoned  up 
from  the  mouths  of  Egyptian  priests,  delivering  them  by 
number  without  rehearsing  their  names,  but  will  save  the 
labour  of  marshalling  them  in  order,  whose  names  only  are 
found ;  the  years  of  their  reigns,  and  other  circumstances, 
proving  them  to  have  been  kings  indeed,  being  not  recorded. 
But  that  I  may  not  seem  beforehand  to  lay  an  imaginary 
ground  whereupon  after  I  may  build  what  I  list,  it  were 
not  amiss  to  give  unto  the  reader  such  satisfaction  in  this 
point,  as  apparent  reason  and  truth  of  history  doth  afford. 
First,  therefore,  we  ought  not  to  believe  those  numbers  of 


730  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

generations,  which  the  lying  priests  have  reckoned  up,  to 
magnify  their  antiquities :  for  we  know,  that  from  Abraham 
our  Saviour  Christ  was  removed  only  forty-two  descents, 
which  makes  it  evident,  that  in  far  shorter  time,  namely 
before  the  Persian  empire,  there  could  not  have  passed 
away  twice  as  many  successions  in  Egypt ;  especially  consi 
dering,  that  many  of  these,  whose  continuance  is  expressed, 
have  reigned  longer  than  forty  years.  It  follows  that  we 
should  square  the  number  of  the  Egyptian  kings  in  some 
even  proportion  to  those  which  did  bear  rule  in  other  coun 
tries.  As  for  the  rest,  whose  names  we  find  scattered  here 
and  there,  any  man  that  will  take  the  pains  to  read  the 
nineteenth  book  of  the  Holy  War,  written  by  William  arch 
bishop  of  Tyre,  may  easily  persuade  himself,  that  it  is  not 
hard  to  find  names  enough  of  such  as  might  be  thought  to 
have  reigned  in  Egypt,  being  none  other  than  regents  or 
viceroys.  Yet  will  I  here  insert,  as  briefly  as  I  can,  some 
things  making  to  that  purpose,  for  the  pleasure  and  in 
formation  of  such  as  will  not  trouble  themselves  with  turn 
ing  over  many  authors. 

When  Elhadech  the  caliph  ruled  in  Egypt,  one  Dargan, 
a  powerful  and  a  subtle  man,  made  himself  soldan,  by  force 
and  cunning,  chasing  away  Sanar,  an  Arabian,  who  was 
soldan  before  and  after  him.  This  Dargan  ministered 
matter  of  quarrel  to  Almarick  king  of  Jerusalem;  and 
sustained,  with  little  loss,  an  invasion  which  Almarick  made 
upon  Egypt:  hereupon  he  grew  so  insolent  and  proud, 
that  Sanar  the  former  soldan  hoped  to  make  his  party  good 
against  him,  if  he  could  get  any  forces  wherewith  to  enter 
Egypt.  Briefly,  Sanar  sueth  to  Noradine  king  of  Damasco 
for  aid,  who  sends  an  army  of  his  Turks,  under  the  com 
mand  of  Syracon,  against  the  soldan  Dargan.  So  Dargan 
and  Sanar  met,  and  fought :  the  victory  was  Dargan's ;  but 
he  enjoyed  it  not;  for  in  few  days  after,  he  was  slain  by 
treason,  whereby  Sanar  did  recover  his  dignity ;  which  to 
establish,  he  slew  all  the  kindred  and  friends  of  Dargan 
that  he  could  find  in  the  great  city  of  Cairo. 

To  all  these  doings  the  caliph  Elhadech  gave  little  regard; 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  731 

for  he  thought  it  little  concerned  him  which  of  them  lived, 
and  had  the  administration  of  the  kingdom,  whilst  he  might 
have  the  profit  of  it,  and  enjoy  his  pleasure.  But  new  trou 
bles  presently  arise,  which  (one  would  think)  do  nearly 
touch  the  caliph  himself.  Syracon  with  his  Turks,  whom 
Sanar  hath  gotten  to  come  into  Egypt,  will  not  now  be  en 
treated  there  to  leave  him,  and  quietly  go  their  way  home. 
They  seize  upon  the  town  of  Belbeis,  which  they  fortify, 
and  there  attend  the  arrival  of  more  company  from  Damasco, 
for  the  conquest  of  all  Egypt.  The  soldan  perceives  their 
intent,  and  finds  himself  not  strong  enough  to  expel  them, 
much  less  to  repel  the  Turkish  army  that  was  likely  to  se 
cond  them:  he  therefore  sends  messengers  to  king  Almarick, 
of  Jerusalem,  whom  with  large  promises  he  gets  to  bring 
him  aid,  and  so  drives  out  the  Turks.  Of  all  this  trouble 
the  great  caliph  hears  nothing,  or  not  so  much  as  should 
make  him  look  to  the  playing  of  his  own  game. 

A  greater  mischief  ariseth,  concerning  the  caliph  Elha- 
dech  particularly,  in  his  own  title.  Syracon,  captain  of  the 
Turks  that  had  been  in  Egypt,  goes  to  the  caliph  of  Bal- 
dach,  (who  was  opposite  to  him  of  Egypt,  each  of  them 
claiming  as  heir  to  Mahomet,  that  false  prophet,  the  sove 
reignty  over  all  that  were  of  the  Saracen  law,)  and  tells  him 
the  weakness  of  the  Egyptian,  with  his  own  ability  of  doing 
service  in  those  parts,  offering  his  best  means  for  the  extir 
pation  of  the  schismatical  caliph,  and  the  reduction  of  all 
Egypt,  with  the  western  parts  under  the  subjection  of  the 
Babylonian.  This  motion  is  readily  and  joyfully  entertain 
ed  ;  all  the  eastern  provinces  are  up  in  arms,  and  Syracon 
with  a  mighty  power  descendeth  into  Egypt.  The  noise 
of  this  great  expedition  so  affrighteth  king  Almarick  that 
with  all  his  forces  he  hasteth  into  Egypt,  well  knowing  how 
nearly  it  concerned  him  and  his  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  to 
keep  the  Saracens  from  joining  all  under  one  head.  Sanar 
the  soldan,  perceiving  the  faithful  care  of  the  Christians  his 
friends,  welcomes  them,  and  bestirs  himself  in  giving  them 
all  manner  of  content,  as  it  behoved  him  ;  for  by  their  ad 
mirable  valour  he  finally  drave  the  enemies  out  of  the 


732  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

country.     But  this  victory  was  not  so  soon  gotten  as  it  is 
quickly  told. 

Strange  it  is,  (which  most  concerns  our  present  purpose,) 
that  of  so  desperate  a  danger  the  caliph  as  yet  seems  to 
know  nothing.  May  we  not  think  him  to  have  been  king 
in  title  only,  who  meddled  so  little  in  the  government  ?  The 
soldan,  finding  that  the  Christians  (without  whose  help  all 
was  lost)  could  not  well  stay  so  long  as  his  necessities  re 
quired,  makes  large  offers  to  king  Almarick  upon  condi 
tion  that  he  should  abide  by  it.  He  promiseth  a  great  tri 
bute,  (William  of  Tyre  calls  it  a  tribute;  the  Saracens, 
perhaps,  called  it  a  pension,)  which  the  kings  of  Jerusalem 
should  receive  out  of  Egypt  for  this  behoveful  assistance. 
But  the  Christians,  understanding  that  the  soldan  (how 
much  soever  he  took  upon  him)  was  subject  to  an  higher 
lord,  would  make  no  bargain  of  such  importance  with  any 
other  than  the  caliph  himself:  hereupon  Hugh,  earl  of 
Caesarea,  and  a  knight  of  the  Templars,  are  sent  unto  Elha- 
dech  to  ratify  the  covenants.  Now  shall  we  see  the  great- 
,ness  of  the  caliph  and  his  estate. 

These  ambassadors  were  conveyed  by  the  soldan  to 
Cairo,  where  arriving  at  the  palace,  they  found  it  guarded 
by  great  troops  of  soldiers.  The  first  entrance  was  through 
dark  porches,  that  were  kept  by  many  armed  bands  of 
Ethiopians,  which,  with  all  diligence,  did  reverence  unto 
the  soldan  as  he  passed  along.  Through  these  straits  the 
warders  led  them  into  goodly  open  courts,  of  such  beauty 
and  riches,  that  they  could  not  retain  the  gravity  of  ambas 
sadors,  but  were  enforced  to  admire  the  things  which  de 
tained  their  eyes  :  for  there  they  saw  goodly  marble  pillars, 
gilded  beams,  all  wrought  over  with  embossed  works,  cu 
rious  pavements,  fish-ponds  of  marble  with  clear  waters, 
and  many  sorts  of  strange  birds,  unknown  in  these  parts  of 
the  world,  as  coming  perhaps  from  the  East  Indies,  which 
then  were  undiscovered.  The  further  they  went,  the  greater 
was  the  magnificence;  for  the  caliph's  eunuchs  conveyed 
them  into  other  courts  within  these,  as  far  excelling  the 
former,  as  the  former  did  surpass  ordinary  houses.  It  were 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  733 

tedious  perhaps  to  rehearse  how,  the  further  they  entered, 
the  more  high  state  they  found,  and  cause  of  marvel ;  suf 
fice  it,  that  the  good  archbishop,  who  wrote  these  things, 
was  never  held  a  vain  author.     Finally,  they  were  brought 
into  the  caliph's  own  lodgings,  which  were  yet  more  stately 
and  better  guarded,  where,  entering  the  presence,  the  soldan, 
having  twice  prostrated  himself,  did  the  third  time  cast  off 
his  sword  that  he  ware  about  his  neck,  and  throw  himself 
on  the  ground  before  the  curtain,  behind  which  the  caliph 
sat.     Presently  the  traverse,  wrought  with  gold  and  pearls, 
was  opened,  and  the  caliph  himself  discovered,  sitting  with 
great  majesty  on  a  throne  of  gold,  having  very  few  of  his 
most  inward  servants  and  eunuchs  about  him.   When  the  sol 
dan  had  humbly  kissed  his  master's  feet,  he  briefly  told  the 
cause  of  his  coming,  the  danger  wherein  the  land  stood, 
and  the  offers  that  he  had  made  unto  king  Almarick  de 
siring  the  caliph  himself  to  ratify  them  in  presence  of  the 
ambassadors.   The  caliph  answered,  that  he  would  throughly 
perform  all  which  was  promised.     But  this  contented  not 
the  ambassadors;  they  would  have  him  to  give  his  hand 
upon   the   bargain,    which    the   Egyptians  that  stood   by 
thought  an  impudent  request.     Yet  his  greatness  conde 
scended  at  length,  after  much  deliberation,  at  the  earnest 
request  of  the  soldan  to  reach  out  his  hand.     When  the 
earl  of  Caesarea  saw  that  the  caliph  gave  his  hand  neither 
willingly  nor  bare,  he  told  him  roundly  thus  much  in  effect: 
Sir,  truth  seeks  no  holes  to  hide  itself;  princes  that  will 
hold  covenant  must  deal  openly,  nakedly,  and  sincerely  ; 
give  us  therefore  your  bare  hand,  if  you  mean  that  we 
shall  trust  you,  for  we  will  make  no  bargains  with  your 
glove.     Much  ado   there  was   about  this;  for  it   seemed 
against  the  majesty  of  such  a  prince  to  yield  so  far.     But, 
when  it  would  none   otherwise  be,  with  a  smiling  cheer 
(though  to  the  great  grief  of  his  servants)  he  vouchsafed  to 
let  the  earl  takejiim  by  the  bare  hand  ;  and  so  rehearsing 
the  covenants,  word  by  word,  as  the  earl  spake  them,  he 
ratified  all,  dismissing  finally  the  ambassadors  with  such 
rewards  as  testified  his  greatness. 


734,  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

In  this  caliph  and  his  soldan  we  may  discern  the  image 
of  the  ancient  Pharaoh  and  his  viceroy ;  we  see  a  prince  of 
great  estate  sitting  in  his  palace,  and  not  vexing  himself  with 
the  great  preparations  made  against  him,  which  terrify  his 
neighbour  countries :  we  see  his  viceroy,  in  the  mean  season, 
using  all  royal  power,  making  war  and  peace,  entertaining 
and  expelling  armies  of  strangers ;  yea,  making  the  land  of 
Egypt  tributary  to  a  foreign  prince.  What  greater  au 
thority  was  given  to  Joseph,  when  Pharaoh  said  unto  him, 
Thou  shalt  be  over  mine  house,  and  at  thy  word  shall  all 
my  people  be  armed,  only  in  the  king's  throne  will  I  be  above 
thee:  behold,  I  have  set  thee  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt? 

I  do  not  commend  this  form  of  government ;  neither  can 
I  approve  the  conjecture  of  mine  author,  where  he  thinks 
that  the  Egyptians,  ever  since  Joseph's  time,  have  felt  the 
burden  of  that  servitude  which  he  brought  upon  them, 
when  he  bought  them  and  their  lands  for  Pharaoh.  Here 
in  I  find  his  judgment  good,  that  he  affirms  this  manner  of 
the  Egyptian  kings,  in  taking  their  ease  and  ruling  by  a 
viceroy^  to  be  part  of  the  ancient  customs  practised  by  the 
Pharaohs :  for  we  find,  that  even  the  Ptolomies  (excepting 
Ptolomaeus  Lagi,  and  his  son  Philadelphus,  founder  and 
establisher  of  that  race)  were  given,  all  of  them,  wholly  to 
please  their  own  appetites,  leaving  the  charge  of  the  king 
dom  to  women,  eunuchs,  and  other  ministers  of  their  de 
sires.  The  pleasures,  which  that  country  afforded,  were  in 
deed  sufficient  to  invite  the  kings  thereof  unto  a  voluptuous 
life ;  and  the  awful  regard  wherein  the  Egyptians  held  their 
princes  gave  them  security,  whereby  they  might  the  better 
trust  their  officers  with  so  ample  commission.  But  of  this 
matter  I  will  not  stand  longer  to  dispute.  It  is  enough  to 
have  shewed,  that  the  great  and  almost  absolute  power  of 
the  viceroy's  governing  Egypt  is  set  down  by  Moses,  and 
that  a  lively  example  of  the  same  is  found  in  William  of 
Tyre,  who  lived  in  the  same  age,  was  in  few  years  after 
chancellor  of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  and  had  full  dis 
course  with  Hugh  earl  of  Cassarea  touching  all  these  mat 
ters.  Wherefore  it  remains,  that  we  be  not  carried  away 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  735 

with  a  vain  opinion,  to  believe  that  all  they  were  kings, 
whom  reports  of  the  fabulous  Egyptians  have  honoured 
with  that  style,  but  rest  contented  with  a  catalogue  of  such 
as  we  find  by  circumstance  likely  to  have  reigned  in  that 
country ;  after  whom  it  follows  that  we  should  make  inquiry. 

SECT.  II. 

Of  Acherres,  whether  he  were  Uchoreus  that  was  the  eighth  from 
Osijmandyas.     Of  Osymandyns  and  his  tomb. 

IN  this  business  I  hold  it  vain  to  be  too  curious :  for 
who  can  hope  to  attain  to  the  perfect  knowledge  of  the  truth, 
when  as  Diodorus  varies  from  Herodotus,  Eusebius  from 
both  of  them ;  and  late  writers,  that  have  sought  to  gather 
the  truth  out  of  these  and  others,  find  no  one  with  whom 
they  can  agree.  In  this  case  Annius  would  do  good  ser 
vice,  if  a  man  could  trust  him :  but  it  is  enough  to  be  be 
holden  to  him,  when  others  do  either  say  nothing,  or  that 
which  may  justlv  be  suspected.  I  will  therefore  hold  myself 
contented  with  the  pleasure  that  he  hath  done  me,  in  saying 
somewhat  of  Osiris,  Isis,  Orus,  and  those  antiquaries  re 
moved  so  far  out  of  sight :  as  for  the  kings  following  the 
departure  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  it  shall  suffice,  that  He 
rodotus,  Diodorus,  and  Eusebius  have  not  been  silent,  and 
that  Reineccius  hath  taken  pains  to  range  into  some  good 
order  the  names  that  are  extant  in  these,  or  found  scatter 
ing  in  others. 

From  the  departure  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  unto  the 
reign  of  Thuoris,  (who  is  generally  taken  to  be  the  same 
that  the  Greeks  call  Proteus,)  there  is  little  or  no  disagree 
ment  about  the  Egyptian  kings.  Wherefore  I  set  down 
the  same  which  are  found  in  Eusebius,  and  give  to  every 
one  the  same  length  of  reign. 

Acherres  was  the  first  of  these  who  succeeded  unto  Chen- 
chres,  that  perished  in  the  Red  sea.  This  king  seems  to 
Reineccius  to  be  the  same  whom  Diodorus  calls  Uchoreus, 
the  founder  of  Memphis.  But  whereas  mention  is  found 
in  Diodorus  of  a  great  king  named  Osymandyas,  from  whom 
Uchoreus  is  said  to  be  the  eighth ;  it  will  either  hardly  fol- 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

low,  that  Timaus  (as  Reineccius  conjectures)  was  the  great 
Osymandyas,  or  else  that  this  Acherres  was  Uchoreus ;  for 
the  distance  between  them  was  more  than  eight  generations. 
Mercator  judgeth  Osymandyas  to  have  been  the  husband 
of  Acencheres,  Orus  the  second's  daughter,  thinking  that 
Manethon  (cited  by  Josephus)  doth  omit  his  name,  and 
insert  his  wife's  into  the  catalogue  of  kings,  because  he  was 
king  in  his  wife's  right.  As  for  Uchoreus,  it  troubles  not 
Mercator  to  find  him  the  eighth  from  this  man;  for  he 
takes  Ogdous  not  to  signify  in  this  place  of  Diodore  (as  that 
Greek  word  else  doth)  the  eighth,  but  to  be  an  Egyptian 
name  belonging  also  to  Uchoreus,  who  might  have  had  two 
names,  as  many  of  the  rest  had.  I  will  not  vex  my  brains 
in  the  unprofitable  search  of  this  and  the  like  inextricable 
doubts.  All  that  Diodore  hath  found  of  this  Osymandyas 
was  wrought  upon  his  monument,  the  most  thereof  in 
figures,  which  I  think  the  Egyptians  did  fabulously  ex 
pound:  for  whereas  there  was  pourtrayed  a  great  army, 
with  the  siege  of  a  town,  the  captivity  of  the  people,  and 
the  triumph  of  the  conqueror;  all  this  the  Egyptians  said 
to  denote  the  conquest  of  Bactria  made  by  that  king,  which 
how  likely  it  was,  let  others  judge.  I  hold  this  goodly  piece  of 
work,  which  Diodore  so  particularly  describes,  to  have  been 
erected  for  a  common  place  of  burial  to  the  ancient  kings 
and  queens  of  Egypt,  and  to  their  viceroys ;  whilst  yet  they 
were  not  so  ambitious  as  every  one  to  have  his  own  parti 
cular  monument,  striving  therein  to  exceed  all  others.  This 
appears  by  the  many  statues  therein  placed  by  the  wars, 
the  judgment-seat,  the  receiving  of  tribute,  the  offering  sa 
crifice  to  God,  the  account  of  revenues,  and  plenty  of  all 
cattle  and  food ;  all  which  were  there  curiously  wrought, 
shewing  the  several  offices  of  a  governor.  On  the  tomb  of 
Osymandyas  was  this  inscription  :  "  I  am  Osymandyas,  king 
"  of  kings ;  if  any  desire  to  know  what  I  am,  or  where  I  lie, 
"  let  him  exceed  some  of  my  works."  Let  them,  that  hope 
to  exceed  his  works,  labour  to  know  what  he  was.  But 
since  by  those  words,  "  or  where  I  lie,"  it  should  seem  that 
he  lay  not  there  interred  ;  we  may  lawfully  suspect  that  it 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD  737 

was  Joseph  whose  body  was  preserved  among  the  Hebrews, 
to  be  buried  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  this  empty  monu 
ment  might  king  Orus,  who  outlived  him,  erect  in  honour 
of  his  high  deserts,  among  the  royal  sepulchres.  To  which 
purpose  the  plenty  of  cattle,  and  all  manner  of  viands,  had 
good  reference.  The  name  Osymandyas  doth  not  hinder 
this  conjecture,  seeing  Joseph  had  one  new  name  given  to 
him  by  Pharaoh  for  expounding  the  dream,  and  might, 
upon  further  occasions,  have  another  to  his  increase  of  ho 
nour.  As  for  that  style,  "  king  of  kings,11  it  was  perhaps 
no  more  \han-beglerbeg,  as  the  Turkish  bassas  are  called, 
that  is,  "  great  above  the  great." 

Now  although  it  be  so,  that  the  reckoning  falls  out  right 
between  the  times  of  Joseph  and  Acherres,  (for  Acherres 
was  the  eighth  in  order  that  reigned  after  the  great  Orus, 
whose  viceroy  Joseph  was,)  yet  will  I  hereby  seek  neither 
to  fortify  mine  own  conjecture,  as  touching  Joseph,  nor  to 
infer  any  likelihood  of  Acherres's  being  Uchoreus.  For  it 
might  well  be,  that  Memphis  was  built  by  some  such  king 
as  was  Gehoar,  lieutenant  unto  the  x  caliph  Elcain,  who 
having  to  his  master's  use  conquered  Egypt,  and  many 
other  countries,  did  build,  not  far  from  old  Memphis,  the 
great  city  of  Cairo,  (corruptly  so  pronounced,)  naming  it  El 
Cahira,  that  is,  an  enforcing,  or  an  imperious  mistress, 
though  he  himself  were  a  Dalmatian  slave. 

SECT.   III. 

Of  Cherres,  Armeus,  Harnesses,  and  Amenophis.  Of  Myris,  and 
the  lake  that  bears  his  name. 

WHEN  Acherres  had  reigned  eight  years,  Cherres  suc 
ceeded,  and  held  the  kingdom  fifteen  jears ;  then  reigned 
Armeus  five  years,  and  after  him  Ramesses  sixty-eight.  Of 
Armeus  and  Ramesses  is  that  history  understood  by  Euse- 
bius,  which  is  common  among  the  Greeks,  under  the  names 
of  Danaus  and  ^Egyptus.  For  it  is  said  that  Danaus,  being 
expelled  out  of  Egypt  by  his  brother,  fled  into  Greece, 
where  he  obtained  the  kingdom  of  Argos  ;  that  he  had  fifty 
»  John  Leo,  Hist.  Afric.  1.  i.  and  8. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  B 


738  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

daughters,  whom,  upon  seeming  reconciliation,  he  gave  in 
marriage  to  his  brother's  fifty  sons,  but  commanded  every 
one  of  them  to  kill  her  husband  the  first  night ;  that  only 
Hypermnestra,  one  of  his  daughters,  did  save  her  husband 
Lynceus,  and  suffered  him  to  escape ;  finally,  that  for  this 
fact  all  the  bloody  sisters,  when  they  died,  were  enjoined 
this  foolish  punishment  in  hell,  to  fill  a  leaking  vessel  with 
water. 

The  reign  of  Danaus  in  Argos  was  indeed  in  this  age, 
but  that  Armeus  was  Danaus,  and  Ramesses  TEgyptus,  is 
more  than  Reineccius  believes ;  he  rather  takes  Armeus  to 
have  been  Myris,  or  Meris,  who  caused  the  great  lake  to 
be  made  which  bears  his  name.  For  my  own  part,  as  I  can 
easily  believe  that  he,  which  fled  out  of  Egypt  into  Greece, 
was  a  man  of  such  quality  as  the  soldan  Sanar,  of  whom 
we  spake  before  ;  so  do  I  not  find  how  in  so  short  a  reign 
as  five  years  a  work  of  that  labour  could  be  finished,  which 
was  required  unto  the  lake  of  Myris,  and  the  monuments 
therein;  whereof  his  own  sepulchre  and  his  wife's  being 
some  part,  it  is  manifest  that  he  was  not  buried  in  Argos. 
Wherefore  of  Myris,  and  of  all  other  kings,  whose  age  is 
uncertain,  and  of  whose  reigns  we  have  no  assurance,  I  may 
truly  say,  that  their  great  works  are  not  enough  to  prove 
them  of  the  house  of  Pharaoh,  seeing  that  greater  deeds,  or 
more  absolute,  than  were  those  of  Joseph,  who  bought  all 
the  people  of  Egypt  as  bondmen,  and  all  their  land  for  bread ; 
of  Gehoar,  who  founded  Cairo ;  and  of  Sanar,  who  made  the 
country  tributary ;  were  performed  by  none  of  them. 

It  shall  therefore  be  enough  to  set  down  the  length  of 
their  reigns,  whom  we  find  to  have  followed  one  another  in 
order  of  succession ;  but  in  rehearsing  the  great  acts  which 
were  performed,  I  will  not  stand  to  examine  whether  they 
that  did  them  were  kings  or  no. 

The  lake  of  Myris  is,  by  the  report  of  Diodore  and  He 
rodotus,  three  thousand  six  hundred  furlongs  in  compass, 
and  fifty  fathoms  deep.  It  served  to  receive  the  waters  of 
Nilus,  when  the  overflow  being  too  great  was  harmful  to 
the  country;  and  to  supply  the  defect  by  letting  out  the 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  739 

waters  of  the  lake,  when  the  river  did  not  rise  high  enough. 
In  opening  the  sluices  of  this  lake,  for  the  letting  in  or  out 
of  waters,  were  spent  fifty  talents ;  but  the  lake  itself  de 
frayed  that  cost,  seeing  the  tribute  imposed  upon  fish  taken 
therein  was  every  day  one  talent,  which  Myris  gave  to  his 
wife  to  buy  sweet  ointments,  and  other  ornaments  for  her 
body.  In  the  midst  of  it  was  left  an  island,  wherein  were 
the  sepulchres  of  Myris  and  his  wife,  and  over  each  of  them 
a  pyramis  that  was  a  furlong,  or  (according  to  Herodotus) 
fifty  paces  high,  having  on  the  tops  their  statues,  sitting 
in  thrones.  I  find  not  the  description  of  this  lake  in  maps 
answerable  to  the  report  of  historians,  yet  is  it  very  great. 
The  years  of  Armeus  are  by  Manethon  divided,  by  insert 
ing  one  Armesis,  (whom  Eusebius  omits,)  that  should  have 
reigned  one  year  and  odd  months  of  the  time ;  but  I  hold 
not  this  difference  worthy  of  examination. 

After  Ramesses,  his  son  Amenophis  held  the  kingdom 
forty  years.  Some  give  him  only  nineteen  years;  and  Mer- 
cator  thinks  him  to  have  been  the  king  that  was  drowned 
in  the  Red  sea,  whereof  I  have  already  spoken  in  the  first 
book. 

SECT.   IV. 

Of  the  kings  that  reigned  in  the  dynasty  of  the  Larthes. 
SETHOSIS,  or  Zethus,  reigned  after  his  father  Ameno 
phis  fifty-five  years.  To  him  are  ascribed  the  famous  acts 
of  that  ancient  Sesostris.  But  the  state  of  the  world  was 
not  such  in  these  times,  that  so  great  an  expedition  as  the 
old  Sesostris  made,  could  have  been  either  easily  performed 
or  forgotten  in  the  countries  through  which  he  passed,  had 
it  now  been  performed,  as  any  man  will  perceive,  if  he  look 
upon  my  chronological  table,  and  consider  who  lived  with 
this  Zethus.  With  this  king  began  the  dynasty  of  the 
Larthes,  which  Reineccius  conjectures  to  have  had  the  same 
signification  wherein  the  old  kings  of  Hetruria  were  called 
Lartes,  (the  Hetrurians  being  issued  out  of  Lydia,  the  Ly- 
dians  out  of  Egypt,)  and  to  have  signified  as  much  as  impe- 
rator,  or  general.  The  wars  in  which  these  kings  were 
generals,  I  take  to  have  been  against  the  Ethiopians ;  for 


740  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

sure  I  am,  that  they  troubled  not  the  country  of  Palestina, 
that  lay  next  unto  them  on  the  one  hand,  nor  is  it  likely 
that  they  travelled  over  the  desert  sands  on  the  other  hand, 
to  seek  matter  of  conquest  in  the  poor  countries  of  Africa. 
But  these  generals  (if  the  larthes  were  such)  were  not 
many ;  five  only  had  that  title,  and  the  last  of  these  took 
it,  perhaps,  as  hereditary  from  the  first ;  in  such  sort  as  the 
Roman  emperors  were  proud  for  a  while  to  be  called  Anto- 
nini,  till  the  most  unsuitable  conditions  of  Heliogabalus 
made  his  successors  forbear  the  name. 

Here  it  may  be  objected,  that  the  dynasties  (as  appears 
by  this  particular)  took  name  from  the  kings ;  that  the  kings 
also  did  administer  the  government  themselves,  and  that 
therefore  I  am  deceived  in  ascribing  so  much  unto  the  vice 
roys.  But  it  is  to  be  considered,  that  what  is  said  of  these 
larthes  depends  only  upon  conjecture,  and  that  the  au 
thority  of  the  regents  or  viceroys  might  be  great  enough, 
though  some  few  kings  took  the  conduct  of  armies  into  their 
own  hands.  For  so  we  find  in  John  Leo,  1.  8.  that  the 
soldan  of  Egypt  (after  such  time  as  the  soldan  Saladine, 
murdering  the  caliph,  got  the  sovereignty  to  himself)  had 
under  him  a  viceroy,  styled  Eddaguadare,  who  had  authority 
to  place  or  displace  any  magistrates  or  officers;  and  that 
this  man's  family  was  almost  as  great  as  the  soldan's  own. 
Yet  was  there  also  the  amir  cabir,  or  lord-general  of  the 
soldan's  forces,  who  had  the  charge  of  defending  the  land, 
and  might,  as  he  thought  good,  spend  of  the  soldan's  trea 
sure.  So  might  the  office  of  the  viceroys  continue,  though 
the  kings  themselves,  taking  the  charge  or  title  of  generals 
upon  them,  did  somewhat  abridge  the  greatness  of  that  se 
cond  place.  As  for  the  names  of  the  dynasties,  it  skills 
not  whence  they  were  drawn,  whether  from  their  country, 
as  those  of  the  Thebans  and  Diapolitans,  or  from  some 
eminent  men  or  man  who  ruled  in  that  time,  as  many  think 
that  the  seventeenth  dynasty  was  called  of  the  shepherds, 
because  Joseph  governed  in  part  thereof;  or  from  the  kings 
themselves  that  reigned,  as  this  was  said  to  be  of  the  larthes, 
or  generals.  The  next,  as  Manetho  (but  Annius's  Manetho) 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  741 

hath  it,  was  without  any  larthes,  or  generals,  yet  was  it 
not  without  kings,  forasmuch  as  Vaphres  and  Sesac  reigned 
therein,  if  many  others  did  not.  But  let  us  now  return  to 
the  business  which  we  left. 

Ramses  was  king  after  Zethus,  or  Sethosis,  threescore 
and  six  years.  He  is  mistaken  for  that  second  Sesostris,  of 
whom  I  have  spoken  in  the  first  books.  I  find  nothing 
worth  rehearsal  of  this  Ramses,  or  of  Amenophis,  and  Anne- 
menes,  that  followed  him  in  order,  the  former  of  which 
reigned  forty,  the  latter  six  and  twenty  years.  Wherefore 
it  may  well  be,  that  the  name  which  Zethus  had  from  va 
lour  was  taken  by  these  as  hereditary. 

Thuoris,  the  last  of  the  larthes,  reigned  only  seven 
years ;  yet  is  he  thought  to  have  been  that  Proteus  of 
whom  Herodotus  hath  mention,  saying,  that  he  took  He 
lena  from  Paris,  and  after  the  sack  of  Troy  restored  her  to 
Menelaus.  I  need  say  no  more  in  refutation  of  this,  than 
that  the  time  of  Thuoris's  reign  lasted  not  so  long  as  from 
the  rape  of  Helen  to  her  restitution. 

This  Proteus,  or  Cetes,  (as  he  is  named  by  some,)  toge 
ther  with  Thon  and  others,  mentioned  by  Greek  writers  in 
this  business,  or  in  other  such  matters,  may  seem  to  be  un- 
der-officers :  for  such  only  are  like  to  have  had  their  resi 
dency  about  Pharos,  and  the  sea-coast,  where  Menelaus  ar 
rived. 

Of  Proteus,  who  detained  Helen,  it  is  said,  that  he  could 
foretell  things  to  come,  and  that  he  could  change  himself 
into  all  shapes;  whereby  is  signified  his  crafty  head,  for 
which  he  is  grown  into  a  proverb.  The  poets  feigned  him 
a  sea-god,  and  keeper  of  Neptune^s  seal-fishes,  for  belike  he 
was  some  under-officer  to  the  admiral,  having  charge  of  the 
fishing  about  the  isle  of  Pharos,  as  was  said  before. 

Remphes  the  son  of  Proteus  is  reckoned  the  next  king 
by  Diodore,  as  also  by  Herodotus,  who  calls  him  Ramsini- 
tus,  and  tells  a  long  tale,  fit  to  please  children,  of  his  covet- 
ousness,  and  how  his  treasure-house  was  robbed  by  a  cun 
ning  thief  that  at  last  married  his  daughter.  But  of  this  a 
man  may  believe  what  he  list.  How  long  this  king  reigned 


742  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

I  know  not,  nor  think  that  either  he  or  his  father  did  reign 

at  all. 

SECT.  V. 

Of  Egyptian  kings  whose  names  are  found  scattering  in  sundry  au 
thors,  their  times  being  not  recorded.  The  kings  of  Egypt,  ac 
cording  to  Cedrenus.  Of  Vaphres  and  Sesac. 
MANY  other  names  of  Egyptian  kings  are  found  scat 
tered  here  and  there  ;  as  Tonephersobis,  of  whom  Suidas 
delivers  only  the  bare  name  and  title ;  Senemures,  or  Sene- 
pos,  mentioned  in  Macrobius,  who  perhaps  was  the  same 
that  by  Suidas  is  called  Senyes,  or  Evenes*  noted  by  occa 
sion  of  a  great  physician  that  lived  under  him ;  Banchyris, 
recorded  by  the  same  Suidas,  for  his  great  justice;  and 
Thulis,  of  whom  Suidas  tells  great  matters  ;  as,  that  his  em 
pire  extended  to  the  ocean  sea ;  that  he  gave  name  to  the 
isle  of  Thule,  which  some  take  to  be  Iceland ;  and  that  he 
consulted  with  the  Devil,  or  (which  is  all  one)  with  Seraphis, 
desiring  to  know,  who  before  him  had  been,  or  after  him 
should  be  so  mighty  as  himself.  The  answer  or  confession 
of  the  Devil  was  remarkable ;  which  I  find  Englished  in  the 
translation  of  Plessis's  work,  Of  the  Trueness  of  Christian 
Religion.  The  Greek  verses  are  somewhat  otherwise,  and 
more  imperfect  in  those  copies  that  I  have  of  Cedrenus  and 
Suidas,  but  the  sense  is  all  one ;  which  is  this : 

First  God,  and  next  the  Word,  and  then  the  Sprite, 
Which  three  be  one,  and  join  in  one  all  three : 

Whose  force  is  endless.    Get  thee  hence,  frail  wight, 
The  Man  of  life  unknown  excelleth  thee. 

I  should  have  thought  that  Suidas  had  borrowed  all  this 
of  Cedrenus,  had  I  not  found  somewhat  more  in  Suidas 
than  Cedrenus  hath  hereof;  as,  the  form  of  invocation  which 
Thulis  used,  and  that  clause  of  his  giving  name  to  the 
island ;  though  in  this  last  point  I  hold  Suidas  to  be  de 
ceived  ;  as  also  Cedrenus  is,  or,  at  least,  seems  to  me,  in 
giving  to  this  king  such  profound  antiquity  of  reign.  In 
deed  the  very  name  of  that  book,  cited  often  by  Cedrenus, 
which  he  calls  Little  Genesis,  is  alone  enough  to  breed 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  743 

suspicion  of  some  imposture;  but  the  friarly  stuff  that  he 
allegeth  out  of  it  is  such  as  would  serve  to  discredit  himself, 
were  it  not  otherwise  apparent,  that  he  was  a  man  both  de 
vout  and  of  good  judgment  in  matters  that  fell  within  his 
compass.  I  will  here  set  down  the  list  of  old  Egyptian 
kings  delivered  by  him,  and  leave  the  censure  to  others. 

The  first  king  of  Egypt  that  he  sets  down  is  Mizraim, 
the  son  of  Cham.  After  him  he  finds  many  of  a  new  race, 
deriving  their  pedigree  thus :  Nimrod  the  son  of  Chus  was 
also  called  Orion ;  and  further,  took  upon  him  the  name  of 
the  planet  Saturn,  had  to  wife  Semiramis,  who  was  of  his 
own  lineage,  and  by  her  three  sons ;  Picus,  surnamed  Ju 
piter,  Belus,  and  Ninus.  Picus,  chasing  his  father  out  of 
Assyria  into  Italy,  reigned  in  his  stead  thirty  years,  and 
then  gave  up  that  kingdom  to  Juno,  his  sister  and  wife, 
and  to  Belus  his  son :  after  which  Belus,  who  reigned  only 
two  years,  Ninus  had  the  kingdom,  and  married  his  own 
mother  Semiramis.  But  Picus  went  into  Italy,  to  visit  his 
old  father  Saturn ;  Saturn  forthwith  resigned  the  kingdom 
to  him.  Picus  Jupiter  reigned  in  Italy  threescore  and  two 
years,  had  threescore  and  ten  wives  or  concubines,  and 
about  as  many  children ;  finally  died,  and  lies  buried  in  the 
isle  of  Crete.  The  principal  of  Jupiter's  sons  were  Faunus, 
Perseus,  and  Apollo.  Faunus  was  called  by  the  name  of 
the  planet  Mercury :  he  reigned  in  Italy  after  his  father 
five  and  thirty  years ;  and  then  (finding  that  all  his  bre 
thren  conspired  against  him)  he  went  into  Egypt  with 
abundance  of  treasure ;  where,  after  the  death  of  Mizraim, 
he  got  the  kingdom,  and  held  it  nine  and  thirty  years. 
After  Mercury,  Vulcan  reigned  in  Egypt  four  years  and  a 
half.  Then  Sol  the  son  of  Vulcan  reigned  twenty  years  and 
a  half.  There  followed  in  order  Sosis,  Osiris,  Orus,  and 
Thules,  of  whom  we  spake  before :  the  length  of  their  seve 
ral  reigns  is  not  set  down.  After  Thules  was  the  great  Se- 
sostris  king  twenty  years.  His  successor  was  Pharaoh, 
called  Narecho,  that  held  the  crown  fifty  years,  with  which 
there  passed  from  him  the  surname  of  Pharaoh  to  a  very 
long  posterity. 

SB  4 


744  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

These  reports  of  Cedrenus  I  hold  it  enough  to  set  down 
as  I  find  them;  let  their  credit  rest  upon  the  author. 

Others  yet  we  find  that  are  said  to  have  reigned  in 
Egypt,  without  any  certain  note  when  or  how  long ;  about 
whom  I  will  not  labour,  as  fearing  more  to  be  reprehended 
of  vain  curiosity,  in  the  search  made  after  these  already  re 
hearsed,  than  of  negligence  in  omitting  such  as  might  have 
been  added. 

Vaphres  the  father-in-law  to  Salomon,  and  Sesac  the 
afflicter  of  Rehoboam,  lead  us  again  into  fair  way,  but  not 
far.  The  name  of  Vaphres  is  not  found  in  the  scriptures ; 
but  we  are  beholden  to  7  Clemens  Alexandrinus  and  Euse- 
bius  for  it.  These  give  us  not  the  length  of  his  reign,  but 
we  know  that  he  lived  in  the  times  of  David  and  of  Salo 
mon.  He  came  into  Palestina  with  an  army,  took  Gezar 
from  the  Canaanites,  and  gave  it  to  his  daughter,  z  Salo 
mon's  wife;  though  for  her  sake  perhaps  it  was,  that  in 
time  following  either  he,  or  (as  I  rather  take  it)  Sesac  his 
son,  did  favour  the  enemies  of  Salomon,  who  kept  so  many 
wives  and  concubines,  besides  this  Egyptian  princess.  In 
the  life  of  Rehoboam  all  hath  been  written  that  I  find  of 
Sesac,  excepting  the  length  of  his  reign,  which  must  have 
been  six  and  twenty  years,  if  he  were  that  Smendis  with 
whom  Eusebius  begins  the  one  and  twentieth  dynasty. 

Now  forasmuch  as  it  would  serve  to  no  great  purpose, 
that  we  knew  the  length  of  Sesac's  reign,  and  of  theirs  that 
followed  him,  unless  therewithal  we  knew  the  beginning  of 
Sesac,  upon  which  the  rest  have  dependence,  this  course  I 
take.  From  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim  king  of  Juda, 
in  which  Pharaoh  Necho  was  slain,  I  reckon  upwards  the 
years  of  the  same  Necho,  and  of  his  predecessors,  unto  the 
beginning  of  Sesac ;  by  which  account  the  first  year  of  Se 
sac  is  found  concurrent  with  the  twentieth  of  Salomon's 
reign,  and  the  twenty-sixth  of  Sesac  with  the  fifth  of  Reho 
boam  ;  wherein  Sesac  spoiled  the  temple,  and  died,  enjoy 
ing  the  fruits  of  his  sacrilege  no  longer  than  Joas  the  Isra- 

y  Clem.  Strom.  1.  i.  Euseb.  de  Prsep.  Evang.  1.  9.  c.  4. 
*  i  Kings  ix.  16.  and  xi.  9. 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  745 

elite  and  Crassus  the  Roman  did ;  who,  after  him,  spoiled 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem. 

To  fill  up  the  time  between  Sesac  and  Necho,  I  have  ra 
ther  taken  those  kings  that  I  find  in  the  Greek  historians, 
than  them  which  are  in  Eusebius's  catalogue.  For  of  these 
that  are  delivered  by  Eusebius,  we  find  no  name  nor  act  re 
corded  elsewhere,  save  only  of  Bocchoris,  who  is  remem 
bered  by  Diodore,  Plutarch,  and  others;  much  being 
spoken  of  him,  that  makes  him  appear  to  have  been  a  king. 
Hereunto  I  may  add,  that  the  succession  is  often  inter 
rupted  in  Eusebius  by  Ethiopians,  which  got  the  kingdom 
often,  and  held  it  long ;  whereas  contrariwise  it  appears  by 
the  prophet  Esay,  that  the  counsellors  of  Pharaoh  did 
vaunt  of  the  long  and  flourishing  continuance  of  that  house, 
insomuch  that  they  said  of  Pharaoh,  a/  am  the  son  of  the 
wise,  I  am  the  son  .of  the  ancient  Icing.  But  that  which 
overthrows  the  reckoning  of  Eusebius  is  the  good  agree 
ment  of  it  with  his  mistaken  times  of  the  kings  of  Juda. 
For  though  it  please  him  well  to  see  how  the  reigns  of  Jo- 
sias  and  Necho  meet  by  his  computation,  yet  this  indeed 
mars  all ;  the  reign  of  Josias  being  misplaced.  This  error 
grows  from  his  omitting  to  compare  the  reigns  of  the  kings 
of  Juda  with  theirs  of  Israel;  by  which  occasion  Joram 
king  of  Israel  is  made  to  reign  three  years  after  Ahaziah 
of  Juda;  Samaria  is  taken  by  Salmanassar  before  Eze- 
kias  was  king ;  and,  in  a  word,  all,  or  most  of  the  kings  have 
their  beginnings  placed  in  some  other  year  of  their  col 
laterals  than  the  scriptures  have  determined. 

SECT.  VI. 

Of  Chemmis,  Cheops,  Cephrenes,  and  other  kings  recited  by  Hero 
dotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  which  reigned  between  the  times  of 
Rehoboam  and  Ezekias. 

FOLLOWING  therefore  the  Greek  historians,  I  place 
Chemmis,  or  (according  to  Diodore)  Chembis,  first  in  the 
rank  of  those  that  were  kings  after  Sesac.  He  reigned  fifty 
years,  and  built  the  greatest  of  the  three  pyramids,  which 

"  Isai.  xix.  II. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

was  accounted  one  of  this  world's  wonders.  The  pyramis 
hath  his  name  from  the  shape,  in  that  it  resembleth  a  flame 
of  fire,  growing  from  the  bottom  upwards,  narrower  and 
narrower  to  the  top.  This  of  Chemmis,  being  four-square, 
had  a  base  of  seven  acres  every  way,  and  was  above  six 
acres  high.  It  was  of  a  very  hard  and  durable  stone,  which 
had  lasted,  when  Diodore  saw  it,  about  a  thousand  years, 
without  complaining  of  any  injury  that  it  had  suffered  by 
weather  in  so  long  space.  From  the  reign  of  Chemmis 
unto  the  age  of  Augustus  Caesar,  wherein  Diodore  lived, 
are  indeed  a  thousand  years ;  which  gives  the  better  like 
lihood  unto  this  time  wherein  Chemmis  is  placed.  As  for 
this  and  other  pyramids,  late  writers  testify  that  they  have 
seen  them  yet  standing. 

After  Chemmis,  b  Diodore  placeth  Cephrenes  his  brother ; 
but  doubtfully,  and  inclining  rather  to  the  opinion  that  his 
son  Chabreus  succeeded.  Herodotus  hath  Cheops,  (who 
might  be  Chabreus,)  and  Cephrenes  after  him.  These  are 
said  to  have  been  brethren ;  but  the  length  of  their  reigns 
may  argue  the  latter  to  have  been  son  to  the  former ;  for 
Cheops  reigned  fifty  years,  Cephrenes  fifty-six.  These 
were,  as  Chemmis  had  been,  builders  of  pyramids,  whereby 
they  purchased  great  hatred  of  their  people,  who  already 
had  over-laboured  themselves  in  erecting  the  first.  These 
pyramids  were  ordained  to  be  tombs  for  those  that 
raised  them ;  but  the  malice  of  the  Egyptians  is  said  to 
have  cast  out  their  bodies,  and  to  have  called  their  monu 
ments  by  the  name  of  an  herdsman  that  kept  his  beasts 
thereabouts.  It  may  be,  c  that  the  robbing  them  of  their 
honour,  and  entitling  a  poor  fellow  to  their  works,  was  held 
to  be  the  casting  out  of  their  bodies ;  otherwise  it  is  hard 
to  conceive  how  it  might  be,  that  they,  who  had  not  power 
to  avoid  the  like  slavery  laid  upon  them  by  the  younger 
brother  or  son,  should  have  power  or  leisure  to  take  such 
revenge  upon  his  predecessor.  To  the  like  malice  may  be 
ascribed  the  tale  devised  against  Cheops's  daughter;  that 
her  father,  wanting  money,  did  prostitute  her,  and  that  she 
b  Dvodor.  1. 1 ,  Herod.  1.2.  c  j}iod.  Herod. 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  747 

getting  of  every  man  that  accompanied  lier  one  stone,  did 
build  with  them  a  fourth  pyramis,  that  stood  in  the  midst 
of  the  other  three.  Belike  she  was  an  insolent  lady,  and 
made  them  follow  their  drudgery,  for  her  sake,  longer  a 
while  than  they  thought  to  have  done,  in  raising  a  monu 
ment  with  the  superfluity  of  her  father's  provisions. 

Mycerinus  the  son  of  Cephrenes  reigned  after  his  father 
six  years.  He  would  have  built  as  his  foregoers  did,  but, 
prevented  by  death,  finished  not  what  he  had  begun.  The 
people  thought  him  a  good  king,  for  that  he  did  set  open 
the  temples  which  Cheops  and  Cephrenes  had  kept  shut* 
But  an  oracle  threatened  him  with  a  short  life  of  six  years 
only,  because  of  this  his  devotion ;  "  For,"  said  the  oracle, 
"  Egypt  should  have  been  afflicted  an  hundred  and  fifty 
"  years,  which  thy  predecessors  knew,  and  performed  for 
"  their  parts ;  but  thou  hast  released  it ;  therefore  shalt  thou 
"  live  but  six  years."  It  is  very  strange  that  the  gods 
should  be  offended  with  a  king  for  his  piety,  or  that  they 
should  decree  to  make  a  country  impious  when  the  people 
were  desirous  to  serve  them ;  or,  that  they  having  so  de 
creed,  it  should  lie  in  the  power  of  a  king  to  alter  destiny, 
and  make  the  ordinance  of  the  gods  to  fail  in  taking  full 
effect.  But  these  were  Egyptian  gods.  The  true  God  was 
doubtless  more  offended  with  the  restitution  of  such  idola 
try  than  with  the  interruption.  And  who  knows  whether 
Chemmis  did  not  learn  somewhat  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  last 
year  of  his  father  Sesac,  that  made  him  perceive,  and  de 
liver  to  those  that  followed  him,  the  vanity  of  his  Egyptian 
superstition  ?  Sure  it  is,  that  his  reign  and  the  reigns  of 
Cheops  and  Cephrenes  were  more  long  and  more  happy 
than  that  of  Mycerinus,  who,  to  delude  the  oracle,  revelled 
away  both  days  and  nights,  as  if  by  keeping  candles  lighted 
he  had  changed  his  nights  into  days,  and  so  doubled  the 
time  appointed ;  a  service  more  pleasing  to  the  Devil  than 
the  restitution  of  idolatry  durst  then  seem,  when  it  could 
speed  no  better.  I  find  in  Reineccius  fifty  years  assigned 
to  this  king;  which  I  verily  believe  to  have  been  some 
error  of  the  print,  though  I  find  it  not  corrected  among 


748  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  IT. 

other  such  oversights,  for  I  know  no  author  that  gives 
him  so  many  years ;  and  Reineccius  himself  takes  notice  of 
the  oracle  that  threatened  Mycerinus  with  a  short  life,  as  is 
before  shewed. 

Bocchorus  is  placed  next  unto  Mycerinus  by  Diodore, 
who  speaks  no  more  of  him  than  this,  that  he  was  a  strong 
man  of  body,  and  excelling  his  predecessors  in  wit.  He  is 
spoken  of  by  divers  authors  as  one  that  loved  justice  ;  and 
may  be  taken  for  that  Banchyris,  whom  Suidas  commends 
in  that  kind :  Eusebius  reckons  four  and  forty  years  of  his 
reign. 

After  Bocchorus,  one  Sabacus  an  Ethiopian  follows  in 
the  catalogue  of  Diodore ;  but  certain  ages  after  him.  He 
rodotus,  quite  omitting  Bocchorus,  hath  Asychis;  who 
made  a  sharp  law  (as  it  was  then  held)  against  bad  debtors, 
that  their  dead  bodies  should  be  in  the  creditors  disposition 
till  the  debt  was  paid.  This  Asychis  made  a  pyramis  of 
brick,  more  costly  and  fair,  in  his  own  judgment,  than  any 
of  those  that  the  former  kings  had  raised.  Besides  this 
Asychis,  Herodotus  placeth  one  Anysis,  a  blind  man,  be 
fore  the  Ethiopian.  The  reigns  of  these  two  are  perhaps 
those  many  ages,  which  the  Egyptians,  to  magnify  their 
antiquities,  accounted  between  Bocchorus  and  him  that  fol 
lowed  them.  But  all  this  could  make  but  six  years ;  and  so 
long  doth  Functius,  so  long  doth  Reineccius  hold  that 
these  two  kings,  between  them  both,  did  govern.  If  any 
man  would  lengthen  this  time,  holding  it  unprobable  that 
the  reigns  of  two  kings  should  have  been  so  soon  spent,  he 
may  do  it  by  taking  some  years  from  Sethon  or  Psammeti- 
cus,  and  adding  them  to  either  of  these :  to  add  unto  these, 
without  subtracting  from  some  other,  would  breed  a  mani 
fest  inconvenience ;  forasmuch  as  part  of  Sesac's  reign  must 
have  been  in  d  the  fifth  of  Rehoboam  ;  as  also  the  las.t  of 
Pharaoh  Necho  was  the  fourth  of  Jehoiakim,  and  the  first  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  For  mine  own  part,  I  like  it  better  to  al 
low  six  years  only  to  these  two  kings,  than  to  lose  the  wit 
ness  of  Herodotus,  who,  concurring  herein  with  the  scrip- 

d  i  Kings  xiv.  25.  2  Chron.  xii.  2. 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  749 

tures,  doth  speak  of  Sennacherib's  war ;  at  which  time  Se- 
thon  was  king  of  Egypt.  I  will  not  therefore  add  years 
unto  these  obscure  names ;  for  by  adding  unto  these  men 
three  years,  we  shall  thrust  the  beginning  of  Sethon  out  of 
place,  and  make  it  later  than  the  death  of  Sennacherib.  In 
regard  of  this  agreement  of  Herodotus  with  the  scriptures, 
I  am  the  more  willing  to  hold  with  him  in  his  Egyptian 
kings.  Otherwise  it  were  a  matter  of  no  great  envy,  to 
leave  both  Asychis  and  Anysis  out  of  the  roll ;  which  were 
easily  done  by  placing  Sesac  lower,  and  extending  his  life 
yet  six  years  further,  or  more  (if  the  like  abridgment  shall 
be  required  of  Psammeticus's  reign)  into  the  years  of  Reho- 
boam. 

Of  Sabacus  the  Ethiopian,  who  took  the  kingdom  from 
Amy  sis,  it  is  agreed  by  the  most  that  he  reigned  fifty 
years.  He  was  a  merciful  prince,  not  punishing  all  capital 
offences  with  death,  but  imposing  bondage  and  bodily  labour 
upon  malefactors ;  by  whose  toil  he  both  got  much  wealth 
into  his  own  hands,  letting  out  their  service  to  hire,  and 
performed  many  works  of  more  use  than  pomp,  to  the  sin 
gular  benefit  of  the  country.  Zonaras  calls  this  king  Sua, 
the  scriptures  call  him  So.  Hosea,  the  last  king  of  Israel, 
made  a  league  with  him  against  Salmanassar,  little  to  his 
good ;  for  the  Egyptian  was  more  rich  than  warlike,  and 
therefore  his  friendship  could  not  preserve  the  Israelite  from 
destruction. 

It  seems  that  the  encroaching  power  of  the  Assyrian 
grew  terrible  to  Egypt  about  these  times ;  the  victories  of 
Tiglath  Phulassar  and  Salmanassar,  having  eaten  so  far 
into  Syria  in  the  reign  of  this  one  king  So,  or  Sabacus. 
Yea,  perhaps  it  was  in  his  days  (for  his  reign  began  in  the 
fourth  of  Menahem)  that  Phul  himself  did  make  the  first 
entrance  into  Palestina.  This  caused  So  to  animate  the 
half-subdued  people  against  their  conquerors ;  but  the  help 
which  he  and  his  successor  gave  them  was  so  faint,  that 
Sennacherib's  ambassador  compared  the  Egyptian  succour 
to  a  broken  staff  of  reed.  Such  indeed  had  Hosea  found 
it,  and  such  Ezekias  might  have  found  it,  had  he  not  been 


750  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

supported  by  the  strong  staff  of  Him  that  rules  all  nations 
with  a  rod  of  iron.  It  appears  by  the  words  of  Rabsake, 
that  the  opinion  was  great  in  Juda  of  the  Egyptian  forces, 
*for  chariots  and  horsemen;  but  this  power,  whatsoever  it 
was,  grew  needful  within  a  little  while  for  the  defence  of 
Egypt  itself,  which  So  left  unto  Sethon  his  successor,  hav-. 
ing  now  fulfilled  the  fifty  years  of  his  reign.  Herodotus  and 
Diodoms  have  both  one  tale,  from  the  relation  of  Egyp 
tian  priests,  concerning  the  departure  of  this  king ;  saying, 
that  he  left  the  country,  and  willingly  retired  into  Ethiopia, 
because  it  was  often  signified  unto  him  in  his  dreams,  by 
the  god  which  was  worshipped  at  Thebes,  that  his  reign 
should  be  neither  long  .nor  prosperous,  unless  he  slew  all 
the  priests  in  Egypt ;  which  rather  than  to  do,  he  resigned 
his  kingdom.  Surely  these  Egyptian  gods  were  of  a  strange 
quality,  that  so  ill  rewarded  their  servants,  and  invited 
kings  to  do  them  wrong.  Well  might  the  Egyptians  (as 
they  likewise  did)  worship  dogs  as  gods,  when  their  chief 
gods  had  the  property  of  dogs,  which  love  their  masters 
the  better  for  beating  them.  Yet  to  what  end  the  priests 
should  have  feigned  this  tale,  I  cannot  tell ;  and  therefore  I 
think  that  it  might  be  some  device  of  the  fearful  old  man, 
who  seeing  his  realm  in  danger  of  an  invasion,  sought  an 
honest  excuse  for  his  departure  out  of  it,  and  withdrawing 
himself  into  Ethiopia,  where  he  had  been  bred  in  his  youth. 
What  if  one  should  say,  that  the  Ethiopia  into  which  he 
went,  was  none  other  than  Arabia,  whereof  Tirhaka  the 
king  (perhaps  at  the  instigation  of  this  man)  raised  an  army 
against  Sennacherib,  when  he  meant  to  invade  Egypt, 
within  two  or  three  years  after?  But  I  will  not  trouble 
myself  with  such  inquiry.  This  I  hold,  that  So,  or  Saba- 
cus,  was  not  indeed  an  Ethiopian,  (for  in  his  time  lived  the 
prophet  Isaiah,  who  mentioneth  the  antiquity  of  Pharaoh's 
house,)  but  only  so  surnamed  for  his  education,  and  be 
cause  issuing  from  thence  he  got  the  kingdom  from  Any- 
sis,  who  was  his  opposite.  The  quiet  and  mild  form  of  his 
government ;  his  holding  the  kingdom  so  long  without  an 

e  2  Kings  xviii.  24. 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  751 

army ;  and  many  other  circumstances  argue  no  less.  But 
whether  finally  he  betook  to  a  private  life,  or  whether  he  fore 
went  his  life  and  kingdom  at  once,  being  now  very  old,  it  is 
time  that  we  leave  him,  and  speak  of  Sethon  his  next  suc 
cessor,  who  is  omitted  by  Diodore,  but  remembered  by  He 
rodotus  by  a  sure  token  of  his  having  been  king. 

SECT.   VII. 

Of  Sethon  who  reigned  with  Ezekias,  and  sided  with  him  against 
Sennacherib. 

THE  first  year  of  Sethon's  reign  falls  into  the  twelfth  of 
Ezekias,  which  was  the  fifth  of  Sennacherib.  It  was  a  trou 
blesome  age,  and  full  of  danger ;  the  two  great  kingdoms 
of  Assyria  and  Egypt  being  then  engaged  in  a  war,  the  issue 
whereof  was  to  determine  whether  of  them  should  rule  or 
serve.  The  Assyrian  had  the  better  men  of  war;  the 
Egyptian,  better  provision  of  necessaries ;  the  Assyrian, 
more  subjects;  the  Egyptian,  more  friends;  and  among 
the  new  conquered  half-subjects  of  Assur,  many  that  were 
Egyptian  in  heart,  though  Assyrian  in  outward  show. 

Of  this  last  sort  were  Ezekias  and  his  people ;  who, 
knowing  how  much  it  concerned  Pharaoh  to  protect  them 
against  his  own  great  enemy,  preferred  the  friendship  of  so 
near  and  mighty  a  neighbour  before  the  service  of  a  ter 
rible,  yet  far  removed  king.  But  herein  was  great  dif 
ference  between  Ezekias  and  his  subjects;  for  the  good 
king,  fixing  his  especial  confidence  in  God,  held  that  course 
of  policy  which  he  thought  most  likely  to  turn  to  the  bene 
fit  of  his  country ;  the  multitude  of  Judaea,  looking  into  the 
fair  hopes  which  this  Egyptian  league  promised,  were 
puffed  up  with  vain  conceits,  thinking  that  all  was  safe, 
and  that  now  they  should  not  need  to  fear  any  more  of 
those  injuries  which  they  had  suffered  by  the  Assyrians, 
and  so  became  forgetful  of  God,  f  taking  counsel,  but  not  of 
him.  The  prophet  Isaiah  complained  much  of  this  pre 
sumption;  giving  the  people  of  Juda  to  understand,  that 
s  the  Egyptians  were  men,  and  not  God,  and  their  horses 

f  Isaiah  xxx.  i.  *  Isaiah  xxxi.  3.  8.  Isaiah  xxx.  7.  Isaiah  iii.  4. 


752  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

flesh,  and  not  spirit;  that  God  himself  should  defend  Is 
rael  upon  repentance,  and  that  Assur  should  fall  by  the 
sword,  but  not  of  man.  As  for  the  Egyptians,  (said  the 
prophet,)  they  are  vanity,  and  they  shall  help  in  vain,  their 
strength  is  to  sit  still. 

According  to  the  prophet's  words  it  came  to  pass :  for  in 
the  treaty  of  confederacy  that  was  held  at  Zoan,  all  manner 
of  contentment  and  assurance  was  given  to  the  Jews  by 
Sethon,  or  his  agents,  who  filled  them  with  such  reports  of 
horses  and  chariots,  that  they  did  not  look  (as  saith  Isaiah 
xxxi.  1,  2.)  unto  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  nor  seek  unto  the 
Lord.  But  he  yet  is  wisest. 

After  a  while  came  Sennacherib  with  his  army,  and 
wakened  them  out  of  these  dreams ;  for  Sethon  their  good 
neighbour,  as  near  as  he  was,  did  seem  far  off,  being  un 
ready  when  his  help  was  most  needful.  It  may  seem  that 
he  purposed  rather  to  make  Palestina  than  Egypt  the  stage 
whereon  this  great  war  should  be  acted,  and  was  not  with 
out  hope,  that  the  Assyrians  and  Jews,  weakening  one  an 
other,  should  yield  unto  him  a  fair  advantage  over  both. 
Yet  he  fought  with  money ;  for  he  sent  horses  and  camels 
laden  with  treasure,  to  hire  the  Arabians,  whom  h  Isaiah 
calleth  a  people  that  cannot  profit.  These  Arabians  did 
not  profit  indeed ;  for  (besides  that  it  seems  by  the  same 
place  of  Isaiah,  that  the  rich  treasures  miscarried,  and 
fell  into  the  enemies'  hands  before  any  help  appeared  from 
Tirhaca)  all  the  strong  cities  of  Juda  were  taken  by  Senna 
cherib,  except  Libna,  Lachis,  and  Jerusalem  itself,  which 
were  in  sore  distress,  till  the  sword  of  God,  and  not  of  man, 
defeated  the  Assyrian,  who  did  go,  'l for  fear,  to  his  tower; 
that  is,  he  fled  to  Nineveh,  where  he  was  slain. 

Concerning  this  expedition  of  Sennacherib,  Herodotus 
takes  this  notice  of  it ;  that  it  was  purposed  against  Egypt, 
where  the  men  of  war  being  offended  with  Sethon  their 
king,  who  had  taken  away  their  allowance,  refused  to  bear 
arms  in  defence  of  him  and  the  country ;  that  Sethon  be 
ing  Vulcan's  priest,  bemoaned  himself  to  his  god,  who  by 

Xxxi.  9. 


CHAP.  xxvi.  OF  THE  WORLD.  753 

dream  promised  to  send  him  helpers:  that  hereupon  Se- 
thon,  with  such  as  would  follow  him,  (which  were  crafts 
men,  shopkeepers,  and  the  like,)  marched  towards  Pelu- 
sium  ;  and  that  a  great  multitude  of  field-mice,  entering  the 
camp  of  Sennacherib  by  night,  did  so  gnaw  the  bows,  qui 
vers,  and  straps  of  his  men's  armour,  that  they  were  fain 
the  next  day  to  fly  away  in  all  haste,  finding  themselves  dis 
armed.  In  memory  hereof,  (saith  Herodotus,)  the  statue  of 
this  king  is  set  up  in  the  temple  of  Vulcan,  holding  a  mouse 
in  his  hand,  with  this  inscription :  "  Let  him  that  beholds 
"  me,  serve  God.""  Such  was  the  relation  of  the  Egyptian 
priests,  wherein  how  far  they  swerved  from  the  truth,  be 
ing  desirous  to  magnify  their  own  king,  it  may  easily  be 
perceived.  It  seems  that  this  image  of  Sethon  was  fallen 
down,  and  the  tale  forgotten  in  Diodorus's  time,  or  else  per 
haps  the  priests  did  forbear  to  tell  it  him,  (which  caused 
him  to  omit  it,)  for  that  the  nation  of  the  Jews  was  then 
well  known  to  the  world,  whereof  every  child  could  have 
told  how  much  falsehood  had  been  mingled  with  the  truth. 

We  find  this  history  agreeable  to  the  scriptures  thus  far 
forth :  that  Sennacherib  king  of  the  Assyrians  and  Ara 
bians  (so  Herodotus  calleth  him  ;  the  Syrians,  or  perad- 
venture  some  borderers  upon  Syria,  being  meant  by  the 
name  of  Arabians)  lived  in  this  age,  made  war  upon  Egypt, 
and  was  miraculously  driven  home.  As  for  that  exploit  of 
the  mice,  and  the  great  pleasure  that  Vulcan  did  unto  his 
priest,  happy  it  was  (if  Sethon  were  a  priest)  that  he  took 
his  god  now  in  so  good  a  mood.  For  within  three  or  four 
years  before  this,  all  the  priests  in  Egypt  should  have  been 
slain,  if  a  merciful  king  had  not  spared  their  lives,  as  it 
were  half  against  the  god's  will.  Therefore  this  last  good 
turn  was  not  enough  to  serve  as  an  example,  that  might 
stir  up  the  Egyptians  to  piety,  seeing  that  their  devotion, 
which  had  lasted  so  long  before,  did  bring  all  the  priests 
into  danger  of  such  a  bad  reward.  Rather  I  think,  that 
this  image  did  represent  Sennacherib  himself,  and  that  the 
mouse  in  his  hand  signified  hieroglyphically  (as  was  the 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  C 


754  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Egyptian  manner  of  expressing  things)  the  shameful  issue 
of  his  terrible  expedition,  or  the  destruction  of  his  army, 
by  means  which  came  no  man  knew  from  whence.  For  the 
vengeance  of  God  shewed  upon  this  ungodly  king  was  in 
deed  a  very  good  motive  to  piety.  But  the  emblem,  toge 
ther  with  the  temple  of  Vulcan,  (being  perhaps  the  chief 
temple  in  that  town  where  this  image  was  erected,)  might 
give  occasion  to  such  a  fable,  the  Devil  helping  to  change 
the  truth  into  a  lie,  that  God  might  be  robbed  of  his  honour. 
Yet  that  we  may  not  belie  the  Devil,  I  hold  it  very  likely 
that  Sethon,  finding  himself  in  danger,  did  call  upon  his 
gods,  that  is,  upon  Vulcan,  Serapis,  or  any  to  whom  he  had 
most  devotion.  But  so  had  other  of  his  predecessors  done 
in  the  like  need ;  yet  which  of  them  had  obtained  succour 
by  the  like  miracle  ?  Surely  the  Jews  (even  such  of  them 
as  most  were  given  to  idolatry)  would  have  been  ashamed 
of  the  confidence  which  they  reposed  k  in  the  chariots  of 
Egypt,  because  they  were  many;  and  in  the  horsemen,  be 
cause  they  were  very  strong;  had  it  been  told  them,  that 
Sethon,  instead  of  sending  those  horsemen  and  chariots, 
was  beseeching  Vulcan  to  send  him  and  them  good  luck,  or 
else  (for  these  also  were  Egyptian  gods)  addressing  his 
prayers  to  some  onion  or  cat.  Howsoever  it  was,  doubtless 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  took  effect,  which  said,  They  shall 
be  all  ashamed  of  the  people  that  cannot  profit  them,  nor 
help,  nor  do  them  good;  but  shall  be  a  shame,  and  also  a 
reproach.  Such  is  commonly  the  issue  of  human  wisdom, 
when  resting  secure  upon  provision  that  itself  hath  made,  it 
will  no  longer  seem  to  stand  in  need  of  God. 

Some  there  are  who  take  Sethon  to  have  been  set  down 
by  Eusebius  under  the  name  of  Tarachus  the  Ethiopian ; 
and  therefore  the  twenty  years  which  are  given  to  Tarachus, 
they  allow  to  the  reign  of  Sethon.  These  have  well  ob 
served,  that  Tarachus  the  Ethiopian  is  mentioned  in  the 
scriptures,  not  as  a  king  of  Egypt,  but  as  a  friend  to  that 
country,  or  at  least  an  enemy  to  Sennacherib,  in  the  war 

k  Isai.  xxxi.  i. 


CHAP.  xxvi.          OF  THE  WORLD.  755 

last  spoken  of;  the  Ethiopians,  (as  they  are  Englished,)  over 
which  he  reigned,  being  indeed  Chusites  or  Arabians. 
Hereupon  they  suppose  aright,  that  Eusebius  hath  mistaken 
one  king  for  another.  But  whereas  they  think,  that  this 
Tarachus,  or  Tirhaka,  is  placed  in  the  room  of  Sethon, 
and  therefore  give  to  Sethon  the  twenty  years  of  Tarachus, 
I  hold  them  to  have  erred  on  the  other  hand.  For  this 
Ethiopian  (as  he  is  called)  began  his  reign  over  Egypt,  by 
Eusebius's  account,  after  the  death  of  Sennacherib  and  of 
Ezekias  in  the  first  year  of  Manasses  king  of  Juda ;  there 
fore  he,  or  his  years,  have  no  reference  to  Sethon. 

Herodotus  forgets  to  tell  how  long  Sethon  reigned; 
Functius  peremptorily,  citing  no  author,  nor  alleging  reason 
for  it,  sets  him  down  thirty-three  years;  many  omit  him 
quite ;  and  they  that  name  him  are  not  careful  to  examine 
his  continuance.  In  this  case,  I  follow  that  rule  which  I 
propounded  unto  myself  at  the  first,  for  measuring  the 
reigns  of  these  Egyptian  kings.  The  years  which  passed 
from  the  fifth  of  Rehoboam  unto  the  fourth  of  Jehoiakim, 
I  so  divide  among  the  Egyptians,  that  giving  to  every  one 
the  proportion  allowed  unto  him  by  the  author  in  whom  he 
is  found,  the  rest  is  to  be  conferred  upon  him  whose  length 
of  reign  is  uncertain,  that  is,  upon  this  Sethon.  By  this 
account  I  find  the  thirty- three  years  that  are  set  down  by 
Functius,  to  agree  very  nearly,  if  not  precisely,  with  the 
time  of  Sethon's  reign ;  therefore  I  conform  my  own  reckon 
ing  to  his,  though  I  could  be  content  to  have  it  one  year 
less.  The  reason  of  this  computation  I  shall  render  more 
at  large  when  I  arrive  at  the  time  of  Psammiticus,  where 
upon  it  hath  much  dependance,  and  whereinto  the  course 
of  this  history  will  shortly  bring  me ;  the  Egyptian  affairs 
growing  now  to  be  interlaced  with  the  matters  of  Juda,  to 
which  it  is  meet  that  I  return. 


756  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

CHAP.    XXVII. 

OfManasses,  and  his  contemporaries. 

SECT.  I. 

The  wickedness  of  Manasses.     His  imprisonment,  repentance,  and 

death. 

MANASSES  the  son  of  Ezekias,  forgetting  the  piety 
of  his  father,  and  the  prosperity  which  followed  him,  set 
up,  repaired,  adorned,  and  furnished  all  the  altars,  temples, 
and  high  places,  in  which  the  Devil  was  by  the  heathen 
worshipped.  Besides,  he  himself  esteemed  the  sun,  the 
moon,  and  the  stars,  with  all  the  host  of  heaven,  as  gods, 
and  worshipped  them ;  and  of  all  his  acts,  the  most  abo 
minable  was,  that  he  burnt  his  sons  for  a  sacrifice  to  the 
devil  Moloch,  or  Melchor,  in  the  valley  of  Hinnon,  or 
Benhennon,  wherein  was  kindled  the  fire  of  sacrifice  to  the 
devils. 

He  also  gave  himself  to  all  kind  of  witchcraft  and  sor 
cery,  accompanied  and  maintained  those  that  had  familiar 
spirits,  and  all  sorts  of  enchanters :  besides,  he  shed  so  much 
innocent  blood,  as  Jerusalem  was  replenished  therewith 
from  corner  to  corner.  For  all  his  vices  and  abominations, 
when  he  was  reprehended  by  that  aged  and  reverend  pro 
phet  l  Isaiah,  (who  was  also  of  the  king's  race,  and,  as  the 
Jews  affirm,  the  father-in-law  of  the  king,)  he  caused  the 
prophet,  near  unto  the  fountain  of  Siloe,  to  be  sawn  in  sun 
der  with  a  wooden  saw,  in  the  80th  year  of  his  life ;  a 
cruelty  more  barbarous  and  monstrous  than  hath  been 
heard  of.  The  scriptures  indeed  are  silent  hereof,  yet  the 
same  is  confirmed  by  Epiphanius,  Isidore,  Eusebius,  and 
others,  too  many  to  rehearse,  and  too  good  to  be  suspected. 
m  Therefore  the  Lord  brought  upon  them  the  captains  of 
the  host  of  the  kings  qfAshur,  which  took  Manasses,  and 
put  him  in  fetters^  and  bound  him  in  chains^  and  carried 
him  to  Babel :  where  after  he  had  lien  twenty  years  as  a 
captive,  and  despoiled  of  all  honour  and  hope,  yet  to  his 

1  Just.  Mart.  Cedrenus,  c.  19.  Glycas,  p.  275.  Tertull.  de  Pat. 
m  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11. 


CHAP,  xxvii.  OF  THE  WORLD.  757 

hearty  repentance  and  continual  prayer  the  God  of  infinite 
mercy  had  respect,  and  moved  the  Assyrian's  heart  to  de 
liver  him. 

It  is  also  likely  that  Merodach,  because  he  loved  his  fa 
ther  Ezekias,  was  the  easilier  persuaded  to  restore  Ma- 
nasses  to  his  liberty  and  estate.  After  which,  and  when 
he  was  again  established,  remembering  the  miseries  which 
followed  his  wickedness,  and  God's  great  mercies  towards 
him,  he  changed  form,  detested  his  former  foolish  and  de 
vilish  idolatry,  and  cast  down  the  idols  of  his  own  erection, 
prepared  the  altar  of  God,  and  sacrificed  thereon.  He  re 
paired  a  great  part  of  Jerusalem,  and  died  after  the  long 
reign  of  fifty-five  years.  Glycas  and  Suidas  report,  that 
Manasses  was  held  in  a  case  of  iron  by  the  Assyrians,  and 
therein  fed  with  bread  of  bran  and  water ;  which  men  may 
believe  as  it  shall  please  their  fancies. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  troubles  in  Egypt  following  the  death  of  Sethon.     The  reign  of 

Psammiticus. 

THAT  the  wickedness  of  king  Manasses  was  the  cause 
of  the  evil  which  fell  upon  his  kingdom  and  person,  any 
Christian  must  needs  believe,  for  it  is  affirmed  in  the  scrip 
tures.  Yet  was  the  state  of  things  in  those  parts  of  the  world 
such,  at  that  time,  as  would  have  invited  any  prince,  (and 
did  perhaps  invite  Merodach,  who  fulfilled  God's  pleasure, 
upon  respect  borne  to  his  own  ends,)  desirous  of  enlarging 
his  empire,  to  make  attempt  upon  Juda.  For  the  king 
dom  of  Egypt,  which  was  become  the  pillar  whereon  the 
state  of  Juda  leaned,  about  these  times  was  miserably  dis 
tracted  with  civil  dissension,  and,  after  two  years,  ill  amended 
by  a  division  of  the  government  between  twelve  princes. 
After  some  good  agreement  between  these,  eleven  of  them 
fell  out  with  the  twelfth  of  their  colleagues,  and  were  all 
finally  subdued  by  him,  who  made  himself  absolute  king  of 
all.  This  interregnum,  or  mere  anarchy,  that  was  in  Egypt, 
with  the  division  of  the  kingdom  following  it,  is  placed  by 
Diodore,  who  omitteth  Sethon,  between  the  reigns  of  Saba- 

3c3 


758  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

cus  and  Psammiticus ;  but  Herodotus  doth  set  the  aristo- 
craty,  or  twelve  governors,  immediately  before  Psammiticus, 
who  was  one  of  them,  and  after  Sethon. 

The  occasion  of  this  dissension  seems  to  have  been  the 
uncertainty  of  title  to  that  kingdom,  (for  that  the  crown  of 
Egypt  passed  by  succession  of  blood  I  have  often  shewed,) 
which  ended  for  a  while  by  the  partition  of  all  among 
twelve,  though  things  were  not  settled  until  one  had  ob 
tained  the  sovereignty. 

These  twelve  rulers  governed  fifteen  years,  in  good  seem 
ing  agreement,  which  to  preserve  they  made  strait  covenants 
and  alliances  one  with  another,  being  jealous  of  their  estate, 
because  an  oracle  had  foretold  that  one  of  them  should  de 
pose  all  the  rest,  noting  him  by  this  token,  that  he  should 
make  a  drink-offering  in  Vulcan's  temple  out  of  a  copper 
goblet.  Whilst  this  unity  lasted,  they  joined  together  in 
raising  a  monument  of  their  dominion,  which  was  a  laby 
rinth,  built  near  unto  the  lake  of  Moeris ;  a  work  so  admir 
able,  that  (as  Herodotus,  who  beheld  it,  affirms)  no  words 
could  give  it  commendation  answerable  to  the  stateliness  of 
the  work  itself.  I  will  not  here  set  down  that  unperfect 
description  which  Herodotus  makes  of  it,  but  think  enough 
to  say,  that  he  prefers  it  far  before  the  pyramids,  one  of 
which  (as  he  saith)  excelled  the  temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus, 
or  any  of  the  fairest  works  in  Greece.  Diodorus  reports 
this  labyrinth  to  have  been  the  work  of  Marus,  or  Menides, 
a  king  which  lived  five  generations  before  Proteus,  that  is, 
before  the  war  of  Troy,  and  from  this  labyrinth,  saith  he, 
Daedalus  took  the  pattern  of  that  which  he  made  for  Minos 
in  Crete.  Who  this  Marus,  or  Menides,  was,  I  cannot  tell. 
Reineccius  takes  him  to  have  been  Annemenes,  which  reigned 
immediately  before  Thuoris.  But  this  agrees  not  with 
Diodore  ;  for  Daedalus  and  Minos  were  both  dead  long  be 
fore  Annemenes  was  king.  Belike  Reineccius,  desiring  to 
accommodate  the  fabulous  relations  of  Manethon,  Chaere- 
mon,  and  others,  that  are  found  in  n  Josephus  touching 
Amenophis  and  his  children,  to  the  story  of  Amasis,  and 

n  Joseph,  cont.  Appion,  1. 1. 


CHAP,  xxvii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  759 

Actisanes  the  Ethiopian,  mentioned  by  Diodore ;  held  it 
consequent,  after  he  had  conjectured  Manethon's  Ameno- 
phis  to  be  Diodorus's  Amasis,  that  Sethon  should  be  Acti 
sanes,  and  that  Annemenes  should  be  Marus.  If  in  this 
case  I  might  intrude  a  conjecture,  the  times  which  we  now 
handle  are  those  about  which  Reineccius  hath  erred  in 
making  search ;  Amasis  was  Any  sis,  Actisanes  was  Sabacus, 
and  Marus  was  one  of  those  twelve  princes  to  whom  He 
rodotus  gives  the  honour  of  building  this  famous  labyrinth. 
For  Actisanes  the  Ethiopian  deposed  Amasis,  Sabacus  the 
Ethiopian  deposed  Any  sis ;  Actisanes  governed  well,  and 
was  mild  in  punishing  offenders  ;  so  likewise  was  Sabacus : 
Marus,  the  next  king  after  Actisanes,  built  this  labyrinth  ; 
and  the  next  (saving  Sethon,  whom  Diodore  omits,  as  having 
not  heard  of  him)  that  ruled  after  Sabacus,  performed  the 
same  work,  according  to  Herodotus,  who  was  more  likely 
to  hear  the  truth,  as  living  nearer  to  the  age  wherein  it  was 
performed.  The  variety  of  names,  and  difference  of  times 
wherein  Diodore  believed  the  priest,  might  be  a  part  of  the 
Egyptian  vanity,  which  was  familiar  with  them,  in  multi 
plying  their  kings  and  boasting  of  their  antiquities.  Here  I 
might  add,  that  the  twelve  great  halls,  parlours,  and  other 
circumstances  remembered  by  Herodotus,  in  speaking  of  this 
building,  do  help  to  prove,  that  it  was  the  work  of  these 
twelve  princes.  But  I  hasten  to  their  end. 

At  a  solemn  feast  in  Vulcan's  temple,  when  they  were  to 
make  their  drink-offerings,  the  priest  forgetting  himself, 
brought  forth  no  more  than  eleven  cups.  Hereupon  Psam- 
miticus,  who  standing  last  had  not  a  cup,  took  off  his  brasen 
helmet,  and  therewith  supplied  the  want.  This  caused  all 
the  rest  to  remember  the  oracle,  and  to  suspect  him  as  a 
traitor ;  yet,  when  they  found  that  it  was  not  done  by  him 
upon  set  purpose  or  ill  intent,  they  forbare  to  kill  him; 
but,  being  jealous  of  their  estate,  they  banished  him  into 
the  marish  countries  by  the  sea-side.  This  oracle,  and  the 
event,  is  held  by  Diodore  as  a  fable,  which  I  believe  to  have 
been  none  other :  in  the  rest  Herodotus  and  Diodore  agree, 
saying,  that  Psammiticus  hired  soldiers  out  of  Caria  and 

3c  4 


760  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Ionia,  by  whose  aid  he  vanquished    his  companions,  and 
made  himself  sole  king. 

The  years  of  his  reign,  according  to  Herodotus,  were 
fifty-four;  according  to  Eusebius  forty-four;  Mercator,  to 
reconcile  these  two,  gives  forty-four  years  to  his  single  reign, 
and  ten  to  his  ruling  jointly  with  the  princes  before  spoken 
of.  Indeed,  he  that  was  admitted,  being  a  man  grown,  (for 
he  cannot  in  reason  be  supposed  to  have  been  then  a  young 
fellow,)  into  the  number  of  the  twelve  governors,  must  be 
thought  to  have  lived  unto  extreme  old  age,  if  he  ruled 
partly  with  others,  partly  alone,  threescore  and  nine  years. 
I  therefore  yield  rather  to  Eusebius,  but  will  not  adventure 
to  cut  five  years  from  the  aristocraty ;  though  peradventure 
Psammiticus  was  not  at  first  one  of  the  twelve,  but  succeeded 
(either  by  election,  or  as  next  of  blood)  into  the  place  of 
some  prince  that  died,  and  was  ten  years  companion  in  that 
government. 

Another  scruple  there  is,  though  not  great,  which  trou 
bles  this  reckoning.  The  years  of  these  Egyptians,  as 
we  find  them  set  down,  are  more  by  one  than  serve  to  fill 
up  the  time  between  the  fifth  of  Rehoboam  and  the  fourth 
of  Jehoiakim.  This  may  not  be.  Wherefore  either  we  must 
abate  one  year  from  Sethon's  reign,  that  was  of  uncertain 
length ;  or  else  (which  I  had  rather  do,  because  Functius 
may  have  followed  better  authority  than  I  know,  or  than 
himself  allegeth,  in  giving  to  Sethon  a  time  so  nearly  agree 
ing  with  the  truth)  we  must  confound  the  last  year  of 
one  reign  with  the  first  of  another.  Such  a  supposition 
were  not  insolent.  For  no  man  can  suppose,  that  all  the 
kings,  or  any  great  part  of  them,  which  are  set  down  in 
chronological  tables,  reigned  precisely  so  many  years  as 
are  ascribed  unto  them,  without  any  fractions:  it  is  enough 
to  think,  that  the  surplusage  of  one  man's  time  supplied 
the  defect  of  another's.  Wherefore  I  confound  the  last 
year  of  those  fifteen,  wherein  the  twelve  princes  ruled,  with 
the  first  of  Psammiticus,  who  surely  did  not  fall  out  with 
his  companions,  fight  with  them,  and  make  himself  lord 
alone,  all  in  one  day. 


CHAP.  xxvn.          OF  THE  WORLD.  761 

Concerning  this  king,  it  is  recorded  that  he  was  the  first 
in  Egypt  who  entertained  any  strait  amity  with  the  Greeks; 
that  he  retained  in  pay  his  mercenaries  of  Caria,  Ionia,  and 
Arabia,  to  whom  he  gave  large  rewards  and  possessions ; 
and  that  he  greatly  offended  his  Egyptian  soldiers,  by  be 
stowing  them  in  the  left  wing  of  his  army,  whilst  his  mer 
cenaries  held  the  right  wing  (which  was  the  more  honour 
able  place)  in  an  expedition  that  he  made  into  Syria.  Upon 
this  disgrace,  it  is  said  that  his  soldiers,  to  the  number  of 
two  hundred  thousand,  forsook  their  natural  country  of 
Egypt,  and  went  into  Ethiopia,  to  dwell  there;  neither 
could  they  be  revoked  by  kind  messages,  nor  by  the  king 
himself,  who  overtook  them  on  the  way ;  but  when  he  told 
them  of  their  country,  their  wives,  and  children,  they  an 
swered,  that  their  weapons  should  get  them  a  country, 
and  that  nature  had  enabled  them  to  get  other  wives  and 
children. 

It  is  also  reported  of  him,  that  he  caused  two  infants  to 
be  brought  up  in  such  sort  as  they  might  not  hear  any  word 
spoken ;  by  which  means  he  hoped  to  find  out  what  nation 
or  language  was  most  ancient,  forasmuch  as  it  seemed  likely 
that  nature  would  teach  the  children  to  speak  that  lan 
guage  which  men  spake  at  the  first.  The  issue  hereof  was, 
that  the  children  cried  beccus,  beccus,  which  word  being 
found  to  signify  bread  in  the  Phrygian  tongue,  served 
greatly  to  magnify  the  Phrygian  antiquity.  Goropius 
Becanus  makes  no  small  matter  of  this,  for  the  honour  of 
his  Low  Dutch,  in  which  the  word  becker  signifies  (as  baker 
in  English)  a  maker  of  bread.  He  that  will  turn  over  any 
part  of  Goropius's  works  may  find  enough  of  this  kind  to 
persuade  a  willing  man,  that  Adam  and  all  the  patriarchs 
used  none  other  tongue  than  the  Low  Dutch,  before  the 
confusion  of  languages  at  Babel ;  the  name  itself  of  Babel 
being  also  Dutch,  and  given  by  occasion  of  this  confusion, 
for  that  there  they  began  to  babble  and  talk  one  knew  not 
what. 

But  I  will  not  insist  upon  all  that  is  written  of  Psammi- 
ticus.  The  most  regardable  of  his  acts  was  the  siege  of 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Azotus  in  Palsestina,  about  which  he  spent  nine  and  twenty 
years.  Never  have  we  heard  (saith  Herodotus)  that  any 
city  endured  so  long  a  siege  as  this,  yet  Psammiticus  carried 
it  at  the  last.  This  town  of  °  Azotus  had  been  won  by  Tar 
tan,  a  captain  of  Sennacherib,  and  was  now,  as  it  seemeth, 
relieved,  but  in  vain,  by  the  Babylonian,  which  made  it  hold 

out  so  well. 

SECT.  III. 

What  reference  these  Egyptian  matters  might  have  to  the  imprison 
ment  and  enlargement  of  Manasses.  In  what  part  of  his  reign 
Manasses  was  taken  prisoner. 

WERE  it  certainly  known  in  what  year  of  his  reign 
Manasses  was  taken  prisoner,  and  how  long  it  was  before  he 
obtained  liberty,  I  think  we  should  find  these  Egyptian 
troubles  to  have  been  no  small  occasion  both  of  his  captivity 
and  enlargement ;  God  so  disposing  of  human  actions,  that 
even  they,  who  intended  only  their  own  business,  fulfilled 
only  his  high  pleasure.  For  either  the  civil  wars  in  Egypt 
that  followed  upon  the  death  of  Sethon,  or  the  renting  of 
the  kingdom  as  it  were  into  twelve  pieces,  or  the  war  be 
tween  Psammiticus  and  his  colleagues,  or  the  expedition  of 
Psammiticus  unto  Syria,  and  the  siege  of  Azotus,  might 
minister  unto  the  Babylonian,  either  such  cause  of  hope  to 
enlarge  his  dominion  in  the  south  parts,  or  such  necessity 
of  sending  an  army  into  those  parts  to  defend  his  own,  as 
would  greatly  tempt  him  to  make  sure  work  with  the  king 
of  Juda.  The  same  occasions  sufficed  also  to  procure  the 
delivery  of  Manasses,  after  he  was  taken.  For  he  was 
taken  (as  P  Josephus  hath  it)  by  subtilty,  not  by  open  force, 
neither  did  they  that  apprehended  him  win  his  country, 
but  only  waste  it.  So  that  the  Jews,  having  learned  wit 
by  the  ill  success  of  their  folly,  in  redeeming  Amaziah,  were 
like  to  be  more  circumspect  in  making  their  bargain  upon 
such  another  accident ;  and  the  Babylonian  (to  whom  the 
Egyptian  matters  presented  more  weighty  arguments  of 
hope  and  fear  than  the  little  kingdom  of  Juda  could  afford) 
had  no  reason  to  spend  his  forces  in  pursuing  a  small  con- 
•  Isai.  xx.  i.  P  Joseph.  Ant.  1.  10.  c.  4. 


CHAP.  xxvn.         OF  THE  WORLD.  763 

quest,  but  as  full  of  difficulty  as  a  greater,  whereby  he 
should  compel  his  mightiest  enemies  to  come  to  some  good 
agreement,  when  by  quitting  his  present  advantage  over 
the  Jews,  he  might  make  his  way  the  fairer  into  Egypt. 

Now  concerning  the  year  of  Manasses's  reign,  wherein 
he  was  taken  prisoner,  or  concerning  his  captivity  itself, 
how  long  it  lasted,  the  scriptures  are  silent,  and  Josephus 
gives  no  information.  Yet  I  find  cited  by  Torniellus  three 
opinions,  the  one  of  Bellarmine,  who  thinks  that  Manasses 
was  taken  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  reign ;  the  other  of 
the  author  of  the  greater  Hebrew  chronology,  who  affirms, 
that  it  was  in  his  twenty-seventh  year ;  the  third  of  Rabbi 
Kimhi  upon  Ezekiel,  who  saith,  that  he  was  forty  years  an 
idolater,  and  lived  fifteen  years  after  his  repentance.  The  first 
of  these  conjectures  is  upheld  by  Torniellus,  who  rejects  the 
second,  as  more  unprobable,  and  condemns  the  third  as  most 
false.  Yet  the  reasons  alleged  by  Torniellus  in  defence  of 
the  first,  and  refutation  of  the  last  opinion,  are  such  as  may 
rather  prove  him  to  favour  the  cardinal,  as  far  as  he  may, 
(for  where  need  requires,  he  doth  freely  dissent  from  him,) 
than  to  have  used  his  accustomed  diligence  in  examining 
the  matter  before  he  gave  his  judgment.  Two  arguments 
he  brings  to  maintain  the  opinion  of  Bellarmine  ;  the  one, 
that  Ammon  the  son  of  Manasses  is  said  by  Josephus  to 
have  followed  the  works  of  his  father's  youth ;  the  other, 
that  had  Manasses  grown  old  in  his  sins,  it  is  not  like  that 
he  should  have  continued  as  he  did,  in  his  amendment  unto 
the  end  of  his  life.  Touching  the  former  of  these  arguments, 
I  see  no  reason  why  the  sins  of  Manasses  might  not  be  dis 
tinguished  from  his  repentance  in  his  old  age,  by  calling 
them  works  of  his  youth,  which  appeared  when  he  was 
twelve  years  old ;  though  it  were  granted  that  he  continued 
in  them  (according  to  that  of  Rabbi  Kimhi)  until  he  was 
but  fifteen  years  from  death.  Touching  the  second,  how 
soever  it  be  a  fearful  thing  to  cast  off  unto  the  kst  those 
good  motions  unto  repentance,  which  we  know  not  whether 
ever  God  will  offer  unto  us  again ;  yet  were  it  a  terrible 


764  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n, 

hearing,  that  the  sins  which  are  not  forsaken  before  the  age 
of  two  and  fifty  years  shall  be  punished  with  final  impe- 
nitency.  But  against  these  two  collections  of  Torniellus,  I 
will  lay  two  places  of  scripture,  whence  it  may  be  inferred, 
as  not  unlikely,  that  Manasses  continued  longer  in  his  wick 
edness  than  Bellarmine  hath  intimated,  if  not  as  long  as 
Rabbi  Kimhi  hath  affirmed.  In  the  second  book  of  Kings, 
the  evil  which  Manasses  did  is  remembered  at  large,  and 
his  repentance  utterly  omitted ;  so  that  his  amendment  may 
seem  to  have  taken  up  no  great  part  of  his  life,  the  story 
of  him  being  thus  concluded  in  the  one  and  twentieth  chap 
ter;  q  Concerning  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Manasses,  and  all 
that  he  did,  and  his  sin  that  he  sinned,  are  they  not  written 
in  the  book  of  the  chronicles  of  the  Icings  of  Juda?  The 
other  place  is  in  the  four  and  twentieth  chapter  of  the  same 
book,  where,  in  rehearsing  the  calamities  with  which  that 
nation  was  punished  in  the  time  of  Jehoiakim,  the  great 
grandchild  of  this  Manasses,  it  is  said ;  r  Surely  by  the  com 
mandment  of  the  Lord  came  this  upon  Juda,  that  he  might 
put  them  out  of  his  sight,  for  the  sins  of  Manasses,  accord 
ing  to  all  that  he  did,  and  for  the  innocent  blood  that  he 
shed;  for  hejilled  Jerusalem  with  innocent  blood;  therefore 
the  Lord  would  not  pardon  it.  Whoso  considers  well  these 
places,  may  find  small  cause  to  pronounce  it  most  false, 
that  the  repentance  and  amendment  of  Manasses  was  no 
earlier  than  fifteen  years  before  his  death ;  or  most  probable, 
that  when  he  was  twenty -seven  years  old  he  repented,  and 
becoming  a  new  man,  lived  in  the  fear  of  God  forty  years 
after.  I  will  no  longer  dispute  about  this  matter,  seeing 
that  the  truth  cannot  be  discovered.  It  sufficeth  to  say, 
that  two  years  of  civil  dissension  in  Egypt,  fourteen  or  fif 
teen  years  following,  wherein  that  kingdom  was  weakened 
by  partition  of  the  sovereignty ;  the  war  of  Psammiticus 
against  his  associates ;  and  four  and  twenty  years  of  the 
nine  and  twenty  wherein  the  siege  of  Azotus  continued, 
being  all  within  the  time  of  Manasses,  did  leave  no  one 
i  2  Kings  xxi.  17.  r  2  Kings  xxiv.  3,  4. 


CHAP.  xxvn.         OF  THE  WORLD.  765 

part  of  his  reign  (after  the  first  fifteen  years)  free  from  the 
danger  of  being  oppressed  by  the  Babylonian,  whose  men 
of  war  had  continual  occasions  of  visiting  his  country.  All 
which  I  will  add  hereto  is  this,  that  the  fifteenth  of  Ma- 
nasses  was  the  last  year  of  Sethon  in  Egypt,  and  the  one 
and  thirtieth  of  Merodach's  reign,  or  (accounting  from  the 
death  of  Asarhaddon)  the  twentieth :  the  seven  and  twen 
tieth  of  Manasses  was  the  tenth  of  the  twelve  princes,  and 
the  three  and  fortieth  of  Merodach :  his  fortieth  was  the 
twenty-third  of  Psammiticus,  and  the  fifth  of  Nabulassar 
the  son  of  Merodach  in  Babylon  :  but  which  of  these  was 
the  year  of  his  imprisonment,  or  whether  any  other,  I  for 
bear  to  shew  mine  opinion,  lest  I  should  thereby  seem  to 
draw  all  matters  over-violently  to  mine  own  computation. 

This  was  the  first  great  mastery  that  the  Babylonians 
had  of  the  kingdom  of  Juda.  For  though  Ahaz  promised 
tribute  to  Salmanassar,  yet  Ezekias  never  paid  it.  True  it 
is,  that  he  hoped  to  stay  s  Sennacherib^  enterprise  against 
him,  by  presenting  him  with  three  hundred  talents  of  silver 
and  thirty  of  gold,  besides  the  plate  which  covered  the  doors 
and  pillars  of  the  temple. 

But  Manasses  being  pressed  with  greater  necessity,  could 
refuse  no  tolerable  conditions  that  the  Babylonian  would 
impose  upon  him,  among  which  it  seems  that  this  was  one, 
(which  was  indeed  a  point  of  servitude,)  that  he  might  not 
hold  peace  with  the  Egyptians,  whilst  they  were  enemies  to 
Babylon.  This  appears,  not  only  by  his  fortifying  with 
men  of  war  all  the  strong  cities  of  Juda  after  his  return, 
(which  was  rather  against  Psammiticus,  whose  party  he  had 
forsaken,  than  against  the  Babylonian,  with  whom  he  had 
thenceforth  no  more  controversy,)  but  likewise  by  that  op 
position  which  Josias  made  afterwards  to  Pharaoh  Necho, 
in  favour  of  Nabulassar,  which  had  been  against  all  reason 
and  policy,  if  it  had  not  been  his  duty  by  covenant.  Of  this 
I  will  speak  more  in  convenient  place. 

-  2  Kings  xviii. 


766  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

SECT.   IV. 

Of  the  first  and  second  Messenian  wars,  which  were  in  the  reigns  of 
Ezekias  and  Manasses,  kings  of  Juda. 

NOW  concerning  such  actions  as  were  performed  abroad 
in  the  world,  about  these  times  of  Manasses,  the  most  re 
markable  were  the  Messenian  wars,  which  happening  in  this 
age,  and  being  the  greatest  action  performed  in  Greece, 
between  the  Trojan  and  Persian  wars,  deserve  not  to  be 
passed  over  with  silence. 

The  first  Messenian  war  began  and  ended  in  the  days  of 
Ezekias,  the  second  in  the  reign  of  Manasses :  but  to  avoid 
the  trouble  of  interrupting  our  history,  I  have  thought  it 
best  to  rehearse  them  both  in  this  place.  Other  introduction 
is  needless,  than  to  say,  that  the  posterity  of  Hercules,  driv 
ing  the  issue  of  Pelops  and  the  Acheans  out  of  their  seats, 
divided  their  lands  between  themselves,  and  erected  the 
kingdoms  of  Lacedaemon,  Argos,  Messene,  and  Corinth ; 
all  which  agreeing  well  together  a  while,  did  afterwards  for 
get  the  bond  of  kindred,  and  sought  one  another's  ruin  with 
bloody  wars,  whereof  these  Messenian  were  the  greatest. 

The  pretended  grounds  of  the  Messenian  war  are  scarce 
worth  remembrance,  they  were  so  slight.  Ambition  was 
the  true  cause  of  it,  wherewith  the  Lacedaemonians  were  so 
transported,  that  any  thing  served  them  as  a  colour  to  ac 
complish  their  greedy  desires.  Yet  other  matter  was  al 
leged,  namely,  that  one  Poly  chares,  a  Messenian,  had  slain 
many  Lacedaemonians,  for  which  the  magistrates  of  Sparta 
desiring  to  have  him  yielded  into  their  hands,  could  not 
obtain  it.  The  Messenians  on  the  other  side  excused  Po- 
lychares,  for  that  he  was  grown  frantic  through  injuries 
received  from  Euaephnes  a  Lacedaemonian.  This  Euaeph- 
nes  had  bargained  to  give  pasture  to  the  cattle  of  Poly- 
chares,  and  was  therefore  to  receive  part  of  the  increase ; 
but  not  contented  with  the  gain  appointed,  he  sold  the  cat 
tle,  and  slaves  that  kept  them,  to  merchants ;  which  done, 
he  came  with  a  fair  tale  to  his  friend,  saying,  that  they  were 
stolen.  Whilst  the  lie  was  yet  scarce  out  of  his  mouth,  one 
of  the  slaves,  that  had  escaped  from  the  merchants,  came  in 


CHAP.  xxvn.          OF  THE  WORLD.  767 

with  a  true  report  of  all.  The  Lacedaemonian  being  thus 
deprehended,  confessed  all,  and  promised  large  amends; 
which  to  receive,  he  carried  the  son  of  Polychares  home 
with  him,  but  having  him  at  home  he  villainously  slew 
him.  Wherefore  the  Lacedaemonians  having  refused,  after 
long  suit  made  by  the  wretched  father,  to  do  him  right 
against  this  thief  and  murderer,  ought  not  to  pick  matter 
of  quarrel  out  of  those  things,  which  he  did  in  that  mad 
ness  whereinto  they  themselves  had  cast  him.  So  said  the 
Messsenians,  and  further  offered  to  put  the  matter  to  com 
promise,  or  to  stand  unto  the  judgment  of  the  Amphic- 
tyons,  who  were  as  the  general  council  of  Greece,  or  to 
any  other  fair  course.  But  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  had  a 
great  desire  to  occupy  the  fair  country  of  Messene,  that  lay 
close  by  them,  were  not  content  with  such  allegations. 
They  thought  it  enough  to  have  some  show  for  their  doings, 
which  the  better  to  colour,  they  reckoned  up  many  old  in 
juries,  and  so,  without  sending  any  defiance,  secretly  took 
an  oath  to  hold  war  with  Messene  till  they  had  mastered 
it :  which  done,  they  seized  upon  Amphia,  a  frontier  town 
of  that  province,  wherein  they  put  all  to  the  sword  without 
mercy,  very  few  escaping. 

Hereupon  the  Messenians  took  arms,  and  were  met  by 
the  enemy.  A  furious  battle  was  fought  between  them, 
which  ended  not  until  dark  night,  with  uncertain  victory. 
The  Messenians  did  strongly  encamp  themselves;  the  La 
cedaemonians,  unable  to  force  their  camp,  returned  home. 
This  war  began  in  the  second  year  of  the  ninth  Olympiad, 
and  ended  in  the  first  of  the  fourteenth  Olympiad,  having 
lasted  twenty  years.  The  two  enemy  nations  tried  the  mat 
ter  for  a  while  with  their  proper  forces,  the  Lacedaemonians 
wasting  the  inland  parts  of  Messene,  and  the  Messenians 
the  sea-coast  of  Laconia.  But  it  was  not  long  ere  friends 
on  both  sides  were  called  in  to  help.  The  Arcadians,  Ar- 
gives,  and  Sicyonians  took  part  with  Messene ;  the  Spar 
tans  had,  besides  many  subjects  of  their  own,  aid  from  Co 
rinth,  and  hired  soldiers  out  of  Crete.  So  a  second,  third, 
and  fourth  battle  were  fought  with  as  great  obstinacy  as  the 


768  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

first ;  saving  that,  in  the  fourth  battle,  the  Lacedaemonians 
were  enforced  to  turn  their  backs ;  in  the  other  fights,  the 
victory  was  still  uncertain,  though  in  one  of  them  the  Mes^ 
senians  lost  Euphaes,  their  king,  in  whose  stead  they  chose 
Aristodemus. 

Many  years  were  spent,  ere  all  this  blood  was  shed ;  for 
pestilent  diseases,  and  want  of  money  to  entertain  soldiers, 
caused  the  war  to  linger.  And  for  the  same  reasons  did  the 
Messenians  forsake  all  their  inland  towns,  excepting  Ithome, 
which  was  a  mountain  with  a  town  upon  it,  able  to  endure 
more  than  the  enemies  were  likely  to  do.  But,  as  'some 
authors  tell  us,  the  Lacedaemonians  were  so  obstinate  in  this 
war,  because  of  their  vow,  that  having  absented  themselves 
ten  years  from  Sparta,  their  wives  sent  them  word,  that 
their  city  would  grow  unpeopled,  by  reason  that  no  children 
had  been  borne  them  in  all  that  time :  whereupon  they  sent 
back  all  their  ablest  young  men,  promiscuously  to  accom 
pany  the  young  women,  who  got  so  many  of  them  with 
child,  as  they  became  a  great  part  of  their  nation,  and  were 
called  Parthenians.  u  Diodorus  refers  the  begetting  of  these 
Parthenians  to  a  former  time.  But  in  process  of  this  Mes- 
senian  war,  when  the  Devil  in  an  oracle  had  advised  the 
Messenians  to  sacrifice  a  virgin  of  the  stock  of  x  JEgyptus, 
that  so  they  might  be  victorious  against  the  Lacedaemoni 
ans;  the  lot  falling  upon  the  daughter  of  one  Lyciscus, 
Ephibolus  the  priest,  willing  to  save  her,  said  she  was  only 
a  fostered  child,  and  not  born  of  the  wife  of  Lyciscus: 
which  answer  giving  delay  to  the  execution  of  the  maid, 
Lyciscus  secretly  fled  away  with  her  into  Sparta.  Then 
Aristodemus,  which  afterwards  was  king,  voluntarily  offered 
his  own  daughter:  but  a  young  nobleman,  being  in  love 
with  the  maid,  when  otherwise  he  could  not  prevail,  said 
openly  that  she  was  no  virgin,  but  that  he  had  defloured 
her,  and  got  her  with  child:  whereupon  the  father  in  a 
rage  ripped  up  his  innocent  daughter's  belly,  to  disprove 

1  Strabo,  1.  9.    Oros.  1.  i.  cap.  21.  daughter  of  Cypselus   king   of  Ar- 
"  Dl°d-  1-  1S-  cadia;  of  which  Cresphon  the  chief 
*  This  vEgyptus  was  the  youngest  nobility  of  the  Messenians  was  pro- 
son    of  Cresphon    by   Merope,   the  pagated. 


CHAP.  xxvn.        OF  THE  WORLD.  769 

the  lover's  slander :  at  the  grave  of  which  daughter  of  his, 
afterwards  falling  by  other  superstitions  into  despair  of 
prevailing  against  the  Lacedaemonians,  he  slew  himself,  to 
the  great  hurt  of  his  country,  which  he  loved  most  dearly. 
For  after  his  death  the  Messenians  lost  their  courage,  and 
finding  themselves  distressed  by  many  wants,  especially  of 
victuals,  they  craved  peace;  which  they  obtained  under 
most  rigorous  conditions.  Half  the  yearly  fruits  of  their 
land  they  were  bound  to  send  unto  Sparta;  and  they,  with 
their  wives,  to  make  solemn  lamentations,  at  the  death  of 
every  Spartan  king:  they  were  also  sworn  to  live  in  true 
subjection  to  the  Lacedaemonians ;  and  part  of  their  terri 
tory  was  taken  from  them,  which  was  given  to  the  Asmaei, 
and  such  as  had  followed  the  Spartans  in  this  war. 

This  peace  being  made  upon  so  uneven  terms,  was  not 
like  to  hold  long.  Yet  nine  and  thirty  years  it  continued, 
(the  Messenians  not  finding  how  to  help  themselves,)  and 
then  brake  out  into  a  new  and  more  furious  war  than  the  for 
mer.  The  able  young  men,  that  were  grown  up  in  the  room 
of  those  Messenians  whom  the  former  war  had  consumed, 
began  to  consider  their  own  strength  and  multitude,  think 
ing  themselves  equal  to  the  Lacedaemonians,  and  therefore 
scorning  to  serve  such  masters  as  had  against  all  right  op 
pressed  their  fathers.  The  chief  of  these  was  Aristomenes, 
a  noble  gentleman,  of  the  house  of  ./Egyptus,  who  perceiv 
ing  the  uniform  desires  of  his  countrymen,  adventured  to 
become  their  leader.  He  therefore  sounding  the  affections  of 
the  Argives  and  Arcadians,  which  he  found  throughly  an 
swerable  to  his  purpose,  began  open  war  upon  the  state  of 
Lacedaemon.  This  was  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  three 
and  twentieth  Olympiad ;  when  the  Lacedaemonians  hasted 
to  quench  the  fire,  before  it  should  grow  too  hot,  with  such 
forces  as  they  could  raise  of  their  own,  without  troubling 
their  friends,  meaning  to  deal  with  their  enemies  ere  any 
succour  were  lent  them.  So  a  strong  battle  was  fought  be 
tween  them,  and  a  doubtful;  save  that  the  Messenians 
were  pleased  with  the  issue,  forasmuch  as  they  had  thereby 
taught  their  late  proud  lords  to  think  them  their  equals. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  D 


770  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Particularly,  the  valour  of  Aristomenes  appeared  such  in 
this  fight,  that  his  people  would  have  made  him  their  king; 
but  he,  refusing  the  honour  of  that  name,  accepted  of  the 
burden,  and  became  their  general.  Within  one  year  an 
other  battle  was  fought,  whereunto  each  party  came  better 
provided.  The  Lacedaemonians  brought  with  them  the  Co 
rinthians,  and  some  other  friends  to  help ;  the  Messenians 
had  the  Argives,  Arcadians,  and  Sicyonians.  This  also  was 
a  long  and  bloody  fight :  but  Aristomenes  did  so  behave 
himself,  that  finally  he  made  the  enemies  run  for  their  lives. 
Of  such  importance  was  this  victory,  that  the  Lacedaemo 
nians  began  to  bethink  themselves  of  making  some  good 
agreement.  But  one  Tyrtaeus,  an  Athenian  poet,  whom  by 
appointment  of  an  oracle  they  had  gotten  to  direct  them, 
reinforced  their  spirits  with  his  verses.  After  this,  Aristo 
menes  took  by  surprise  a  town  in  Laconia,  and  vanquished 
in  fight  Anaxander  king  of  Sparta,  who  did  set  upon  him 
in  hopes  to  have  recovered  the  booty. 

But  all  these  victories  of  Aristomenes  perished  in  the  loss 
of  one  battle,  whereof  the  honour,  (if  it  were  honour,)  or 
surely  the  profit,  fell  unto  the  Lacedaemonians,  through 
the  treason  of  Aristocrates,  king  of  Arcadia,  who  being  cor 
rupted  by  the  enemies  with  money,  fled  away,  and  left  the 
Messenians  exposed  to  a  cruel  butchery.  The  loss  was  so 
great,  that  together  with  Andania,  their  principal  city,  all  the 
towns  in  Messene,  standing  too  far  from  the  sea,  were  aban 
doned,  for  lack  of  men  to  defend  them,  and  the  mount  Era 
fortified,  whither  the  multitude,  that  could  not  be  safe  abroad, 
was  conveyed  as  into  a  place  of  safety.  Here  the  Lacedae 
monians  found  a  tedious  work  that  held  them  eleven  years. 
For  besides  that  Era  itself  was  a  strong  piece,  Aristomenes 
with  three  hundred  stout  soldiers  did  many  incredible  ex 
ploits  that  wearied  them,  and  hindered  their  attendance  on 
the  siege.  He  wasted  all  the  fields  of  Messene  that  were 
in  the  enemies1  power,  and  brake  into  Laconia,  taking  away 
corn,  wine,  cattle,  and  all  provisions  necessary  for  his  own 
people;  the  slaves  and  householdstuff  he  changed  into 
money,  suffering  the  owners  to  redeem  them.  To  remedy 


CHAP.  xxvn.          OF  THE  WORLD.  771 

this  mischief,  the  Lacedaemonians  made  an  edict,  that  nei 
ther  Messene  nor  the  adjoining  parts  of  their  own  country 
should  be  tilled  or  husbanded ;  which  bred  a  great  tumult 
among  private  men,  that  were  almost  undone  by  it.  Yet 
the  poet  Tyrtaeus  appeased  this  uproar  with  pleasing  songs. 
But  Aristomenes  grew  so  bold,  that  he  not  only  ranged 
over  all  the  fields,  but  adventured  upon  the  towns,  surprised 
and  sacked  Amyclae,  and  finally  caused  the  enemies  to  in 
crease  and  strengthen  their  companies ;  which  done,  there 
yet  appeared  no  likelihood  of  taking  Era. 

In  performing  these  and  other  services,  thrice  Aristome 
nes  was  taken  prisoner ;  yet  still  he  escaped.  One  escape  of 
his  deserves  to  be  remembered,  as  a  thing  very  strange  and 
marvellous.  He  had  with  too  much  courage  adventured  to 
set  upon  both  the  kings  of  Sparta ;  and  being  in  that  fight 
wounded,  and  felled  to  the  ground,  was  taken  up  senseless, 
and  carried  away  prisoner,  with  fifty  of  his  companions. 
There  was  a  deep  natural  cave  into  which  the  Spartans  used 
to  cast  headlong  such  as  were  condemned  to  die  for  the 
greatest  offences.  To  this  punishment  were  Aristomenes 
and  his  companions  adjudged.  All  the  rest  of  these  poor 
men  died  with  their  falls  ;  Aristomenes  (howsoever  it  came 
to  pass)  took  no  harm.  Yet  was  it  harm  enough  to  be  im 
prisoned  in  a  deep  dungeon,  among  dead  carcasses,  where 
he  was  like  to  perish  through  hunger  and  stench.  But  after 
a  while  he  perceived  by  some  small  glimmering  of  light 
(which  perhaps  came  in  at  the  top)  a  fox  that  was  gnawing 
upon  a  dead  body.  Hereupon  he  bethought  himself,  that 
this  beast  must  needs  know  some  way  to  enter  the  place,  and 
get  out.  For  which  cause  he  made  shift  to  lay  hold  upon  it, 
and  catching  it  by  the  tail  with  one  hand,  saved  himself 
from  biting  with  the  other  hand,  by  thrusting  his  coat  into 
the  mouth  of  it.  So  letting  it  creep  whither  it  would,  he 
followed,  holding  it  as  his  guide,  until  the  way  was  too 
strait  for  him,  and  then  dismissed  it.  The  fox  being  loose 
ran  through  a  hole,  at  which  came  in  a  little  light;  and 
there  did  Aristomenes  delve  so  long  with  his  nails,  that  at 
last  he  clawed  out  his  passage.  When  some  fugitives  of 

3D  2 


772  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Messene  brought  word  to  Sparta  that  Aristomenes  was  re 
turned  home,  their  tale  sounded  alike,  as  if  they  had  said, 
that  a  dead  man  was  revived.  But  when  the  Corinthian 
forces,  that  came  to  help  the  Lacedaemonians  in  the  siege  of 
Era,  were  cut  in  pieces,  their  captains  slain,  and  their  camp 
taken;  then  was  it  easily  believed  that  Aristomenes  was 
alive  indeed. 

Thus  eleven  years  passed,  whilst  the  enemies  hovering 
about  Era  saw  no  likelihood  of  getting  it ;  and  Aristome 
nes  with  small  forces  did  them  greater  hurt  than  they  knew 
how  to  requite.  But  at  the  last,  a  slave,  that  had  fled  from 
Sparta,  betrayed  the  place.  This  fellow  had  enticed  to 
lewdness  the  wife  of  a  Messenian,  and  was  entertained  by 
her  when  her  husband  went  forth  to  watch.  It  happened 
in  a  rainy  winter  night,  that  the  husband  came  home  un- 
looked  for,  whilst  the  adulterer  was  within.  The  woman 
hid  her  paramour,  and  made  good  countenance  to  her  hus 
band,  asking  him  by  what  good  fortune  he  was  returned  so 
soon.  He  told  her,  that  the  storm  of  foul  weather  was 
such,  as  had  made  all  his  fellows  leave  their  stations,  and 
that  himself  had  done  as  the  rest  did ;  as  for  Aristomenes, 
he  was  wounded  of  late  in  fight,  and  could  not  look  abroad ; 
neither  was  it  to  be  feared  that  the  enemies  would  stir  in 
such  a  dark  rainy  night  as  this  was.  The  slave  that  heard 
these  tidings  rose  up  secretly  out  of  his  lurking-hole,  and 
got  him  to  the  Lacedaemonian  camp  with  the  news.  There 
he  found  Emperamus  his  master,  commanding  in  the  king's 
absence.  To  him  he  uttered  all ;  and  obtaining  pardon  for 
his  running  away,  guided  the  army  into  the  town.  Little 
or  nothing  was  done  that  night.  For  the  alarm  was  pre 
sently  taken ;  and  the  extreme  darkness,  together  with  the 
noise  of  wind  and  rain,  hindered  all  directions.  All  the 
next  day  was  spent  in  most  cruel  fight ;  one  part  being  in 
cited  by  near  hope  of  ending  a  long  work,  the  other  en 
raged  by  mere  desperation.  The  great  advantage  that  the 
Spartans  had  in  numbers  was  recompensed  partly  by  the 
assistance  which  women  and  children  (to  whom  the  hatred 
of  servitude  had  taught  contempt  of  death)  gave  to  their 


CHAP,  xxvii.         OF  THE  WORLD.  773 

husbands  and  fathers;  partly  by  the  narrowness  of  the 
streets  and  other  passages,  which  admitted  not  many  hands 
to  fight  at  once.  But  the  Messenians  were  in  continual 
toil ;  their  enemies  fought  in  course,  refreshing  themselves 
with  meat  and  sleep,  and  then  returning,  supplied  the  places 
of  their  weary  fellows  with  fresh  companions.  Aristomenes 
therefore,  perceiving  that  his  men,  for  want  of  relief,  were 
no  longer  able  to  hold  out,  (as  having  been  three  days  and 
three  nights  vexed  with  all  miseries,  of  labour,  watching, 
fighting,  hunger,  and  thirst,  besides  continual  rain  and  cold,) 
gathered  together  all  the  weaker  sort,  whom  he  compassed 
round  with  armed  men,  and  so  attempted  to  break  out 
through  the  midst  of  the  enemies.  Emperamus,  general  of 
the  Lacedaemonians,  was  glad  of  this ;  and  to  further  their 
departure,  caused  his  soldiers  to  give  an  open  way,  leaving 
a  fair  passage  to  these  desperate  madmen.  So  they  issued 
forth,  and  arrived  safe  in  Arcadia,  where  they  were  most 
lovingly  entertained. 

Upon  the  first  bruit  of  the  taking  of  Era,  the  Arcadians 
had  prepared  themselves  to  the  rescue ;  but  Aristocrates, 
their  false-hearted  king,  said  it  was  too  late,  for  that  all  was 
already  lost.  When  Aristomenes  had  placed  his  followers 
in  safety,  he  chose  out  five  hundred  the  lustiest  of  his  men, 
with  whom  he  resolved  to  march  in  all  secret  haste  unto 
Sparta,  hoping  to  find  the  town  secure,  and  ill  manned,  the 
people  being  run  forth  to  the  spoil  of  Messene.  In  this  en 
terprise,  if  he  sped  well,  it  was  not  doubted  that  the  Lace 
daemonians  would  be  glad  to  recover  their  own,  by  restitu 
tion  of  that  which  they  had  taken  from  others ;  if  all  failed, 
an  honourable  death  was  the  worst  that  could  happen. 
There  were  three  hundred  Arcadians  that  offered  to  join 
with  him  ;  but  Aristocrates  marred  all,  by  sending  speedy 
advertisement  thereof  to  Anaxander  king  of  Sparta.  The 
epistle  which  Anaxander  sent  back  to  Aristocrates  was  in 
tercepted  by  some  that  mistrusted  him  to  whom  it  was  di 
rected.  Therein  was  found  all  his  falsehood,  which  being 
published  in  open  assembly,  the  Arcadians  stoned  him  to 
death,  and  casting  forth  his  body  unburied,  erected  a  monu- 


774  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  u. 

ment  of  his  treachery,  with  a  note,  that  the  perjurer  cannot 
deceive  God. 

Of  Aristomenes  no  more  is  remaining  to  be  said,  than 
that  committing  his  people  to  the  charge  of  his  son  Gorgus 
and  other  sufficient  governors,  who  should  plant  them  in 
some  new  seat  abroad,  he  resolved  himself  to  make  abode 
in  those  parts,  hoping  to  find  the  Lacedaemonians  work  at 
home.  His  daughters  he  bestowed  honourably  in  mar 
riage.  One  of  them  Demagetus,  who  reigned  in  the  isle  of 
Rhodes,  took  to  wife,  being  willed  by  an  oracle  to  marry  the 
daughter  of  the  best  man  in  Greece.  Finally,  Aristomenes 
went  with  his  daughter  to  Rhodes,  whence  he  purposed  to 
have  travelled  unto  Ardys  the  son  of  Gyges  king  of  Lydia, 
and  to  Phraortes  king  of  Media ;  but  death  prevented  him 
at  Rhodes,  where  he  was  honourably  buried. 

The  Messenians  were  invited  by  Anaxilas,  (whose  great 
grandfather  was  a  Messenian,  and  went  into  Italy  after  the 
former  war,)  being  lord  of  the  Rhegians  in  Italy,  to  take 
his  part  against  the  Zancleans  in  Sicily,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  straits.  They  did  so ;  and  winning  the  town  of  Zancle, 
called  it  Messene,  which  name  it  keeps  to  this  day. 

This  second  Messenian  war  ended  in  the  first  year  of  the 
twenty-eighth  Olympiad.  Long  after  which  time,  the  rest  of 
that  nation,  who  staying  at  home  served  the  Lacedaemo 
nians,  found  means  to  rebel ;  but  were  soon  vanquished, 
and  being  driven  to  forsake  Peloponnesus,  they  went  into 
Acarnania ;  whence  likewise,  after  few  ages,  they  were  ex 
pelled  by  the  Lacedaemonians,  and  then  followed  their  an 
cient  countrymen  into  Italy  and  Sicily ;  some  of  them  went 
into  Africa,  where  they  chose  unto  themselves  a  seat. 

It  is  very  strange,  that  during  two  hundred  and  eighty 
years  this  banished  nation  retained  their  name,  their  ancient 
customs,  language,  hatred  of  Sparta,  and  love  of  their  for 
saken  country,  with  a  desire  to  return  unto  it.  In  the  third 
year  of  the  one  hundred  and  second  Olympiad,  that  great 
Epaminondas,  having  tamed  the  pride  of  the  Lacedaemo 
nians,  revoked  the  Messenians  home,  who  came  flocking  out 
of  all  quarters,  where  they  dwelt  abroad,  into  Peloponne- 


CHAP.  xxvn.         OF  THE  WORLD.  775 

sus.  There  did  Epaminondas  restore  unto  them  their  old 
possession,  and  help  them  in  building  a  fair  city ;  which,  by 
the  name  of  the  province,  was  called  Messene,  and  was  held 
by  them  ever  after,  in  despite  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  of 
whom  they  never  from  thenceforth  stood  in  fear. 

SECT.  V. 

Of  the  kings  that  were  in  Lydia  and  Media  while  Manasses 
reigned.  Whether  Deioces  the  Mede  were  that  Arphaxad  which 
is  mentioned  in  the  book  of  Judith.  Of  the  history  of  Judith. 
ARDYS  king  of  Lydia,  and  Phraortes  of  the  Medes, 
are  spoken  of  by  Pausanias,  as  reigning  shortly  after  the 
Messenian  war.  Ardys  succeeding  unto  his  father  Gyges, 
began  his  reign  of  forty-nine  years,  in  the  second  of  the 
twenty-fifth  Olympiad.  He  followed  the  steps  of  his  fa 
ther,  who  encroaching  upon  the  lonians  in  Asia,  had  taken 
Colophon  by  force,  and  attempted  Miletus  and  Smyrna. 
In  like  manner  Ardys  won  Priene,  and  assailed  Miletus, 
but  went  away  without  it.  In  his  reign  the  Cimmerians, 
being  expelled  out  of  their  own  country  by  the  Scythians, 
overran  a  great  part  of  Asia,  which  was  not  freed  from 
them  before  the  time  of  Alyattes,  this  man's  grandchild,  by 
whom  they  were  driven  out.  They  had  not  only  broken 
into  Lydia,  but  won  the  city  of  Sardes ;  though  the  castle 
or  citadel  thereof  was  defended  against  them,  and  held  still 
for  king  Ardys ;  whose  long  reign  was  unable,  by  reason  of 
this  great  storm,  to  effect  much. 

Phraortes  was  not  king  until  the  third  year  of  the  twenty- 
ninth  Olympiad,  which  was  six  years  after  the  Messenian 
war  ended;  the  same  being  the  last  year  of  Manasses's 
reign  over  Juda. 

Deioces,  the  father  of  this  Phraortes,  was  king  of  Media 
three  and  fifty  of  these  five  and  fifty  years  in  which  Ma 
nasses  reigned.  This  Deioces  was  the  first  that  ruled  the 
Medes  in  a  strict  form,  commanding  more  absolutely  than 
his  predecessors  had  done.  For  they,  following  the  example 
of  Arbaces,  had  given  to  the  people  so  much  license,  as 
caused  every  one  to  desire  the  wholesome  severity  of  a  more 


776  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

lordly  king.  Herein  Deioces  answered  their  desires  to  the 
full.  For  he  caused  them  to  build  for  him  a  stately  pa 
lace  ;  he  took  unto  him  a  guard,  for  defence  of  his  person ; 
he  seldom  gave  presence,  which  also  when  he  did,  it  was 
with  such  austerity,  that  no  man  durst  presume  to  spit  or 
cough  in  his  sight.  By  these  and  the  like  ceremonies  he 
bred  in  the  people  an  awful  regard,  and  highly  upheld  the 
majesty,  which  his  predecessors  had  almost  letten  fall, 
through  neglect  of  due  comportments.  In  execution  of  his 
royal  office,  he  did  uprightly  and  severely  administer  jus 
tice,  keeping  secret  spies  to  inform  him  of  all  that  was  done 
in  the  kingdom.  He  cared  not  to  enlarge  the  bounds  of  his 
dominion  by  encroaching  upon  others ;  but  studied  how  to 
govern  well  his  own.  The  difference  found  between  this 
king  and  such  as  were  before  him  seems  to  have  bred  that 
opinion  which  Herodotus,  1.  1.  delivers,  that  Deioces  was 
the  first  who  reigned  in  Media. 

This  was  he  that  built  the  great  city  of  Ecbatane,  which 
now  is  called  Tauris ;  and  therefore  he  should  be  that  king 
Arphaxad  mentioned  in  the  story  of  Judith,  as  also  Ben 
Merodach,  by  the  same  account,  should  be  Nabuchodonosor 
the  Assyrian,  by  whom  Arphaxad  was  slain,  and  Holo- 
fernes  sent  to  work  wonders  upon  Phud  and  Lud,  and  I 
know  not  what  other  countries.  For  I  reckon  the  last  year 
of  Deioces  to  have  been  the  nineteenth  of  Ben  Merodach ; 
though  others  place  it  otherwise,  some  earlier,  in  the  time 
of  Merodach  Baladan,  some  later,  in  the  reign  of  Nabulas- 
sar,  who  is  also  called  Nabuchodonosor. 

In  fitting  this  book  of  Judith  to  a  certain  time,  there  hath 
much  labour  been  spent,  with  ill  success.  The  reigns  of 
Cambyses,  Darius  Hystaspis,  Xerxes,  and  Ochus,  have 
been  sought  into,  but  afford  no  great  matter  of  likelihood ; 
and  now  of  late,  the  times  foregoing  the  destruction  of  Je 
rusalem  have  been  thought  upon,  and  this  age  that  we 
have  in  hand  chosen  by  Bellarmine,  as  agreeing  best  with 
the  story  ;  though  others  herein  cannot  (I  speak  of  such  as 
fain  would)  agree  with  him.  Whilst  Cambyses  reigned, 
the  temple  was  not  rebuilt,  which  in  the  story  of  Judith  is 


CHAP.  xxvn.         OF  THE  WORLD.  777 

found  standing  and  dedicated .  The  other  two  Persian  kings, 
Darius  and  Xerxes,  are  acknowledged  to  have  been  very 
favourable  to  the  Jews ;  therefore  neither  of  them  could  be 
Nabuchodonosor,  whose  part  they  refused  to  take,  and  who 
sent  to  destroy  them.  Yet  the  time  of  Xerxes  hath  some 
conveniences  aptly  fitting  this  history ;  and  above  all,  the 
opinion  of  a  few  ancient  writers,  (without  whose  judgment 
the  authority  of  this  book  were  of  no  value,)  having  placed 
this  argument  in  the  Persian  monarchy,  inclines  the  matter 
to  the  reign  of  this  vainglorious  king.  As  for  Ochus,  very 
few,  and  they  faintly,  entitle  him  to  the  business.  Mani 
fest  it  is,  and  granted,  that  in  the  time  of  this  history  there 
must  be  a  return  from  captivity  lately  foregoing ;  the  tem 
ple  rebuilt ;  Joachim  high  priest ;  and  a  long  peace,  of 
threescore  and  ten  years,  or  thereabout,  ensuing.  All  these 
were  to  be  among  the  Jews.  Likewise  on  the  other  side, 
we  must  find  a  king  that  reigned  in  Nineveh  eighteen 
years  at  the  least ;  that  vanquished  and  slew  a  king  of  the 
Medes;  one  whom  the  Jews  refused  to  assist;  one  that 
sought  to  be  generally  adored  as  God,  and  that  therefore 
commanded  all  temples  of  such  as  were  accounted  gods  to 
be  destroyed;  one  whose  viceroy  or  captain-general  knew 
not  the  Jewish  nation,  but  was  fain  to  learn  what  they  were 
of  the  bordering  people. 

Of  all  these  circumstances ;  the  priesthood  of  Joachim, 
with  a  return  from  captivity,  are  found  concurring,  with 
either  the  time  of  Manasses  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru 
salem,  or  of  Xerxes  afterward ;  the  rebuilding  of  the  tem 
ple  a  while  before,  and  the  long  peace  following,  agree 
with  the  reign  of  Xerxes ;  the  rest  of  circumstances  requi 
site  are  to  be  found  all  together,  neither  before  nor  after 
the  captivity  of  the  Jews  and  desolation  of  the  city.  Where 
fore  the  brief  decision  of  this  controversy  is,  that  the  book 
of  Judith  is  not  canonical.  Yet  hath  Torniellus  done  as 
much,  in  fitting  all  to  the  time  of  Xerxes,  as  was  possible 
in  so  desperate  a  case.  For  he  supposeth,  that  under  Xerxes 
there  were  other  kings,  among  which  Arphaxad  might  be 
one,  (who  perhaps  restored  and  reedified  the  city  of  Ecba- 


778  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

tane,  that  had  formerly  been  built  by  Deioces,)  and  Nabu- 
chodonosor  might  be  another.  This  granted,  he  adds,  that 
from  the  twelfth  year  to  the  eighteenth  of  Nabuchodonosor, 
that  is,  five  or  six  years,  the  absence  and  ill  fortune  of 
Xerxes,  in  his  Grecian  expedition,  (which  he  supposeth  to 
have  been  so  long,)  migh't  give  occasion  unto  Arphaxad  of 
rebelling:  and  that  Nabuchodonosor,  having  vanquished 
and  slain  Arphaxad,  might  then  seek  to  make  himself  lord 
of  all  by  the  army  which  he  sent  forth  under  Holofernes. 
So  should  the  Jews  have  done  their  duty  in  adhering 
to  Xerxes,  their  sovereign  lord,  and  resisting  one  that  re 
belled  against  him;  as  also  the  other  circumstances  re 
hearsed  before  be  well  applied  to  the  argument.  For  in 
these  times,  the  affairs  of  Jewry  were  agreeable  to  the  his 
tory  of  Judith,  and  such  a  king  as  this  supposed  Nabucho 
donosor  might  well  enough  be  ignorant  of  the  Jews,  and 
as  proud  as  we  shall  need  to  think  him.  But  the  silence  of 
all  histories  takes  away  belief  from  this  conjecture;  and 
the  supposition  itself  is  very  hard,  that  a  rebel,  whose  king 
was  abroad,  with  an  army  consisting  of  seventeen  hundred 
thousand  men,  should  presume  so  far  upon  the  strength  of 
twelve  hundred  thousand  foot,  and  twelve  thousand  archers 
on  horseback,  as  to  think  that  he  might  do  what  he  list, 
yea,  that  there  was  none  other  god  than  himself.  It  is  in 
deed  easy  to  find  enough  that  might  be  said  against  this  de 
vice  of  Torniellus ;  yet,  if  there  were  any  necessity  of  hold 
ing  the  book  of  Judith  to  be  canonical,  I  would  rather 
choose  to  lay  aside  all  regard  of  profane  histories,  and  build 
some  defence  upon  this  ground;  than,  by  following  the 
opinion  of  any  other,  to  violate,  as  they  all  do,  the  text  it 
self.  That  Judith  lived  under  none  of  the  Persian  kings, 
Bellarmine  (whose  works  I  have  not  read,  but  find  him 
cited  by  Torniellus)  hath  proved  by  many  arguments. 
That  she  lived  not  in  the  reign  of  Manasses,  Torniellus 
hath  proved  very  substantially,  shewing  how  the  cardinal  is 
driven,  as  it  were,  to  break  through  a  wall,  in  saying  that 
the  text  was  corrupted,  where  it  spake  of  the  destruction  of 
the  temple  foregoing  her  time.  That  the  kings  Arphaxad 


CHAP,  xxvii.         OF  THE  WORLD.  779 

and  Nabuchodonosor,  found  out  by  Torniellus,  are  the  chil 
dren  of  mere  fantasy,  it  is  so  plain,  that  it  needs  no  proof 
at  all.  Wherefore  we  may  truly  say,  that  they  which  have 
contended  about  the  time  of  this  history,  being  well  fur 
nished  of  matter  wherewith  to  confute  each  other,  but 
wanting  wherewith  to  defend  themselves,  (like  naked  men 
in  a  stony  field,)  have  chased  Holofernes  out  of  all  parts  of 
time,  and  left  him  and  his  great  expedition  extra  anni 
solisque  vias,  in  an  age  that  never  was,  and  in  places  that 
were  never  known. 

Surely  to  find  out  >"  the  borders  of  Japheth,  which  were 
towards  the  south,  and  over  against  Arabia,  or  the  coun 
tries  of  Phud  and  Lud,  that  lay  in  Holofernes's  way,  I 
think  it  would  as  much  trouble  cosmographers  as  the  for 
mer  question  hath  done  chronologers.  But  I  will  not  busy 
myself  herewith  ;  having  already  so  far  digressed,  in  shew 
ing  who  lived  not  with  Manasses,  that  I  think  it  high  time 
to  return  unto  mine  own  work,  and  rehearse  what  others  I 
find  to  have  had  their  part  in  the  long  time  of  his  reign. 

SECT.  VI. 

Of  other  princes  and  actions  that  were  in  these  times. 
THE  first  year  of  Manasses  was  the  last  of  Romulus ; 
after  whose  death,  one  year  the  Romans  wanted  a  king. 
Then  was  Numa  Pompilius,  a  Sabine,  chosen ;  a  peaceable 
man,  and  seeming  very  religious  in  his  kind.  He  brought 
the  rude  people,  which  Romulus  had  employed  only  in 
wars,  to  some  good  civility,  and  a  more  orderly  fashion  of 
life.  This  he  effected  by  filling  their  heads  with  supersti 
tion  ;  as,  persuading  them  that  he  had  familiarity  with  a 
nymph  called  Egeria,  who  taught  him  a  many  of  ceremo 
nies,  which  he  delivered  unto  the  Romans  as  things  of  great 
importance.  But  all  these  devices  of  Numa  were,  in  his  own 
judgment,  no  better  than  mere  delusions,  that  served  only 
as  rudiments  to  bring  the  savage  multitude  of  thieves  and 
outlaws,  gathered  into  one  body  by  Romulus,  to  some 
form  of  milder  discipline  than  their  boisterous  and  wild 

v  Judith  ii.  23,  25. 


780  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

nature  was  otherwise  apt  to  entertain.  This  appeared  by 
the  books  that  were  found  in  his  grave  almost  six  hundred 
years  after  his  death,  wherein  the  superstition  taught  by 
himself  was  condemned  as  vain.  His  grave  was  opened  by 
chance,  in  digging  a  piece  of  ground  that  belonged  to  one 
L.  Petilius,  a  scribe.  Two  coffins  or  chests  of  stone  were  in 
it,  with  an  inscription  in  Greek  and  Latin  letters,  which  said 
that  Numa  Pompilius  the  son  of  Pompo,  king  of  the  Ro 
mans,  lay  there.  In  the  one  coffin  was  nothing  found,  his 
body  being  utterly  consumed.  In  the  other  were  his  books, 
wrapped  up  in  two  bundles  of  wax ;  of  his  own  constitu 
tions  seven,  and  other  seven  of  philosophy.  They  were 
not  only  uncorrupted,  but  in  a  manner  fresh  and  new.  The 
praetor  of  the  city  desiring  to  have  a  sight  of  these  books, 
when  he  perceived  whereunto  they  tended,  refused  to  de 
liver  them  back  to  the  owner,  and  offered  to  take  a  solemn 
oath,  that  they  were  against  the  religion  then  in  use.  Here 
upon  the  senate,  without  more  ado,  commanded  them  to  be 
openly  burnt.  It  seems  that  Numa  did  mean  to  acquit 
himself  unto  wiser  ages,  which  he  thought  would  follow,  as 
one  that  had  not  been  so  foolish  as  to  believe  the  doctrine 
wherein  he  instructed  his  own  barbarous  times.  But  the 
poison,  wherewith  he  had  infected  Rome  when  he  sat  in 
his  throne,  had  not  left  working,  when  he  ministered  the 
antidote  out  of  his  grave.  Had  these  books  not  come  to 
light  until  the  days  of  Tully  and  Caesar,  when  the  mist  of 
ignorance  was  somewhat  better  discussed,  likely  it  is,  that 
they  had  not  only  escaped  the  fire,  but  wrought  some  good 
(and  peradventure  general)  effect.  Being  as  it  was,  they 
served  as  a  confutation,  without  remedy,  of  idolatry  that 
was  inveterate. 

Numa  reigned  three  and  forty  years  in  continual  peace. 
After  him  Tullus  Hostilius,  the  third  king,  was  chosen  in 
the  six  and  fortieth  of  Manasses,  and  reigned  two  and 
thirty  years,  busied  for  the  most  part  in  war.  He  quar 
relled  with  the  Albans,  who  met  him  in  the  field ;  but 
regard  of  the  danger,  which  both  parts  had  cause  to  fear, 
that  might  grow  unto  them  from  the  Thuscanes,  caused 


CHAP,  xxvii.         OF  THE  WORLD.  781 

them  to  bethink  themselves  of  a  course,  whereby,  without 
effusion  of  so  much  blood  as  might  make  them  too  weak  for 
a  common  enemy,  it  might  be  decided  who  should  com 
mand,  and  who  obey. 

There  were  in  each  camp  three  brethren,  twins  born  at 
one  birth,  (Dionysius  says  that  they  were  cousin-germans,) 
of  equal  years  and  strength,  who  were  appointed  to  fight 
for  their  several  countries.  The  end  was,  that  the  Horatii, 
champions  for  the  Romans,  got  the  victory,  though  two  of 
them  first  lost  their  lives.  The  three  Curatii  that  fought 
for  Alba  (as  Livy  tells  it)  were  all  alive,  and  able  to  fight, 
yet  wounded,  when  two  of  their  opposites  were  slain ;  but 
the  third,  Horatius,  pretending  fear,  did  run  away,  and 
thereby  drew  the  others,  who  by  reason  of  their  hurts  could 
not  follow  him  with  equal  speed,  to  follow  him  at  such  dis 
tance  one  from  another,  that  returning  upon  them  he  slew 
them,  as  it  had  been  in  single  fight,  man  after  man,  ere 
they  could  join  together,  and  set  upon  him  all  at  once. 
Dionysius  reports  it  somewhat  otherwise,  telling  very  par 
ticularly  what  wounds  were  given  and  taken,  and  saying, 
that  first  one  of  the  Horatii  was  slain,  then  one  of  the  Curatii, 
then  a  second  Horatius,  and  lastly  the  two  Curatii,  whom 
the  third  Horatius  did  cunningly  sever  one  from  the  other, 
as  is  shewed  before. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  memorable  things  in  the  old 
Roman  history,  both  in  regard  of  the  action  itself,  wherein 
Rome  was  laid,  as  it  were,  in  wager  against  Alba,  and  in 
respect  of  the  great  increase  which  thereby  the  Roman  state 
obtained.  For  the  city  of  Alba  did  immediately  become 
subject  unto  her  own  colony,  and  was  shortly  after,  upon 
some  treacherous  dealing  of  their  governor,  utterly  razed, 
the  people  being  removed  unto  Rome,  where  they  were 
made  citizens.  The  strong  nation  of  the  Latins,  whereof 
Alba,  as  the  mother  city,  had  been  chief,  became  ere  long 
dependent  upon  Rome,  though  not  subject  unto  it,  and  di 
vers  petty  states  adjacent  were  by  little  and  little  taken  in : 
which  additions,  that  were  small,  yet  many,  I  will  forbear 
to  rehearse,  (as  being  the  works  of  sundry  ages,  and  few  of 


782  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

them  remarkable  considered  apart  by  themselves,)  until  such 
time  as  this  fourth  empire,  that  is  now  in  the  infancy,  shall 
grow  to  be  the  main  subject  of  this  history. 

The  seventh  year  of  Hippomenes  in  Athens  was  current 
with  the  first  of  Manasses.  Also  the  three  last  governors 
for  ten  years,  who  followed  Hippomenes,  were  in  the  same 
king's  time.  Of  these  I  find  only  the  names  Leocrates, 
Apsander,  and  Erixias.  After  Erixias  yearly  rulers  were 
elected. 

These  governors  for  ten  years  were  also  of  the  race  of 
Medon  and  Codrus ;  but  their  time  of  rule  was  shortened, 
and  from  term  of  life  reduced  unto  ten  years;  it  being 
thought  likely  that  they  would  govern  the  better,  when 
they  knew  that  they  were  afterwards  to  live  private  men 
under  the  command  of  others.  I  follow  z  Dionysius  of  Ha- 
licarnassus  in  applying  their  times  unto  those  years  of  the 
Olympiads  wherein  the  chronological  table  following  this 
work  doth  set  them.  For  he  not  only  professeth  himself 
to  have  taken  great  care  in  ordering  the  reckoning  of  times, 
but  hath  noted  always  the  years  of  the  Greeks,  how  they 
did  answer  unto  the  things  of  Rome,  throughout  all  the 
continuance  of  his  history.  Whereas  therefore  he  placeth 
the  building  of  Rome  in  the  first  year  of  the  seventh 
Olympiad,  and  affirms  that  the  same  was  the  first  year  of 
Charops's  government  in  Athens ;  I  hope  I  shall  not  need 
excuse  for  varying  from  Pausanias,  who  sets  the  beginning 
of  these  Athenians  somewhat  sooner. 

In  the  reign  of  Manasses  it  was,  that  Midas,  whom  the 
poets  feigned  to  have  had  ass's  ears,  held  the  kingdom  of 
Phrygia.  Many  fables  were  devised  of  him,  especially  that 
he  obtained  of  Bacchus,  as  a  great  gift,  that  all  things 
which  he  should  touch  might  immediately  be  changed  into 
gold  ;  by  which  means  he  had  like  to  have  been  starved, 
(his  meat  and  drink  being  subject  to  the  same  transformation,) 
had  not  Bacchus  delivered  him  from  this  miserable  faculty, 
by  causing  him  to  wash  himself  in  the  river  Pactolus,  the 
stream  whereof  hath  ever  since  forsooth  abounded  in  that 

«  Dion.  Halic.  1.  i.  fol.  43.  and  45. 


CHAP.  xxvn.         OF  THE  WORLD.  783 

precious  metal.  Finally  it  is  said,  he  died  by  drinking 
bull's  blood,  being  invaded  by  the  Scythians. 

In  this  age  flourished  that  Antimachus  who  (saith  Plu 
tarch  in  the  life  of  Romulus)  observed  the  moon's  eclipse 
at  the  foundation  of  Rome. 

The  Milesians,  or  (as  Eusebius  hath  it)  the  Athenians, 
having  obtained  some  power  by  sea,  founded  Macicratis,  a 
city  on  the  east  of  Egypt.  Psammiticus  herein  seems  to 
have  assisted  them,  who  used  all  means  of  drawing  the 
Greeks  into  Egypt,  accounting  them  his  surest  strength. 
For  neither  Miletus  nor  Athens  were  now  of  power  suffi 
cient  to  plant  a  colony  in  Egypt  by  force. 

About  this  time  Archias,  with  his  companion  Miscellus 
and  other  Corinthians,  founded  a  Syracuse  in  Sicily ;  a  city 
in  after-times  exceeding  famous. 

The  city  of  Nicomedia,  sometime  b  Astacus,  was  enlarged 
and  beautified  in  this  age  by  Zipartes,  native  of  Thrace. 
Sibylla  of  Samus,  according  to  Pausanias,  lived  about  this 
time. 

About  these  times  also  was  Croton  founded  upon  the  bay 
of  Tarentum  by  Miscellus,  the  companion  of  Archias  that 
built  Syracuse ;  Strabo  makes  it  somewhat  more  ancient, 
and  so  doth  Pausanias. 

About  the  same  time  the  Parthenians,  being  of  age,  and 
banished  Lacedaemon,  were  conducted  by  Phalantus  into 
Italy,  where  it  is  said  they  founded  Tarentum ;  but  c  Justin 
and  Pausanias  find  it  built  before,  and  by  them  conquered 
and  amplified.  And  about  the  same  time,  Manasses  yet 
living,  the  city  Phaselis  was  founded  in  Pamphylia,  Gela 
in  Sicily,  Interamne  in  the  region  of  the  Umbri,  now  Ur- 
bin  in  Italy.  About  which  time  also  Chalcedon  in  Asia, 
over-against  Byzantium,  (now  Constantinople,)  was  founded 
by  the  Megarenses ;  who  therefore  were  upbraided  as  blind, 
because  they  chose  not  the  other  side  of  Bosphorus.  It  were 
a  long  work  to  rehearse  all  that  is  said  to  have  been  done 

»  Plut.  et  Euseb.  this  city  standeth.     Paus.  1.  5.  Hal. 

b  Whence  in  Strabo  there  is  Sinus     1.  3.  Strabo,  1.  6 
Astaceuus,  a  part  of  Propontis,  where          c  Justin.  1.  3.  Paus.  1. 10. 


784  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

in  the  five  and  fifty  years  of  Manasses ;  that  which  hath 
already  been  told  is  enough ;  the  rest,  being  not  greatly 
worth  remembrance,  may  well  be  omitted,  reserving  only 
Ben  Merodach  and  Nabulassar  to  the  business  that  will 
shortly  require  more  mention  of  them. 


CHAP.    XXVIII. 

Of  the  times  from  the  death  of  Manasses  to  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem. 

SECT.  I. 

Of  Ammon  and  Josias. 

AMMON  the  son  of  Manasses,  a  man  no  less  wicked  than 
was  his  father  before  his  conversion,  restored  the  exercise 
of  all  sorts  of  idolatry ;  for  which  dGod  hardened  the  hearts 
of  his  own  servants  against  him,  who  slew  him  after  he  had 
reigned  two  years :  Philo,  Eusebius,  and  Nicephorus  give 
him  ten  years,  following  the  Septuagint. 

Josias  succeeded  unto  Ammon,  being  but  a  child  of  eight 
years  old.  He  began  to  seek  after  the  God  of  David  his 
father,  and  in  his  twelfth  year  he  purged  e  Juda  and  Jeru 
salem  from  the  high  places,  and  the  groves,  and  the  carved 
and  molten  images.  And  they  brake  down  in  his  sight  the 
altars  of  Baalim,  He  caused  all  the  images,  as  well  those 
which  were  graven  as  molten,  to  be  stamped  to  powder,  and 
strewed  on  their  graves  that  had  erected  them  ;  and  this  he 
commanded  to  be  done  throughout  all  his  dominions.  He 
also  slew  those  that  sacrificed  to  the  sun  and  moon,  and 
caused  the  chariots  and  horses  of  the  sun  to  be  burnt.  Of 
Josias  it  was  prophesied,  in  the  time  of  Jeroboam  the  first, 
when  he  erected  the  golden  calf  at  Bethel,  that  a  child  should 
be  born  unto  the  house  of  David,  Josias  by  name,  and 
{upon  thee  (said  the  prophet,  speaking  to  the  altar)  shall 
he  sacrifice  the  priests  of  the  high  places,  that  burn  incense 
upon  thee.  A  prophecy  very  remarkable. 

d  2  Kiugs  xxi.  2  Chron.  xxxiii.      «  2  Kings  xxii.  2  Chron.  34.      f  i  Kings  xiii. 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD. .  785 

In  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign  he  rebuilt  and  re 
paired  the  temple,  at  which  time  Hilkiah  the  priest  found 
the  book  of  Moses,  called  Deuteronomy,  or,  of  the  law, 
which  he  sent  to  the  king :  which  when  he  had  caused  to  be 
read  before  him,  and  considered  of  the  severe  commandments 
therein  written,  the  prosperity  promised  to  those  that  ob 
serve  them,  and  the  sorrow  and  extirpation  to  the  rest,  he 
rent  his  garments,  and  commanded  Hilkiah  and  others  to 
ask  counsel  of  the  prophetess  Huldah,  or  Olda,  concerning 
the  book,  who  answered  the  messengers  in  these  words : 
s  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Behold,  I  will  bring'  evil  upon  this 
place,  and  upon  the  inhabitants  thereof,  even  all  the  curses 
that  are  written  in  the  book  which  they  have  read  before 
the  king  qfJuda:  because  they  have  forsaken  me,  and  burnt 
incense  to  other  gods.  Only  for  the  h  king  himself,  because 
he  was  a  lover  of  God  and  of  his  laws,  it  was  promised  that 
this  evil  should  not  fall  on  Juda  and  Jerusalem  in  his  days, 
but  that  he  himself  should  inherit  his  grave  in  peace. 

Josias  assembled  the  elders,  caused  the  book  to  be  read 
unto  them,  made  a  covenant  with  the  Lord,  and  caused  all 
that  were  found  in  Jerusalem  and  Benjamin  to  do  the  like, 
promising  thereby  to  observe  the  laws  and  commandments 
in  the  book  contained. 

The  execution  done  by  Josias  upon  the  altar,  idols,  mo 
numents,  and  bones  of  the  false  prophets  at  Bethel,  argueth 
his  dominion  to  have  extended  unto  those  countries  that 
had  been  part  of  the  kingdom  of  the  ten  tribes.  Yet  I  do 
not  think  that  any  victory  of  Josias  in  war  got  possession 
of  these  places,  but  rather  that  Ezekias,  after  the  flight  and 
death  of  Sennacherib,  when  Merodach  opposed  himself 
against  Asarhaddon,  did  use  the  advantage  which  the  fac 
tion  in  the  north  presented  unto  him,  and  laid  hold  upon  so 
much  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  as  he  was  able  to  people. 
Otherwise  also  it  is  not  improbable,  that  the  Babylonian, 
finding  himself  unable  to  deal  with  Psammiticus  in  Syria, 
(as  wanting  power  to  raise  the  siege  of  Azotus,  though  the 
town  held  out  twenty-pine  years,)  did  give  unto  Manasses, 
*  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  24,  25.  h  2  Kings  xxii.  18.  a  Cliron.  xxxiv. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  K 


786  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

together  with  his  liberty,  as  much  in  Israel  as  himself  could 
not  easily  defend.  This  was  a  good  way  to  break  the  amity 
that  the  kings  of  Juda  had  so  long  held  with  those  of 
Egypt,  by  casting  a  bone  between  them,  and  withal,  by  this 
benefit  of  enlarging  their  territory  with  addition  of  more 
than  they  could  challenge,  to  redeem  the  friendship  of  the 
Jews,  which  had  been  lost  by  injuries  done  in  seeking  to 
bereave  them  of  their  own.  When  it  is  said  that  Manasses 
did,  after  his  deliverance  from  imprisonment,  'l  put  captains 
of  war  in  all  the  strong-  cities  of  Juda,  it  may  be  that  some 
such  business  is  intimated  as  the  taking  possession,  and  for 
tifying  of  places  delivered  into  his  hands.  For  though  it 
be  manifest  that  he  took  much  pains  in  making  Jerusalem 
itself  more  defensible,  yet  I  should  rather  believe  that  he, 
having  already  compounded  with  the  Babylonian,  did  for 
tify  himself  against  the  Egyptians,  whose  side  he  had  for 
saken,  than  that  he  travailed  in  making  such  provisions  only 
for  his  mind^s  sake.  The  earnestness  of  Josias  in  the  king 
of  Babel's  quarrel  doth  argue,  that  the  composition  which 
Manasses  had  made  with  that  king  or  his  ancestor  was 
upon  such  friendly  terms  as  required  not  only  a  faithful 
observation,  but  a  thankful  requital.  For  no  persuasions 
could  suffice  to  make  Josias  sit  still,  and  hold  himself  quiet 
in  good  neutrality,  when  Pharaoh  Necho  king  of  Egypt 
passed  along  by  him  to  war  upon  the  countries  about  the 
rivfer  of  Euphrates. 

The  last  year  of  Josias's  reign  it  was,  when  as  Necho  the  son 
of  Psammiticus  came  with  a  powerful  army  towards  the  bor 
der  of  Judaea,  determining  to  pass  that  way,  being  the  nearest 
towards  k  Euphrates,  either  to  strengthen  the  passages  of  that 
river  about  Carchemish,  or  Cercusium,  for  the  defence  of 
Syria,  (as,  long  after  this,  Dioclesian  is  said  by  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  to  have  done,)  or  perhaps  to  invade  Syria  itself. 
For  it  seemeth  that  the  travail  of  Psammiticus  had  not  been 
idly  consumed  about  that  one  town  of  Azotus,  but  had  put 
the  Egyptians  in  possession  of  no  small  part  of  Syria,  espe- 

1  »  Chron.  xxxiii.  14.  k  2  Chron.  xxxv.  20. 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  787 

cially  in  those  quarters  that  had  formerly  belonged  unto  the 
Adads,  kings  of  Damasco. 

Neither  was  the  industry  of  Necho  less  than  his  father's 
had  been,  in  pursuing  the  war  against  Babel.  In  which 
war  two  things  may  greatly  have  availed  the  Egyptians, 
and  advanced  their  affairs  and  hopes;  the  extraordinary 
valour  of  the  mercenary  Greeks,  that  were  far  better  soldiers 
than  Egypt  could  of  itself  afford,  and  the  danger  wherein 
Assyria  stood  by  the  force  of  the  Medes,  which  under  the 
command  of  more  absolute  princes  began  to  feel  itself  bet 
ter,  and  to  shew  what  it  could  do.  These  were  great  helps, 
but  of  shorter  endurance  than  was  the  war,  as  in  place 
more  convenient  shall  be  noted.  At  the  present  it  seems, 
that  either  some  preparation  of  the  Chaldeans  to  reconquer 
did  enforce,  or  some  disability  of  theirs  to  make  resistance 
did  invite,  the  king  of  Egypt  into  the  countries  bordering 
upon  Euphrates,  whither  Pharaoh  Necho  ascended  with  a 
mighty  army. 

These  two  great  monarchs  having  their  swords  drawn,  and 
contending  for  the  empire  of  that  part  of  the  world,  Josias 
advised  with  himself  to  which  of  these  he  might  adhere, 
having  his  territory  set  in  the  midway  between  both,  so  as 
the  one  could  not  invade  the  other,  but  that  they  must  of 
necessity  tread  upon  the  very  face  and  body  of  his  country  : 
now  though  it  were  so,  that  Necho  himself  desired  by  his 
ambassadors  1  leave  to  pass  along  by  Judaea,  protesting  that 
he  directed  himself  against  the  Assyrians  only,  without  all 
harmful  purpose  against  Josias ;  yet  all  sufficed  not,  but 
the  king  of  Israel  would  needs  fight  with  him. 

Many  examples  there  were  which  taught  what  little  good 
the  friendship  of  Egypt  could  bring  to  those  that  had  af 
fiance  therein;  as  that  of  Hosea,  the  last  king  of  Israel, 
who,  when  he  fell  from  the  dependance  of  the  Assyrian,  and 
wholly  trusted  to  Sabacus,  or  Sous,  king  of  Egypt,  was  ut 
terly  disappointed  of  his  hopes,  and  in  conclusion  lost  both 
his  life  and  estate,  which  the  Assyrian  so  rooted  up  and  tare 
in  pieces,  as  it  could  never  after  be  gathered  together,  or  re- 

1  2  Chroii.  xxxv. 


788  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

planted.     The  calamities  also  that  fell  upon  Juda  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  years  of  Ezekias,  whilst  that  good 
king  and  his  people  relied  upon  Sethon,  and  more  lately, 
the  imprisonment  of  Manasses,  were  documents  of  sufficient 
proof  to  shew  the  ill  assurance  that  was  in  the  help  of  the 
Egyptians,  who  (near  neighbours  though  they  were)  were 
always  unready  when  the  necessities  of  their  friends  re 
quired  their  assistance.      The  remembrance  hereof  might 
be  the  reason  why  Necho  did  not  seek  to  have  the  Jews  re 
new  their  ancient  league  with  him,  but  only  craved  that 
they  would  be  contented  to  sit  still,  and  behold  the  pastime 
between  him  and  the  Assyrians.     This  was  an  easy  thing 
to  grant,  seeing  that  the  countenance  of  such  an  army,  as 
did  soon  after  this  outface  Nabulassar  upon  his  own  bor 
ders,  left  unto  the  Jews  a  lawful  excuse  of  fear,  had  they 
forborne  to  give  it  any  check  upon  the  way.     Wherefore  I 
believe,  that  this  religious  and  virtuous  prince  Josias  was 
not  stirred  up  only  by  politic  respects  to  stop  the  way  of 
Necho,  but  thought  himself  bound  in  faith  and  honour  to 
do  his  best  in  defence  of  the  Babylonian  crown,  whereunto 
his  kingdom  was  obliged,  either  by  covenant  made  at  the 
enlargement  of  Manasses,  or  by  the  gift  of  such  part  as  he 
held  in  the  kingdom  of  the  ten  tribes.     As  for  the  princes 
and  people  of  Juda,  they  had  now  a  good  occasion  to  shew, 
both  unto  the  Babylonians,  of  what  importance  their  friend 
ship  was,  and  to  the  Egyptians,  what  a  valiant  nation  they 
had  abandoned,  and  thereby  made  their  enemy. 

Some  think  that  this  action  of  Josias  was  contrary  to  the 
advice  of  Jeremy  the  prophet,  which  I  do  not  find  in  the 
prophecy  of  Jeremy,  nor  can  find  reason  to  believe.  Others 
hold  opinion,  that  he  forgat  to  ask  the  counsel  of  God ;  and 
this  is  very  likely,  seeing  he  might  believe  that  an  enter 
prise  grounded  upon  fidelity  and  thankfulness  due  to  the 
king  of  Babel  could  not  but  be  displeasing  unto  the  Lord. 
But  the  wickedness  of  the  people  (in  whom  the  corruptions 
of  former  times  had  taken  such  root,  as  all  the  care  of  Josias 
in  reforming  the  land  could  not  pluck  up)  was  questionless 
far  from  hearkening  how  the  matter  would  stand  with  God's 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  789 

pleasure,  and  much  further  from  inquiring  into  his  secret 
will,  wherein  it  was  determined  that  their  good  king,  whose 
life  stood  between  them  and  their  punishment,  should  now 
be  taken  from  among  them,  and  that  in  such  sort  as  his 
death  should  give  entrance  to  the  miseries  ensuing.  So 
Josias,  levying  all  the  strength  he  could  make,  near  unto 
Megiddo,  in  the  half  tribe  of  Manasses,  encountered  Necho ; 
and  there  he  received  the  stroke  of  death,  which,  lingering 
about  him  till  he  came  to  Jerusalem,  brought  him  to  the 
sepulchres  of  his  ancestors.  His  loss  was  greatly  bewailed 
of  all  the  people  and  princes  of  Juda,  especially  of  Jeremy 
the  prophet,  who  inserted  a  sorrowful  remembrance  thereof 
into  his  book  of  m  Lamentations. 

SECT.   II. 

Of  Pharaoh  Necho,  that  fought  with  Josias  :  of  Jehoahaz  and  Je- 

hoiakim,  kings  of  Juda. 

OF  these  wars,  and  particularly  of  this  victory,  Hero 
dotus  hath  mention  among  the  acts  of  Necho.  He  tells  us  of 
this  king,  that  he  went  about  to  make  a  channel,  whereby 
ships  might  pass  out  of  Nil  us  into  the  Red  sea.  It  should 
have  reached  above  a  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  been 
wide  enough  for  two  galleys  to  row  in  front.  But  in  the 
midst  of  the  work,  an  oracle  foretold  that  the  barbarians 
should  have  the  benefit  of  it,  which  caused  Necho  to  desist 
when  half  was  done.  There  were  consumed  in  this  toil 
some  business  twelve  hundred  thousand  Egyptians,  a  loss 
great  enough  to  make  the  king  forsake  his  enterprise,  with 
out  troubling  the  oracle  for  admonition.  Howsoever  it  were, 
he  was  not  a  man  to  be  idle ;  therefore  he  built  a  fleet,  and 
levied  a  great  army,  wherewith  he  marched  against  the  king 
of  Babel.  In  this  expedition  he  used  the  service,  as  well 
of  his  navy  as  of  his  land  forces  ;  but  no  particular  exploits 
of  his  therein  are  found  recorded,  save  only  this  victory 
against  Josias,  where  Herodotus  calls  the  place  Magdolus, 
and  the  Jews  Syrians;  which  is  a  small  error,  seeing  that 
Judaea  was  a  province  of  Syria,  and  Magdolus,  or  Magdala,. 

m  Lament,  iv.  20. 

3E3 


790  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

is  taken  to  have  been  the  same  place  (though  diversely 
named)  in  which  this  battle  was  fought.  After  this,  Necus 
took  the  city  of  Cadytis,  which  was  perhaps  Carchemish,  by 
Euphrates,  and  made  himself  lord  in  a  manner  of  all  Syria, 
as  n  Josephus  witnesseth. 

Particularly  we  find,  that  the  Phoenicians,  one  of  the  most 
powerful  nations  in  Syria,  were  his  subjects,  and  that  by  his 
command  they  surrounded  all  Africa,  °  setting  sail  from  the 
gulf  of  Arabia,  and  so  passing  along  all  the  coast,  whereon 
they  both  landed,  as  need  required,  and  sowed  corn  for 
their  sustenance  in  that  long  voyage,  which  lasted  three 
years.  This  was  the  first  navigation  about  Africa  wherein 
that  great  Cape,  now  called  of  Good  Hope,  was  discover 
ed,  which  after  was  forgotten,  until  Vasco  de  Gama,  the 
Portingal,  found  it  out,  following  a  contrary  course  to 
that  which  the  Phoenicians  held ;  for  they,  beginning  in  the 
east,  ran  the  way  of  the  sun,  south  and  then  westward,  after 
which  they  returned  home  by  the  pillars  and  straits  of 
Hercules,  (as  the  name  was  then,)  called  now  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar,  having  Afric  still  on  the  right  hand :  but  the 
Portingals,  beginning  their  voyage  not  far  from  the 
same  straits,  leave  Afric  on  the  larboard,  and  bend  their 
course  unto  the  east.  That  report  of  the  Phoenicians,  which 
Herodotus  durst  not  believe,  how  the  sun  in  this  journey 
was  on  their  right  hand,  that  is,  on  the  north  side  of  them, 
is  a  matter  of  necessary  truth ;  and  the  observation  then 
made  hereof  makes  me  the  better  to  believe  that  such  a 
voyage  was  indeed  performed. 

But  leaving  these  discourses  of  Necho's  magnificence,  let 
us  tell  what  he  did  in  matters  more  importing  his  estate. 
The  people  of  Juda,  while  the  Egyptians  were  busy  at 
Carchemish,  had  made  Jehoahaz  their  king,  in  the  room  of 
his  father  Josias.  The  prophet  P  Jeremy  calls  this  new 
king  Shallum,  by  the  name  of  his  younger  brother,  alluding 
perhaps  to  the  short  reign  of  Shallum  king  of  the  ten  tribes : 
for  Shallum  of  Israel  reigned  but  one  month,  Jehoahaz  no 
more  than  three.  He  was  not  the  eldest  son  of  Josias: 

n  Jos.  Ant.  Jud.  1.  10.  c.  7.  «  Herod.  1.  4.  P  Jer.  xxii.  32. 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  791 

wherefore  it  may  seem  that  he  was  set  up  as  the  best  af 
fected  unto  the  king  of  Babel,  the  rest  of  his  house  being 
more  inclined  to  the  Egyptian,  as  appears  by  the  sequel. 
An  idolater  he  was,  and  thrived  accordingly.  For  when  as 
Necho  had  despatched  his  business  in  the  north  parts  of  Sy 
ria,  then  did  he  take  order  for  the  affairs  of  Juda?a.  This 
country  was  now  so  far  from  making  any  resistance,  that 
the  king  himself  came  to  Riblah  in  the  land  of  Hamath, 
where  the  matter  went  so  ill  on  his  side,  that  Necho  did  cast 
him  into  bonds,  and  carry  him  prisoner  into  Egypt,  giving 
away  his  kingdom  to  Eliakim  his  elder  brother,  to  whom  of 
right  it  did  belong.  This  city  of  Riblah,  in  after-times 
called  Antiochia,  was  a  place  unhappy  to  the  kings  and 
princes  of  Juda,  as  may  be  observed  in  divers  examples. 
Yet  here  Jehoiakim,  together  with  his  new  name,  got  his 
kingdom ;  an  ill  gain,  since  he  could  no  better  use  it.  But 
however  Jehoiakim  thrived  by  the  bargain,  Pharaoh  sped 
well,  making  that  kingdom  tributary,  without  any  stroke 
stricken,  which  three  months  before  was  too  stout  to  give 
him  peace,  when  he  desired  it.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  his 
march  outward  Necho  had  a  greater  task  lying  upon  his 
hands,  than  would  permit  him  to  waste  his  forces  upon 
Judaea ;  but  now  the  reputation  of  his  good  success  at  Me- 
giddo  and  Carchemish,  together  with  the  dissension  of  the 
princes  Josias's  sons,  (of  whom  the  eldest  is  probably  thought 
to  have  stormed  at  the  preferment  of  his  younger  brother,) 
gave  him  power  to  do  even  what  should  please  himself. 
Yet  he  did  forbear  to  make  a  conquest  of  the  land,  perhaps 
upon  the  same  reason  which  had  made  him  so  earnest  in 
seeking  to  hold  peace  with  it :  for  the  Jews  had  suffered 
much  in  the  Egyptians  quarrel,  and  being  left  by  these  their 
friends  in  time  of  need  unto  all  extremities,  were  driven  to 
forsake  that  party,  and  join  with  the  enemies ;  to  whom  if 
they  shewed  themselves  faithful,  who  could  blame  them  ? 
It  was  therefore  enough  to  reclaim  them,  seeing  they  were 
such  a  people,  as  would  not  upon  every  occasion  shift  side, 
but  endure  more  than  Pharaoh,  in  the  pride  of  his  victories, 
thought  that  any  henceforth  should  lay  upon  them ;  so  good 

3E  4 


792  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

a  patron  did  he  mean  to  be  unto  them.  Nevertheless  he 
laid  upon  them  a  tribute  of  an  hundred  talents  of  silver 
and  one  talent  of  gold ;  that  so  he  might  both  reap  at  the 
present  some  fruit  of  his  pains  taken,  and  leave  unto  them 
some  document  in  the  future  of  greater  punishment  than 
verbal  anger,  due  to  them  if  they  should  rebel.  So  he  de 
parted,  carrying  along  with  him  into  Egypt  the  unfortunate 
king  Jehoahaz,  who  died  in  his  captivity. 

The  reign  of  Jehoahaz  was  included  in  the  end  of  his 
father's  last  year,  otherwise  it  would  hardly  be  found  that 
Jehoiakim  his  successor  did  reign  ten  whole  years,  whereas 
the  scriptures  give  him  eleven,  that  is  current  and  incom 
plete.  If  any  man  will  rather  cast  the  three  months  of  this 
short  reign  into  the  first  year  of  the  brother,  than  into  the 
father's  last,  the  same  arguments  that  shall  maintain  his 
opinion  will  also  prove  the  matter  to  be  unworthy  of  dis 
putation  ;  and  so  I  leave  it. 

Jehoiakim  in  impiety  was  like  his  brother ;  in  faction  he 
was  altogether  Egyptian,  as  having  received  his  crown  at  the 
hand  of  Pharaoh.  The  wickedness  of  these  last  kings  be 
ing  expressed  in  scriptures  none  otherwise  than  by  general 
words,  with  reference  to  all  the  evil  that  their  fathers  had 
done,  makes  it  apparent,  that  the  poison  wherewith  Ahaz 
and  Manasses  had  infected  the  land  was  not  so  expelled  by 
the  zealous  goodness  of  Josias,  but  that  it  still  cleaved  unto 
the  chief  of  the  people,  <l  yea^  unto  the  chief  of  the  priests 
also ;  and  therefore  it  was  not  strange  that  the  kings  had 
their  part  therein.  The  royal  authority  was  much  abased 
by  the  dangers  wherein  the  country  stood  in  this  trouble 
some  age :  the  princes  did  in  a  manner  what  they  listed, 
neither  would  the  kings  forbear  to  profess  that  they  could 
deny  them  nothing.  Yet  the  beginning  of  Jehoiakim  had 
the  countenance  of  the  Egyptian  to  grace  it,  which  made 
him  insolent  and  cruel,  as  we  find  by  that  example  of  his 
dealing  with  Uriah  the  prophet:  though  herein  also  the 
princes  do  appear  to  have  been  instigators.  This  holy  man 
denounced  God's  judgments  against  the  city  and  temple, 

i  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  14. 


CHAP,  xxvin.        OF  THE  WORLD.  793 

in  like  sort  as  other  prophets  had  formerly  done,  and  did  in 
the  same  age.  The  king,  with  all  the  men  of  power,  and 
all  the  princes,  hearing  of  this,  determined  to  put  him  to 
death.  Hereupon  the  poor  man  fled  into  Egypt;  but 
such  regard  was  had  unto  Jehoiakim,  thaf  Uriah  was  deli 
vered  unto  his  ambassador,  and  sent  back  to  the  death, 
contrary  to  the  custom  used,  both  in  those  days  and  since, 
among  all  civil  nations,  of  giving  refuge  unto  strangers  that 
are  not  held  guilty  of  such  inhuman  crimes  as,  for  the 
general  good  of  mankind,  should  be  exempted  from  all 
privilege. 

It  concerned  Pharaoh  to  give  all  contentment  possible  to 
Jehoiakim ;  for  the  Assyrian  lion,  that  had  not  stirred  in 
many  years,  began  about  these  times  to  roar  so  loud  upon 
the  banks  of  Euphrates,  that  his  voice  was  heard  unto  Nilus, 
threatening  to  make  himself  lord  of  all  the  forest.  The 
causes  that  hitherto  had  withdrawn  the  house  of  Merodach 
from  opposing  the  Egyptian  in  his  conquest  of  Syria,  re 
quire  our  consideration  in  this  place,  before  we  proceed  to 
commit  them  together  at  Carchemish,  where  shortly  after 
this  the  glory  of  Egypt  is  to  fall. 

SECT.   III. 

Of  the  kings  of  Babylon  and  Media.  How  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
kings  of  Babel  could  not  give  attendance  on  their  business  in 
Syria,  which  caused  them  to  lose  that  province. 
MERODACH  the  son  of  Baladan,  who,  taking  the  ad 
vantage  that  Sennacherib's  misadventure  and  death,  toge 
ther  with  the  dissension  between  his  children,  presented, 
made  himself  king  of  Babylon,  was  eleven  years  troubled 
with  a  powerful  enemy,  Asarhaddon  the  son  of  Sennacherib 
reigning  over  the  Assyrians  in  Nineveh,  from  whom  whilst 
he  could  not  any  other  way  divert  his  cares,  he  was  fain  to 
omit  all  business  in  Syria,  and  (as  hath  been  formerly  shew 
ed)  to  make  over  unto  Ezekias  some  part  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  ten  tribes.  From  this  molestation  the  death  of  Asar 
haddon  did  not  only  set  him  free,  but  gave  unto  him  some 
part  of  Assyria,  if  not  (as  is  commonly  but  less  probably 


794  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

thought)  the  whole  kingdom.  How  greatly  this  was  to  the 
liking  of  the  Assyrians,  I  will  not  here  stand  to  inquire ; 
his  long  reign  following,  and  his  little  intermeddling  in 
matters  of  Syria,  make  it  plain,  that  he  had  work  enough 
at  home,  either  in  defending  or  in  establishing  that  which  he 
had  gotten.  Josephus  gives  him  the  honour  of  having  won 
Nineveh  itself,  which  we  may  believe,  but  surely  he  did 
not  hold  it  long.  For  in  the  times  soon  following,  that 
great  city  was  free,  and  vanquished  Phraortes  the  Median. 
Perhaps  it  yielded  upon  some  capitulation,  and  refused  af 
terwards  to  continue  subject,  when  the  kings  being  of  the 
Chaldean  race  preferred  Babylon  before  it. 

Some  think  that  this  was  the  Assyrian  king  whose  cap 
tains  took  Manasses  prisoner,  but  I  rather  believe  those 
that  hold  the  contrary,  for  which  I  have  given  my  reasons 
in  due  place.  To  say  truth,  I  find  little  cause  why  Mero- 
dach  should  have  looked  into  those  parts  as  long  as  the 
Jews  were  his  friends,  and  the  Egyptians,  that  maligned  the 
northern  empire,  held  themselves  quiet  at  home,  which  was 
until  the  time  of  Psammiticus,  about  the  end  of  this  king's 
reign,  or  the  beginning  of  his  son. 

Ben  Merodach,  the  son  and  successor  of  this  king,  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  scriptures,  yet  is  he  named  by  good  con 
sent  of  authors,  and  that  speak  little  of  his  doings.  The 
length  of  his  reign  is  gathered  by  inference  to  have  been 
one  and  twenty  years,  for  so  much  remaineth  of  the  time 
that  passed  between  the  beginning  of  his  father's  and  his 
nephew's  reigns,  (which  is  a  known  sum,)  deducting  the 
years  of  his  father  and  of  his  son  Nabulassar.  This  (as  I 
take  it)  was  he  that  had  Manasses  prisoner,  and  released 
him.  He  sped  ill  in  Syria,  where  Psammiticus,  by  the  virtue 
of  his  mercenary  Greeks,  did  much  prevail.  This  may  have 
been  some  cause  that  he  released  Manasses,  and  did  put 
into  his  hands  some  part  more  of  the  kingdom  of  Samaria  ; 
which  is  made  probable  by  circumstances  alleged  before. 

Nabulassar,  that  reigned  in  Babylon  after  his  father  Ben 
Merodach,  had  greater  business  in  his  own  kingdom  than 
would  permit  him  to  look  abroad,  insomuch  as  it  may  be 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  795 

thought  to  have  been  a  great  negligence  or  oversight  of 
Psammiticus  and  Necho,  that  they  did  not  occupy  some  good 
part  of  his  dominions  beyond  Euphrates.  For  it  was  in 
his  time  that  Phraortes  king  of  the  Medes  invaded  Assyria, 
and  besieged  Nineveh  ;  from  whence  he  was  not  repelled 
by  any  force  of  Nabulassar,  but  constrained  to  remove  by 
the  coming  of  Scythians,  who  in  these  ages  did  overflow 
those  parts  of  the  world,  laying  hold  upon  all  that  they 
could  master  by  strong  hand.  Of  these  Scythians,  and  the 
lordship  that  they  held  in  Asia,  it  is  convenient  that  I  speak 
in  this  place ;  shewing  briefly  aforehand  how  the  Medes, 
upon  whom  they  first  fell,  were  busied  in  the  same  times 
with  hopes  of  conquering  Assyria. 

Phraortes  the  son  of  Deioces,  king  of  the  Medes,  hav 
ing  by  many  victories  enlarged  his  dominions,  conceived  at 
length  a  fair  possibility  of  making  himself  lord  of  Nineveh. 

That  city  (as  r  Herodotus  reports  it)  having  been  a 
sovereign  lady,  was  not  forsaken  of  all  her  dependants,  yet 
remained  in  such  case,  that  of  herself  she  was  well  enough. 

This  makes  it  plain,  that  howsoever  Merodach  had  gotten 
possession  of  this  imperial  seat,  and  made  it  subject,  as  was 
the  rest  of  the  country,  yet  it  found  the  means  to  set  itself 
at  liberty ;  as  after  this  again  it  did,  when  it  had  been  re 
gained  by  Nabulassar  his  grandchild. 

Sharp  war,  and  the  very  novelty  of  sudden  violence,  use 
to  dismay  any  state  or  country  not  inured  to  the  like ;  but 
custom  of  danger  hardeneth  even  those  that  are  unwarlike. 
Nineveh  had  been  the  palace  of  many  valiant  kings  lately 
reigning  therein;  it  had  suffered  and  resisted  all  the  fury 
wherewith  either  domestic  tumults  between  the  sons  of 
Sennacherib,  or  foreign  war  of  the  Babylonians,  could  af 
flict  it ;  and  therefore  it  is  the  less  wonderful,  that  Phraortes 
did  speed  so  ill  in  his  journey  against  it.  He  and  the  most 
of  his  army  perished  in  that  expedition,  whereof  I  find  no 
particular  circumstances  (perhaps  he  undervalued  their 
forces,  and  brought  a  less  power  than  was  needful.)  It  is 
enough  that  we  may  herein  believe  Herodotus. 
'  Herod.  1.  i. 


796  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

Cyaxares  the  son  of  Phraortes,  a  braver  man  of  war 
than  his  father,  won  as  much  of  Asia  the  Less  as  lay  east 
ward  from  the  river  of  Halys ;  he  sought  revenge  upon  the 
Assyrians  for  the  death  of  his  father,  and  besieged  Nineveh 
itself,  having  a  purpose  to  destroy  it.  I  rather  believe 
Eusebius,  "  That  he  took  the  city,  and  fulfilled  his  displea- 
u  sure  upon  it,"  than  Herodotus,  "  that  the  Scythian  army 
"  came  upon  him  whilst  he  lay  before  it."  For  where  equal 
authorities  are  contradictory,  (as  Eusebius,  though  far  later 
than  Herodotus,  yet  having  seen  other  authors,  that  are 
now  lost,  is  to  be  valued  according  to  his  great  reading,) 
there  do  I  hold  it  best  to  yield  unto  the  best  likelihoods. 

To  think  that  the  Scythians  came  upon  Cyaxares  whilst 
he  lay  before  Nineveh,  were  to  accuse  him  of  greater  im 
providence  than  ought  to  be  suspected  in  one  commended 
as  a  good  soldier.  But  to  suppose  that  he  was  fain  to  leave 
the  town,  when  a  war  so  dangerous  fell  upon  his  own  coun 
try,  doth  well  agree  both  with  the  condition  of  such  busi 
ness  as  that  Scythian  expedition  brought  into  those  parts, 
and  with  the  state  of  the  Chaldean  and  Assyrian  affairs 
ensuing. 

The  destruction  of  this  great  city  is  both  foretold  in  the 
book  of  Tobit,  and  there  set  down  as  happening  about  these 
times ;  of  which  book  whosoever  was  the  author,  he  was 
ancient  enough  to  know  the  story  of  those  ages,  and  hath 
committed  no  such  error  in  reckoning  of  times  as  should 
cause  us  to  distrust  him  in  this.  As  for  the  prophecy  of 
Nahum,  though  it  be  not  limited  unto  any  certain  term,  yet 
it  appears  to  have  taken  effect  in  the  final  destruction  of 
Nineveh  by  Nabuchodonosor,  according  to  the  common 
opinion.  For  the  prophet  hath  mention  of  a  conquest  of 
-Egypt?  foregoing  this  calamity,  whereof  we  will  speak  in 
due  place.  Some  that  ascribe  more  authority  than  the  re 
formed  churches  yield  to  the  book  of  Tobit,  are  careful,  as 
in  a  matter  of  necessity,  to  affirm,  that  about  these  times 
Nineveh  was  taken ;  but  they  attribute  (conjecturally)  the 
victory  over  it  to  Ben  Merodach ;  a  needless  conjecture,  if 
the  place  of  Eusebius  be  well  considered.  Yet  I  hold  it 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  797 

probable,  that  Nabulassar  the  son  of  Ben  Merodach  did 
seize  upon  it,  and  place  a  king  or  viceroy  therein,  about 
such  time  as  the  country  of  Assyria  was  abandoned  by 
Cyaxares,  when  the  Scythian  war  overwhelmed  Media.  For 
then  was  the  conquest  wrought  out  ready  to  his  hand,  the 
swelling  spirits  of  the  Ninevites  were  allayed,  and  their 
malice  to  Babylon  so  assuaged,  that  it  might  be  thought  a 
great  favour  if  Nabulassar,  appointing  unto  them  a  peculiar 
king,  took  him  and  them  into  protection :  though  after 
wards,  to  their  confusion,  this  unthankful  people  and  their 
king  rebelled  again,  as  shall  be  shewed  in  the  reign  of  Na- 
buchodonosor. 

SECT.  IV. 

The  great  expedition  of  the  Scythians,  who  ruled  in  Asia  eight  and 
twenty  years. 

§.  i. 

The  time  of  this  expedition. 

NOW  that  I  have  shewed  what  impediment  was  given 
by  the  Assyrians  and  the  Medes  to  the  Babylonians,  who 
thereby  were  much  disabled  to  perform  any  action  of  worth 
upon  the  Egyptians  in  Syria,  it  is  time  that  I  speak  of  that 
great  Scythian  expedition,  which  grievously  afflicted,  not 
only  the  Babylonians,  but  the  Medes  and  Lydians,  with  the 
countries  adjacent,  in  such  wise  that  part  of  the  trouble 
redounded  even  to  the  Egyptians  themselves.  Of  the  Scy 
thian  people  in  general,  Herodotus  makes  very  large  dis 
course,  but  interlaced,  as  of  matter  ill  known,  with  many 
fables ;  of  this  expedition  he  tells  many  particulars,  but  ill 
agreeing  with  consent  of  time.  Concerning  his  fabulous  re 
ports,  it  will  be  needless  to  recite  them,  for  they  are  far 
enough  distant  from  the  business  in  hand.  The  computa 
tion  of  times,  which,  by  inference  out  of  his  relations,  may 
seem  very  strange,  needeth  some  answer  in  this  place ;  lest 
otherwise  I  should  either  seem  to  make  myself  too  bold 
with  an  author,  in  citing  him  after  a  manner  different  from 
his  own  tale,  or  else  to  be  too  forgetful  of  myself,  in  bring 
ing  to  act  upon  the  stage  those  persons  which  I  had  already 


798  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

buried.  Eight  and  twenty  years  he  saith  that  the  Scythians 
reigned  in  Asia,  before  Cyaxares  delivered  the  country  from 
them.  Yet  he  reports  a  war  between  Cyaxares  and  Haly- 
attes  the  Lydian,  as  foregoing  the  siege  of  Nineveh ;  the 
siege  of  Nineveh  being  ere  the  Scythians  came.  And  fur 
ther  he  tells  how  the  Scythians,  having  vanquished  the 
Medes,  did  pass  into  Syria,  and  were  encountered  in  Pa- 
laestina  by  Psammiticus  king  of  Egypt,  who  by  gifts  and 
entreaty  procured  them  to  depart  from  him.  These  narra 
tions  of  Herodotus  may  every  one  of  them  be  true,  though 
not  in  such  order  of  time  as  he  hath  marshalled  them.  For 
Psammiticus  was  dead  before  Cyaxares  began  to  reign, 
and  Cyaxares  had  spent  half  of  his  forty  years  ere  Haly- 
attes  was  king  of  Lydia ;  so  that  he  could  not,  after  those 
Lydian  wars,  reign  eight  and  twenty  years  together  with 
the  Scythians.  It  is  true,  that  Eusebius  doth  also  call 
Psammis  the  son  of  Pharaoh  Necho  by  the  name  of  Psam 
miticus  ;  and  this  king  Psammis  may,  by  some  strained  con 
jecture,  be  thought  to  have  been  he  that  met  with  the 
Scythians ;  for  he  lived  with  both  Cyaxares  and  Halyattes. 
But  Eusebius  himself  refers  all  that  business  of  the  Scy 
thian  eruption  into  Palaestina  to  Psammiticus  the  father  of 
Necho,  whom  he  leaves  dead  before  the  reign  of  Halyattes. 
Therefore  I  dare  not  rely  upon  Herodotus  in  this  matter, 
otherwise  than  to  believe  him,  that  such  things  were  in 
these  ages,  though  not  in  such  order  as  he  sets  them  down. 
It  remains  that  I  collect,  as  well  as  I  can,  those  memorials 
which  I  find  of  this  expedition  scattered  in  divers  places ; 
a  work  necessary,  for  that  the  greatness  of  this  action  was 
such  as  ought  not  to  be  omitted  in  a  general  history ;  yet 
not  easy,  the  consent  of  those  that  have  written  thereof  be 
ing  nothing  near  to  uniformity. 

I  have  noted  before,  that  in  the  reign  of  Ardys  king  of 
Lydia,  the  Cimmerians  overran  that  kingdom,  and  were 
not  expelled  until  Halyattes,  the  nephew  of  Ardys,  got  the 
upper  hand  of  them.  In  these  times  therefore  of  Ardys, 
Sadyattes,  and  Halyattes,  are  we  to  find  the  eight  and 
twenty  years  wherein  the  Scythians  reigned  over  Asia. 


CHAP,  xxvni.         OF  THE  WORLD.  799 

Now  forasmuch  as  Psammiticus  the  Egyptian  had  some 
dealings  with  the  Scythians,  even  in  the  height  of  their 
prosperity,  we  must  needs  allow  more  than  one  or  two  of 
his  last  years  unto  this  their  dominion.  But  the  beginning 
of  Halyattes's  reign  in  Lydia,  being  three  and  twenty  years 
complete  after  the  death  of  Psammiticus,  leaves  the  space 
very  scant,  either  for  the  great  victories  of  the  Scythians, 
necessarily  supposed  before  they  could  meet  the  Egyptian 
in  Syria,  or  for  those  many  losses  which  they  must  have 
received  ere  they  could  be  driven  quite  away.  To  increase 
this  difficulty,  the  victorious  reign  of  Nabuchodonosor  in 
Babylon  is  of  no  small  moment.  For  how  may  we  think  it 
possible,  that  he  should  have  adventured  the  strength  of 
his  kingdom  against  the  Egyptians  and  Jews,  had  he  stood 
in  daily  fear  of  losing  his  own,  to  a  more  mighty  nation 
that  lay  upon  his  neck  ?  To  speak  simply  as  it  appears  to 
me,  the  victories  ascribed  to  Cyaxares  and  Halyattes  over 
these  warlike  people  were  not  obtained  against  the  whole 
body  of  their  army,  but  were  the  defeatures  of  some  troops 
that  infested  their  several  kingdoms;  other  princes,  and 
among  these  Nabulassar,  having  the  like  success,  when  the 
pleasures  of  Asia  had  mollified  the  courages  of  these  hardy 
northern  lads.  Wherefore  we  may  probably  annex  the  eight 
and  twenty  years  of  the  Scythian's  rule  to  as  many  almost 
the  last  of  Nabulassar's  reign,  in  compass  whereof  their 
power  was  at  the  greatest.  This  is  all  that  I  can  say  of  the 
time  wherein  Asia  suffered  the  violence  of  these  oppressors. 

§.2. 
What  nations  they  were  that  brake  into  Asia,  with  the  cause  of 

their  journey. 

TOUCHING  the  expedition  itself,  Herodotus  tells  us, 
that  the  Cimmerians,  being  driven  out  of  their  country  by 
the  Scythians,  invaded  and  wasted  some  part  of  Asia ;  and 
that  the  Scythians,  not  contented  with  having  won  the  land 
of  the  Cimmerians,  did  follow  them,  I  know  not  why,  into 
far  removed  quarters  of  the  world,  so  (as  it  were  by  chance) 
falling  upon  Media  and  Egypt,  in  this  pursuit  of  men  that 
were  gone  another  way  into  Lydia.  Hereby  we  may  ga- 


800  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ther  that  the  Cimmerians  were  an  odious  and  base  people, 
the  Scythians  as  mischievous  and  foolish  ;  or  else  Herodotus 
and  some  other  of  his  countrymen  great  slanderers  of  those 
by  whom  their  nation  had  been  beaten,  and  Ionia  more 
than  once  grievously  ransacked.  The  great  valour  of  the 
Cimmerians,  or  Cimbrians,  is  so  well  known,  and  their  many 
conquests  so  well  testified  in  histories  of  divers  nations,  that 
the  malice  of  the  Greeks  is  insufficient  to  stain  them  with 
the  note  of  cowards.  These  were  the  posterity  of  Gomer, 
who  peopled  the  greatest  part  of  our  western  world,  and 
whose  reflow  did  overwhelm  no  small  portion  of  Greece  and 
Asia,  as  well  before  and  after,  as  in  the  age  whereof  we  do 
now  entreat.  He  that  would  more  largely  inform  himself 
of  their  original  and  actions,  may  peruse  Goropius  Becanus^s 
Amazonica ;  of  many  things  in  which  book,  that  may  be 
verified  which  the  learned  Ortelius  is  said  to  have  spoken 
of  all  Goropius's  works,  "  that  it  is  easy  to  laugh  at  them, 
"  but  hard  to  confute  them.""  There  we  find  it  proved,  by 
such  arguments  and  authorities  as  are  not  likely  to  be  re 
garded,  that  the  Cimmerians,  Scythians,  and  Sarmatians, 
were  all  of  one  lineage  and  nation,  howsoever  distinguished 
in  name,  by  reason  of  their  divers  tribes,  professions,  or 
perhaps  dialect  of  speech.  Homer  indeed  hath  mention  of 
the  Cimmerians,  whose  country  whether  he  place  in  the 
west,  as  near  unto  the  ocean  and  bounds  of  the  earth,  or  in 
the  north,  as  being  far  from  the  sun,  and  covered  with 
eternal  darkness,  certain  it  is,  that  he  would  have  them 
near  neighbours  to  hell;  for  he  had  the  same  quarrel  to 
them  which  Herodotus  had,  and  therefore  belike  would 
have  made  them  seem  a  kind  of  goblins.  It  was  the  man 
ner  of  this  great  poet  (as  Herodotus  writing  his  life  affirms) 
to  insert  into  his  works  the  names  of  such  as  lived  in  his 
own  times,  making  such  mention  of  them  as  the  good  or 
ill  done  by  them  to  himself  deserved.  And  for  this  reason 
it  is  proved  by  Eustathius,  that  the  Cimmerians  were  so 
disgraced  by  him  because  they  had  wasted  his  country. 
Perhaps  that  invasion  of  Phrygia  by  the  Amazons,  whereof 
Homer  puts  a  remembrance  into  Priamus's  discourse  with 


CHAP,  xxvin.      OF  THE  WORLD.  801 

Helen,  was  the  very  same  which  Eusebius  noteth  to  have 
happened  somewhat  before  the  age  of  Homer,  at  what  time 
the  Cimmerians  with  the  Amazons  together  invaded  Asia. 

This  is  certain,  that  both  the  Amazons  and  the  Cimmerii 
(who  in  after-times  were  called  Cimbri)  did  often  break  into 
Greece  and  Asia,  which  though  it  be  not  in  express  terms 
written  that  they  did  with  joint  forces,  yet,  seeing  they  in 
vaded  the  selfsame  places,  it  may  well  be  gathered  that 
they  were  companions.  One  journey  of  the  Amazons  into 
Greece,  mentioned  also  by  Eusebius,  was  by  the  straits  of 
the  Cimmerians,  as  we  find  in  s  Diodore,  who  further  telleth 
us  that  the  Scythians  therein  gave  them  assistance.  l  The 
same  author,  before  his  entry  into  those  discourses  of  the 
Amazons,  which  himself  acknowledgeth  to  be  fabulous,  doth 
report  them  to  have  been  wives  of  the  Scythians,  and  no 
less  warlike  than  their  husbands,  alleging  the  example  of 
that  queen  who  is  said  to  have  slain  the  great  Persian 
Cyrus.  That  it  was  the  manner  of  the  Cimbri  to  carry 
their  wives  along  with  them  to  the  wars,  and  how  desperate 
the  courage  was  of  those  women,  the  terrible  descent  of 
them  into  Italy,  when  Marius  the  Roman  overthrew  them, 
gives  proof  sufficient.  I  will  not  here  enter  into  a  discourse 
of  the  Amazons ;  other  place  will  give  me  better  leisure  to 
speak  of  them :  but  seeing  that  they  are  noted  by  diverse 
historians  to  have  belonged  unto  the  Cimmerians,  to  the 
Scythians,  and  to  the  Sarmatians,  we  may  the  better  ap 
prove  Goropius's  conclusion,  that  these  three  nations  were 
one,  at  least  that  they  were  near  allies. 

Now  concerning  the  expulsion  of  the  Cimmerians  by 
the  Scythians,  it  appears  to  have  been  none  other  than  the 
sending  a  colony  of  them  forth  into  Asia,  with  an  army  of 
Scythians  to  help  them,  in  purchasing  a  new  seat,  and  esta 
blishing  the  plantation. 

The  Sarmatians  also  were  companions  in  this  journey. 
For  the  city  of  Novograd  in  Russia  (which  country  is  the 
same  that  was  called  Sarmatia)  stood  in  their  way  home 
wards,  as  shall  anon  be  further  shewed.  So  that  all  the 
•  Died.  1.4.  c.  2.  *  Diod.  1.  2.  c.  n. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.   VOL.  II.  3  F 


802  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  ir. 

north  was  up  in  arms ;  and  therefore  it  is  no  marvel,  though 
many  countries  felt  the  weight  of  this  great  inundation. 
Such   another   voyage  was   that  which    the   same   people 
made  five  hundred  years  and  more  after  this,  when  they 
were  encountered  by  the  Romans.     For  they  issued  from 
the  parts  about  the  lake  Maeotis ;  they  were  then  likewise 
assisted  (saith  u  Plutarch  in  the  most  likely  report  of  them) 
by  the  Scythians  their  neighbours  ;  they  had  in  their  army 
above   three   hundred   thousand   fighting  men,    besides  a 
huge  multitude  of  women   and   children ;  they  wandered 
over  many  countries,  beating  all  down  before  them ;  and 
finally,  thinking  to  have  settled  themselves  in  Italy,  they 
divided  their  company  for  the  more  easy  passage  thither, 
and  were  consumed  in  three  terrible  battles  by  the  Roman 
consuls.     Mere   necessity  enforced   these  poor  nations  to 
trouble  the  world,  in  following  such  hard  adventures.     For 
their  country  being  more  fruitful  of  men  than  of  sustenance, 
and  shut  up  on  the  north  side  with  intolerable  cold,  which 
denied  issue  that  way  to  their  overswelling  multitudes ;  they 
were  compelled  to  discharge  upon  the  south,  and  by  right 
or  wrong  to  drive  others  out  of  possession,  as  having  title 
to  all  that  they  had  power  to  get,  because  they  wanted  all 
that  weaker,  but  more  civil  people  had.     Their  sturdy  bo 
dies,  patient  of  hunger,  cold,  and  all  hardness,  gave  them 
great  advantage  over  such  as  were  accustomed  unto  a  more 
delicate  life,  and  could  not  be  without  a  thousand  super 
fluities.      Wherefore   commonly  they  prevailed  very   far, 
their   next   neighbours    giving    them    free    passage,    that 
they  might  the  sooner  be  rid  of  them  ;  others  giving  them, 
besides  passage,   victuals  and  guides  to  conduct  them  to 
more  wealthy  places;  others  hiring  them  to  depart  with 
great  presents;  so  as  the  further  they  went  on,  the  more 
pleasant  lands  they  found,  and  the  more  effeminate  people. 

§3- 

Of  the  Cimmerians'  war  in  Lydia. 

THE  first  company  of  these,  consisting  for  the  most 
part  of  Cimmerians,  held  the  way  of  the  Euxine  seas,  which 
u  Plutarch  in  the  Life  of  Marius. 


CHAP,  xxvin.         OF  THE  WORLD.  803 

they  had  still  on  the  right  hand,  leaving  on  the  other  side, 
and  behind  them,  the  great  mountains  of  Caucasus.  These 
having  passed  through  the  land  of  Colchis,  that  is  now 
called  Mengrelli,  entered  the  country  of  Pontus,  and  being 
arrived  in  x  Paphlagonia,  fortified  the  promontory  whereon 
Sinope,  a  famous  haven  town  of  the  Greeks,  was  after  built. 
Here  it  seems  that  they  bestowed  the  weakest  and  most  un 
serviceable  of  their  train,  together  with  the  heaviest  part  of 
their  carriages,  under  some  good  guard ;  as  drawing  near 
to  those  regions,  in  conquest  whereof  they  were  to  try  the 
utmost  hazard.  For  in  like  sort  afterwards  did  the  Cimbri 
(of  whom  I  spake  even  now)  dispose  of  their  impediments, 
leaving  them  in  a  place  of  strength,  where  Antwerp  now 
stands,  when  they  drew  near  unto  Gaul,  upon  which  they 
determined  to  adventure  themselves  in  the  purchase.  From 
Sinope,  the  way  into  Phrygia,  Lydia,  and  Ionia  was  fair 
and  open  to  the  Cimmerians,  without  any  ledge  of  moun 
tains,  or  any  deep  rivers  to  stay  their  march :  for  Iris  and 
Halys  they  had  already  passed. 

What  battles  were  fought  between  these  invaders  and 
the  Lydians,  and  with  what  variable  success  the  one  or 
other  part  won  and  lost,  I  find  not  written,  nor  am  able  to 
conjecture.  This  I  find,  that  in  the  time  of  Ardys  the 
Cimmerians  got  possession  of  Sardes,  the  capital  city  of 
Lydia,  only  the  castle  holding  out  against  them.  Further 
I  observe,  that  whereas  Herodotus  tells  of  the  acts  per 
formed  by  Gyges  and  Ardys,  kings  of  Lydia,  before  this 
invasion,  and  by  Alyattes  and  Croesus  in  the  times  follow 
ing  ;  all  that  Ardys  did  against  the  Cimmerians,  and  all, 
save  burning  the  Milesians'*  corn-fields,  that  was  done  in 
twelve  years  by  Sadyattes  his  son,  (who  perhaps  had  his 
hands  so  full  of  this  business,  that  he  could  turn  them  to 
nothing  else,)  is  quite  omitted :  whereby  it  may  seem  that 
neither  of  the  two  did  any  thing  worthy  of  remembrance  in 
those  wars,  but  were  glad  enough  that  they  did  not  lose  all. 

Certainly,  the  miseries  of  war  are  never  so  bitter  and 
many,  as  when  a  whole  nation,  or  great  part  of  it,  forsaking 
*  Herod.  1.  4. 


8(H  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

their  own  seats,  labour  to  root  out  the  established  possessors 
of  another  land,  making  room  for  themselves,  their  wives, 
and  children.  They  that  fight  for  the  mastery  are  pacified 
with  tribute,  or  with  some  other  services  and  acknowledg 
ments,  which  had  they  been  yielded  at  the  first,  all  had 
been  quiet,  and  no  sword  bloodied.  But  in  these  migrations, 
the  assailants  bring  so  little  with  them,  that  they  need  all 
which  the  defendants  have,  their  lands  and  cattle,  their 
houses  and  their  goods,  even  to  the  cradles  of  the  sucking 
infants.  The  merciless  terms  of  this  controversy  arm  both 
sides  with  desperate  resolution,  seeing  the  one  part  must 
either  win  or  perish  by  famine,  the  other  defend  their 
goods,  or  lose  their  lives  without  redemption.  Most  of  the 
countries  in  Europe  have  felt  examples  hereof;  and  the 
mighty  empire  of  Rome  was  overthrown  by  such  invasions. 
But  our  isle  of  Britain  can  best  witness  the  diversity  of 
conquests;  having,  by  the  happy  victory  of  the  Romans, 
gotten  the  knowledge  of  all  civil  arts,  in  exchange  of  liberty 
that  was  but  slenderly  instructed  therein  before ;  whereas 
the  issue  of  the  Saxon  and  Danish  wars  was,  as  were  the 
causes,  quite  contrary.  For  these  did  not  seek  after  the 
dominion  only,  but  the  entire  possession  of  the  country, 
which  the  Saxons  obtained,  but  with  horrible  cruelty,  eradi 
cating  all  of  the  British  race,  and  defacing  all  memorial  of 
the  ancient  inhabitants  through  the  greater  part  of  the  land. 
But  the  Danes  (who  are  also  of  the  Cimmerian  blood) 
found  such  end  of  their  enterprise  as  it  may  seem  that  the 
Cimmerians  in  Lydia,  and  Scythians  in  the  higher  Asia, 
did  arrive  unto.  So  that  by  considering  the  process  of  the 
one,  we  shall  the  better  conceive  the  fortune  of  the  other. 
Many  battles  the  Danes  won,  yet  none  of  such  importance 
as  sufficed  to  make  them  absolute  conquerors;  many  the 
Saxons  won  upon  the  Danes,  yet  not  so  great  as  could 
drive  them  quite  away,  and  back  from  hence,  after  they  had 
gotten  firm  footing.  But  in  course  of  time,  the  long  con 
tinuance  even  of  utter  enmity  had  bred  such  acquaintance 
between  them,  as,  bowing  the  natures  of  both  these  people, 
made  the  one  more  pliant  unto  the  other.  So  their  dis- 


CHAP,  xxvni.         OF  THE  WORLD.  805 

agreeable  qualities,  both  ill  and  good,  being  reduced  into 
one  mild  temper,  no  small  number  of  the  Danes  became 
peaceable  cohabitants  with  the  Saxons  in  England,  where 
great  slaughter  had  made  large  room;  others,  returning 
home,  found  their  own  country  wide  enough  to  receive 
them,  as  having  disburdened  itself  of  many  thousands  that 
were  sent  to  seek  their  graves  abroad.  And  such  (as  I  think) 
was  the  end  of  the  Cimmerian  war  in  Lydia ;  whereunto 
though  some  victory  of  Alyattes  may  have  hastened  the 
conclusion,  yet  the  wearisome  length  of  time  seems  to  have 
done  most  in  compelling  them  to  desire  of  rest.  I  know 
not  why  I  should  fear  to  add  hereunto  my  further  conjec 
ture,  which  is,  that  the  matter  was  so  compounded  between 
the  Cimmerians  and  Alyattes,  that  the  river  of  Halys 
should  divide  their  territories.  For  Halys  was  henceforth 
the  border  of  the  Lydians,  and  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
river  was  the  country  of  the  Amazons,  that  is  indeed  of  the 
Cimmerians  and  other  Scythian  people,  whose  wives  and 
daughters  these  warlike  women  are  supposed  to  have  been. 
And  hereunto  the  quarrel  ensuing,  between  Alyattes 
and  Cyaxares  the  Mede,  hath  very  good  reference.  For 
Alyattes  (as  is  said)  fought  in  defence  of  certain  Scythians, 
upon  whom  the  Median  sought  revenge.  And  it  stands 
with  reason,  that  the  Lydians  and  Cimmerians,  being  much 
weakened  with  mutual  slaughters,  should  have  joined  in  a 
league  of  mutual  defence  for  their  common  safety  :  though 
otherwise  it  had  been  dangerous  to  Alyattes,  if  he  had 
permitted  the  Median  to  extend  his  kingdom  so  far  west 
ward,  whatsoever  the  pretences  might  be  of  taking  revenge 
upon  such  as  had  spoiled  each  of  their  countries.  As  for 
that  occasion  of  the  war  between  these  two  kings,  which 
Herodotus  relates,  I  find  it  of  little  weight,  and  less  pro 
bability.  He  tells  of  Scythians,  that,  being  chased  out  of 
their  country  by  faction,  came  unto  Cyaxares,  who  com 
mitted  unto  them  certain  boys,  to  be  instructed  in  the  Scy 
thian  tongue  and  feat  of  archery.  Now  it  so  fell  out  (saith 
he,  lib.  1.)  that  these  Scythians  using  much  to  hunt,  and 
commonly  bringing  home  somewhat  with  them,  did  never- 


806  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

theless  other  whiles  miss  of  their  game,  and  come  home  as 
they  went.  Hereupon  the  king,  being  froward  and  choleric, 
bitterly  reviled  them ;  and  they,  as  impatient  as  he,  killed 
one  of  the  boys  that  was  under  their  charge,  whom,  dress 
ing  like  venison,  they  presented  unto  him ;  which  done,  they 
fled  unto  Alyattes.  This  Herodotus  delivers  as  the  ground 
of  a  war  that  lasted  six  years  between  the  Medes  and  Lydi- 
ans,  the  one  king  demanding  these  fugitives  to  be  delivered 
into  his  hand,  the  other  refusing  to  betray  such  men  as 
were  become  his  suppliants.  To  this  I  will  say  no  more, 
than  that  I  see  no  cause  that  might  induce  the  Scythians 
to  betake  themselves  to  either  of  these  kings,  unto  whom 
their  nation  had  wrought  so  much  displeasure.  Particu 
larly  they  had  reason  to  distrust  Cyaxares,  for  the  treachery 
that  he  shewed  in  the  massacreing  of  their  countrymen  that 
were  in  his  kingdom;  of  whom  it  is  now  meet  that  we  should 
speak. 

§•4- 
The  war  of  the  Scythians  in  the  higher  Asia. 

AS  the  Cimmerians  held  their  course  westerly,  along  the 
shores  of  the  Euxine  sea,  so  the  Scythians  and  Sarmatians 
took  the  other  way,  and  having  the  Caspian  sea  on  their 
left  hand,  passed  between  it  and  Caucasus  through  Albania, 
Colthene,  and  other  obscure  nations,  where  now  are  the 
countries  of  Servan  and  Georgia,  and  so  they  entered  into 
Media.  The  Medes  encountered  them  in  arms,  but  were 
beaten,  and  thereupon  glad  to  come  to  any  agreement  with 
them.  This  was  in  the  time  of  Phraortes,  whilst  Psammi- 
ticus  reigned  in  Egypt.  If  it  were  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Nabulassar's  reign  over  Babylon,  (supposing  him  to  have 
reigned  thirty-five,  otherwise  we  must  allow  to  Ben  Mero- 
dach  what  we  take  from  him,)  then  do  the  twenty-eight  years 
of  their  dominion  end  one  year  before  the  great  Nabu- 
chodonosor  was  king ;  so  giving  him  good  leave  to  provide 
securely  for  the  invasion  of  Syria,  which  expedition  he  be 
gan  while  his  father  yet  lived,  as  Josephus  out  of  Berosus 
relates  the  history. 

Now  the  Medes,  desirous  to  save  themselves  as  well  as 


CHAP,  xxvin.        OF  THE  WORLD.  807 

they  might,  from  this  terrible  nation,  which  when  they  had 
no  lust  to  a  second  trial  of  the  sword,  refused  not  to  under 
go  the  burden  of  a  tribute,  but  thought  nothing  dishonour 
able  that  would  serve  to  remove  these  troublesome  guests 
into  some  other  lodging.  On  the  other  part,  the  Scythians 
finding  still  the  countries  pleasanter  and  better  the  further 
that  they  marched  into  the  south,  did  suffer  themselves  to  be 
persuaded,  that  a  little  more  travel  would  add  a  great  deal 
more  to  their  content.  For  they  relied  so  much  upon  their 
own  valour,  that  they  feared  no  resistance ;  and,  being  the 
bravest  men,  they  thought  it  reason  that  they  should  dwell 
in  the  best  region.  That  Phraortes  persuaded  them  into 
Egypt  I  do  not  think ;  Babylon  was  near  enough,  whither 
if  he  could  send  these  locusts  to  graze,  then  should  not  his 
unfriendly  neighbours  have  cause  to  laugh  at  his  misfor 
tune.  What  shift  Nabulassar  made  with  them,  or  that  at 
all  he  had  any  dealings  with  them,  I  do  not  read.  But  it 
is  well  known  that  his  dominions  lay  in  the  midst  between 
Media  and  Egypt ;  as  also,  that  they  made  all  those  parts 
of  Asia  tributary ;  wherefore  we  may  very  well  believe, 
that  they  watered  their  horses  in  his  rivers,  and  that  he  also 
was  content  to  give  them  provender. 

Psammiticus  hearing  of  their  progress,  (like  the  jealous 
husband  of  a  fair  wife,)  took  care  that  they  might  not  look 
upon  Egypt;  lest  the  sight  thereof  should  more  easily  de 
tain  them  there,  than  any  force  or  persuasion  that  he  could 
use  would  send  them  going.  Therefore  he  met  them  in 
Syria,  presuming  more  on  the  great  gifts  which  he  meant  to 
bestow  upon  them,  than  on  his  army  that  should  keep  them 
back.  Egypt  was  rich ;  and  half  the  riches  thereof  had 
not  been  ill  spent  in  saving  all.  Yet  Psammiticus  took  the 
most  likely  course  whereby  to  make  his  part  good  against 
them  by  strong  hand,  in  case  they  had  been  so  obstinate  as 
to  refuse  all  indifferent  composition.  For  he  lay  close 
upon  the  edge  of  the  wilderness  in  Gaza,  (as  I  take  it,)  the 
southernmost  border  of  Palaestina;  whence  he  never  ad 
vanced  to  meet  with  the  Scythians,  but  gave  them  leave  to 
feel  as  much  of  the  scalding  sunbeams,  ill  agreeing  with 


808  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

their  temper,  as  all  the  length  of  Syria  could  beat  upon 
them.  When  they  were  come  as  far  as  Ascalon,  the  next 
city  to  Gaza,  then  did  he  assay  them  with  goodly  words, 
accompanied  with  gifts,  which  were  likely  to  work  so  much 
the  better,  by  how  much  the  worse  they  were  pleased  with 
the  heat  of  a  climate  so  far  different  from  their  own.  Psam- 
miticus  had  at  his  back  a  vast  wilderness,  over  the  scorching 
sands  whereof  the  Scythians,  more  patient  of  cold  and  wet 
than  of  the  contrary  distempers,  could  ill  have  endured  to 
pursue  him,  through  unknown  ways,  had  they  fought  with 
him  and  prevailed ;  especially  the  kingdom  of  Egypt  being 
ready  to  entertain  him  with  relief,  and  them  with  new  trou 
ble  at  the  end  of  their  weary  journey.  Wherefore  they 
were  content  to  be  entreated,  and,  taking  in  good  part  his 
courteous  offers,  returned  back  to  visit  their  acquaintance 
in  the  high  countries.  The  Egyptian  king  (besides  that  he 
preserved  his  own  estate  from  a  dangerous  adventure,  by 
hiring  this  great  army  to  depart  from  him)  found  all  his 
cost  well  repaid  in  the  process  of  his  wars  in  Syria,  where 
the  nations  beyond  Euphrates  had  no  power  to  molest  him, 
being  more  than  ever  troubled  themselves  with  the  return 
of  their  oppressors.  For  the  Scythians,  resolving  now  to 
seek  no  further,  began  to  demand  more  than  the  tribute 
formerly  imposed.  And  not  contented  to  fleece  the  natu 
rals  with  grievous  exactions,  they  presumed  to  live  at  dis 
cretion  upon  the  country,  taking  what  they  listed  from  the 
owners ;  and  many  times  (as  it  were  to  save  the  labour  of 
taking  often)  taking  all  at  once.  This  tyrannous  dominion 
they  long  used  over  the  higher  Asia,  that  is,  over  the  coun 
try  lying  between  the  Caspian  and  Red  seas,  and  between 
India  and  Asia  the  Less.  Happy  it  was  for  the  poor  people, 
that  in  so  large  a  space  of  ground,  there  was  room  enough 
for  these  new  comers ;  otherwise  the  calamity  that  fell,  as  it 
were  by  chance,  upon  those  private  men  to  whose  wealth 
any  Scythian  did  bear  a  fancy,  would  have  lighted  in  gene 
ral  upon  all  at  one  clap,  leaving  few  alive,  and  none  able  to 
relieve  their  fellows.  Yet  it  seems  that  the  heaviest  bur 
den  lay  upon  Media ;  for  it  was  a  fruitful  country,  not  far 


CHAP,  xxvin.         OF  THE  WORLD.  809 

from  their  own  home,  and  lay  under  a  climate  well  agree 
ing  with  the  constitution  of  their  bodies ;  there  also  it  was 
that  they  had  the  fatal  blow  by  which  their  insolent  rule 
was  taken  from  them. 

y  Cyaxares  king  of  the  Medes,  who  in  this  extremity  was 
no  better  than  a  rent  gatherer  for  the  Scythians,  perceiving 
that  his  land  lay  unmanured  and  waste,  through  the  negli 
gence  of  his  people  that  were  out  of  heart  by  daily  oppres 
sions,  and  that  the  matter  could  not  be  remedied  by  open 
force,  resolved  to  prove  what  might  be  done  by  stratagem. 
The  managing  of  the  business  is  thus  delivered  in  brief; 
that  he  and  his  Medes  feasted  the  better  part  of  the  Scy 
thians,  made  them  drunk,  and  slew  them,  recovering  here 
by  the  possession  of  all  that  they  had  lost. 

Such  another  slaughter  was  committed  upon  the  Danes 
in  England ;  but  it  was  revenged  by  their  countrymen 
with  greater  cruelties  than  ever  they  had  practised  before. 
That  the  Scythians  which  escaped  this  bloody  feast  made 
any  stir  in  Media,  I  do  not  find;  neither  do  I  read  that 
either  in  revenge  hereof,  or  upon  other  pretence,  the  Medes 
were  troubled  by  invasion  from  Scythia  in  time  following. 

This  is  the  more  strange,  for  that  the  army  returning 
home  out  of  Media  was  very  strong,  and  encountered  with 
opposition  (as  z  Herodotus  reports  it)  no  less  than  it  had 
found  abroad.  Wherefore  it  may  be,  that  the  device  of 
Cyaxares,  to  free  his  country,  took  good  effect,  with  less 
bloodshed  than  hath  been  supposed.  For  if  he  surprised 
all  the  chief  of  them,  it  was  no  hard  matter  to  make  a 
good  composition.  Many  of  them  doubtless  in  twenty- 
eight  years  had  so  well  settled  themselves,  that  they  were 
desirous  of  rest,  and  might  be  permitted,  without  any  dan 
ger,  to  remain  in  the  country ;  many  (of  whom  I  shall 
speak  anon)  having  done  what  they  could  in  the  business, 
for  which  they  came  forth,  were  willing  to  return  home 
with  what  they  had  gotten ;  such  as  were  not  pleased  with 
either  of  these  two  courses  might  go  join  with  the  Cimme 
rians  in  Lydia,  or  seek  their  fortunes  in  other  provinces 
y  Herod,  l.i.  »  Herod.  1.  4- 


810  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

among  their  own  companions.  Whereas  all  the  families  of 
the  north  are  said  to  have  been  with  Nebuchadnezzar,  it 
may  be  understood,  that  a  great  part  of  the  Scythians, 
upon  hope  of  gain,  or  desire  to  keep  what  they  had  already 
gained,  were  content  to  become  subject  unto  Nabulassar ; 
men's  love  of  their  wealth  being  most  effectual  in  taming 
the  more  unquiet  love  of  inordinate  liberty.  This  is  certain, 
that  a  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  ever  after,  so  in  his  first  begin 
ning  of  war,  did  beat  the  Egyptians,  who  in  ages  foregoing 
had  been  accustomed  to  deal  with  the  Babylonians  after 
another  fashion :  and  this  new  success  of  that  king  may  be 
imputed,  in  regard  of  human  means,  to  such  addition  as 
this  of  new  forces. 

Of  the  Scythian  army  returning  out  of  Media,  diverse 
authors  report  a  story  which  confirms  me  in  the  opinion, 
that  this  company  went  forth  to  assist  their  kindred  and 
friends  in  acquiring  a  new  seat,  and  establishing  their  plan 
tation.  For  these  had  left  their  wives  behind  them;  a 
good  argument  to  prove  that  they  meant  to  come  again. 
The  Scythian  women,  to  comfort  themselves  in  their  hus 
bands1  absence,  became  bedfellows  to  their  slaves.  These 
got  a  lusty  brood  of  youths,  that  were  loath  to  be  troubled 
with  fathers-in-law,  and  therefore  prepared  to  fight  with 
them  at  their  return.  If  they  were  only  the  children  of 
slaves  which  compounded  an  army,  (as  Herodotus  would 
have  it,  who  tells  us  that  the  Scythians  were  wont  to  pull 
out  all  their  bondmen's  eyes,)  it  must  needs  be  that  they 
were  very  boys,  or  else  that  the  women  did  very  little  while 
continue  chaste.  Wherefore  I  rather  believe  the  tale  as  it 
is  told  by  the  Russes  themselves,  who  agreeing  in  the  rest 
with  the  consent  of  histories,  make  that  report  of  their  an 
cestors  returning  homewards,  which  I  will  set  down  as  I 
find  it  in  b  Mr.  Dr.  Fletcher's  exact  discourse  of  the  Russe 
commonwealth.  "  They  understood  by  the  way  that  their 
"  cholopey,  or  bond-slaves,  whom  they  left  at  home,  had  in 
"  their  absence  possessed  their  towns,  lands,  houses,  wives, 
"  and  all.  At  which  news  being  somewhat  amazed,  and 

*  Jer.  xxv.  9.  h  Russe  Commonwealth,  c.  4. 


CHAP,  xxvin.        OF  THE  WORLD.  811 

"  yet  disdaining  the  villainy  of  their  servants,  they  made  the 
"  more  speed  home:  and  so  not  far  from  Novograd  met 
"  them  in  warlike  manner  marching  against  them.  Where- 
"  upon  advising  what  was  best  to  be  done,  they  agreed  all 
"  to  set  upon  them  with  no  other  show  of  weapon  but  with 
"  their  horsewhips,  (which,  as  their  manner  is,  every  man 
"  rideth  withal,)  to  put  them  in  remembrance  of  their  ser- 
"  vile  condition,  thereby  to  terrify  them  and  abate  their 
"  courage.  And  so  marching  on,  and  lashing  all  together 
"  with  their  whips  in  their  hands,  they  gave  the  onset; 
"  which  seemed  so  terrible  in  the  ears  of  their  villains,  and 
"  struck  such  a  sense  into  them  of  the  smart  of  the  whip, 
"  which  they  had  felt  before,  that  they  fled  all  together  like 
"  sheep  before  the  drivers.  In  memory  of  this  victory,  the 
"  Novogradians  ever  since  stamped  their  coin  (which  they 
"  call  a  dingoe  Novogrodskoy,  current  through  all  Russia) 
"  with  the  figure  of  a  horseman  shaking  a  whip  aloft  in  his 
"  hand."  It  may  seem,  that  all  the  women  of  that  country 
have  fared  the  worse  ever  since,  in  regard  of  this  universal 
fault ;  for  such  a  pudkey,  or  whip,  as  terrified  those  slaves, 
curiously  wrought  by  herself,  is  the  first  present  that  the 
Muscovian  wife,  even  in  time  of  wooing,  sends  to  him  that 
shall  be  her  husband,  in  token  of  subjection;  being  well 
assured  to  feel  it  often  on  her  own  loins.  But  this  was  a 
document  unto  the  Scythians,  or  rather  Sarmatians,  (for 
Novograd  stands  in  the  country  that  was  called  Sarmatia,) 
to  beware  of  absenting  themselves  any  more  so  long  from 
their  wives ;  which  after  this  I  fmd  not  that  they  did. 

Thus  much  I  thought  good  to  set  down  of  the  Scythian 
expedition ;  not  only  because  it  is  the  most  memorable  act 
performed  abroad  by  that  nation,  famous  in  histories,  and 
terrible  to  many  countries ;  but  for  that  it  appears  to  have 
been  a  great  cause  of  the  Egyptians  prevailing  hitherto  in 
Syria  and  about  Judaea,  which  continues  yet  a  while  the 
centre  of  our  discourse. 

SECT.  V. 
Of  princes  living  in  divers  countries  in  these  ages. 

HAVING  thus  far  digressed  from  the  matters  of  Juda, 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

to  avoid  all  further  occasion  of  doing  the  like,  I  will  here 
insert  a  note  of  such  kings  and  men  of  mark,  as  were  be 
tween  the  death  of  Manasses  and  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem. 
Of  the  Egyptians,  Babylonians,  Medes,  and  Lydians,  I 
have  spoken  as  much  as  I  thought  needful.  In  Rome,  Tul- 
lus  Hostilius  held  the  kingdom,  until  the  one  and  twentieth 
year  of  Josias ;  at  which  time  Ancus  Marcius  succeeding, 
reigned  four  and  twenty  years.  After  him  L.  Tarquinius 
Priscus,  a  new-come  stranger,  but  very  rich,  prevailed  so 
far  by  his  graciousness  among  the  people,  that  he  got  the 
kingdom  to  himself,  disappointing  the  sons  of  Ancus,  over 
whom  he  was  tutor.  He  began  in  the  fourth  year  of  Zede- 
kia,  and  reigned  eight  and  thirty  years.  In  this  time  it  was, 
namely  in  the  second  year  of  the  thirtieth  Olympiad,  that 
the  Lacedaemonians,  bethinking  them  how  to  be  avenged  of 
the  Arcadians,  who  gave  succour  to  the  Messenians  against 
them  in  the  former  war,  entered  the  territory,  took  the 
city  of  Phigalia,  or  Phialia,  from  whence  their  garrisons 
were  soon  after  beaten  out.  Cypselus  expelling  the  race  of 
the  Bacidse  made  himself  lord  of  Corinth  about  these  times, 
and  governed  it  in  peace  thirty  years;  leaving  for  successor 
his  son  Periander,  one  of  the  seven  sages,  but  a  cruel  ty 
rant  ;  who,  among  other  vile  acts,  slew  his  own  wife,  and 
afterwards,  as  in  her  honour,  stripped  all  the  Corinthian 
women  stark  naked,  burning  their  apparel  as  an  acceptable 
offering  to  her  ghost.  Hereby  we  may  perceive  that  the 
wisdom  of  the  Greeks  was  not  excellent  in  those  days; 
when  such  a  one  as  this  could  be  admired  as  excelling  all 
the  country. 

In  these  times  also  were  Zaleucus  and  Draco,  famous 
lawgivers,  the  one  among  the  Locrians  in  Italy,  the  other 
in  the  city  of  Athens.  The  laws  of  Draco  were  so  rigor 
ous,  that  he  was  said  to  have  written  them  with  blood ;  for 
he  rewarded  every  small  offence  with  death.  Wherefore 
his  constitutions  were  soon  abrogated,  and  power  given  to 
Solon  by  the  Athenians  to  make  new  in  their  stead.  But 
the  laws  of  Zaleucus  were  very  mild.  He  forbade  any 
gentlewoman  to  walk  abroad  with  more  than  one  bond- 


CHAP,  xxvni.        OF  THE  WORLD.  813 

woman  attending  on  her,  unless  it  were  when  she  was  drunk ; 
or  to  go  forth  of  the  town  by  night,  unless  it  were  to 
some  sweethearts  bed ;  or  to  dress  herself  up  in  immodest 
bravery,  unless  it  were  to  inveigle  a  lover.  By  which  plea 
sant  ordinances  he  effected  his  desire:  for  none  would 
seem,  in  breaking  the  statutes,  to  be  in  such  case  as  chal 
lenged  the  dispensation.  It  is  noted  in  this  man  as  a  singu 
lar  example  of  justice,  that  when  his  own  son  had  commit 
ted  adultery,  and  was  therefore  to  lose  both  his  eyes,  he 
did  not  cause  him  to  be  pardoned,  but  gave  one  eye  of  his 
own  to  save  the  young  man  (who  also  lost  one)  from  utter 
blindness. 

I  shall  not  henceforth  need  so  far  to  wander,  as  hitherto 
I  often  have  done,  in  pursuing  of  actions  collateral  to  the 
history,  for  inserting  them  in  their  order  of  time.  The  Chal 
deans  will  soon  fall  under  the  Persians ;  the  Persians,  ere 
long,  encounter  with  the  Greeks ;  the  Greeks  with  the  Ro 
mans;  the  Romans  with  many  nations.  Concerning  all  these, 
as  they  shall  successively  present  themselves,  in  their  flourish 
ing  estate,  it  will  be  enough  to  recapitulate  the  most  me 
morable  accidents  that  befell  them  in  their  minority.  But 
in  the  long  space  of  more  than  thirteen  hundred  years, 
which  passed  between  the  catting  of  Abraham  and  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  we  find  little  matter,  wherein  the 
history  of  Israel  had  any  dealing  with  other  nations,  than 
the  very  nearest  borderers.  Yet  read  we  of  many  king 
doms  that  in  these  many  ages  were  erected  and  thrown 
down;  as  likewise  many  memorable  acts  were  performed 
in  Greece  and  elsewhere,  though  not  following  one  another 
at  any  near  distance ;  all  which  must  have  been  quite  omit 
ted,  or  else  reserved  unto  a  very  unseasonable  rehearsal, 
had  they  not  been  disposed  in  this  method,  whereof  he  that 
will  not  allow  the  conveniency  may  pardon  the  necessity. 

SECT.  VI. 

The  oppression  ofJudata,  and  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chal 
deans. 
NOW  to  return  to  the  Jewish  story,  from  whence  we 


814  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

have  so  far  digressed.  In  the  third  year  of  Jehoiakim,  Na- 
buchodoiiosor  the  second,  his  father  yet  living,  entered  Ju 
daea  with  a  great  army,  who,  besieging  and  forcing  Jerusa 
lem,  made  Jehoiakim  his  -vassal  in  despite  of  Necho  that 
had  established  him  king,  and  took  with  him  for  pledges 
Daniel,  being  as  yet  a  child,  with  Ananias,  Misael,  and 
Azariah.  Also  he  took  a  part  of  the  church-treasures,  but 
stayed  not  to  search  them  throughly;  for  Necho  hasted 
to  the  succour  of  Jehoiakim,  hoping  to  find  Nabuchodono- 
sor  in  Judaea ;  wherein  this  great  Babylonian  had  no  dis 
position  to  hazard  himself  and  his  army,  it  being  a  country 
of  an  evil  affection  towards  him,  as  also  far  off  from  any 
succour  or  sure  place  of  retreat.  If  he  had,  as  may  be  sup 
posed,  any  great  strength  of  Scythian  horsemen  in  his 
army,  it  was  the  more  wisely  done  of  him  to  fall  back 
out  of  the  rough,  mountainous,  and  overhot  country,  into 
places  that  were  more  even  and  temperate.  But  besides  all 
these  reasons,  the  death  of  his  father  happening  at  the  same 
time,  gave  him  just  occasion  to  return  home,  and  take  pos 
session  of  his  own  kingdom  before  he  proceeded  further  in 
the  second  care  of  adding  more  unto  it.  This  he  did  at 
reasonable  good  leisure:  for  the  Egyptian  was  not  ready 
to  follow  him  so  far,  and  to  bid  him  battle,  until  the  new 
year  came  in ;  which  was  the  fourth  of  Jehoiakim,  the  first 
of  Nabuchodonosor,  and  the  last  of  Necho.  In  this  year 
the  Babylonian  lying  upon  the  bank  of  Euphrates,  (his 
own  territory  bounding  it  on  the  north  side,)  attended  the 
arrival  of  Necho.  There,  after  a  resolved  contention  for 
victory,  Necho  was  slain,  and  his  army  remaining  forced  to 
save  itself,  which  full  ill  it  did,  by  a  violent  retreat.  This 
victory  Nabuchodonosor  so  well  pursued,  as  he  recovered 
all  Syria,  and  whatsoever  the  Egyptians  held  out  of  their 
proper  territory  towards  the  north.  The  Egyptians  being 
in  this  conflict  beaten,  and  altogether  for  the  present  dis 
couraged,  Jehoiakim  held  himself  quiet,  as  being  friend  in 
heart  unto  the  Egyptian ;  yet  having  made  his  peace  with 
the  Chaldean  the  year  before,  who  contented  with  such 
profit  as  he  could  then  readily  make,  had  forborne  to  lay 


CHAP.  XXVIH.        OF  THE  WORLD.  815 

any  tribute  upon  Juda.  But  this  cool  reservedness  of  Je~ 
hoiakim  was  on  both  sides  taken  in  ill  part.  The  Egyp 
tian  king  Psammis,  who  succeeded  unto  Necho,  began  to 
think  upon  restoring  Jehoahaz,  taken  prisoner  by  his  fa 
ther,  and  setting  him  up  as  a  domestical  enemy  against  his 
ungrateful  brother.  Against  all  such  accidents  the  Judaean 
had  prepared  the  usual  remedy,  practised  by  his  fore 
fathers  :  for  he  had  made  his  own  son  c  Jechonia  king  with 
him  long  before,  in  the  second  year  of  his  own  reign,  when 
the  boy  was  but  eight  years  old.  As  for  this  rumour  of 
Jehoahaz's  return,  the  prophet  Jeremy  foretold  that  it 
should  prove  idle,  saying,  dHe  shall  not  return  thither, 
but  he  shall  die  in  the  place  whither  they  have  led  him  cap 
tive,  and  shall  see  this  land  no  more.  The  Egyptians  in 
deed  having  spent  all  their  mercenary  forces,  and  received 
that  heavy  blow  at  Carcheniish,  had  not  remaining  such 
proportion  of  sharp  steel  as  of  fair  gold,  which,  without 
other  help,  is  of  little  effect.  The  valour  of  Necho  was  not 
in  Psammis.  Apries,  who  reigned  after  Psammis,  did  once 
adventure  to  shew  his  face  in  Syria ;  but  after  a  big  look 
he  was  glad  to  retire,  without  adventuring  the  hazard  of  a 
battle.  Wherefore  this  decaying  nation  fought  only  with 
brave  words,  telling  such  frivolous  tales  as  men,  that  mean 
to  do  nothing,  use  of  their  glorious  acts  forepast  against 
Josias  and  Jehoahaz.  In  this  case  it  was  easy  for  Jehoia- 
kim  to  give  them  satisfaction,  by  letting  them  understand 
the  sincerity  of  his  affection  towards  them  ;  which  appeared 
in  time  following.  But  Nabuchodonosor  went  to  work 
more  roundly :  he  sent  a  peremptory  message  to  Jehoia- 
kim,  willing  him  not  to  stand  upon  any  nice  points,  but 
acknowledge  himself  a  subject,  and  pay  him  tribute ;  add 
ing  hereunto  such  fearful  threats,  as  made  the  poor  Judaean 
lay  aside  all  thought  of  e  Pharaoh,  and  yield  to  do,  as  the 
more  mighty  would  have  him.  So  he  continued  in  the  obe 
dience  of  Nabuchodonosor  three  years.  At  this  time  Je 
remy  the  prophet  cried  out  against  the  Jews,  putting  them 
in  mind  that  he  had  now  three  and  twenty  years  exhorted 
«  a  Chrou.  xxxvi.  9.  d  Jer.  xxii.  11,12.  e  Joseph.  Ant.  lib.  10.  cap.  7. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

them  to  repentance,  but  because  they  had  stopped  their 
ears  against  him,  and  the  rest  of  the  prophets,  he  now  pro 
nounced  their  captivity  at  hand,  and  that  they  should  en 
dure  the  yoke  of  bondage  full  seventy  years.  The  same  ca 
lamity  he  threatened  to  all  the  neigh bouring  nations,  to  the 
Egyptians,  Moabites,  Ammonites,  Idumaeans,  and  the  rest ; 
foretelling  that  they  should  all  drink  out  of  the  Babylonian 
pitcher  the  wine  of  his  fury  whom  they  had  forsaken,  and 
after  the  seventy  years  expired,  that  the  f  Babylonians 
themselves  should  taste  of  the  same  cup,  and  be  utterly  sub 
verted  by  the  Medes,  and  the  Judaeans  permitted  to  return 
again  into  their  own  fields  and  cities.  The  first  imprison 
ment  of  the  prophet  Jeremy  seems  to  have  been  in  the 
fourth  year  of  this  Jehoiakim,  at  which  time  Baruch  the 
scribe  wrote  all  his  prophecies  out  of  his  mouth,  whom  he 
sent  to  read  them  unto  the  people,  and  afterward  to  the 
princes,  who  offered  them  to  the  king;  but  fearing  the 
king's  fury  they  had  first  set  Jeremy  at  liberty,  and  ad 
vised  him  and  Baruch  to  hide  themselves. 

Jehoiakim,  after  he  heard  a  part  of  it,  and  perceived  the 
ill  news  therein  delivered,  made  no  more  ado,  but  did  cut 
the  book  in  pieces,  and  cast  it  into  the  fire.  All  which  Je 
remy  caused  to  be  new  written,  with  this  addition ;  That 
the  dead  body  of  Jehoiakim  should  be  cast  out,  exposed  in 
the  day  to  the  heat,  and  in  the  night  to  the  frost,  and  that 
there  should  be  none  of  his  seed  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Da 
vid. 

Time  thus  running  on,  while  Jehoiakim  rested  secure  of 
all  danger,  as  tributary  to  the  Babylonian,  yet  well  thought 
of  by  the  Egyptian ;  the  mighty  city  of  Tyre  opposed  it 
self  against  the  Chaldean  forces;  and  upon  just  confidence 
of  her  own  strength,  despised  all  preparation  that  could  be 
made  against  her.  Now  forasmuch  as  the  term  of  seventy 
years  was  prescribed  unto  the  desolation,  as  well  of  Tyre 
as  of  Jerusalem,  and  other  towns  and  countries ;  it  is  appa 
rent,  that  they  which  refer  the  expugnation  of  this  city  unto 
the  nineteenth  year  of  Nabuchodonosor,  have  sure  authority 

(  Jer.  xxv. 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  817 

for  their  warrant.  Whereupon  likewise  it  follows  of  neces 
sity,  that  the  siege  thereof  began  in  the  seventh  of  his  reign ; 
as  having  lasted  thirteen  years. 

Here  I  will  take  leave  to  intrude  a  brief  note  concern 
ing  the  several  beginnings  that  are  reckoned  of  this  great 
prince's  rule,  whereupon  hath  risen  much  disputation.  The 
third  year  of  Jehoiakim  was  the  last  of  Nabulassar,  who  be 
ing  delivered  from  other  cares,  took  notice  of  such  as  had 
revolted  from  him  unto  Pharaoh  Necho,  and  sent  this  noble 
prince,  his  son,  with  an  army  into  Syria,  to  reclaim  them. 
In  this  expedition  was  s  Daniel  carried  away,  who  therefore 
makes  mention  of  the  same  year.  The  year  next  following, 
being  the  fourth  of  Jehoiakim,  was  the  first  of  Nebuchad 
nezzar  ;  which  h  Jeremy  affirmeth  in  express  words,  and 
from  this  we  reckon  all  his  time  and  actions  that  follow.  In 
his  three  and  twentieth  year  he  conquered  Egypt,  and  then 
began  to  reign  as  a  great  monarch,  finding  none  that  durst 
offend  him.  The  second  from  this  year  it  was  wherein  he 
saw  that  vision  of  the  image  consisting  of  sundry  metals ; 
which  did  prefigurate  the  succession  of  great  kingdoms 
that  should  rule  the  earth  before  the  coming  of  Christ.  I 
will  not  stand  to  dispute  about  this,  which  is  the  best  con 
clusion,  that  I  find,  of  long  disputations;  but  return  unto 
the  siege  of  Tyre,  which  began  in  the  seventh  of  his 
reign. 

The  city  of  Tyre  covered  all  the  ground  of  an  island 
that  was  divided  from  the  main  by  a  deep  and  broad  chan 
nel  of  the  sea.  The  Chaldeans  had  no  fleet,  and  were  no 
seamen ;  the  Tynans,  in  multitude  of  goodly  ships,  and 
skill  to  use  them,  excelled  all  other  nations;  and  every 
wind,  from  one  part  or  other,  brought  needful  provisions 
into  the  city.  Wherefore  neither  force  nor  famine  could 
greatly  hurt  the  place ;  whereof  nevertheless  the  judgments 
of  God  (denounced  against  it  by  » Isaiah,  Jeremy,  Ezekiel) 
had  threatened  the  destruction;  and  the  obstinate  resolu 
tion  of  Nabuchodonosor  had  fully  determined  to  perform  it. 
This  high-minded  king,  impatient  of  resistance,  undertook 
«  Dan.  i.  i.  h  Jer.  xxv.  I.  i  Isa.  xxiii.  Jer.  xxv.  Ezek.  xxvi. 

RALEGH,  HIST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  G 


818  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  11. 

a  vast  piece  of  work ;  even  to  fill  up  the  sea,  that  parted 
the  island  from  the  continent.  The  city  of  old  Tyrus,  that 
stood  opposite  to  the  new,  upon  the  firm  land,  and  the 
mountain  of  Libanus  near  adjoining,  that  was  loaden  with 
cedars  and  abundance  of  other  trees,  might  furnish  him 
with  materials.  Thirteen  years  were  spent  in  this  laborious 
and  almost  hopeless  business:  which  needeth  not  seem 
strange;  for  Alexander,  working  upon  that  foundation 
which  was  remaining  of  Nabuchodonosor's  pier,  and  being 
withal  assisted  by  a  strong  fleet,  was  yet  seven  months  ere 
he  could  make  way  into  the  city.  Wherefore  if  the  raging 
of  the  sea  was  able  to  carry  away  that  wherewith  Alex 
ander  laboured  to  cover  a  shelf,  with  much  more  violence 
could  it  overturn,  and  as  it  were  consume  the  work  of  Na- 
buchodonosor,  who  laid  his  foundations  in  the  bottom  of 
the  deep ;  striving,  as  it  were,  to  fill  the  empty  belly  of  this 
cormorant;  whereas  the  Macedonian  did  only  stop  the 
throat  of  it.  Every  man  knows  God  could  have  furthered 
the  accomplishment  of  his  own  threats  against  this  place, 
(though  it  had  not  pleased  him  to  use  either  miracle,  or 
such  of  his  more  immediate  weapons  as  are  earthquakes 
and  the  like,)  by  making  at  least  the  seas  calm,  and  adding 
the  favourable  concurrence  of  all  second  helps.  But  so  it 
pleaseth  him  oftentimes,  in  chastising  the  pride  of  man,  to 
use  the  hand  of  man ;  even  the  hand  of  man  striving,  as 
may  seem,  against  all  resistance  of  nature  and  fortune.  So 
in  this  excessive  labour  of  the  Chaldeans  k  every  head  was 
made  bald,  and  every  shoulder  was  made  bare.  Yet  Nabu- 
chodonosor  would  not  give  over,  till  he  was  master  of  the 
town. 

When  he  was  entered  upon  this  desperate  service,  whe 
ther  it  were  so,  that  some  losses  received,  some  mutiny  in 
his  army,  or  (which  is  most  likely,  and  so  l  Josephus  re 
ports  it)  some  glorious  rumours  of  the  Egyptians,  gave 
courage  to  his  evil-willers ;  Jehoiakim  renounced  his  sub 
jection,  and  began  to  hope  for  the  contrary  of  that  which 
quickly  fell  out.  For  Nabuchodonosor  gave  him  no  leisure 
k  Ezek.  xxix.  i  Jos.  Ant.  Jnd.  1.  10.  c.  7. 


CHAP.  XXVIH.        OF  THE  WORLD.  819 

to  do  much  hurt ;  but  with  part  of  his  army  marched  di 
rectly  into  Judaea,  where  the  amazed  king  made  so  little  re 
sistance,  (the  Egyptians  having  left  him  as  it  were  in  a 
dream,)  that  he  entered  Jerusalem,  and  laid  hands  on  Je- 
hoiakim ;  whom  he  first  bound,  and  determined  to  send  to 
Babylon,  but  changing  counsel,  he  caused  him  to  be  slain 
in  the  place,  and  gave  him  the  sepulchre  of  an  ass,  to  be 
devoured  by  beasts  and  ravenous  birds,  according  to  the 
former  prophecies ;  leaving  in  his  place  Jehoiakim,  or  Je- 
chonias,  his  son ;  whom  after  three  months  and  ten  days 
Nabuchodonosor  removed,  and  sent  prisoner  to  Babylon, 
with  Ezekiel,  Mardochaeus,  and  Josedech,  the  high  priest. 
The  mother  of  Jechonias,  together  with  his  servants,  eu 
nuchs,  and  all  the  ablest  men  and  best  artificers  of  the 
land,  were  also  then  carried  away  captives.  This  Jechonias, 
following  the  counsel  of  Jeremy  the  prophet,  made  no  re 
sistance,  but  submitted  himself  to  the  king's  will ;  wherein 
he  both  pleased  God,  and  did  that  which  was  best  for  him 
self;  though  at  the  present  it  might  seem  otherwise,  to  such 
as  considered  the  evil  that  befell  him,  rather  than  the 
greater  evil  that  he  thereby  avoided.  This  only  particular 
act  of  his  is  recorded,  which  was  good.  But  it  seems  that 
he  was  partaker  at  least  of  his  father's  faults,  if  not  an  in 
stigator:  which  was  the  cause  that  his  submitting  himself 
to  God^s  pleasure  did  not  preserve  his  estate;  for  so  we 
read  in  general  words,  that  he  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord,  according"  to  all  that  his  father  had  done.  In  his 
stead  Nabuchodonosor  established  Mathania  his  uncle  in 
the  kingdom  of  Juda,  and  called  him  Zedekias,  which  is  as 
much  to  say,  as  the  justice  of  God.  For  like  as  Necho  king 
of  Egypt  had  formerly  displaced  Jehoahaz,  after  his  father 
Josias  was  slain,  and  set  up  Jehoiakim  the  son  of  another 
mother ;  so  Nabuchodonosor  slew  Jehoiakim,  who  depended 
on  the  Egyptians,  and  carrying  his  son  Jechonias  prisoner 
to  Babel,  gave  the  kingdom  to  this  Zedekias,  that  was  whole 
brother  to  that  Jehoahaz,  whom  Necho  took  with  him  into 
Egypt.  From  Zedekias  he  required  an  oath  for  his  faith 
ful  obedience,  which  Zedekias  gave  him,  and  called  the 


820  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

living  God  to  witness  in  the  same,  that  he  would  remain 
assured  to  the  kings  of  Chaldea. 

In  the  first  year  of  Zedekias,  Jeremy  saw  and  expounded 
the  vision  of  the  ripe  and  rotten  grapes,  the  one  signifying 
those  Judseans  that  were  carried  away  captive,  the  other 
those  that  stayed  and  were  destroyed. 

In  the  fourth  of  Zedekias,  Jeremy  wrote  in  a  book  all 
the  evil  that  should  fall  upon  Babylon,  which  book  or 
scroll  he  gave  to  Sheraia,  when  he  went  with  die  king 
Zedekias  to  Babylon,  to  visit  Nabuchodonosor ;  willing  him 
first  to  read  it  to  the  captive  Jews,  and  then  to  bind  it  to  a 
stone,  and  cast  it  into  Euphrates,  pronouncing  these  words : 
"  Thus  shall  Babel  be  drowned,  and  shall  not  rise  from  the 
"  evil  that  I  will  bring  upon  her."  This  journey  of  Zede 
kias  to  Babel  is  probably  thought  to  have  been  in  way  of 
visitation,  carrying  some  presents.  But  I  further  think 
that  he  had  some  suit  there  to  make,  which  his  lordly  master 
refused  to  grant,  and  sent  him  away  discontented.  For  at 
his  return  all  the  bordering  princes  sent  messengers  to  him, 
inciting  him  (as  it  seems)  to  those  unquiet  courses,  from 
which  m  Jeremy  dehorted  both  him  and  them.  The  pro 
phet,  by  God's  appointment,  made  bonds  and  yokes,  one  of 
which  he  wore  about  his  own  neck,  others  he  sent  unto  the 
five  kings  of  Edom,  Moab,  Ammon,  Tyre,  and  Zidon,  by 
those  messengers  which  came  to  visit  Zedekias :  making 
them  know,  that  if  they  and  the  kings  of  Juda  abode  in 
the  obedience  of  Babylon,  they  should  then  possess  and 
enjoy  their  own  countries ;  if  not,  they  should  assuredly  pe 
rish  by  the  sword,  by  fire,  and  by  pestilence. 

He  also  foretold  them,  that  those  vessels  which  as  yet 
remained  in  Jerusalem  should  also  travel  after  the  rest,  and 
at  length  they  should  be  restored  again. 

The  same  year  Ananias  the  false  prophet  took  off  the 
wooden  chain  which  Jeremy  ware  in  sign  of  the  captivity 
of  the  Jews,  and  brake  it ;  vaunting,  that  in  like  manner, 
after  two  years,  God  would  break  the  strength  of  Babel, 
and  the  yoke  which  he  laid  on  all  nations ;  restore  Je- 
m  Jer.  xxvii. 


CHAP,  xxvni.        OF  THE  WORLD.  821 

chonias  and  all  the  Jews,  with  the  vessels  and  riches  of 
the  temple,  and  give  an  end  to  all  these  troubles.  But  Je 
remy,  instead  of  his  wooden  yoke,  ware  a  collar  of  iron : 
and  in  sign  that  Ananias  had  given  a  deceitful  and  false 
hope  to  the  people,  he  foretold  the  death  of  this  cold  pro 
phet,  which  seized  upon  him  in  the  second  month.  After 
this,  when  Zedekias  had  wavered  long  enough  between 
faith  and  passion,  in  the  eighth  year  of  his  reign  he  prac 
tised  more  seriously  against  Nabuchodonosor,  with  his 
neighbours  the  Edomites,  Ammonites,  Moabites,  Tyrians> 
and  others  that  were  promised  great  aids  of  the  Egyptians ; 
in  confidence  of  whose  resistance  he  determined  to  shake 
off  the  Babylonian  yoke.  Hereof  when  Nabuchodonosor 
had  knowledge,  he  marched  with  his  army,  in  the  dead  of 
winter,  toward  Jerusalem,  and  besieged  it.  Jeremy  per 
suaded  Zedekias  to  render  the  city  and  himself;  but  being 
confident  of  the  help  from  Egypt,  and  being  persuaded  by 
his  counsellors  and  false  prophets,  that  it  was  unpossible 
that  the  kingdom  of  Juda  should  be  extirpate,  until  the 
coming  of  Silo,  (according  to  the  prophecy  of  n  Jacob,)  he 
despised  the  words  of  °  Jeremy,  and  imprisoned  him.  For 
Jeremy  had  told  the  king,  that  the  city  should  be  taken 
and  burnt ;  that  the  king  should  not  escape,  but  be  taken 
prisoner,  and  brought  to  the  presence  of  Nabuchodonosor ; 
that  he  should  not  perish  by  the  sword,  but  being  carried 
to  Babel,  die  his  natural  death. 

Jerusalem  being  the  following  year  surrounded  by  Na- 
buchodonosor's  army,  the  king  of  Egypt,  Pharaoh  Hophra, 
according  to  P  Jeremy,  (Herodotus  calleth  him  Apries,)  en 
tered  the  border  of  Juda  with  his  army  to  succour  Zedekias, 
of  whose  revolt  he  had  been  the  principal  author.  But 
Jeremy  gave  the  Jews  faithful  counsel,  willing  them  not  to 
have  any  trust  in  the  succours  of  Egypt ;  for  he  assured 
them,  that  they  should  return  again,  and  in  no  sort  relieve 
them.  And  it  fell  out  accordingly.  For  when  the  Chal 
deans  removed  from  Jerusalem  to  encounter  the  Egyptians, 
these  vaunting  patrons  abandoned  their  enterprise,  and  tak- 

»  Gen.  xlix.  10.          °  Jer.  xxxii.  and  xxxiv.          P  Jer.  xliv.  Herod.  1.  a. 


THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

ing  Gaza  in  their  way  homeward,  returned  into  Egypt,  as 
if  they  had  already  done  enough,  leaving  the  poor  people 
of  Jerusalem  to  their  destined  miseries. 

In  the  mean  while  the  Jews,  who  in  their  first  extremity 
had  manumised  their  <l  Hebrew  bondmen,  (as  God's  law  re 
quired  at  the  year  of  jubilee,)  and  made  them  free,  thereby 
the  better  to  encourage  them  to  fight,  did  now,  upon  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Chaldean  army,  repent  them  of  their 
charity;  and  thinking  all  had  been  at  an  end,  held  them 
perforce  to  their  former  slavery.  But  the  Chaldees  being 
returned  to  the  siege,  the  prophet  r  Jeremy,  when  the  state 
of  Jerusalem  began  now  to  grow  to  extremity,  counselled 
s  Zedekias  to  render  himself  unto  them,  assuring  him  of  his 
own  life,  and  the  safety  of  the  city,  if  he  would  so  do.  But 
his  obstinate  heart  conducted  him  to  that  wretched  end, 
which  his  neglect  of  God,  and  his  infidelity  and  perjury, 
had  provided  for  him. 

Three  and  twenty  months,  (as  some  do  reckon  it,)  or  ac 
cording  to  Josephus  eighteen,  the  *  Babylonian  army  lay 
before  Jerusalem,  and  held  it  exceeding  straitly  besieged. 
For  u  they  built  forts  against  it  round  about ,  or  (as  P. 
Martyr  hath  it)  extruxerunt  contra  earn  turrem  ligneam 
per  circuitum;  "  they  surrounded  the  city  with  wooden 
"  towers,"  so  as  the  besieged  could  neither  sally  out,  nor 
receive  into  the  city  any  supply  of  men  or  victuals.  x  Jo 
sephus  reports,  that  they  overtopped  the  walls  with  high 
towers  raised  upon  mounts,  from  which  they  did  so  beat 
upon  the  wall'with  their  engines,  that  the  defendants  were 
compelled  to  forsake  their  stations.  Now  although  it  were 
so  that  the  besieged  also  raised  counter-buildings  like  unto 
these,  yet  the  great  king  of  Babel,  who  commanded  all  the 
regions  thereabouts,  and  had  the  woods  and  rivers  to  obey 
him,  found  means  to  overthrow  all  the  citizens1  endeavours, 
and  to  beat  down  as  fast  from  without  as  they  raised  from 
within ;  the  body  and  foundation  of  his  own  works  being 

i  Levit.  xxv.  39,  40,  &c.  »  Ibid. 

r^er'xxx!v-  "  2  Kings  xxv.  i. 

Jer'  XXX1X'  »  Joseph.  Ant.  Jud.  1.  10.  c.  11. 


CHAP,  xxviii.        OF  THE  WORLD.  823 

guarded  by  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  interposed ;  and  theirs 
within  laid  open  to  their  enemies'1  disturbance.  Besides, 
both  famine  and  pestilence  (which  commonly  accompany 
men  straitly  besieged)  grew  on  fast  upon  them,  whereby, 
when  the  number,  strength,  and  courage  of  the  Jews  failed, 
the  Chaldeans  made  a  breach,  and  forcing  an  entry,  their 
princes  did  seat  themselves,  as  lords  of  the  town,  in  the 
middle  gate.  Zedekias  beholding  this  uncomfortable  sight, 
and  finding  no  remedy  of  the  danger  present,  lost  both  his 
courage  and  his  hope  at  once,  and  shifted  himself,  together 
with  his  wives,  children,  princes,  and  principal  servants,  out 
of  the  city,  by  a  way  under  ground,  leaving  his  amazed 
and  guideless  people  to  the  merciless  swords  of  their  ene 
mies.  Thus  he,  who,  when  Jeremy  the  prophet  persuaded 
him  to  render  himself,  despised  both  the  counsel  of  God 
and  the  force  of  Nabuchodonosor,  used  now  that  remedy 
which  Wolpius  truly  termeth  triste,  turpe,  et  infelix,  "  wo- 
"  ful,  shameful,  and  unfortunate." 

By  this  secret  subterrane  vault  Zedekias  making  his 
stealth,  recovered  (by  the  help  of  the  dark  night)  the  plains 
or  deserts  of  Jericho  ;  but,  by  reason  of  the  train  that  fol 
lowed  him  and  his,  (every  one  leading  with  him  those  whom 
they  held  most  dear  unto  them,)  he  was  easily  traced  and 
pursued.  How  great  soever  the  company  was  that  attended 
on  him,  yet,  as  y  Josephus  reports  it,  they,  on  whose  fidelity 
he  most  reposed  himself,  no  sooner  beheld  the  Chaldeans 
approach,  but  they  all  abandoned  his  defence,  and  shifted 
themselves  into  the  deserts  as  they  could.  For  whom  God 
had  forsaken,  no  man  followed,  but  the  ministers  of  his 
vengeance ;  by  whom  Zedekias  being  made  prisoner,  with 
his  children  and  princes,  he  was  conveyed  to  Ribla,  or  Rib- 
lath,  a  city  (as  some  think)  of  Nepthalim,  where  Nabu 
chodonosor  then  lay,  as  a  place  indifferent  between  Jerusa 
lem  and  Tyre,  with  both  which  at  once  he  had  to  do. 

Now  after  Nabuchodonosor  had  laid  before  Zedekias 
the  many  graces  and  benefits  conferred  upon  him,  together 
y  Jo?.  Ant.  1.  10.  c.  IT. 


824  THE  HISTORY  BOOK  n. 

with  the  notable  falsehood  and  perjury  wherewith  he  had 
requited  them ;  he  commanded  his  children,  princes,  and 
friends  to  be  slain  before  his  face.  This  being  done,  to  the 
end  that  so  lamentable  a  spectacle  should  be  the  last  that 
ever  he  should  behold  in  the  world,  he  caused  his  eyes  to  be 
torn  out  of  his  head,  and  so  carried  him  in  a  slavish  manner 
to  Babel,  where  he  consumed  the  rest  of  his  wretched  life  in 
perpetual  imprisonment.  Herein  this  most  marvellous  pro 
phecy  of  Ezekiel  was  performed :  z  Adducam  eum  in  Ba- 
bylonem,  et  ipsam  non  videbit ;  "  I  will  bring  him  into  Ba- 
"  bylon,  and  he  shall  not  see  it." 

Thus  in  the  eleventh  and  last  year  of  Zedekias,  which 
was  the  eighteenth  of  Nabuchodonosor,  the  Chaldeans  en 
tered  the  city  by  force,  where  sparing  no  sex  nor  age,  they 
committed  all  to  the  sword  that  they  therein  found. 

In  the  year  next  following,  a  Nabuzaradan,  general  of  the 
army,  burnt  the  king's  palace,  and  the  rest  of  Jerusalem ; 
and  after  this  fire  had  lasted  from  the  seventh  to  the  tenth 
day,  he  also  burnt  the  temple  of  God  to  the  ground,  when 
it  had  stood  four  hundred  thirty  and  one  years. 

After  this,  upon  a  second  search,  Nabuzaradan  (not  yet 
satiated  with  blood)  commanded  seventy  and  two  others  to 
be  slaughtered,  which  had  hidden  themselves  from  the  first 
fury,  to  wit,  the  chief  and  the  second  priest,  two  command 
ers  of  Zedekias' s  men  of  war,  five  of  his  household  servants, 
and  others  to  that  number ;  carrying  away  to  Babylon  the 
ablest  of  the  people  throughout  all  Judaea,  and  leaving  the 
poorest  labouring  souls,  with  some  that  followed  the  party 
of  Nabuchodonosor,  to  till  the  ground :  over  whom  he  left 
governor  Godolia,  the  nephew  of  that  Saphan  whom  Josias 
had  formerly  employed  in  the  reformation  of  religion,  who 
is,  for  his  justice  and  equity,  by  Josephus  highly  commend 
ed.  This  man,  a  Jew  by  nation,  left  Zedekias,  as  it  seem- 
eth,  in  the  beginning  of  the  war ;  and  by  Jeremy's  desire 
to  live  with  him,  it  appeareth  that  he  had  embraced  the 
same  advice  which  the  prophet  gave  unto  Zedekias ;  which 
1  Ezek.  xii.  13.  *  2  Kings  nit. 


CHAP,  xxvin.        OF  THE  WORLD.  825 

was,  to  submit  himself  altogether  to  the  Babylonian,  who 
being  ordained  by  God  to  exercise  his  justice,  was  therefore 
resistless.  The  prophet  Jeremy  being  left  to  his  own  choice, 
either  to  live  in  Chaldea  or  elsewhere,  he  made  election  of 
Godoliah,  to  whom  he  was  recommended;  who  not  only 
embraced  Jeremy,  but  gave  comfort  to  all  the  other  Jews 
that  were  left  under  his  charge,  promising  them  favour  and 
liberty  so  long  as  they  remained  obedient  subjects  to  Nabu- 
chodonosor,  by  whom  he  was  established  provincial  go 
vernor  of  his  own  nation. 

But  ere  that  year  was  expired,  a  prince  of  the  late  king's 
house,  (who,  during  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  had  kept  him 
self  out  of  the  storm,  with  Baalis  king  of  the  Ammonites,) 
being  followed  by  ten  other  chosen  men,  while  Godoliah 
feasted  them  in  Maspha,  or  Mitspah,  the  city  of  his  residence, 
traitorously  slew  him,  together  with  divers  Chaldeans  and 
Jews  that  accompanied  him.  This  done,  he  made  an  escape, 
and  in  his  way  encountering  with  eighty  persons  repairing 
towards  Godoliah  with  presents,  he  slew  the  most  of  them, 
and  spared  the  rest,  because  they  promised  to  discover  unto 
him  some  treasures  hidden  in  the  fields  during  the  war. 
He  also  took  with  him  a  daughter  of  Zedekias,  committed 
to  the  care  of  Godoliah  by  Nabuchodonosor.  This  practice 
and  intent  of  Ismael  had  been  formerly  discovered  unto 
Godoliah  by  Johanan,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  few  remain 
ing  Jews ;  but  Godoliah  was  incredulous. 

Judaea  being  now  left  without  a  governor,  (for  Ismael 
durst  not  take  it  upon  him,  but  retired  himself,  or  rather 
fled  as  fast  as  he  could,  to  the  Ammonites,)  the  residue  of 
the  Jews,  fearing  the  revenge  of  the  Chaldeans,  resolved  to 
fly  away  into  Egypt,  and  besought  Jeremy  to  ask  counsel  of 
God  for  them ;  who  readily  made  them  answer,  That  if  they 
remained  in  Judaea  God  would  provide  for  them  and  shew 
them  mercy;  but  if  they  sought  to  save  themselves  in 
Egypt,  that  they  should  then  undoubtedly  perish.  Not 
withstanding  this  advice,  the  Jews  held  their  determination ; 
and  despising  the  oracle  of  God,  and  constraining  Jeremy 

JIALEGH,  HJST.  WORLD.  VOL.  II.  3  H 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD.     BOOK  n. 

and  Baruch  to  accompany  them,  they  travelled  into  Egypt, 
and  inhabited,  by  the  permission  of  Pharaoh,  near  unto 
Taphnes,  where  when  Jeremy  often  reprehended  them  for 
their  idolatry,  foretelling  both  the  destruction  of  themselves 
and  the  Egyptians  also,  he  was  by  these  his  own  hard 
hearted  and  ungrateful  countrymen  stoned  to  death  ;  and  by 
the  Egyptians,  who  greatly  reverenced  him,  buried  near 
the  sepulchre  of  their  own  kings. 


END  OF  THE  SECOND  BOOK, 


END  OF  VOL.  II. 


flC 


PR 

2334 

Al 

1829 


Raleigh,  (Sir)  Walter 
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