fore we see that although the sovereignty alter, yet the seat still of the monarchy remains in that place. For after the monarchies of the kings of Assyria, which were natural kings of that place, yet when the foreign kings of Persia came in, the seat remained. For although the mansion of the persons of the kings of Persia were sometimes at Susa, and sometimes at Ecbatana, which were termed their winter and their summer parlours, because of the mildness of the air in the one, and the freshness in the other; yet the city of estate continued to be Babylon. Therefore we see that Alexander the Great, according to the advice of Calanus the Indian, that shewed him a bladder, which if it were borne down at one end would rise at the other, and therefore wished him to keep himself in the middle of his empire, chose accordingly Babylon for his seat, and died there. And afterwards likewise in the family of Seleucus and his descendents, Kings of the East, although divers of them, for their own glory, were founders of cities of their own names, as Antiochia, Seleucia, and divers others, (which they sought by all means to raise and adorn,) yet the greatness still remained according unto nature with the ancient seat. Nay, further on, the same remained during the greatness of the kings of Parthia, as appeareth by the verse of Lucan, who wrote in Nero's time. Cumque superba staret Babylon spolianda trophaeis. And after that again, it obtained the seat of the highest Caliph or successors of Mahomet. And at this day, that which they call Bagdat, which joins to the ruins of the other, continueth one of the greatest satrapies 1 So MS. I suspect that some words have dropped out here. of the Levant. So again Persia, being a country imbarred with mountains, open to the sea, and in the middle of the world, we see hath had three memorable revolutions of great monarchies. The first in the time of Cyrus; the second in the time of the new Artaxerxes, who raised himself in the reign of Alexander Severus, Emperor of Rome; and now of late memory, in Ismael the Sophy, whose descendents continue in empire and competition with the Turks to this day. So again Constantinople, being one of the most excellentest seats of the world, in the confines of Europe and Asia.1 1 Here the MS. stops again, at the bottom of the page; but without any mark of ending. The other side of the leaf is indeed left blank; but the rest of the original draught, if there was more, may have been in the hands of another transcriber. |