Partias perceyued, thinking that ye Romaynes were forweryed with laboure, watche, and hūgre: they layed downe their bowes, and toke speres in their handes, and so ranne vpon them: but the Romaynes perceyuinge them without their bowes, rose vp manfully, and slewe them euery mother son, saue a fewe that saued them selues with runnyng awaye. And herein our archers of Englande far passe the Parthians, which for suche a purpose, whe they shall come to hande strokes, hath euer redy, eyther at his backe hangyng, or els in his next felowes hande a leadē maule, or suche lyke weapon, to beate downe his enemyes withall. PHI. Well Toxophile, seinge that those examples whiche I had thought to haue ben cleane agaynst shoting, you haue thus turned to the hygh prayse of shotinge: and all this prayse that you haue now sayd on it, is rather come in by me tha sought for of you: let me heare I praye you nowe, those examples whiche you haue marked of shotyng your selfe: whereby you are, and thinke to persuade other, yt shoting is so good in warre. TOX. Exaples surely I haue marked very many frō the begynning of tyme had in memorie of wrytyng, throughout all comune wealthes, & Empires of the worlde: wherof the mooste part I wyll passe ouer, lest I shoulde be tediouse: yet some I wyll touche, bycause they be notable, bothe for me to tell and you to heare. Mach. 1. 3. And bycause the storye of the Iewes is for the tyme moost auncient, for the truthe mooste credible, it shalbe moost fitte to begynne with them. And although I knowe that God is the onely gyuer of victorie, and not the weapons, for all strength and victorie (sayth Iudas Machabeus) cōmeth from heauen: Yet surely strong weapons be the instrumentes wherwith god doth ouercome yt parte, which he wil haue ouerthrowen. For God is well pleased wyth wyse and wittie feates of warre: As in metinge of enemies, for truse takyng, to haue priuilye in a bushment harnest men layd for feare of treason, as Iudas Machabeus dyd wyth Nicanor Demetrius capitayne: And to haue engines of warre to beat downe cities with all scoutwatche amōges our enemyes to knowe their as the noble captaine Ionathas brother to Iudas Machabeus did in the countrie of Amathie against the mighty hoste of Demetrius. And besyde al this, god Mach. 2. 14. and to haue counsayles, Mach. I. 12. H Mach. I. 13. Deutero. 32. is pleased to haue goodly tombes for them which do noble feates in warre, and to haue their ymages made, and also their cote Armours to be set aboue theyr tombes, to their perpetual laude and memorie: as the valiaunt capitayne Symon, dyd cause to be made for his brethren Iudas Machabeus and Ionathas, whe they were slayne of the Gētiles. And thus of what authoritie feates of warre, and strong weapons be, shortly and playnelye we maye learne: But amonges the Lewes as I began to tell, I am sure there was nothing so occupyed, or dydde so moche good as bowes dyd: insomoche that when the lewes had any great vpperhande ouer the Gentiles, the fyrste thinge alwayes that the captayne dyd, was to exhort the people to gyue all the thankes to God for the victorye, & not to theyr bowes, wherwith they Josue. 23. had slayne their enemyes: as it is playne that the noble Iosue dyd after so many kynges thrust downe by hym. God, when he promyseth helpe to the lewes, he vseth no kynde of speakyng so moche as this, that he wyll bende his bowe, and die his shaftes in the Gentiles blood: whereby it is manifest, that eyther God wyll make the lewes shoote stronge shotes to ouerthrowe their enemies: or at leeste that shotinge is a wōderful mightie thing in warre, whervnto ye hygh power of God is lykened. Dauid in the Psalmes calleth bowes the vessels of death, Psal. 7. 63. a bytter thinge, & in an other place a myghty power, and other wayes mo, which I wyll let passe, bycause euerye man readeth them daylye: But yet one place of scripture I must nedes remembre, which is more notable for ye prayse of shoting, then any yt euer I red in any other storie, and that is, when Saul was slayne of Regum. I. 31. ye Philistians being mightie bowmen, and Ionathas his sonne with him, that was so good a shoter, as ye scripture sayth, that he neuer shot shafte in vayne, and yt the kyngdome after Saules deathe came vnto Dauid: the first statute & lawe that euer Dauid made after he was king, was this, Regum. 2. 1. that al ye children of Israel shulde learne to shote, according to a lawe made many a daye before yt tyme for the setting out of shoting as it is written (sayeth Scripture) in libro Iustorum, whiche booke we haue not nowe: And thus we se plainelye what greate vse of shoting, and what prouision euen 75. from the begynnynge of the worlde for shotyng, was amonge the lewes. Herodot in Thalia. The Ethiopians which inhabite the furthest part South in the worlde, were wonderfull bowmen in somoche that when Cambyses king of Persie being in Egipt, sent certayne ambassadours into Ethiope to the kynge there, with many great gyftes: the king of Ethiop perceyuinge them to be espyes, toke them vp sharpely, and blamed Cambyses greatly for such vniust enterprises: but after that he had princely entertayned them, he sent for a bowe, and bente it and drewe it, and then vnbent it agayne, and sayde vnto the ambassadours, you shall cōmende me to Cambyses, and gyue him this bowe fro me, and byd him when any Persian can shote in this bowe, let him set vpon the Ethiopians: In the meane whyle let hym gyue thankes vnto God, whiche doth not put in the Ethiopias mynde to coquere any other mans lande. This bowe, when it came amonge the Persians, neuer one man in suche an infinite host (as Herodotus doth saye) could styrre the stryng, saue onely Smerdis the brother of Cambyses, whiche styrred it two fingers, and no further: for the which act Cambyses had suche enuy at him, that he afterward slewe him as doth appeare in the storye. Sesostris the moost mightie king that euer was in Egipt, ouercame a great parte of the worlde, and that by archers: he subdued the Arabians, the Iues, the Assyrians: he wēt farther into Scythia then any man els: he ouercame Thracia, euen to the borders of Germanie. And in token how he ouercame al men he set vp in many places great ymages to his owne lykenesse, hauynge in the one hande a bowe, in the other a sharpe heeded shafte that men myght knowe, what weapon his hooste vsed, in conqueryng so manye people. Herod. in Cyrus, counted as a god amonges the Gentyles, for his noblenesse and felicitie in warre: yet at the last when he set vpon the Massagetanes (which people Herod. i clio. neuer went without their bowe nor their quiuer, nether in warre nor peace) he and all his were slayne, and that by shotyng, as appeareth in the storye. Polycrates the prince of Samos (a very little yle) was lorde ouer all the Greke sees, and withstode the power of the Persians, onely by the helpe of a thousande archers. Herod. i that Melpomen. The people of Scythia, of all other men loued, and vsed moost shotyng, the hole rychesse and househoulde stuffe of a man in Scythia, was a yocke of oxen, a plough, his nagge and his dogge, his bowe and his quiuer: which quiuer was couered with the skynne of a man, which he toke or slewe fyrste in battayle. The Scythians to be inuincible by reason of their shotyng, the greate voyages of so manye noble conquerours spent in that countrie in vayne, doeth well proue : But specially that of Darius the myghtie kyng of Persie, which when he had taryed there a great space, and done no good, but had forweryed his hoste with trauayle and hunger: At last the men of Scythia sent an ambassadour with .iiii. Herod. in gyftes: a byrde, a frogge, a mouse, and .v. shaftes. Darius meruaylyng at the straungenesse of the gyftes, asked the messenger what they signifyed: the messenger answered, that he had no further cōmaundement, but onely to delyuer his gyftes, and retourne agayne with all spede: but I am sure (sayeth he) you Persians for your great wysdome, can soone boult out what they meane. When the messenger was gone, euery man began to say his verdite. Darius Iudgement was this, that ye Scythians gaue ouer into the Persians handes, their lyues, theyr hole power, both by lande and see, signifyinge by the mouse the earthe, by the frogge the water, in which they both liue, by ye birde their lyues which lyue in the ayer, by the shaft their hole power and Empire, that was maynteyned alwayes by shotinge. Gobryas a noble and wyse captayne amonges the Persians, was of a cleane cōtrary minde, saying, nay not so, but the Sythias meane thus by their gyftes, that except we get vs wynges, and flye into the ayer lyke birdes, or run into ye holes of the earth lyke myse, or els lye lurkyng in fennes & marisses lyke frogges, we shall neuer returne home agayne, before we be vtterly vndone with their shaftes which sentence sanke so sore into their hertes, yt Darius with all spede possible, brake vp his campe, and gat hym selfe homewarde. Yet howe moche the Persians them selues set by shotinge, wherby they encreased their empire so moche, doth appeare by .iii. manifest reasons: firste that they brought vppe theyr youth in the schole of shoting, vnto .xx. yere of age, as dyuerse noble Greke authours do saye. Herod. i clio. Xenoph. in cyrop. Strab. II. Agayne, bycause the noble kyng Darius thought hym selfe to be praysed by nothyng so moch, as to be counted a good shoter, as doth appeare by his sepulchre, wherin he caused to be written this sentence: Darius the King lieth buried here That in shoting and riding had neuer pere. Strab. 15. Thirdlye the coyne of the Persians, both golde & siluer had the Armes of Persie vpon it, as is customably vsed in other realmes, and that was bow and arowes by the which feate they declared, how moch they set by them. Plutarch. in Suidas. And Plato in pro tagora. The Grecians also, but specially the noble Athenienses, had all their strength lyinge in Artillarie: and for yt purpose the citie of Athes had a M. men which were onely archers, in dayly wages, to watche and kepe the citie frō al ieoperdie & sodein dauger: which archers also shuld cary to prisō & warde any misdoer at ye cōmaundemēt of the hygh officers, as playnlye doth appeare in Plato. surely the bowmen of Athens did wōderful feates in many battels, but specially when Demosthenes the valiaūt captayne slue and toke prisoners all the Lacedemonians besyde ye citie of Pylos, where Nestor somtyme was lord: the shaftes went so thicke that daye (sayth Thucydides) that no man could se theyr enemies. A Lacedemonian taken prisoner, was asked of one at Athens, whether they were stoute fellowes that were slayne or no, of the Lacedemonians: he answered nothing els but this make moche of those shaftes of youres, for they knowe neyther stoute nor vnstoute: meanynge therby, that no man (though he were neuer so stout) came in their walke, that escaped without death. Thucydid. 4. Herod. in Polym. Herodotus descrybing the mighty hoost of Xerxes especially doth marke out, what bowes and shaftes they vsed, signifying yt therin lay their chefe stregth. And at the same tyme Attossa, mother of Xerxes, wyfe to Darius, and doughter of Cyrus, doeth enquire (as Aeschylus sheweth in a Tragedie) of a certayne messenger that came from Xerxes hoste, what stronge fearfull bowes the Grecians vsed: wherby it is playne, that Esch. i Pers. and |