of Plinies Naturall Hiftorie. 
they {pared notto climbe up the top of high mountains, and to rocks unacceffible;to travaile 
through blind and unpeopled deferts, to fearch every veine andcorner of the earth, and all to 
find and know the vertues of hearbs : of what operation the root was,for what difcafes the leaves 
were to beufed; yeaand to make holefoie medicines for mans health of thofé fimples, which 
the very fourefooted beafts of the field never fed upon, nor once touched, 
aifiil Craps, | 
- P&S The Latin authors who have written of:Hearbs and their natures, At what time the kvor- 
ledge of Simples began to be prattifed and profelfed im Rome, The firft Greeke writers wha 
travailed inthis Argument, The mvention of Hearbs.T he auncient Phyficke and the man- 
ner of curing difeafes in oldtime, Whas is the caufe that Simples are not mew fo much ufed 
for remedies of difecfes as they have been, Finally, of the fweet Brier or Eglantine, and the 
bearbe Dragons, with their medtcinable vertues, 
us, confidering how otherwie, rhere wasnot a nation in the world more apprehenfive 
ofall vertues and things profitable unto thislife,chan ours. Fortofay atiuth, 4, Cato 
(thatfamous clerke and great profeffor, {fo well feene in all good Arts and Sciences) was the firft 
(and for along time the onely author). who wrate of Simples:and howfoever hee handled that 
argument but briefly and fummarily, yer he’omitted not the leech-craft belonging alfo to kine 
and oxen. Long after him, C./algz (anoble gentleman of Rome;anda man of approoved 
literature)compiled a treatife of Simples,which he left unperfit; howbeit he dedicated the book 
to UA4ugi(ivs Cafar the Emperor; as inay appeare by a preface by him begun, wherein (aftera 
V ; ) Be Ronrané have been more flacke and negligent ia cts behaife than was befeening 
209 
religious and ceremonious maner of fupplication)hefeemeth to befeech the faid Prince, Phat _ 
it might pleafe his majeftieefpecially, to cure all che maladies of mankind.And before his time; 
the oneiy man among our Latines (as far as ever I could find) who wrote of Simples, was Pom- 
petits Lenaws, the vaflall or freed man of Pompey the Great, And this was the firft time that the 
knowledge of thiskind of learning was fet on foot and profeffed at Rome. For Mithridates (the 
moft mightie and puiffant king in that age,whofe fortune notwith{tanding was to be vanquifhed 
and fubdaed by Pompey) was well knowne unto the world not only by the tame'that wentofhim, 
butalfo by good proofeand evidentarguments, tohave been of all other before his time, a. 
prince moft addicted to the publicke benefit of all mankind: forthe only man he was who devi 
fed todrinke poifon every day (having taken his prefervatives before;) to the end that by the or- 
dinarte ufe and continuall cuftome thereof, it might be familiar unto his nature, and harmlefie. 
The firft he wasalfo who deviled {undrie kinds of antidotsor countrepoifons, whereof * one re- 
teineth his name to this day: he it was alfo and none but he (asmen thinke) who firlt mingled in 
the faid antidofs and prefervatives,the bloud of Ducks bred in his own realm of Pontus ,forthat 
they fed and iived thete,of poifons and venomous hearbs.Vinto him, that famous and tenowmed 
profeffor in Phyficke A(c/eprades, dedicated his books nowextant: for this Phyfician being fol- 
licited to repaie unto bin irom Rome, fent the rules of Phyficke digefted toro order and fee 
downe in writing, in flead of comming himfelfe. And cAzthridates itwas (as itis for certaine 
knowne) who alone of all men that ever were, could {peake two and twentie languages perfitly 5 
fo as for the fpace of fix and fittic yeers (for fo long he reigned) of all thofe nations which were 
under his dominion there never came one mantohiscourt,buthecommunedand parled with 
him in his owne tongue without any truchman or interpretor forthe matter. This noble prince, 
(among many other fingular gifts that hee had, teflufying his magnanimitie and incomparable 
wit) addicted himfelfe particularly to the earneft {tudie of Phyficke :and becaufe he would be ex- 
guifitand fingular therin,he had intelligencers from all partsof his dominions(and thofe tooke 
up nofmall part of the whole world)who upon theirknowledge,exhibited unto him the particu- 
Jar natures and properties of every fimple: By which means, hee had a cabinet full of an infinit 
number of receits and fecrets fet down togitier with their operations and effects, which heKept 
in his faid clofet,& left behind him with other rich treaftire of his.But Porpey the Great having 
under his hands the wholefpoile of this mightie prince, and meeting in that faccage with thofe 
notes abovefaid,pave commandementunto his vaflal] or enfranchifedfervant the abovenamed 
Leneus (anexcellem linguiltand moft learned Grammarian ) to tranflate the fame into the 
T ij Latine 
nf a Mithridas 
as tT 
