What utilitie was shewed to be in swymmynge at the
firste warres whiche the Romanes had agayne the Carthagi-
nensis? It happened a bataile to be on the see betwene them,
where they of Carthage beinge vainquisshed, wolde haue sette
up their sailes to haue fledde, but that perceiuynge diuers
yonge Romanes, they threwe them selfes in to the see, and
swymmynge unto the shippes, they enforced theyr ennemies
to stryke on lande, and there assaulted them so asprely, that


ἀποβεβληκὼς τὸν ἵππον kal κατατετρωμένος τὸ σῶμα, τὸν Ῥοδανὸν διεπέρασεν αὐτῷ
τε τῷ θώρακι καὶ θυρεῷ πρὸς ἐναντίον ῥεῦμα πολὺ νηχόμενος" οὕτω τὸ σῶμα ῥωμαλέον
ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ διάπονον τῇ ἀσκήσει.---Ῥ]υῖ, Sertorius, 3° -

5. This is another and still more remarkable instance of the way in which the
author has improved (?) upon history. The allusion is evidently to the following
passage in Plutarch. Τῇ δὲ καλουμένῃ Νύσῃ τῶν Μακεδόνων dxvobytay προσάγειν
(καὶ γὰρ ποταμὸς ἣν πρὸς αὐτῇ βαθύς) ἐπιστὰς, ‘Tl γὰρ, εἶπεν, ὃ κάκιστος ἐγὼ νεῖν
οὐκ ἔμαθον ;᾽ Καὶ ἤδη τὴν ἀσπίδα ἔχων περᾶν ἠθέλησεν ---“4 Ἰεχαγιαῖε,, 58.
4“
a


THE GOVERNOUR. 181


the capitaine of the Romanes, called Luctatius, mought easily
take them.* )

Nowe beholde what excellent commoditie is in the feate of
swymmyng ; sens no kyng, be he neuer so puissaunt or perfecte
in the experience of warres, may assure hym selfe from the ne-
cessities whiche fortune sowethe amonge men that be mortall.
And sens on the helth and saulfe garde of a noble capitayne,
often tymes dependeth the weale of a realme, nothing shulde
be kepte from his knowlege, wherby his persone may be in
euery ieoperdie preserued.
