---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 11 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/11/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 11. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/11/"
---

# Pharsalia · De Bello Civili

*Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley*

The civil war between Caesar and Pompey as dark epic, written under Nero by a poet he forced to die at twenty-five.

> Latin: ed. Karl Hermann Weise, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0917.phi001, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Sir Edward Ridley, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0917.phi001.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 11. Book VI · lines 1–506

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/11/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/11/#p-N

[¶0] Now that the chiefs with minds intent on fight
Had drawn their armies near upon the hills
And all the gods beheld their chosen pair,
Caesar, the Grecian towns despising, scorned
To reap the glory of successful war
Save at his kinsman's cost. In all his prayers
He seeks that moment, fatal to the world,
When shall be cast the die, to win or lose,
And all their fortunes hang upon the throw.
Thrice he drew out his troops, his eagles thrice,
Demanding battle; to the ruin of Rome
Thus prompt as ever: but his kinsman foe,
Proof against every art, refused to leave
The rampart of his camp. Then marching swift
By hidden path between the wooded fields
He seeks, and hopes to seize, Dyrrhachium's fort;
But Magnus, swifter speeding by the sea,
First camped on Petra's slopes, a rocky hill
Thus by the natives named. From thence he keeps
Watch o'er the fortress of Corinthian birth
Which by its towers alone without a guard
Was safe against a siege. No hand of man
In ancient days built up her lofty wall,
No hammer rang upon her massive stones:
Not all the works of war, nor Time himself
Shall undermine her. Nature's hand has raised
Her adamantine rocks and hedged her in
With bulwarks girded by the foamy main:
And but for one short bridge of narrow earth
Dyrrhachium were an island. Steep and fierce,
Dreaded of sailors, are the cliffs that bear
Her walls; and tempests, howling from the south,
Toss up the foaming main upon the roofs;
And homes and temples tremble at the shock.
Thirsting for battle and with hopes inflamed
Here Caesar hastes, with distant rampart lines
Seeking unseen to coop his foe within,
Though spread in spacious camp upon the hills.
With eagle eye he measures out the land
Meet to be compassed, nor content with turf
Fit for a hasty mound, he bids his troops
Tear from the quarries many a giant rock:
And spoils the dwellings of the Greeks, and drags
Their walls asunder for his own. Thus rose
A mighty barrier which no ram could burst
Nor any ponderous machine of war.
Mountains are cleft, and level through the hills
The work of Caesar strides: wide yawns the moat,
Forts show their towers rising on the heights,
And in vast circle forests are enclosed
And groves and spacious lands, and beasts of prey,
As in a line of toils. Pompeius lacked
Nor field nor forage in th' encircled span
Nor room to move his camp; nay, rivers rose
Within, and ran their course and reached the sea;
And Caesar wearied ere he saw the whole,
And daylight failed him. Let the ancient tale
Attribute to the labours of the gods
The walls of Ilium: let the fragile bricks
Which compass in great Babylon, amaze
The fleeting Parthian. Here a larger space
Than those great cities which Orontes swift
And Tigris' stream enclose, or that which boasts
In Eastern climes, the lordly palaces
Fit for Assyria's kings, is closed by walls
Amid the haste and tumult of a war
Forced to completion. Yet this labour huge
Was spent in vain. So many hands had joined
Or Sestos with Abydos, or had tamed
With mighty mole the Hellespontine wave,
Or Corinth from the realm of Pelops king
Had rent asunder, or had spared each ship
Her voyage round the long Malean cape,
Or had done anything most hard, to mould
The world's created surface. Here the war
Was prisoned: blood predestinate to flow
In all the parts of earth; the host foredoomed
To fall in Libya or in Thessaly
Was here: in such small amphitheatre
The tide of civil passion rose and fell.
At first Pompeius knew not: so the hind
Who peaceful tills the mid-Sicilian fields
Hears not Pelorus sounding to the storm;
So billows thunder on Rutupian shores,
Unheard by distant Caledonia's tribes.
But when he saw the mighty barrier stretch
O'er hill and valley, and enclose the land,
He bade his columns leave their rocky hold
And seize on posts of vantage in the plain;
Thus forcing Caesar to extend his troops
On wider lines; and holding for his own
Such space encompassed as divides from Rome
Aricia, sacred to that goddess chaste
Of old Mycenae; or as Tiber holds
From Rome's high ramparts to the Tuscan sea,
Unless he deviate. No trumpet call
Commands an onset, and the darts that fly
Fly though forbidden; but the arm that flings
For proof the lance, at random, here and there
Deals impious slaughter. Weighty care compelled
Each leader to withhold his troops from fight;
For there the weary earth of produce failed
Pressed by Pompeius' steeds, whose horny hoofs
Rang in their gallop on the grassy fields
And killed the succulence. They strengthless lay
Upon the mown expanse, nor pile of straw,
Brought from full barns in place of living grass,
Relieved their craving; shook their panting flanks,
And as they wheeled Death struck his victim down.
Then foul contagion filled the murky air
Whose poisonous weight pressed on them in a cloud
Pestiferous; as in Nesis' isle the breath
Of Styx rolls upwards from the mist-clad rocks;
Or that fell vapour which the caves exhale
From Typhon raging in the depths below.
Then died the soldiers, for the streams they drank
Held yet more poison than the air: the skin
Was dark and rigid, and the fiery plague
Made hard their vitals, and with pitiless tooth
Gnawed at their wasted features, while their eyes
Started from out their sockets, and the head
Drooped from sheer weariness. So the disease
Grew swifter in its strides till scarce was room,
'Twixt life and death, for sickness, and the pest
Slew as it struck its victim, and the dead
Thrust from the tents (such all their burial) lay
Blent with the living. Yet their camp was pitched
Hard by the breezy sea by which might come
All nations' harvests, and the northern wind
Not seldom rolled the murky air away.
Their foe, not vexed with pestilential air
Nor stagnant waters, ample range enjoyed
Upon the spacious uplands: yet as though
In leaguer, famine seized them for its prey.
Scarce were the crops half grown when Caesar saw
How prone they seized upon the food of beasts,
And stripped of leaves the bushes and the groves,
And dragged from roots unknown the doubtful herb,
Which might be death: all things they ate that fire
May soften, or teeth may bite, or arid throat
May swallow; things that never heretofore
Were placed on tables-thus the host at large-
Yet was there plenty with the leaguered foe.

> Latin: Postquam castra duces, pugnae iam mente propinqui,
Imposuere iugis, admotaque cominus arma,
Parque suum videri dei, capere omnia Caesar
Moenia Graiorum spernit, Martemque secundum
Iam nisi de genero fatis debere recusat.
Funestam mundo votis petit omnibus horam,
In casum quae cuncta ferat. Placet alea fati
Alterutrum mersura caput. Ter collibus omnes
Explicuit turmas et signa minantia pugnam,
Testatus numquam Latiae se deesse ruinae.
Ut videt ad nullos exciri posse tumultus
In pugnam generum, sed clauso fidere vallo,
Signa movet, tectusque via dumosa per arva
Dyrrhachii praeceps rapiendas tendit ad arces.
Hoc iter aequoreo praecepit limite Magnus,
Quemque vocat collem Taulantius incola Petram,
Insedit castris, Ephyraeaque moenia servat,
Defendens tutam vel solis turribus urbem.
Non opus hanc veterum nec moles structa tuetur
Humanusque labor, facilis, licet ardua tollat,
Cedere vel bellis, vel cuncta moventibus annis:
Sed munimen habet, nullo quassabile ferro,
Naturam sedemque loci. Nam clausa profundo
Undique praecipiti scopulisque vomentibus aequor,
Exiguo debet, quod non est insula, colli.
Terribiles ratibus sustentant moenia cautes,
Ioniumque furens rapido cum tollitur Austro,
Templa domosque quatit, spumatque in culmina pontus.
Huc avidam belli rapuit spes improba mentem
Caesaris, ut vastis diffusum collibus hostem
Cingeret ignarum, ducto procul aggere valli.
Metitur terras oculis: nec cespite tantum
Contentus fragili subitos adtollere muros,
Ingentes cautes, avulsaque saxa metallis,
Graiorumque domos, direptaque moenia transfert.
Exstruitur, quod non aries impellere saevus,
Quod non ulla queat violenti machina belli.
Franguntur montes, planumque per ardua Caesar
Ducit opus: pandit fossas, turritaque summis
Disponit castella iugis, magnoque recursu
Amplexus fines, saltus, nemorosaque tesqua,
Et silvas, vastaque feras indagine claudit.
Non desunt campi, non desunt pabula Magno,
Castraque Caesareo circumdatus aggere mutat.
Flumina tot cursus illic exorta fatigant,
Illic mersa suos: operumque ut summa revisat,
Defessus Caesar mediis intermanet agris.
Nunc vetus Iliacos adtollat fabula muros,
Adscribatque deis: fragili circumdata testa
Moenia mirentur refugi Babylonia Parthi.
En, quantum Tigris, quantum celer ambit Orontes,
Assyriis quantum populis telluris Eoae
Sufficit in regnum, subitum bellique tumultu
Raptum clausit opus. Tanti periere labores.
Tot potuere manus adiungere Seston Abydo,
Ingestoque solo Phryxeum elidere pontum,
Aut Pelopis latis Ephyren abrumpere regnis,
Et ratibus longae flexus donare Maleae,
Aut aliquem mundi, quamvis natura negasset,
In melius mutare locum. Coit area belli:
Hic alitur sanguis terras fluxurus in omnes,
Hic et Thessalicae clades, Libycaeque tenentur.
Aestuat angusta rabies civilis arena.
Prima quidem surgens operum structura fefellit
Pompeium: veluti mediae qui tutus in arvis
Sicaniae rabidum nescit latrare Pelorum:
Aut vaga cum Tethys Rutupinaque litora fervent,
Unda Caledonios fallit turbata Britannos.
Ut primum vasto septas videt aggere terras,
Ipse quoque a tuta deducens agmina Petra
Diversis spargit tumulis, ut Caesaris arma
Laxet, et effuso claudentem milite tendat:
Ac tantum septi vallo sibi vindicat agri,
Parva Mycenaeae quantum sacrata Dianae
Distat ab excelsa nemoralis Aricia Roma:
Quoque modo Romae praelapsus moenia Tibris
In mare descendit, si nusquam torqueat amnem.
Classica nulla sonant, iniussaque tela vagantur:
Et fit saepe nefas, iaculum tentante lacerto.
Maior cura duces miscendis abstrahit armis.
Pompeium exhaustae praebenda ad pabula terrae,
Quae currens obtrivit eques, gradibusque citatis
Ungula frondentem discussit cornea campum.
Belliger adtonsis sonipes defessus in arvis,
Advectos cum plena ferant praesepia culmos,
Ore novas poscens moribundus labitur herbas,
Et tremulo medios abrumpit poplite gyros.
Corpora dum solvit tabes, et digerit artus,
Traxit iners coelum fluidae contagia pestis
Obscuram in nubem. Tali spiramine Nesis
Emittit stygium nebulosis aera saxis,
Antraque letiferi rabiem Typhonis anhelant.
Inde labant populi, coeloque paratior unda
Omne pati virus duravit viscera coeno.
Iam riget atra cutis, distentaque lumina rumpit:
Igneaque in vultus, et sacro fervida morbo
Pestis abit, fessumque caput se ferre recusat.
Iam magis atque magis praeceps agit omnia fatum:
Nec medii dirimunt morbi vitamque necemque,
Sed languor cum morte venit: turbaque cadentum
Aucta lues, dum mixta iacent incondita vivis
Corpora. Nam miseros ultra tentoria cives
Spargere funus erat. Tamen hos minuere labores
A tergo pelagus, pulsusque Aquilonibus aer,
Litoraque, et plenae peregrina messe carinae.
At liber terrae spatiosis collibus hostis
Aere non pigro, nec inertibus angitur undis:
Sed patitur saevam, veluti circumdatus arcta
Obsidione, famem. Nondum surgentibus altam
In segetem culmis, cernit miserabile vulgus
In pecudum cecidisse cibos, et carpere dumos,
Et foliis spoliare nemus, letumque minantes
Vellere ab ignotis dubias radicibus herbas.
Quae mollire queunt flamma, quae frangere morsu,
Quaeque per abrasas utero demittere fauces,
Plurimaque humanis ante hoc incognita mensis
Diripiens miles, saturum tamen obsidet hostem.
Ut primum libuit ruptis evadere claustris

[¶1] When Magnus first was pleased to break his bonds,
No nightly dash he makes, by craft to seize
His sleeping foe unarmed: his soul had scorned
Such path obscure to victory. Twas his aim,
To lay the turrets low; to mark his track,
By ruin spread afar; and with the sword
To hew a path between his slaughtered foes.
Minucius' turret was the chosen spot
Where groves of trees and thickets gave approach
Safe, unbetrayed by dust. Up from the fields
Flashed all at once his eagles into sight
And all his trumpets blared. But ere the sword
Could win the battle, on the hostile ranks
Dread panic fell; prone as in death they lay
Where else upright they should withstand the foe;
Nor more availed their valour, and in vain
The cloud of weapons flew, with none to slay.
Then blazing torches rolling pitchy flame
Are hurled, and shaken nod the lofty towers
And threaten ruin, and the bastions groan
Struck by the frequent engine, and the troops
Of Magnus by triumphant eagles led
Stride o'er the rampart, in their front the world.
Yet now that passage which not Caesar's self
Nor thousand valiant squadrons had availed
To rescue from their grasp, one man in arms
Steadfast till death refused them; Scaeva named
This hero soldier: long he served in fight
Waged 'gainst the savage on the banks of Rhone;
And now centurion made, through deeds of blood,
He bore the staff before the marshalled line.
Prone to all wickedness, he little recked
How valourous deeds in civil war may be
Greatest of crimes; and when he saw how turned
His comrades fron the war and sought in flight
A refuge, ' Whence,' he cried, 'this impious fear
Unknown to Caesar's armies? Do ye turn
'Your backs on death, and are ye not ashamed
Not to be found where slaughtered heroes lie?
'Is loyalty too weak? Yet love of fight
'Might bid you stand. We are the chosen few
'Through whom the foe would break. Unbought by blood
'This day shall not be theirs. 'Neath Caesar's eye,
'True, death would be more happy; but this boon
'Fortune denies: at least my fall shall be
'Praised by Pompeius. Shatter with your breasts
' Their weapons; blunt the edges of their swords
' With throats unyielding. In the distant lines
' The dust is seen already, and the sound
' Of tumult and of ruin finds the ear
Of Caesar: strike; the victory is ours:
'For he shall come who while his soldiers die
Shall make the fortress his.' His voice calls forth
The courage that the trumpets failed to rouse
When first they rang: his comrades mustering come
To watch his deeds; and, wondering at the man,
To test if valour thus by foes oppressed,
In narrow space, could hope for aught but death.
But Scaeva standing on the tottering bank
Heaves from the brimming turret on the foe
The corpses of the fallen; the ruined mass
Gives weapons to his hands; with beams and poles
And ponderous stones, with his own breast he threats
His enemies; and thrusts with mighty stakes
The host advancing; when they grasp the wall
He lops the arm: rocks crush the foeman's skull
And rive the scalp asunder: fiery bolts
Dashed at another set his hair aflame,
Till rolls the greedy blaze about his eyes
With hideous crackle. As the pile of slain
Rose to the summit of the wall he sprang,
Swift as across the nets a hunted pard,
Above the swords upraised, till in mid throng
Of foes he stood, hemmed in by densest ranks
And ramparted by war; in front and rear,
Where'er he struck, the victor. Now his sword
Blunted with gore congealed no more could wound,
But brake the stricken limb; while every hand
Flung every quivering dart at him alone;
Nor missed their aim, for rang against his shield
Dart after dart unerring, and his helm
In broken fragments pressed upon his brow;
His vital parts were safeguarded by spears
That bristled in his body. Fortune saw
Thus waged a novel combat, for there warred
Against one man an army. Why with darts,
Madmen, assail him and with slender shafts,
'Gainst which his life is proof? Or ponderous stones
This warrior chief shall overwhelm, or bolts
Flung by the twisted thongs of mighty slings.
Let steel-shod ram or catapult remove
This champion of the gate. No fragile wall
Stands here for Caesar, blocking with its bulk
Pompeius' way to freedom. Now he trusts
His shield no more, lest his sinister hand,
Idle, give life by shame; and on his breast
Bearing a forest of spears, though spent with toil
And worn with onset, falls upon his foe
And braves alone the wounds of all the war.
Thus may an elephant in Afric wastes,
Oppressed by frequent darts, break those that fall
Rebounding from his horny hide, and shake
Those that find lodgment, while his life within
Lies safe, protected, nor does spear avail
To reach the fount of blood. Unnumbered wounds
By arrow dealt, or lance, thus fail to slay
This single warrior. But lo! from far
A Cretan archer's shaft, more sure of aim
Than vows could hope for, strikes on Scaeva's brow
To light within his eye: the hero tugs
Intrepid, bursts the nerves, and tears the shaft
Forth with the eyeball, and with dauntless heel
Treads them to dust. Not otherwise a bear
Pannonian, fiercer for the wound received,
Maddened by dart from Libyan thong propelled,
Turns circling on her wound, and still pursues
The weapon fleeing as she whirls around.
Thus, in his rage destroyed, his shapeless face
Stood foul with crimson flow. The victors' shout
Glad to the sky arose; no greater joy
A little blood could give them had they seen
That Caesar's self was wounded. Down he pressed
Deep in his soul the anguish, and, with mien
No longer bent on fight, submissive cried,
Spare me, ye citizens; remove the war
Far hence: no weapons now can haste my death;
Draw from my breast the darts, but add no more.
Yet raise me up to place me in the camp
Of Magnus, living: this your gift to him;
No brave man's death my title to renown,
But Caesar's flag deserted.' So he spake.
Unhappy Aulus thought his words were true,
Nor saw within his hand the ready sword;
And leaping forth in haste to make his own
The prisoner and his arms, in middle throat
Received the lightning blade. By this one death
Rose Scaeva's valour again; and thus he cried,
Such be the punishment of all who thought
Great Scaeva vanquished; if Pompeius seeks
Peace from this reeking sword, low let him lay
' At Caesar's feet his standards. Me do ye think
' Such as yourselves, and slow to meet the fates?
'Your love for Magnus and the Senate's cause
'Is less than mine for death.' These were his words;
And dust in columns proved that Caesar came.
Thus was Pompeius' glory spared the stain
Of flight compelled by Scava. He, when ceased
The battle, fell, no more by rage of fight,
Or sight of blood out-pouring from his wounds,
Roused to the combat. Fainting there he lay
Upon the shoulders of his comrades borne,
Who him adoring (as though deity
Dwelt in his bosom) for his matchless deeds,
Plucked forth the gory shafts and took his arms
To deck the gods and shield the breast of Mars.
Thrice happy thou with such a name achieved,
Had but the fierce Iberian from thy sword,
Or heavy shielded Teuton, or had fled
The light Cantabrian: now no spoils of thine
Shall deck the Thunderer's temple, nor upraise
The shout of triumph in the ways of Rome.
For all thy prowess, all thy deeds of pride
Do but prepare her lord.

> Latin: Pompeio, cunctasque sibi permittere terras:
Non obscura petit latebrosae tempora noctis,
Et raptum furto, soceri cessantibus armis,
Dedignatur iter: latis exire ruinis
Quaerit, et impulso turres confringere vallo,
Perque omnes gladios, et qua via caede paranda est.
Opportuna tamen valli pars visa propinqui,
Quam Minuci castella vocant, et confraga densis
Arboribus dumeta tegunt. Huc pulvere nullo
Proditus agmen agit, subitusque ad moenia venit.
Tot simul e campis Latiae fulsere volucres:
Tot cecinere tubae. Ne quid victoria ferro
Deberet, pavor adtonitos confecerat hostes.
Quod solum valuit virtus, iacuere peremti,
Debuerant quo stare loco: qui vulnera ferrent
Iam deerant, nimbusque ferens tot tela peribat.
Tum piceos volvunt immissae lampades ignes:
Tum quassae nutant turres, lapsumque minantur:
Roboris impacti crebros gemit agger ad ictus.
Iam Pompeianae celsi super ardua valli
Exierant aquilae: iam mundi iura patebant.
Quem non mille simul turmis, nec Caesare toto
Auferret Fortuna locum, victoribus unus
Eripuit, vetuitque capi: seque arma tenente,
Ac nondum strato, Magnum vicisse negavit.
Scaeva viro nomen: castrorum in plebe merebat
Ante feras Rhodani gentes: ibi sanguine multo
Promotus Latiam longo gerit ordine vitem:
Pronus ad omne nefas, et qui nesciret, in armis
Quam magnum virtus crimen civilibus esset.
Hic ubi quaerentes socios iam Marte relicto
Tota fugae cernit, Quo vos pavor, inquit, abegit
Impius et cunctis ignotus Caesaris armis?
[O famuli turpes, servum pecus, absque cruore]
Terga datis morti? Cumulo vos deesse virorum
Non pudet et bustis interque cadavera quaeri?
Non ira saltem iuvenes, pietate remota,
Stabitis? E cunctis, per quos erumperet hostis,
Nos sumus electi. Non parvo sanguine Magni
Ista dies ierit. Peterem felicior umbras
Caesaris in vultu. Testem hunc Fortuna negavit:
Pompeio laudante, cadam. Confringite tela
Pectoris incursu, iugulisque retundite ferrum.
Iam longinqua petit pulvis, sonitusque ruinae,
Securasque fragor concussit Caesaris aures.
Vincimus, o socii; veniet, qui vindicet arces,
Dum morimur. Movit tantum vox illa furorem,
Quantum non primo succendunt classica cantu:
Mirantesque virum, atque avidi spectare, sequuntur
Scituri iuvenes, numero deprensa locoque
An plus quam mortem virtus daret. Ille ruenti
Aggere consistit, primumque cadavera plenis
Turribus evolvit, subeuntesque obruit hostes
Corporibus: totaeque viro dant tela ruinae:
Roboraque et moles hosti seque ipse minatur.
Nunc sude, nunc duro contraria pectora conto
Detrudit muris, et valli summa tenentes
Amputat ense manus: caput obterit ossaque saxo,
Ac male defensum fragili compage cerebrum
Dissipat: alterius flamma crinesque genasque
Succendit; strident oculis ardentibus ignes.
Ut primum, cumulo crescente, cadavera murum
Admovere solo: non segnior extulit illum
Saltus, et in medias iecit super arma catervas,
Quam per summa rapit celerem venabula pardum.
Tunc densos inter cuneos compressus et omni
Vallatus bello vincit, quem respicit, hostem.
Iamque hebes et crasso non asper sanguine mucro
[Percussum Scaevae frangit, non vulnerat, hostem.]
Perdidit ensis opus, frangit sine vulnere membra.
Illum tota petit moles, illum omnia tela:
Nulla fuit non certa manus, non lancea felix,
Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum
Atque virum. Fortis crebris sonat ictibus umbo,
Et galeae fragmenta cavae compressa perurunt
Tempora: nec quidquam nudis vitalibus obstat
Iam, praeter stantes in summis ossibus hastas.
Quid nunc, vesani, iaculis levibusque sagittis
Perditis haesuros numquam vitalibus ictus?
Hunc aut tortilibus vibrata phalarica nervis
Obruat, aut vasti muralia pondera saxi:
Hunc aries ferro ballistaque limine portae
Summoveat. Stat non fragilis pro Caesare murus,
Pompeiumque tenet. Iam pectora non tegit armis,
Ac veritus credi clypeo, laevaque vacasse,
Aut culpa vixisse sua, tot vulnera belli
Solus obit, densamque ferens in pectore silvam,
Iam gradibus fessis, in quem cadat, eligit hostem.
[Par pelagi monstris. Libycae sic bellua terrae,]
Sic Libycus densis elephas oppressus ab armis
Omne repercussum squalenti missile tergo
Frangit, et haerentes mota cute discutit hastas:
Viscera tuta latent penitus, citraque cruorem
Confixae stant tela ferae: tot facta sagittis,
Tot iaculis, unam non explent vulnera mortem.
Dictaea procul ecce manu Gortynis arundo
Tenditur in Scaevam, quae voto certior omni
In caput atque oculi laevum descendit in orbem.
Ille moras ferri, nervorum et vincula rumpit,
Adfixam vellens oculo pendente sagittam
Intrepidus, telumque suo cum lumine calcat.
Pannonis haud aliter post ictum saevior ursa,
Cum iaculum parva Libys amentavit habena,
Se rotat in vulnus: telumque irata receptum
Impetit, et secum fugientem circuit hastam.
Perdiderat vultum rabies: stetit imbre cruento
Informis facies: laetus fragor aethera pulsat
Victorum: maiora viris e sanguine parvo
Gaudia non faceret conspectum in Caesare vulnus.
Ille, tegens alta suppressum mente dolorem,
Mitis et a vultu penitus virtute remota,
Parcite, ait, cives: procul hinc avertite bellum.
Collatura meae nil sunt iam vulnera morti:
Non eget ingestis, sed vulsis pectore telis.
Tollite et in Magni viventem ponite castris:
Hoc vestro praestate duci: sit Scaeva relicti
Caesaris exemplum potius, quam mortis honestae.
Credidit infelix simulatis vocibus Aulus,
Nec vidit recto gladium mucrone tenentem;
Membraque captivi pariter laturus, et arma,
Fulmineum mediis excepit faucibus ensem.
Incaluit virtus: atque una caede refectus
Solvat, ait, poenas, Scaevam quicumque subactum
Speravit: pacem gladio si quaerit ab isto
Magnus, adorato submittat Caesare signa.
An similem vestri, segnemque ad fata putastis?
Pompeii vobis minor est caussaeque senatus
Quam mihi mortis amor. Simul haec effatur, et altus
Caesareas pulvis testatur adesse cohortes.
Dedecus hic belli Magno crimenque remisit,
Ne solum totae fugerent te, Scaeva, catervae:
Subducto qui Marte ruis: nam sanguine fuso
Vires pugna dabat. Labentem turba suorum
Excipit, atque humeris defectum imponere gaudet:
Ac veluti inclusum perfosso in pectore numen
Et vivam magnae speciem virtutis adorant:
Telaque confixis certant evellere membris,
Exornantque deos, ac nudum pectore Martem
Armis, Scaeva, tuis: felix hoc nomine famae,
Si tibi durus Iber, aut si tibi terga dedisset
Cantaber exiguis, aut longis Teutonus armis.
Non tu bellorum spoliis ornare Tonantis
Templa potes, non tu laetis ululare triumphis.
Infelix, quanta dominum virtute parasti!

[¶2] Nor on this hand
Repulsed, Pompeius idly ceased from war,
Content within his bars; but as the sea
Tireless, which tempests force upon the crag
That breaks it, or which gnaws a mountain side
Some day to fall in ruin on itself;
He sought the turrets nearest to the main,
On double onset bent; nor closely kept
His troops in hand, but on the spacious plain
Spread forth his camp. They joyful leave the tents
And wander at their will. Thus Padus flows
In brimming flood, and foaming at his bounds,
Making whole districts quake; and should the bank
Fail 'neath his swollen waters, all his stream
Breaks forth in swirling eddies over fields
Not his before; some lands are lost, the rest
Gain from his bounty.
Hardly from his tower
Had Caesar seen the fire or known the fight:
And coming found the rampart overthrown,
The dust no longer stirred, the ruins cold
As from a battle done. The peace that reigned
There and on Magnus' side, as though men slept,
Their victory won, aroused his angry soul.
Quick he prepares, so that he end their joy
Careless of slaughter or defeat, to rush
With threatening columns on Torquatus' post.
But swift as sailor, by his trembling mast
Warned of Circeian tempest, furls his sails,
So swift Torquatus saw, and prompt to wage
The war more closely, he withdrew his men
Within a narrower wall.
Now past the trench
Were Caesar's companies, when from the hills
Pompeius hurled his host upon their ranks
Shut in, and hampered. Not so much o'erwhelmed
As Caesar's soldiers is the hind who dwells
On Etna's slopes, when blows the southern wind,
And all the mountain pours its cauldrons forth
Upon the vale; and huge Enceladus
Writhing beneath his load spouts o'er the plains
A blazing torrent. Blinded by the dust,
Encircled, vanquished, ere the fight, they fled
In cloud of terror on their rearward foe,
So rushing on their fates. Thus had the war
Shed its last drop of blood and peace ensued,
But Magnus suffered not, and held his troops
Back from the battle.
Thou, O Rome, hadst been
Free, happy, mistress of thy laws and rights
Were Sulla here. Now shalt thou ever grieve
That in his crowning crime, to have met in fight
A pious kinsman, Caesar's vantage lay.
Oh tragic destiny! Nor Munda's fight
Hispania had wept, nor Libya mourned
Encrimsoned Utica, nor Nilus' stream,
With blood unspeakable polluted, borne
A nobler corse than her Egyptian kings:
Nor Juba lain unburied on the sands,
Nor Scipio with his blood outpoured appeased
The ghosts of Carthage; this had been thy last
Disaster, Rome; nor had the blameless life
Of Cato ended: and Pharsalia's name
Had so been blotted from the book of fate.
But Caesar left the region where his arms
Had found the deities adverse, and marched
His shattered columns to Thessalian lands.
Then to Pompeius came (whose mind was bent
To follow Caesar wheresoe'er he fled)
His captains, striving to persuade their chief
To seek Ausonia, his native land,
Now freed from foes. 'Ne'er will I pass,' he said,
' My country's limit, nor revisit Rome
' Like Caesar, at the head of banded hosts.
' Hesperia when the war began was mine;
' Mine, had I chosen in our country's shrines,
' In midmost forum of her capital,
' To join the battle. So that banished far
' Be war from Rome, I'll cross the torrid zone
' Or those for ever frozen Scythian shores.
What! shall my victory rob thee of the peace
I gave thee by my flight? Rather than thou
Shouldst feel the evils of this impious war,
'Let Caesar deem thee his.' He turned his course
Towards the uprising sun, and sought by paths
Remote, and forests wide, the land by fate
Foredoomed to see the issue of the war.
Thessalia on that side where Titan first
Raises the wintry day, by Ossa's rocks
Is prisoned in: but in th' advancing year
When higher in the vault his chariot rides
'Tis Pelion that meets the morning rays.
And when beside the Lion's flames he drives
The middle course, Othrys with woody top
Screens his chief ardour. On the hither side
Pindus receives the breezes of the west
And as the evening falls brings darkness in.
There too Olympus, at whose foot who dwells
Nor fears the north nor sees the shining bear.
Between these mountains hemmed, in ancient time
The fields were marsh, for Tempe's pass not yet
Was cleft, to give an exit to the streams
That filled the plain: but when Alcides' hand
Smote Ossa from Olympus at a blow,
And Nereus wondered at the sudden flood
Of waters to the main, then on the shore
(Would it had slept for ever 'neath the deep)
Seaborn Achilles' home Pharsalus rose;
And Phylace whence sailed that ship of old
Whose keel first touched upon the beach of Troy;
And Dorion mournful for the Muses' ire
On Thamyris vanquished: Trachis; Melibe
Strong in the shafts of Hercules, the price
Of that most awful torch; Larissa's hold
Potent of yore; and Argos, famous erst,
O'er which men pass the ploughshare: and the spot
Fabled as Echionian Thebes, where once
Agave bore in exile to the pyre
(Grieving 'twas all she had) the head and neck
Of Pentheus massacred. The lake set free
Flowed forth in many rivers: to the west
AEas, a gentle stream; nor stronger flows
The sire of Isis ravished from his arms;
And Achelous, rival for the hand
Of OEneus' daughter, rolls his earthy flood
To silt the shore beside the neighbouring isles.
Evenus purpled by the Centaur's blood
Wanders through Calydon: in the Malian Gulf
Thy rapids fall, Spercheius: pure the wave
With which Amphrysos irrigates the meads
Where once Apollo served: Anaurus flows
Breathing no vapour forth; no humid air
Ripples his surface: and whatever stream,
Nameless itself, to Ocean gives its waves
Through thee, Peneus: whirled in eddies foams
Apidanus; Enipeus lingers on
Swift only when fresh streams his volume swell:
And thus Asopus takes his ordered course,
Phoenix and Melas; but Eurotas keeps
His stream aloof from that with which he flows,
Peneus, gliding on his top as though
Upon the channel. Fable says that, sprung
From darkest pools of Styx, with common floods
He scorns to mingle, mindful of his source,
So that the gods above may fear him still.
Soon as were sped the rivers, Boebian ploughs
Dark with its riches broke the virgin soil;
Then came Lelegians to press the share,
And Dolopes and sons of AEolus
By whom the glebe was furrowed. Steed-renowned
Magnetians dwelt there, and the Minyan race
Who smote the sounding billows with the oar.
There in the cavern from the pregnant cloud
Ixion's sons found birth, the Centaur brood
Half beast, half human: Monychus who broke
The stubborn rocks of Pholoe, Rhoetus fierce
Hurling from OEta's top gigantic elms
Which northern storms could hardly overturn;
Pholus, Alcides' host: Nessus who bore
The Queen across Evenus' waves, to feel
The deadly arrow for his shameful deed;
And aged Chiron who with wintry star
Against the huger Scorpion draws his bow.
Here sparkled on the land the warrior seed;
Here leaped the charger from Thessalian rocks
Struck by the trident of the Ocean King,
Omen of dreadful war; here first he learned,
Champing the bit and foaming at the curb,
Yet to obey his lord. From yonder shore
The keel of pine first floated, and bore men
To dare the perilous chance of seas unknown:
And here Ionus ruler of the land
First from the furnace molten masses drew
Of iron and brass; here first the hammer fell
To weld them, shapeless; here in glowing stream
Ran silver forth and gold, soon to receive
The minting stamp. 'Twas thus that money came
Whereby men count their riches, cause accursed
Of warfare. Hence came down that Python huge
On Cirrha: hence the laurel wreath which crowns
The Pythian victor: here Aloeus' sons
Gigantic rose against the gods, what time
Pelion had almost touched the stars supreme,
And Ossa's loftier peak amid the sky
Opposing, barred the constellations' way.

> Latin: Nec magis hac Magnus castrorum parte repulsus
Intra claustra piger, dilato Marte, quievit,
Quam mare lassatur, cum se tollentibus Euris
Frangentem fluctus scopulum ferit, aut latus alti
Montis adest, seramque sibi parat unda ruinam.
Hinc vicina petens placido castella profundo
Incursu gemini Martis rapit: armaque late
Spargit, et effuso laxat tentoria campo:
Mutandaeque iuvat permissa licentia terrae.
Sic pleno Padus ore tumens super aggere tutas
Excurrit ripas, et totos concutit agros:
Succubuit si qua tellus, cumulumque furentem
Undarum non passa ruit, tum flumine toto
Transit, et ignotos aperit sibi gurgite campos.
Illos terra fugit dominos: his rura colonis
Accedunt, donante Pado. Vix proelia Caesar
Senserat, elatus specula quae prodidit ignis.
Invenit impulsos presso iam pulvere muros:
Frigidaque ut veteris deprendit signa ruinae,
Accendit pax ipsa loci, movitque furorem
Pompeiana quies et, victo Caesare, somnus.
Ire vel in clades properat, dum gaudia turbet.
Torquato ruit inde minax: qui Caesaris arma
Segnius haud vidit, quam malo nauta tremente
Omnia Circaeae subducit vela procellae:
Agminaque interius muro breviore recepit,
Densius ut parva disponeret arma corona.
Transierat primi Caesar munimina valli,
Cum super e totis emisit collibus agmen,
Effuditque acies obseptum Magnus in hostem.
Non sic Aetnaeis habitans in vallibus horret
Enceladum, spirante Noto, cum tota cavernas
Egerit, et torrens in campos defluit Aetna:
Caesaris ut miles glomerato pulvere victus
Ante aciem, caeci trepidus sub nube timoris
Hostilius occurrit fugiens, inque ipsa pavendo
Fata ruit. Totus mitti civilibus armis
Usque vel in pacem potuit cruor: ipse furentes
Dux tenuit gladios. Felix ac libera legum,
Roma, fores iurisque tui, vicisset in illo
Si tibi Sulla loco. Dolet heu semperque dolebit,
Quod scelerum, Caesar, prodest tibi summa tuorum,
Cum genero pugnasse pio. Pro tristia fata!
Non Uticae Libye clades, Hispania Mundae
Flesset, et infando pollutus sanguine Nilus
Nobilius Phario gestasset rege cadaver:
Nec Iuba Marmaricas nudus pressisset arenas,
Poenorumque umbras placasset sanguine fuso
Scipio: nec sancto caruisset via Catone.
Ultimus esse dies potuit tibi, Roma, malorum:
Exire e mediis potuit Pharsalia fatis.
Deserit adverso possessam numine sedem
Caesar, et Emathias lacero petit agmine terras.
Arma secuturum soceri, quacumque fugasset,
Tentavere suo comites divertere Magnum
Hortatu: patrias sedes atque hoste carentem
Ausoniam peteret. Numquam me Caesaris, inquit,
Exemplo reddam patriae, numquamque videbit
Me nisi dimisso redeuntem, milite Roma.
Hesperiam potui, motu surgente, tenere,
Si vellem patriis aciem committere templis,
Ac medio pugnare foro. Dum bella relegem,
Extremum Scythici transcendam frigoris orbem,
Ardentesque plagas. Victor tibi, Roma, quietem
Eripiam, qui, ne premerent te proelia, fugi?
Ah potius, bello ne quid patiaris in isto,
Te Caesar putet esse suam. Sic fatus, in ortus
Phoebeos convertit iter, terraeque secutus
Devia, qua vastos aperit Candavia saltus,
Contigit Emathiam, bello quam fata parabant.
Thessaliam, qua parte diem brumalibus horis
Adtollit Titan, rupes Ossaea coercet.
Cum per summa poli Phoebum trahit altior aestas
Pelion opponit radiis nascentibus umbras.
At medios ignes coeli, rabidique Leonis
Solstitiale caput nemorosus submovet Othrys.
Excipit adversos Zephyros et Iapyga Pindus
Et maturato praecidit vespere lucem.
Nec metuens imi Borean habitator Olympi
Lucentem totis ignorat noctibus Arcton.
Hos inter montes, media qui valle premuntur,
Perpetuis quondam latuere paludibus agri,
Flumina dum campi retinent, nec pervia Tempe
Dant aditus pelagi; stagnumque implentibus unum
Crescere cursus erat. Postquam discessit Olympo
Herculea gravis Ossa manu, subitaeque ruinam
Sensit aquae Nereus: melius mansura sub undis,
Emathis aequorei regnum Pharsalos Achillis
Eminet, et, prima Rhoeteia litora pinu
Quae tetigit, Phylace, Pteleosque, et Dorion ira
Flebile Pieridum; Trachin, pretioque nefandae
Lampados Herculeis fortis Meliboea pharetris:
Atque olim Larissa potens: ubi nobile quondam
Nunc super Argos arant: veteres ubi fabula Thebas
Monstrat Echionias: ubi quondam Pentheos exsul
Colla caputque ferens supremo tradidit igni,
Questa, quod hoc solum nato rapuisset, Agave.
Ergo abrupta palus multos discessit in amnes.
Purus in occasus, parvi sed gurgitis, Aeas
Ionio fluit inde mari nec fortior undis
Labitur avectae pater Isidis, et tuus, Oeneu,
Paene gener crassis oblimat Echinadas undis
Et Meleagream maculatus sanguine Nessi
Euenos Calydona secat. Ferit amne citato
Maliacas Sperchios aquas: et flumine puro
Irrigat Amphrysos famulantis pascua Phoebi;
Quique nec humentes nebulas, nec rore madentem
Aera, nec tenues ventos suspirat, Anauros;
Et quisquis pelago per se non cogntus amnis
Peneo donavit aquas: it gurgite rapto
Apidanos: nunquamque celer, nisi mixtus, Enipeus.
Accipit Asopos cursus, Phoenixque, Melasque.
Solus in alterius nomen cum venerit undae,
Defendit Titaresos aquas, lapsusque superne
Gurgite Penei pro siccis utitur arvis.
Hunc fama est Stygiis manare paludibus amnem,
Et, capitis memorem, fluvii contagia vilis
Nolle pati, superumque sibi servare timorem.
Ut primum emissis patuerunt amnibus arva,
Pinguis Boebicio discessit vomere sulcus:
Mox Lelegum dextra pressum descendit aratrum.
Aeolidae Dolopesque solum fregere coloni,
Et Magnetes equis, Minyae gens cognita remis.
Illic semiferos Ixionidas Centauros
Foeta Pelethroniis nubes effudit in antris:
Aspera te Pholoes frangentem, Monyche, saxa,
Teque sub Oetaeo torquentem vertice vulsas,
Rhoete ferox, quas vix Boreas inverteret, ornos:
Hospes et Alcidae magni, Phole: teque per amnem
Improbe Lernaeas vector passure sagittas:
Teque senex Chiron, gelido qui sidere fulgens
Impetis Aemonio maiorem Scorpion arcu.
Hac tellure feri micuerunt semina Martis.
Primus ab aequorea percussis cuspide saxis
Thessalicus sonipes bellis feralibus omen
Exsiluit; primus chalybem fraenosque momordit,
Spumavitque novis Lapithae domitoris habenis.
Prima fretum scindens Pagasaeo litore pinus
Terrenum ignotas hominem proiecit in undas.
Primus Thessalicae rector telluris Itonos
In formam calidae percussit pondera massae,
Fudit et argentum flammis, aurumque moneta
Fregit et immensis coxit fornacibus aera.
Illic, quod populos scelerata impegit in arma,
Divitias numerare datum est. Hinc maxima serpens
Descendit Python, Cyrrhaeaque fluxit in arva:
Unde et Thessalicae veniunt ad Pythia laurus.
Impius hinc prolem superis immisit Aloeus,
Inseruit celsis prope se cum Pelion astris,
Sideribusque vias incurrens abstulit Ossa.

[¶3] When in this fated land the chiefs had placed
Their several camps, foreboding of the end
Now fast approaching, all men's thoughts were turned
Upon the final issue of the war.
And as the end drew near, all coward minds
Trembling beneath the shadow of the fate
Now hanging o'er them, deemed disaster near:
While some took heart; yet doubted what might fall,
In hope and fear alternate. 'Mid the throng
Sextus, unworthy son of worthy sire
Who soon upon the waves that Scylla guards,
Sicilian pirate, exile from his home,
Stained by his deeds of shame the fights he won,
Could bear delay no more; his feeble soul,
Sick of uncertain fate, by fear compelled,
Forecast the future: yet consulted not
The shrine of Delos nor the Pythian caves;
Nor was he satisfied to learn the sound
Of Jove's brass cauldron, 'mid Dodona's oaks,
By her primaeval fruits the nurse of men:
Nor sought he sages who by flight of birds,
Or watching with Assyrian care the stars
And fires of heaven, or by victims slain,
May know the fates to come; nor any source
Lawful though secret. For to him was known
That which excites the hate of gods above;
Magicians' lore, the savage creed of Dis
And all the shades; and sad with gloomy rites
Mysterious altars. For his frenzied soul
Heaven knew too little. And the spot itself
Kindled his madness, for hard by there dwelt
The brood of Haemon whom no storied witch
Of fiction e'er transcended; all their art
In things most strange and most incredible;
There were Thessalian rocks with deadly herbs
Thick planted, sensible to magic chants,
Funereal, secret: and the land was full
Of violence to the gods: the Queenly guest
From Colchis gathered here the fatal roots
That were not in her store: hence vain to heaven
Rise impious incantations, all unheard;
For deaf the ears divine: save for one voice
Which penetrates the furthest depths of air
Compelling e'en th' unwilling deities
To hearken to its accents. Not the care
Of the revolving sky or starry pole
Can call them from it ever. Once the sound
Of those dread tones unspeakable has reached
The constellations, then nor Babylon
Nor secret Memphis, though they open wide
The shrines of ancient magic and entreat
The gods, could draw them from the fires that smoke
Upon the altars of far Thessaly.
To hearts of flint those incantations bring
Love, strange, unnatural; the old man's breast
Burns with illicit fire. Nor lies the power
In harmful cup nor in the juicy pledge
Of love maternal from the forehead drawn;
Charmed forth by spells alone the mind decays,
By poisonous drugs unharmed. With woven threads
Crossed in mysterious fashion do they bind
Those whom no passion born of beauteous form
Or loving couch unites. All things on earth
Change at their bidding; night usurps the day;
The heavens disobey their wonted laws;
At that dread hymn the Universe stands still;
And Jove while urging the revolving wheels
Wonders they move not. Torrents are outpoured
Beneath a burning sun; and thunder roars
Uncaused by Jupiter. From their flowing locks
Vapours immense shall issue at their call;
When falls the tempest seas shall rise and foam
Moved by their spell; though powerless the breeze
To raise the billows. Ships against the wind
With bellying sails move onward. From the rock
Hangs motionless the torrent: rivers run
Uphill; the summer heat no longer swells
Nile in his course; Maeander's stream is straight;
Slow Rhone is quickened by the rush of Saone;
Hills dip their heads and topple to the plain;
Olympus sees his clouds drift overhead;
And sunless Scythia's sempiternal snows
Melt in mid-winter; the inflowing tides
Driven onward by the moon, at that dread chant
Ebb from their course; earth's axes, else unmoved,
Have trembled, and the force centripetal
Has tottered, and the earth's compacted frame
Struck by their voice has gaped, till through the void
Men saw the moving sky. All beasts most fierce
And savage fear them, yet with deadly aid
Furnish the witches' arts. Tigers athirst
For blood, and noble lions on them fawn
With bland caresses: serpents at their word
Uncoil their circles, and extended glide
Along the surface of the frosty field;
The viper's severed body joins anew;
And dies the snake by human venom slain.
Whence comes this labour on the gods, compelled
To hearken to the magic chant and spells,
Nor daring to despise them? Doth some bond
Control the deities? Is their pleasure so,
Or must they listen? and have silent threats
Prevailed, or piety unseen received
So great a guerdon? Against all the gods
Is this their influence, or on one alone
Who to his will constrains the universe,
Himself constrained? Stars most in yonder clime
Shoot headlong from the zenith; and the moon
Gliding serene upon her nightly course
Is shorn of lustre by their poisonous chant,
Dimmed by dark earthly fires, as though our orb
Shadowed her brother's radiance and barred
The light bestowed by heaven; nor freshly shines
Until descending nearer to the earth
She sheds her baneful drops upon the mead.

> Latin: Hac ubi damnata fatis tellure locarunt
Castra duces, cunctos belli praesaga futuri
Mens agitat, summique gravem discriminis horam
Adventare palam est. Propius iam fata moveri,
Degeneres trepidant animi, peioraque versant,
Ad dubios pauci, praesumto robore, casus
Spemque metumque ferunt. Turbae sed mixtus inerti
Sextus erat, Magno proles indigna parente,
Qui mox, Scyllaeis exsul grassatus in undis,
Polluit aequoreos Siculus pirata triumphos.
Qui stimulante metu fati praenoscere cursus,
Impatiensque morae, venturisque omnibus aeger,
Non tripodas Deli, non Pythia consulit antra,
Nec quaesisse libet, primis quid frugibus altrix
Aere Iovis Dodona sonet, quis noscere fibra
Fata queat, quis prodat aves, quis fulgura coeli
Servet, et Assyria scrutetur sidera cura,
Aut si quid tacitum, sed fas, erat. Ille superuis
Detestanda deis saevorum arcana magorum
Noverat, et tristes sacris feralibus aras,
Umbrarum Ditisque fidem: miseroque liquebat,
Scire parum superos. Vanum saevumque furorem
Adiuvat ipse locus, vicinaque moenia castris
Haemonidum, ficti quas nulla licentia monstri
Transierit, quarum, quidquid non creditur, ars est.
Thessala quin etiam tellus herbasque nocentes
Rupibus ingenuit, sensuraque saxa canentes
Arcanum ferale Magos. Ibi plurima surgunt
Vim factura deis: et terris hospita Colchis
Legit in Haemoniis, quas non advexerat, herbas.
Impia tot populis, tot surdas gentibus aures
Coelicolum dirae convertunt carmina gentis.
Una per aethereos exit vox illa recessus,
Verbaque ad invitum perfert cogentia numen,
Quod non cura poli coelique volubilis umquam
Avocat. Infandum tetigit cum sidera murmur,
Tunc, Babylon Persea licet secretaque Memphis
Omne vetustorum solvat penetrale Magorum,
Abducit superos alienis Thessalis aris.
Carmine Thessalidum dura in praecordia fluxit
Non fatis adductus amor: flammisque severi
Illicitis arsere senes. Nec noxia tantum
Pocula proficiunt aut cum turgentia succo
Frontis amaturae subducunt pignora fetae.
Mens hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni
Excantata perit. Quos non concordia mixti
Adligat ulla tori, blandaque potentia formae,
Traxerunt torti magica vertigine fili.
Cessavere vices rerum: dilataque longa
Haesit nocte dies. Legi non paruit aether:
Torpuit et praeceps audito carmine mundus:
Axibus et rapidis impulsos Iuppiter urgens
Miratur non ire polos. Nunc omnia complent
Imbribus, et calido producunt nubila Phoebo:
Et tonat ignaro coelum Iove. Vocibus isdem
Humentes late nebulas nimbosque solutis
Excussere comis. Ventis cessantibus, aequor
Intumuit: rursus vetitum sentire procellas
Conticuit, turbante Noto: puppimque ferentes
In ventum tumuere sinus. De rupe pependit
Abscisa fixus torrens: amnisque cucurrit
Non qua pronus erat. Nilum non extulit aestas:
Maeander direxit aquas: Rhodatumque morantem
Praecipitavit Arar: submitso verice montes
Explicuere iugum. Nubes suspexit Olympus:
Solibus et nullis Scythicae, cum bruma rigeret,
Dimaduere nives. Impulsam sidere Tethyn
Repulit Haemonidum, defenso litore, carmen.
Terra quoque immoti concussit ponderis axem,
Et medium vergens nisu titubavit in orbem.
Tantae molis onus percussum voce recessit,
Prospectumque dedit circumlabentis Olympi.
Omne potens animal leti, genitumque nocere,
Et pavet Haemonias, et mortibus instruit artes.
Has avidae tigres et nobilis ira leonum
Ore fovent blando: gelidos his explicat orbes,
Inque pruinoso coluber distenditur arvo.
Viperei coeunt, abrupto corpore, nodi:
Humanoque cadit serpens adflata veneno.
Quis labor hic superis, cantus herbasque sequendi,
Spernendique timor? cuius commercia pacti
Obstrictos habuere deos? Parere necesse est,
An iuvat? Ignota tantum pietate merentur,
An tacitis valuere minis? Hoc iuris in omnes
Est illis superos, an habent haec carmina certum
Imperiosa deum, qui mundum cogere, quidquid
Cogitur ipse, potest? Illic et sidera primum
Praecipiti deducta polo: Phoebeque serena
Non aliter, diris verborum obsessa venenis,
Palluit, et nigris terrenisque ignibus arsit,
Quam si fraterna prohiberet imagine tellus,
Insereretque suas flammis coelestibus umbras:
Et patitur tantos cantu deprensa labores,
Donec suppositas propior despumet in herbas.