---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 2 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/2/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 2. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/2/"
---

# 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.

## 2. Book I · lines 291–695

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/2/#p-N

[¶0] As when at Elis' festival a horse
In stable pent gnaws at his prison bars
Impatient, and should clamour from without
Strike on his ear, bounds furious at restraint,
So then was Caesar, eager for the fight,
Stirred by the words of Curio. To the ranks
He bids his soldiers; with majestic mien
And hand commanding silence as they come.
Comrades,' he cried, ' victorious returned,
'Who by my side for ten long years have faced,
'Mid Alpine winters and on Arctic shores,
'The thousand dangers of the battle-field—
Is this our country's welcome, this her prize
' For death and wounds and Roman blood outpoured?
' Rome arms her choicest sons; the sturdy oaks
' Are felled to make a fleet;-what could she more
' If from the Alps fierce Hannibal were come
' With all his Punic host? " By land and sea
' Caesar shall fly!" Fly? Though in adverse war
' Our best had fallen, and the savage Gaul
' Were hard upon our track, we would not fly.
'And now, when fortune smiles and kindly gods
' Beckon us on to glory! -Let him come
' Fresh from his years of peace, with all his crowd
' Of conscript burgesses, Marcellus' tongue
' And Cato's empty name! We will not fly.
' Shall Eastern hordes and greedy hirelings keep
' Their loved Pompeius ever at the helm?
' Shall chariots of triumph be for him
'Though youth and law forbad them? Shall he seize
' On Rome's chief honours ne'er to be resigned?
' And what of harvests blighted through the world
' And ghastly famine made to serve his ends?
' Who hath forgotten how Pompeius' bands
' Seized on the forum? the grim sheen of swords
' When outraged justice trembled, and the spears
' Hemmed in the judgment-seat where Milo stood?
' And now when worn and old and ripe for rest,
' Greedy of power, the impious sword again
' He draws. As tigers in Hyrcanian woods
' Wandering, or in the caves that saw their birth,
' Once having lapped the blood of slaughtered kine,
' Shall never cease from rage; e'en so this whelp
' Of cruel Sulla, nursed in civil war,
' Outstrips his master; and the tongue which licked
' That reeking weapon ever thirsts for more.
' Stain once the lips with blood, no other meal
' They shall enjoy. And shall there be no end
' Of these long years of power and of crime?
' Nay, this one lesson, ere it be too late,
' Learn of thy gentle Sulla-to retire!
' Of old his victory o'er Cilician thieves
' And Pontus' weary monarch gave him fame,
' By poison scarce attained. His latest prize
' Shall I be, Caesar, I, who would not quit
' My conquering eagles at his proud command?
' Nay, if no triumph is reserved for me,
' Let these at least of long and toilsome war
''Neath other leaders the rewards enjoy.
' Where shall the weary soldier find his rest?
' What cottage homes their joys, what fields their fruit
' Shall to our veterans yield? Will Magnus say
' That pirates only till the fields aright?
' Unfurl your standards; victory gilds them yet,
' As through those glorious years. Deny our rights!
' He that denies them makes our quarrel just.
' Nay! use the strength that we have made our own.
' No booty seek we, nor imperial power.
' This would-be ruler of subservient Rome
'We force to quit his grasp; and Heaven shall smile
'On those who seek to drag the tyrant down.'
Thus Caesar spake; but doubtful murmurs ran
Throughout the crowd; their household gods and homes
Made pause their minds though long inured to blood:
But fear of Caesar and the pride of war
Drew them to him. Then Laelius, who wore
The well-earned crown for Roman life preserved,
The foremost Captain of the army, spake:
'O greatest leader of the Roman name,
'If thou dost ask it, and the law permits,
'I tell thee all: our just complaint is this,
'That gifted with such strength thou didst refrain
'From using it. Hadst thou no trust in us?
'While the hot life-blood fills these glowing veins,
' While these strong arms avail to hurl the lance,
'Wilt thou in peace endure the Senate's rule?
'Is civil conquest then so base and vile?
'Lead us through Scythian deserts, lead us where
'The inhospitable Syrtes line the shore
'Of Afric's burning sands, or where thou wilt:
'This hand, to leave a conquered world behind,
'Held firm the oar that tamed the Northern Sea
And Rhine's swift torrent foaming to the main.
'To follow thee fate gives me now the power:
'The will was mine before. No citizen
'I count the man 'gainst whom thy trumpets sound.
'By ten campaigns of victory, I swear,
'By all thy triumphs, bid me plunge the sword
'In sire or brother or in pregnant spouse,
By this unwilling hand the deed were done:
'Bid spoil the gods and set the fanes ablaze,
Great Juno's shrine were kindled with our fires;
'Bid plant our arms o'er Tuscan Tiber's stream,
'Italian land I'll quarter for the camp:
'Bid raze the wall, I'll drive the fatal ram
'And rive the stones asunder, though the prize
' Were Rome herself.' His comrades lift their hands
And vow to follow wheresoever he leads.
And such a clamour rends the sky as when
Some Thracian blast on Ossa's pine-clad rocks
Falls headlong, and the loud re-echoing woods,
Or bending, or rebounding from the stroke,
In sounding chorus lift the roar on high.
When Caesar saw them welcome thus the war
And Fortune leading on, and favouring fates,
He seized the moment, called his troops from Gaul,
And breaking up his camp set on for Rome.

> Latin: Solus habere potes. Sic postquam fatus, et ipsi
In bellum prono tantum tamen addidit irae,
Accenditque ducem, quantum clamore iuvatur
Eleus sonipes, quamvis iam carcere clauso
Immineat foribus, pronusque repagula laxet.
Convocat armatos extemplo ad signa maniplos:
Utque satis trepidum, turba coeunte, tumultum
Composuit, vultu dextraque silentia iussit:
Bellorum o socii, qui, mille pericula Martis
Mecum, ait, experti, decimo iam vincitis anno,
Hoc cruor Aretois meruit diffusus in arvis,
Vulneraque et mortes, hiemesque sub Alpibus actae?
Non secus ingenti bellorum Roma tumultu
Concutitur, quam si Poenus transcenderit Alpes
Hannibal. Implentur valido tirone cohortes:
In classem cadit omne nemus: terraque marique
Iussus Caesar agi. Quid? si mihi signa iacerent
Marte sub adverso, ruerentque in terga feroces
Gallorum populi? Nunc, cum Fortuna secundis
Mecum rebus agat, superique ad summa vocantes,
Tentamur. Veniat dux longa pace solutus,
Milite cum subito, partesque in bella togatae,
Marcellusque loquax, et nomina vana Catones.
Scilicet extremi Pompeium emtique clientes
Continuo per tot sociabunt tempora regno?
Ille reget currus, nondum patientibus annis?
Ille semel raptos numquam dimittet honores?
Quid iam rura querar totum suppressa per orbem,
Ac iussam servire famem? Quis castra timenti
Nescit mixta foro? gladii cum triste minantes
Iudicium insolita trepidum cinxere corona,
Atque auso medias perrumpere milite leges
Pompeiana reum clauserunt signa Milonem?
Nunc quoque ne lassum teneat privata senectus,
Bella nefanda parat, suetus civilibus armis,
Et docilis Sullam scelerum vicisse magistrum.
Utque ferae tigres numquam posuere furorem,
Quas nemore Hyrcano, matrum dum lustra sequuntur,
Altus caesorum pavit cruor armentorum;
Sic et Sullanum solito tibi lambere ferrum
Durat, Magne, sitis. Nullus semel ore receptus
Pollutas patitur sanguis mansuescere fauces.
Quem tamen inveniet tam longa potentia finem?
Quis scelerum modus est? Ex hoc te iam, improbe, regno
Ille tuus saltem doceat discedere Sulla.
Post Cilicasne vagos, et lassi Pontica regis
Proelia, barbarico vix consummata veneno,
Ultima Pompeio dabitur provincia Caesar,
Quod non, victrices aquilas deponere iussus,
Paruerim? Mihi si merces erepta laborum est,
His saltem longi, non cum duce, praemia belli
Reddantur: miles sub quolibet iste triumphet.
Conferet exsanguis quo se post bella senectus?
Quae sedes erit emeritis? quae rura dabuntur,
Quae noster veteranus aret? quae moenia fessis?
An melius fient piratae, Magne, coloni?
Tollite iampridem victricia, tollite signa:
Viribus utendum est, quas fecimus: arma tenenti
Omnia dat, qui iusta negat. Nec numina deerunt:
Nam nec praeda meis, neque regnum quaeritur armis:
Detrahimus dominos urbi servire paratae.
Dixerat: at dubium non claro murmure vulgus
Secum incerta fremit: pietas patriique penates
Quamquam caede feras mentes animosque tumentes
Frangunt; sed diro ferri revocantur amore
Ductorisque metu. Summi tunc munera pili
Laelius, emeritique gerens insignia doni,
Servati civis referentem praemia quercum:
Si licet, exclamat, Romani maxime rector
Nominis et ius est, veras expromere voces;
Quod tam lenta tuas tenuit patientia vires,
Conquerimur. Deeratne tibi fiducia nostri?
Dum movet haec calidus spirantia corpora sanguis,
Et dum pila valent fortes torquere lacerti,
Degenerem patiere togam, regnumque senatus?
Usque adeo miserum est, civili vincere bello?
Duc age per Scythiae populos, per inhospita Syrtis
Litora, per calidas Libyae sitientis arenas.
Haec manus, ut victum post terga relinqueret orbem,
Oceani tumidas remo compescuit undas:
Fregit et Arctoo spumantem vertice Rhenum.
Iussa sequi tam posse mihi, quam velle necesse est.
Nec civis meus est, in quem tua classica, Caesar,
Audiero. Per signa decem felicia castris,
Perque tuos iuro quocumque ex hoste triumphos;
Pectore si fratris gladium, iuguloque parentis
Condere me iubeas, plenaeque in viscera partu
Coniugis, invita peragam tamen omnia dextra;
Si spoliare deos, ignemque immittere templis,
Numina miscebit castrensis flamma Monetae;
Castra super Tusci si ponere Tybridis undas,
Hesperios audax veniam metator in agros.
Tu quoscumque voles in planum effundere muros,
His aries actus disperget saxa lacertis:
Illa licet, penitus tolli quam iusseris urbem,
Roma sit. His cunctae simul adsensere cohortes,
Elatasque alte, quaecumque ad bella vocaret,
Promisere manus. It tantus ad aethera clamor,
Quantus, piniferae Boreas cum Thracius Ossae
Rupibus incubuit, curvato robore pressae
Fit sonus, aut rursus redeuntis in aethera silvae.
Caesar ut acceptum tam prono milite bellum,
Fataque ferre videt, ne quo languore moretur
Fortunam, sparsas per Gallica rura cohortes
Evocat, et Romam motis petit undique signis.

[¶1] The tents are vacant by Lake Leman's side;
The camps upon the beetling crags of Vosges
No longer hold the warlike Lingon down,
Fierce in his painted arms; Isere is left,
Who past his shallows gliding, flows at last
Into the current of more famous Rhone,
To reach the ocean in another name.
The fair-haired people of Cevennes are free:
Soft Aude rejoicing bears no Roman keel,
Nor pleasant Var, since then Italia's bound;
The harbour sacred to Alcides' name
Where hollow crags encroach upon the sea,
Is left in freedom: there nor Zephyr gains
Nor Caurus access, but the Circian blast
Forbids the roadstead by Monaecus' hold.
Left is the doubtful shore, which the vast sea
And land alternate claim, whene'er the tide
Pours in amain or when the wave rolls back
Be it the wind which thus compels the deep
From furthest pole, and leaves it at the flood;
Or else the moon that makes the tide to swell,
Or else, in search of fuel for his fires,
The sun draws heavenward the ocean wave; -
Whatever the cause that may control the main
I leave to others; let the gods for me
Lock in their breasts the secrets of the world.
Those who keep watch beside the western shore
Have moved their standards home; the happy Gaul
Rejoices in their absence; fair Garonne
Through peaceful meads glides onward to the sea.
And where the river broadens, neath the cape
Her quiet harbour sleeps. No outstretched arm
Except in mimic war now hurls the lance.
No skilful warrior of Seine directs
The chariot scythed against his country's foe.
Now rest the Belgians, and th' Arvernian race
That boasts our kinship by descent from Troy;
And those brave rebels whose undaunted hands
Were dipped in Cotta's blood, and those who wear
Sarmatian garb. Batavia's warriors fierce
No longer listen for the trumpet's call,
Nor those who dwell where Rhone's swift eddies sweep
Saone to the ocean; nor the mountain tribes
Who dwell about its source. Thou, too, oh Treves,
Rejoicest that the war has left thy bounds.
Ligurian tribes, now shorn, in ancient days
First of the long-haired nations, on whose necks
Once flowed the auburn locks in pride supreme;
And those who pacify with blood accursed
Savage Teutates, Hesus' horrid shrines,
And Taranis' altars, cruel as were those
Loved by Diana, goddess of the north;
All these now rest in peace. And you, ye Bards,
Whose martial lays send down to distant times
The fame of valorous deeds in battle done,
Pour forth in safety more abundant song.
While you, ye Druids, when the war was done,
To mysteries strange and hateful rites returned:
To you alone 'tis given the heavenly gods
To know or not to know; secluded groves
Your dwelling-place, and forests far remote.
If what ye sing be true, the shades of men
Seek not the dismal homes of Erebus
Or death's pale kingdoms; but the breath of life
Still rules these bodies in another age-
Life on this hand and that, and death between.
Happy the peoples 'neath the Northern Star
In this their false belief; for them no fear
Of that which frights all others: they with hands
And hearts undaunted rush upon the foe
And scorn to spare the life that shall return.
Ye too depart who kept the banks of Rhine
Safe from the foe, and leave the Teuton tribes
Free at their will to march upon the world.
When strength increased gave hope of greater deeds
Caesar dispersed throughout Italia's bounds
His countless bands, and filled the neighbouring towns.
Then empty rumour to well-grounded fear
Gave strength, and heralding the coming war
In hundred voices 'midst the people spread.
One cries in terror, ' Swift the squadrons come
' Where Nar with Tiber joins: and where, in meads
'By oxen loved, Mevania spreads her walls,
'Fierce Caesar hurries his barbarian horse.
' With all his eagles and his standards joined
'He leads the throng that sweeps along the land.'
Nor as they knew him do they paint the chief,
But stronger than the truth, and pitiless
And fiercer far-as from his conquered foes
Advancing; in his rear the peoples march,
Snatched from their homes between the Rhine and Alps,
To sack the city while her sons look on.
Thus each man's panic thought swells rumour's lie:
They fear the phantoms they themselves create.
Nor did the terror seize the crowd alone:
But fled the Fathers, to the Consuls first
Issuing their hated order, as for war;
And doubting of the peril, doubting too
Where safety lay, through all the choking gates
In dense array they urged the people forth.
Thou wouldst believe that blazing to the torch
Were men's abodes, or nodding to their fall.
So streamed they onwards, frenzied with affright,
As though in exile only could they find
Hope for their country. So, when southern blasts
From Libyan whirlpools drive the boundless main,
And mast and sail crash down upon a ship
With ponderous weight, but still the frame is sound,
Her crew and captain leap into the sea,
Each making shipwreck for himself. 'Twas thus
They passed the city gates and fled to war.
No aged parent now could stay his son;
Nor wife her spouse, nor did they pray the gods
To grant the safety of their fatherland.
None linger on the threshold for a look
Of their loved city, though perchance the last.
Ye gods, who lavish priceless gifts on men,
Nor care to guard them given! thus was Rome
Teeming with conquered nations, whose vast walls
Had compassed all mankind, by coward hands
To coming Caesar left an easy prey.
The Roman soldier, when in foreign lands
Pressed by the enemy, in narrow trench
And hurried mound finds guard enough to make
His tented sleep secure: thou Rome alone
Upon the rumour of advancing war
Art left a desert, and thy battlements
Not trusted for a night. Yet for their fear
This one excuse was left; Pompeius fled.

> Latin: Deseruere cavo tentoria fixa Lemano,
Castraque, quae, Vogesi curvam super ardua rupem,
Pugnaces pictis cohibebant Lingonas armis.
Hi vada liquerunt Isarae, qui, gurgite ductus
Per tam multa suo, famae maioris in amnem
Lapsus, ad aequoreas nomen non pertulit undas.
Solvuntur flavi longa statione Rutheni:
Mitis Atax Latias gaudet non ferre carinas,
Finis et Hesperiae, promoto limite, Varus:
Quaque sub Herculeo sacratus numine portus
Urget rupe cava pelagus: non Corus in illum
Ius habet, aut Zephyrus: solus sua litora turbat
Circius, et tuta prohibet statione Monoeci.
Quaque iacet litus dubium, quod terra fretumque
Vindicat alternis vicibus, cum funditur ingens
Oceanus, vel cum refugis se fluctibus aufert.
Ventus ab extremo pelagus sic axe volutet,
Destituatque ferens; an sidere mota secundo
Tethyos unda vagae lunaribus aestuet horis;
Flammiger an Titan, ut alentes hauriat undas,
Erigat Oceanum, fluctusque ad sidera ducat,
Quaerite, quos agitat mundi labor: at mihi semper
Tu, quaecumque moves tam crebros causa meatus,
Ut superi voluere, late. Tunc rura Nemetis
Qui tenet, et ripas Aturi, qua litore curvo
Molliter admissum claudit Tarbellicus aequor,
Signa movet, gaudetque amoto Santonus hoste:
Et Biturix, longisque leves Suessones in armis:
Optimus excusso Leucus Rhemusque lacerto,
Optima gens flexis in gyrum Sequana frenis:
Et docilis rector rostrati Belga covini:
Arvernique ausi Latios se fingere fratres,
Sanguine ab Iliaco populi; nimiumque rebellis
Nervius, et caesi pollutus sanguine Cottae;
Et qui te laxis imitantur, Sarmata, braccis,
Vangiones: Batavique truces, quos aere recurvo
Stridentes acuere tubae: qua Cinga pererrat
Gurgite: qua Rhodanus raptum velocibus undis
In mare fert Ararim: qua montibus ardua summis
Gens habitat cana pendentes rupe Gebennas:
[Pictones immunes subigunt sua rura; nec ultra]
[Instabiles Turonas circumsita castra coercent.]
I[n nebulis, Meduana, tuis marcere perosus]
[Andus, iam placida Ligeris recreatur ab unda;]
[Inclyta Caesareis Genabos dissolvitur alis.]
Tu quoque laetatus converti proelia, Trevir:
Et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decors
Crinibus effusis toti praelate Comatae:
Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus,
Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae.
Vos quoque, qui fortes animas, belloque peremtas
Laudibus in longum vates dimittitis aevum,
Plurima securi fudistis carmina, Bardi.
Et vos barbaricos ritus moremque sinistrum
Sacrorum, Druidae, positis repetistis ab armis.
Solis nosse deos et coeli numina vobis,
Aut solis nescire datum. Nemora alta remotis
Incolitis lucis. Vobis auctoribus, umbrae
Non tacitas Erebi sedes Ditisque profundi
Pallida regna petunt: regit idem spiritus artus
Orbe alio: longae (canitis si cognita) vitae
Mors media est. Certe populi, quos despicit Arctos,
Felices errore suo, quos ille timorum
Maximus haud urget, leti metus. Inde ruendi
In ferrum mens prona viris, animaeque capaces
Mortis: et ignavum, rediturae parcere vitae.
Et vos, cirrigeros bellis arcere Caycos
Oppositi, petitis Romam, Rhenique feroces
Deseritis ripas, et apertum gentibus orbem.
Caesar, ut immensae collecto robore vires
Audendi maiora fidem fecere, per omnem
Spargitur Italiam, vicinaque moenia complet.
Vana quoque ad veros accessit fama timores,
Irrupitque animos populi, clademque futuram
Intulit, et velox properantis nuntia belli
Innumeras solvit falsa in praeconia linguas.
Est, qui, tauriferis ubi se Mevania campis
Explicat, audaces ruere in certamina turmas
Adferat, et, qua Nar Tiberino illabitur amni,
Barbaricas saevi discurrere Caesaris alas:
Ipsum, omnes aquilas collataque signa ferentem,
Agmine non uno densisque incedere castris.
Nec, qualem meminere, vident: maiorque ferusque
Mentibus occurrit, victoque immanior hoste.
Hunc inter Rhenum populos Alpesque iacentes,
Finibus Arctois patriaque a sede revulsos,
Pone sequi, iussamque feris a gentibus urbem,
Romano spectante, rapi. Sic quisque pavendo
Dat vires famae: nulloque auctore malorum,
Quae finxere timent. Nec solum vulgus inani
Perculsum terrore pavet: sed curia et ipsi
Sedibus exsiluere Patres, invisaque belli
Consulibus fugiens mandat decreta senatus.
Tunc quae tuta petant, et quae metuenda relinquant,
Incerti, quo quemque fugae tulit impetus, urgent
Praecipitem populum serieque haerentia longa
Agmina prorumpunt. Credas, aut tecta nefandas
Corripuisse faces, aut iam, quatiente ruina,
Nutantes pendere domos: sic turba per urbem
Praecipiti lymphata gradu, velut unica rebus
Spes foret adflictis, patrios excedere muros,
Inconsulta ruit. Qualis, cum turbidus Auster
Repulit a Libycis immensum Syrtibus aequor,
Fractaque veliferi sonuerunt pondera mali,
Desilit in fluctus, deserta puppe, magister
Navitaque, et, nondum sparsa compage carinae,
Naufragium sibi quisque facit: sic, urbe relicta,
In bellum fugitur. Nullum iam languidus aevo
Evaluit revocare parens, coniunxve maritum
Fletibus, aut patrii, dubiae dum vota salutis
Conciperent, tenuere Lares: nec limine quisquam
Haesit et extremo tunc forsitan urbis amatae
Plenus abit visu: ruit irrevocabile vulgus.
O faciles dare summa deos, eademque tueri
Difficiles! Urbem, populis victisque frequentem
Gentibus, et generis, coeat si turba, capacem
Humani, facilem venturo Caesare praedam
Ignavae liquere manus. Cum pressus ab hoste
Clauditur externis miles Romanus in oris,
Effugit exiguo nocturne pericula vallo,
Et subitus rapti munimine cespitis agger
Praebet securos intra tentoria somnos:
Tu tantum audito bellorum nomine, Roma,
Desereris; nox una tuis non credita muris.
Danda tamen venia est, tantorum danda pavorum:
Pompeio fugiente, timent. Tum ne qua futuri

[¶2] Nor found they room for hope; for nature gave
Unerring portents of worse ills to come.
The angry gods filled earth and air and sea
With frequent prodigies; in darkest nights
Strange constellations sparkled through the gloom:
The pole was all afire, and torches flew
Across the depths of heaven; with horrid hair
A blazing comet stretched from east to west
And threatened change to kingdoms. From the blue
Pale lightning flashed, and in the murky air
The fire took divers shapes; a lance afar
Would seem to quiver or a misty torch;
A noiseless thunderbolt from cloudless sky
Rushed down, and drawing fire in northern parts
Plunged on the summit of the Alban mount.
The stars that run their courses in the void
Of night, came forth at noontide, and the moon
Whose orb complete gave back her brother's rays,
Hid by the shade of earth, grew pale and wan.
The sun himself, when poised in mid career,
Shrouded his burning car in blackest gloom
And plunged the world in darkness, so that men
Despaired of day-like as he veiled his light
From that fell banquet which Mycenae saw.
The jaws of Etna were agape with flame
That rose not heavenwards, but headlong fell
In smoking stream upon th' Italian flank.
Then black Charybdis, from her boundless depth,
Threw up a gory sea. In piteous tones
Howled the wild dogs; the Vestal fire was snatched
From off the altar; and the flame that crowned
The Latin festival was split in twain,
As on the Theban pyre, in ancient days;
Earth tottered on its base: the mighty Alps
From off their summits shook th' eternal snow.
In huge upheaval Ocean raised his waves
O'er Calpe's rock and Atlas' hoary head.
The native gods shed tears, and holy sweat
Dropped from the idols; gifts in temples fell:
Foul birds defiled the day; beasts left the woods
And made their lair among the streets of Rome.
All this we hear; nay more: dumb oxen spake;
Monsters were brought to birth and mothers shrieked
At their own offspring; words of dire import
From Cumae's prophetess were noised abroad.
Bellona's priests with bleeding arms, and slaves
Of Cybele's worship, with ensanguined hair,
Howled chants of havoc and of woe to men.
Arms clashed; and sounding in the pathless woods
Were heard strange voices; spirits walked the earth:
And dead men's ashes muttered from the urn.
Those who live near the walls desert their homes,
For lo! with hissing serpents in her hair,
Waving in downward whirl a blazing pine,
A fiend patrols the town, like that which erst
At Thebes urged on Agave, or which hurled
Lycurgus' bolts, or that which as he came
From Hades seen, at haughty Juno's word,
Brought terror to the soul of Hercules.
Trumpets like those that summon armies forth
Were heard re-echoing in the silent night:
And from the earth arising Sulla's ghost
Sang gloomy oracles, and by Anio's wave
All fled the homesteads, frighted by the shade
Of Marius waking from his broken tomb.
In such dismay they summon, as of yore,
The Tuscan sages to the nation's aid.
Aruns, the eldest, leaving his abode
In desolate Luca, came, well versed in all
The lore of omens; knowing what may mean
The flight of hovering bird, the pulse that beats
In offered victims, and the levin bolt.
All monsters first, by most unnatural birth
Brought into being, in accursed flames
He bids consume. Then round the walls of Rome
Each trembling citizen in turn proceeds.
The priests, chief guardians of the public faith,
With holy sprinkling purge the open space
That borders on the wall; in sacred garb
Follows the lesser crowd: the Vestals come
By priestess led with laurel crown bedecked,
To whom alone is given the right to see
Minerva's effigy that came from Troy.
Next come the keepers of the sacred books
And fate's predictions; who from Almo's brook
Bring back Cybebe laved; the augur too
Taught to observe sinister flight of birds;
And those who serve the banquets to the gods;
And Titian brethren; and the priest of Mars,
Proud of the buckler that adorns his neck;
By him the Flamen, on his noble head
The cap of office. While they tread the path
That winds around the walls, the aged seer
Collects the thunderbolts that fell from heaven,
And lays them deep in earth, with muttered words
Naming the spot accursed. Next a steer,
Picked for his swelling neck and beauteous form,
He leads to the altar, and with slanting knife
Spreads on his brow the meal, and pours the wine.
The victim's struggles prove the gods averse;
But when the servers press upon his horns
He bends the knee and yields him to the blow.
No crimson torrent issues at the stroke,
But from the wound a dark empoisoned stream
Ebbs slowly downward. Aruns at the sight
Aghast, upon the entrails of the beast
Essayed to read the anger of the gods.
Their very colour terrified the seer;
Spotted they were and pale, with sable streaks
Of lukewarm gore bespread; the liver damp
With foul disease, and on the hostile part
The angry veins defiant; of the lungs
The fibre hid, and through the vital parts
The membrane small; the heart has ceased to throb;
Blood oozes through the ducts; the caul is split:
And, fatal omen of impending ill,
One lobe o'ergrows the other; of the twain
The one lies flat and sick, the other beats
And keeps the pulse in rapid strokes astir.
Disaster's near approach thus learned, he cries-
' Whatever may be the purpose of the gods,
' Tis not for me to tell; this offered beast
' Not Jove possesses, but the gods below.
' We dare not speak our fears, yet fear doth make
' The future worse than fact. May all the gods
' Prosper the tokens, and the sacrifice
' Be void of truth, and Tages (famous seer)
' Have vainly taught these mysteries.' Such his words
Involved, mysterious.

> Latin: Spes saltem trepidas mentes levet, addita fati
Peioris manifesta fides, superique minaces
Prodigiis terras implerunt, aethera, pontum.
Ignota obscurae viderunt sidera noctes,
Ardentemque polum flammis, coeloque volantes
Obliquas per inane faces, crinemque timendi
Sideris, et terris nutantem regna cometen.
Fulgura fallaci micuerunt crebra sereno,
Et varias ignis denso dedit aere formas:
Nunc iaculum longo, nunc sparso lumine lampas
Emicuit coelo. Tacitum sine nubibus ullis
Fulmen, et Arctois rapiens e partibus ignem,
Percussit Latiale caput: stellaeque minores
Per vacuum solitae noctis decurrere tempus,
In medium venere diem: cornuque coacto
Iam Phoebe toto fratrem cum redderet orbe,
Terrarum subita percussa expalluit umbra.
Ipse caput medio Titan cum ferret Olympo,
Condidit ardentes atra caligine currus,
Involvitque orbem tenebris, gentesque coegit
Desperare diem: qualem fugiente per ortus
Sole Thyesteae noctem duxere Mycenae.
Ora ferox Siculae laxavit Mulciber Aetnae;
Nec tulit in coelum flammas, sed vertice prono
Ignis in Hesperium cecidit latus. Atra Charybdis
Sanguineum fundo torsit mare. Flebile saevi
Latravere canes. Vestali raptus ab ara
Ignis; et ostendens confectas flamma Latinas
Scinditur in partes, geminoque cacumine surgit,
Thebanos imitata rogos. Tunc cardine tellus
Subsedit, veteremque, iugis nutantibus, Alpes
Discussere nivem. Tethys maioribus undis
Hesperiam Calpen, summumque implevit Atlanta.
Indigetes flevisse deos, urbisque laborem
Testatos sudore Lares, delapsaque templis
Dona suis, dirasque diem foedasse volucres
Accipimus; silvisque feras sub nocte relictis
Audaces media posuisse cubilia Roma.
tunc pecudum faciles humana ad murmura linguae,
Monstrosique hominum partus numeroque modoque
Membrorum, matremque suus conterruit infans:
Diraque per populum Cumanae carmina vatis
Vulgantur. Tunc, quos sectis Bellona lacertis
Saeva movet, cecinere deos: crinemque rotantes
Sanguineum populis ulularunt tristia Galli.
Compositis plenae gemuerunt ossibus urnae.
Tunc fragor armorum, magnaeque per avia voces
Auditae nemorum: et venientes comminus umbrae.
Quique colunt iunctos extremis moenibus agros,
Diffugiunt: ingens urbem cingebat Erinnys,
Excutiens pronam flagranti vertice pinum,
Stridentesque comas: Thebanam qualis Agaven
Impulit, aut saevi contorsit tela Lycurgi
Eumenis: aut qualem iussu Iunonis iniquae
Horruit Alcides, viso iam Dite, Megaeram.
Insonuere tubae, et quanto clamore cohortes
Miscentur, tantum nox atra silentibus umbris
Edidit. Et medio visi consurgere Campo
Tristia Sullani cecinere oracula manes:
Tollentemque caput gelidas Anienis ad undas
Agricolae fracto Marium fugere sepulchro.
Haec propter placuit Tuscos de more vetusto
Acciri vates. Quorum qui maximus aevo
Aruns incoluit desertae moenia Lucae,
Fulminis edoctus motus, venasque calentes
Fibrarum, et monitus volitantis in aere pennae,
Monstra iubet primum, nullo quae semine discors
Protulerat natura, rapi, sterilique nefandos
Ex utero fetus infaustis urere flammis.
Mox iubet et totam pavidis a civibus urbem
Ambiri, et festo purgantes moenia lustro,
Longa per extremos pomoeria cingere fines
Pontifices, sacri quibus est permissa potestas.
Turba minor ritu sequitur succincta Gabino,
Vestalemque chorum ducit vittata sacerdos,
Troianam soli cui fas vidisse Minervam.
Tunc qui fata deum secretaque carmina servant,
Et lotam parvo revocant Almone Cybellen:
Et doctus volucres augur servare sinistras:
Septemvirque epulis festis, Titiique sodales:
Et Salius, laeto portans ancilia collo:
Attollensque apicem generoso vertice Flamen.
Dumque illi effusam longis anfractibus urbem
Circueunt, Aruns dispersos fulminis ignes
Colligit, et terrae moesto cum murmure condit,
Datque locis nomen sacris. tunc admovet aris
Electa cervice marem. Iam fundere Bacchum
Ceperat, obliquoque molas inducere cultro:
Impatiensque diu non grati victima sacri,
Cornua succincti premerent cum torva ministri,
Deposito victum praebebat poplite collum.
Nec cruor emicuit solitus: sed vulnere largo
Diffusum rutilo nigrum pro sanguine virus.
Palluit attonitus sacris feralibus Aruns,
Atque iram superum raptis quaesivit in extis.
Terruit ipse color vatem: nam pallida taetris
Viscera tincta notis, gelidoque infecta cruore
Plurimus adsperso variabat sanguine livor.
Cernit tabe iecur madidum: venasque minaces
Hostili de parte videt. Pulmonis anheli
Fibra latet, parvusque secat vitalia limes.
Cor iacet: et saniem per hiantes viscera rimas
Emittunt: produntque suas omenta latebras.
Quodque (nefas) nullis impune apparuit extis,
Ecce, videt capiti fibrarum increscere molem
Alterius capitis: pars aegra et marcida pendet,
Pars micat et celeri venas movet improba pulsu.
His ubi concepit magnorum fata malorum,
Exclamat: Vix fas, superi, quaecumque monetis
Prodere me populis: neque enim tibi summe litavi
Iuppiter hoc sacrum: caesique in pectora tauri
Inferni venere dei. Non fanda timemus:
Sed venient maiora metu. Di visa secundent,
Et fibris sit nulla fides; sed conditor artis
Finxerit ista Tages. Flexa sic omina Tuscus
Involvens multaque tegens ambage canebat.

[¶3] Figulus, to whom
For knowledge of the secret depths of space
And laws harmonious that guide the stars
Memphis could find no peer, then spake at large:
' Either,' he said, ' the world and countless orbs
' Throughout the ages wander at their will;
' Or, if the fates control them, ruin huge
' Hangs o'er this city and o'er all mankind.
' Shall Earth yawn open and engulph the towns?
' Shall scorching heat usurp the temperate air
' And fields refuse their timely fruit? The streams
' Flow mixed with poison? In what plague, ye gods,
'In what destruction shall ye wreak your ire?
'Whate'er the truth, the days in which we live
' Shall find a doom for many. Had the star
' Of baleful Saturn, frigid in the height,
' Kindled his lurid fires, the sky had poured
'Its torrents forth as in Deucalion's time,
' And whelmed the world in waters. Or if thou,
' Phoebus, beside the Nemean lion fierce
' Wert driving now thy chariot, flames should seize
'The universe and set the air ablaze.
' These are at peace; but, Mars, why art thou bent
' On kindling thus the Scorpion, his tail
' Portending evil and his claws aflame?
' Deep sunk is kindly Jupiter, and dull
' Sweet Venus' star, and rapid Mercury
' Stays on his course: Mars only holds the sky.
'Why does Orion's sword too brightly shine?
' Why planets leave their paths and through the void
'Thus journey on obscure? Tis war that comes,
' Fierce rabid war: the sword shall bear the rule
' Confounding justice; hateful crime usurp
' The name of virtue; and the havoc spread
' Through many a year. But why entreat the gods?
' The end Rome longs for and the final peace
'Comes with a despot. Draw thou out thy chain
'Of lengthening slaughter, and (for such thy fate)
' Make good thy liberty through civil war.'
The frightened people heard, and as they heard
His words prophetic made them fear the more.
But worse remained; for as on Pindus' slopes
Possessed with fury from the Theban god
Speeds some Bacchante, thus in Roman streets
Behold a matron run, who, in her trance,
Relieves her bosom of the god within.
' Where dost thou snatch me, Paean, to what shore
'Through airy regions borne? I see the snows
'Of Thracian mountains; and Philippi's plains
'Lie broad beneath. But why these battle lines,
'No foe to vanquish-Rome on either hand?
'Again I wander 'neath the rosy hues
'That paint thine eastern skies, where regal Nile
'Meets with his flowing wave the rising tide.
'Known to mine eyes that mutilated trunk
' That lies upon the sand! Across the seas
'By changing whirlpools to the burning climes
'Of Libya borne, again I see the hosts
'From Thracia brought by fate's command. And now
'Thou bear'st me o'er the cloud-compelling Alps
'And Pyrenean summits; next to Rome.
'There in mid-Senate see the closing scene
'Of this foul war in foulest murder done.
'Again the factions rise; through all the world
Once more I pass; but give me some new land,
'Some other region, Phoebus, to behold
'Washed by the Pontic billows! for these eyes
'Already once have seen Philippi's plains! '
The frenzy left her and she speechless fell.

> Latin: At Figulus, cui cura deos secretaque coeli
Nosse fuit, quem non stellarum Aegyptia Memphis
Aequaret visu, numerisque moventibus astra,
Aut hic errat, ait, nulla cum lege per aevum
Mundus, et incerto discurrunt sidera motu:
Aut, si fata movent, Urbi generique paratur
Humano matura lues. Terraene dehiscent,
Subsidentque urbes? an tollet fervidus aer
Temperiem? segetes tellus infida negabit?
Omnis an infusis miscebitur unda venenis?
Quod cladis genus, o superi, qua peste paratis
Saevitiam? Extremi multorum tempus in unum
Convenere dies. Summo si frigida coelo
Stella nocens nigros Saturni accenderet ignes,
Deucalioneos fudisset Aquarius imbres,
Totaque diffuso latuisset in aequore tellus.
Si saevum radiis Nemeaeum, Phoebe, Leonem
Nunc premeres, toto fluerent incendia mundo,
Succensusque tuis flagrasset curribus aether.
Hi cessant ignes: tu, qui flagrante minacem
Scorpion incendis cauda, chelasque peruris,
Quid tantum, Gradive, paras? Nam mitis in alto
Iuppiter occasu premitur, Venerisque salubre
Sidus hebet, motuque celer Cyllenius haeret,
Et coelum Mars solus habet. Cur signa meatus
Deseruere suos, mundoque obscura feruntur:
Ensiferi nimium fulget latus Orionis?
Imminet armorum rabies: ferrique potestas
Confundet ius omne manu: scelerique nefando
Nomen erit virtus: multosque exibit in annos
Hic furor. Et superos quid prodest poscere finem?
Cum domino pax ista venit. Duc, Roma, malorum
Continuam seriem, clademque in tempora multa
Extrahe, civili tantum iam libera bello.
Terruerant satis haec pavidam praesagia plebem:
Sed maiora premunt. Nam qualis vertice Pindi
Edonis Ogygio decurrit plena Lyaeo:
Talis et attonitam rapitur matrona per urbem,
Vocibus his prodens urgentem pectora Phoebum:
Quo feror, o Paean? Qua me super aethera raptam
Constituis terra? Video Pangaea nivosis
Cana iugis, latoque Aemi sub rupe Philippos.
Quis furor hic, o Phoebe, doce: quo tela manusque
Romanae miscent acies, bellumque sine hoste est?
Quo diversa feror? Primos me ducis in ortus,
Qua mare Lagei mutatur gurgite Nili.
Hunc ego, fluminea deformis truncus arena
Qui iacet, agnosco: dubiam super aequora Syrtin
Arentemque feror Libyen, quo tristis Erinnys
Transtulit Emathias acies. Nunc desuper Alpis
Nubiferae colles, atque aeriam Pyrenen
Abripimur. Patriae sedes remeamus in urbis,
Impiaque in medio peraguntur bella senatu.
Consurgunt partes iterum, totumque per orbem
Rursus eo. Nova da mihi cernere litora Ponti,
Telluremque novam: vidi iam, Phoebe, Philippos.
Haec ait, et lasso iacuit defecta furore.