---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 20 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/20/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 20. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/20/"
---

# 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.

## 20. Book X · lines 1–331

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/20/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/20/#p-N

[¶0] WHEN Caesar, following those who bore the head,
First trod the shore accursed, with Egypt's fates
His fortunes battled, whether Rome should pass
In crimson conquest o'er the guilty land,
Or Memphis' arms should ravish from the world
Victor and vanquished: and the warning shade
Of Magnus saved his kinsman from the sword.
By that dread crime assured, his standards borne
Before, he marched upon the Pharian town;
But when the people, jealous of their laws,
Murmured against the fasces, Caesar knew
Their minds were adverse, and that not for him
Was Magnus' murder wrought. And yet with brow
Dissembling fear, intrepid, through the shrines
Of Egypt's gods he strode, and round the fane
Of ancient Isis; bearing witness all
To Macedon's vigour in the days of old.
Yet did nor gold nor ornament restrain
His hasting steps, nor worship of the gods,
Nor city ramparts: but in greed of gain
He sought the cave dug out amid the tombs.
The madman offspring there of Philip lies,
The famed Pellaean robber, Fortune's friend,
Snatched off by fate, in vengeance for the world.
In sacred sepulchre the hero's limbs,
Which should be scattered o'er the earth, repose,
Still spared by Fortune to these tyrant days:
For in a world to freedom once recalled,
All men had mocked the dust of him who set
The baneful lesson that so many lands
Can serve one master. Macedon he left
His home obscure; Athena he despised,
The conquest of his sire, and spurred by fate
Through Asia rushed with havoc of mankind,
Plunging his sword through peoples; red with blood
Unknown to them Euphrates, Ganges ran.
Curse of all earth, fell star of evil fate
To every nation! On the outer sea
He launched his fleet to sail the ocean wave:
Nor flame nor flood nor sterile Libyan sands
Stayed back his course, nor Hammon's pathless shoals;
Far to the west, where downward slopes the world
He would have led his armies, and the poles
Had compassed, and had drunk the fount of Nile:
But came his latest day; such end alone
Could nature place upon the madman king,
Who jealous in death as when he won the world
His empire with him took, nor left an heir.
Thus every city to the spoiler's hand
Was victim made. Yet in his fall was his
Babylon; and Parthia feared him. Shame on us
That Eastern nations dreaded more the lance
Of Macedon than now the Roman spear.
True that we rule beyond where takes its rise
The burning southern breeze, beyond the homes
Of western winds, and to the northern star;
But towards the rising of the sun, we yield
To him who kept the Arsacids in awe;
And puny Pella held as province sure
The Parthia fatal to our Roman arms.
Now from the stream Pelusian of the Nile,
Was come the boyish king, taming the rage
Of his effeminate people: pledge of peace;
And Caesar safely trod Pellean halls;
When Cleopatra bribed her guard to break
The harbour chains, and borne in little boat
Within the Macedonian palace gates,
Caesar unknowing, entered: Egypt's shame;
Fury of Latium; to the bane of Rome
Unchaste. For as the Spartan queen of yore
By fatal beauty Argos urged to strife
And Ilium's homes, so Cleopatra roused
Italia's frenzy. By her drum she called
Down on the Capitol terror (if to speak
Such word be lawful); mixed with Roman arms
Coward Canopus, hoping she might lead
A Pharian triumph, Caesar in her train;
And 'twas in doubt upon Leucadian waves
Whether a woman, not of Roman blood,
Should hold the world in awe. Such lofty thoughts
Seized on her soul upon that night in which
The wanton daughter of Pellean kings
First shared our leaders' couches. Who shall blame
Antonius for the madness of his love,
When Caesar's haughty breast drew in the flame?
Who red with carnage, 'mid the clash of arms,
In palace haunted by Pompeius' shade,
Gave place to love; and in adulterous bed,
Magnus forgotten, from the Queen impure,
To Julia gave a brother: on the bounds
Of furthest Libya permitting thus
His foe to gather: while in dalliance base
He waited on his mistress, and to her
Pharos would give; for her would conquer all.
Then Cleopatra, trusting to her charms,
Tearless approached him, though in form of grief;
Her tresses loose as though in sorrow torn,
So best becoming her; and thus began:
'If, mighty Caesar, aught to noble birth
' Be due, give ear. Of Lagian race am I
' Offspring illustrious; from my father's throne
'Cast forth to banishment; unless thy hand
'Restore to me the sceptre: then a Queen
' Falls at thy feet embracing. To our race
' Bright star of justice thou Nor first shall I
' As woman rule the cities of the Nile;
' For, neither sex preferring, Pharos bows
'To queenly governance. Of my parted sire
' Read the last words, by which 'tis mine to share
' With equal rights the kingdom and the bed.
'And the boy loves his sister, were he free;
' But his affections and his sword alike
' Pothinus orders. Nor wish I myself
' To wield my father's power; but this my prayer:
' Save from this foul disgrace our royal house,
' Bid that the king shall reign, and from the court
'Remove this hateful varlet, and his arms.
'How swells his bosom for that his the hand
'That shore Pompeius' head! And now he threats
Thee, Caesar, also; which the Fates avert!
Shame on the earth and thee that Magnus' death
Should be Pothinus' triumph or his guilt.'
Her words were nothing to his stubborn ear;
Her face achieved the prayer, her wanton smile,
The long voluptuous night of shame untold:
So did she bribe her judge; so Caesar fell.

> Latin: Ut primum terras, Pompeii colla secutus,
Adtigit, et diras calcavit Caesar arenas:
Pugnavit Fortuna ducis fatumque nocentis
Aegypti, regnum Lagi Romana sub arma
Iret, an eriperet mundo Memphiticus ensis
Victoria victique caput. Tua profuit umbra,
Magne, tui socerum rapuere a sanguine manes.
[Ne populus post te Nilum Romanus amaret.]
Inde Paraetoniam fertur securus in urbem
Pignore tam saevi sceleris, sua signa secutus.
Sed fremitu vulgi, fasces et iura querentis
Inferri Romana suis, discordia sensit
Pectora et ancipites animos, Magnumque perisse
Non sibi. Tum vultu semper celante timorem,
Intrepidus superum sedes et templa vetusti
Numinis, antiquas Macetum testantia vires,
Circuit: et, nulla captus dulcedine rerum,
Non auro cultuque deum, non moenibus urbis,
Effossum tumulis cupide descendit in antrum.
Illic Pellaei proles vesana Philippi,
Felix praedo, iacet, terrarum vindice fato
Raptus. Sacratis totum spargenda per orbem
Membra viri posuere adytis. Fortuna pepercit
Manibus, et regni duravit ad ultima fatum.
Nam sibi libertas umquam si redderet orbem,
Ludibrio servatus erat, non utile mundo
Editus exemplum, terras tot posse sub uno
Esse viro. Macetum fines latebrasque suorum
Deseruit, victasque patri despexit Athenas:
Perque Asiae populos fatis urgentibus actus
Humana cum strage ruit, gladiumque per omnes
Exegit gentes: ignotos miscuit amnes,
Persarum Euphraten, Indorum sanguine Gangen:
Terrarum fatale malum, fulmenque, quod omnes
Percuteret pariter populos, et sidus inicum
Gentibus. Oceano classes inferre parabat
Exteriore mari. Non illi flamma, nec undae,
Nec sterilis Libye, nec Syrticus obstitit Ammon.
Isset in occasus, mundi devexa secutus,
Ambissetque polos, Nilumque a fonte bibisset:
Occurrit suprema dies, naturaque solum
Hunc potuit finem vesano ponere regi;
Qui secum invidia, qua totum ceperat orbem,
Abstulit imperium; nulloque herede relicto
Totius fati, lacerandas praebuit urbes.
Sed cecidit, Babylone sua Parthoque verendus.
Pro pudor! Eoi propius timuere sarissas,
Quam nunc pila timent, populi. Licet usque sub Arcton
Regnemus, Zephyrique domos terrasque premamus
Flagrantis post terga Noti: cedemus in ortus
Arsacidum domino. Non felix Parthia Crassis
Exiguae secura fuit provincia Pellae.
Iam, Pelusiaco veniens a gurgite Nili,
Rex puer imbellis populi sedaverat iras;
Obside quo pacis Pellaea tutus in aula
Caesar erat: cum se parva Cleopatra biremi,
Corrupto custode Phari laxare catenas,
Intulit Emathiis, ignaro Caesare, tectis;
Dedecus Aegypti, Latii feralis Erinnys,
Romano non casta malo. Quantum impulit Argos
Iliacasque domos facie Spartana nocenti,
Hesperios auxit tantum Cleopatra furores.
Terruit illa suo, si fas, Capitolia sistro,
Et Romana petit imbelli signa Canopo,
Caesare captivo Pharios ductura triumphos:
Leucadioque fuit dubius sub gurgite casus,
An mundum ne nostra quidem matrona teneret.
Hoc animi nox illa dedit, quae prima cubili
Miscuit incestam ducibus Ptolemaida nostris.
Quis tibi vesani veniam non donet amoris,
Antoni, durum cum Caesaris hauserit ignes
Pectus, et in media rabie, medioque furore,
Et Pompeianis habitata manibus aula,
Sanguine Thessalicae cladis perfusus adulter
Admisit Venerem curis, et miscuit armis
Illicitosque toros, et non ex coniuge partus?
Pro pudor! oblitus Magni, tibi, Iulia, fratres
Obscena de matre dedit: partesque fugatas
Passus in extremis Libyae coalescere regnis,
Tempora Niliaco turpis dependit amori,
Dum donare Pharon, dum non sibi vincere mavult.
Quem, formae confisa suae, Cleopatra sine ullis
Tristis adit lacrimis, simulatum comta dolorem,
Qua decuit, veluti laceros dispersa capillos,
Et sic orsa loqui: Si qua est, o maxime Caesar,
Nobilitas, Pharii proles clarissima Lagi,
Exsul in aeternum, sceptris depulsa paternis,
Si tua restituat veteri me dextera fato,
Complector regina pedes. Tu gentibus aequum
Sidus ades nostris. Non urbes prima tenebo
Femina Niliacas: nullo discrimine sexus
Reginam scit ferre Pharos. Lege summa perempti
Verba patris, qui iura mihi communia regni
Et thalamos cum fratre dedit. Puer ille sororem,
Sit modo liber, amat: sed habet sub iure Pothini
Adfectus ensesque suos. Nil ipsa paterni
Iuris inire peto: culpa tantoque pudore
Solve domum: remove funesta satellitis arma,
Et regem regnare iube. Quantosne tumores
Mente gerit famulus, Magni cervice revulsa!
Iam tibi (sed procul hoc avertant fata) minatur.
Sat fuit indignum, Caesar, mundoque tibique,
Pompeiam facinus meritumque fuisse Pothini.
Nequidquam duras tentasset Caesaris aures:
Vultus adest precibus, faciesque incesta perorat.
Exigit infandam, corrupto iudice, noctem.

[¶1] When she had purchased at so vast a price
Peace from the chief, the joys of such a peace
A feast proclaimed. There in full pomp the Queen
Displayed her luxuries, as yet unknown
To Roman manners. Spacious rose the hall
Like to such fane as this corrupted age
Shall scarcely rear: the lofty ceiling shone
With richest tracery, the beams were bound
In golden coverings; no scant veneer
Lay on its walls, but built in solid blocks
Of marble, gleamed the palace. Agate stood
In sturdy columns, bearing up the roof;
Onyx and porphyry on the spacious floor
Were trodden 'neath the foot; the mighty gates
Of Maroe's ebony throughout were formed,
No mere adornment; ivory clothed the hall,
Studded with emerald spots; upon the doors
Gleamed polished tortoise shells from Indian seas:
And gems of price and yellow jasper shone
On couch and coverlet, whose greater part
Dipped more than once within the vats of Tyre
Had drunk their juice; and part were feathered gold;
Part crimson dyed, in manner as are passed
Through Pharian leash the threads. There waited slaves
In number as a people, some in ranks
By different blood distinguished, some by age;
This band with Libyan, that with auburn hair
Red so that Caesar on the banks of Rhine
None such had witnessed; some with features scorched
By torrid suns, their locks in twisted coils
Drawn from their foreheads. Eunuchs too were there,
Unhappy race; and on the other side
Men of full age whose cheeks with growth of hair
Were hardly darkened.
Upon either hand
Lay kings, and Caesar in the midst supreme.
There in her fatal beauty lay the Queen
Thick daubed with unguents, nor with throne content
Nor with her brother spouse; laden she lay
On neck and hair with all the Red Sea spoils,
And faint beneath the weight of gems and gold.
Her snowy breast shone through Sidonian lawn
Which woven close by shuttles of the East
The art of Nile had loosened. Ivory feet
Bore citron tables brought from woods that wave
On Atlas, such as Caesar never saw
When Juba was his captive. Blind in soul
By madness of ambition, thus to fire
By such profusion of her wealth, the mind
Of Caesar armed, her guest in civil war!
Not though he aimed with pitiless hand to grasp
The riches of a world; not though were here
Those ancient leaders of the simple age,
Fabricius or Curius stern of soul,
Or he who, Consul, left in sordid garb
His Tuscan plough, could all their several hopes
Have risen to such spoil. On plates of gold
They piled the banquet sought in earth and air
And from the deepest seas and Nilus' waves,
Through all the world; in craving for display,
No hunger urging. Frequent birds and beasts,
Egypt's high gods, they placed upon the board:
In crystal goblets water of the Nile
They handed, and in massive cups of price
Was poured the wine; no juice of Mareot grape,
But noble vintage of Falernian growth
Which seasons few in Meroe's famous vats
Had mellowed as with age. Upon their brows
Chaplets were placed of roses ever young
With glistening nard entwined; and in their locks
Was cinnamon infused, not yet in air
Its fragrance perished, nor in foreign climes;
And rich amomum from the neighbouring fields.
Thus Caesar learned the booty of a world
To lavish, and his breast was shamed of war
Waged with his son-in-law, from whose defeat
His spoils were meagre, and he longed to find
A cause of battle with the Pharian realm.
When of the banquet and of wine and feast
They wearied and their pleasure found an end,
Caesar drew out in colloquy the night
Thus with Achoreus, on the highest couch
With linen ephod as a priest begirt:
'O thou devoted to all sacred rites,
'Loved by the gods, as proves thy length of days,
'Tell, if thou wilt, whence sprang the Pharian race;
'How lie their lands, the manners of their tribes,
'The form and worship of their deities.
'Expound the sculptures on your ancient fanes:
'Reveal your gods if willing to be known:
'If to th' Athenian sage your fathers taught
'Their mysteries, who worthier than I
' To bear in trust the secrets of the world?
' True, by the rumour of my kinsman's flight
' Here was I drawn; yet also by your fame:
' And even in the midst of war's alarms
' The stars and heavenly spaces have I conned;
'Nor shall Eudoxus' year excel mine own.
' But though such ardour burns within my breast,
' Such zeal to know the truth, yet my chief wish
' To learn the source of your mysterious flood
' Through ages hidden: give me certain hope
' To see the fount of Nile-and civil war
' I quit for ever.' He spake, and then the priest:

> Latin: Pax ubi parta duci donisque ingentibus emta est,
Excepere epulae tantarum gaudia rerum:
Explicuitque suos magno Cleopatra tumultu
Nondum translatos Romana in saecula luxus.
Ipse locus templi, quod vix corruptior aetas
Exstruat, instar erat: laqueataque tecta ferebant
Divitias, crassumque trabes absconderat aurum.
Nec summis crustata domus sectisque nitebat
Marmoribus: stabatque sibi non segnis Achates
Purpureusque lapis; totaque effusus in aula
Calcabatur Onyx. Hebenus Meroetica vastos
Non operit postes, sed stat pro robore vili,
Auxilium, non forma, domus. Ebur atria vestit,
Et subfixa manu foribus testudinis Indae
Terga sedent, crebro maculas distincta smaragdo.
Fulget gemma toris, et iaspide fulva supellex:
Strata micant: Tyrio quorum pars maxima suco
Cocta diu, virus non uno duxit aheno;
Pars auro plumata nitet; pars ignea cocco,
Ut mos est Phariis miscendi licia telis.
Tum famulae numerus turbae, populusque minister;
Discolor hos sanguis, alios distinxerat aetas:
Haec Libycos, pars tam flavos gerit alter crines,
Ut nullis Caesar Rheni se dicat in arvis
Tam rutilas vidisse comas; pars sanguinis usti,
Torta caput, refugosque gerens a fronte capillos.
Nec non infelix ferro mollita iuventus
Atque exsecta virum. Stat contra fortior aetas,
Vix ulla fuscante tamen lanugine malas.
Discubuere illic reges, maiorque potestas
Caesar: et immodice formam fucata nocentem,
Nec sceptris contenta suis, nec fratre marito,
Plena maris rubri spoliis, colloque comisque
Divitias Cleopatra gerit, cultuque laborat.
Candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo,
Quod Nilotis acus compressum pectine Serum
Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina velo.
Dentibus hic niveis sectos Atlantide silva
Imposuere orbes; quales ad Caesaris ora
Nec capto venere Iuba. Pro! caecus et amens
Ambitione furor, civilia bella gerenti
Divitias aperire suas, incendere mentem
Hospitis armati. Non sit licet ille nefando
Marte paratus opes mundi quaesisse ruina:
Pone duces priscos et nomina pauperis aevi,
Fabricios Curiosque graves: hic ille recumbat
Sordidus Hetruscis abductus Consul aratris,
Optabit patriae talem duxisse triumphum.
Infudere epulas auro, quod terra, quod aer,
Quod pelagus Nilusque dedit, quod luxus inani
Ambitione furens toto quaesivit in orbe,
Non mandante fame. Multas volucresque ferasque
Aegypti posuere deos: manibusque ministrat
Niliacas crystallus aquas: gemmaeque capaces
Excepere merum, sed non Mareotidos uvae,
Nobile sed paucis senium cui contulit annis
Indomitum Meroe cogens spumare Falernum.
Accipiunt sertas nardo florente coronas,
Et numquam fugiente rosa: multumque madenti
Infudere comae, quod nondum evanuit aura
Cinnamon, externa nec perdidit aera terra:
Advectumque recens vicinae messis amomum.
Discit opes Caesar spoliati perdere mundi,
Et gessisse pudet genero cum paupere bellum,
Et caussas Martis Phariis cum gentibus optat.
Postquam epulis Bacchoque modum lassata voluptas
Imposuit, longis Caesar producere noctem
Inchoat adloquiis: summaque in sede iacentem
Linigerum placidis compellat Achorea dictis:
O sacris devote senex, quodque arguit aetas,
Non neglecte deis, Phariae primordia gentis,
Terrarumque situm, vulgique edissere mores,
Et ritus formasque deum: quodcumque vetustis
Insculptum est adytis, profer, noscique volentes
Prode deos. Si Cecropium sua sacra Platonem
Maiores docuere tui: quis dignior umquam
Hoc fuit auditu, mundique capacior hospes?
Fama quidem generi Pharias me duxit ad urbes,
Sed tamen et vestri. Media inter proelia semper
Stellarum coelique plagis superisque vacavi,
Nec meus Eudoxi vincetur Fastibus annus.
Sed cum tanta meo vivat sub pectore virtus,
Tantus amor veri, nihil est quod noscere malim,
Quam fluvii caussas per saecula tanta latentes,
Ignotumque caput. Spes sit mihi certa videndi
Niliacos fontes, bellum civile relinquam.
Finierat, contraque sacer sic orsus Achoreus:

[¶2] ' The secrets, Caesar, of our mighty sires
' Kept from the common people until now
' I hold it right to utter. Some may deem
' That silence on these wonders of the earth
' Were greater piety. But to the gods
' I hold it grateful that their handiwork
' And sacred edicts should be known to men.
' A different power by the primal law,
' Each star possesses: these alone control
' The movement of the sky, with adverse force
' Opposing: while the sun divides the year,
' And day from night, and by his potent rays
' Forbids the stars to pass their stated course.
' The moon by her alternate phases sets
' The varying limits of the sea and shore.
' Neath Saturn's sway the zone of ice and snow
' Has passed; while Mars in lightning's fitful flames
' And winds abounds: beneath high Jupiter
' Unvexed by storms abides a temperate air;
' And fruitful Venus' star contains the seeds
' Of all things. Ruler of the boundless deep
' The god Cyllenian: whene'er he holds
' That part of heaven where the Lion dwells
' With neighbouring Cancer joined, and Sirius star
' Flames in its fury; where the circular path
' (Which marks the changes of the varying year)
' Gives to hot Cancer and to Capricorn
' Their several stations, under which doth lie
' The fount of Nile, he, master of the waves,
' Strikes with his beam the waters. Forth the stream
' Brims from his fount, as Ocean when the moon
' Commands an increase; nor shall curb his flow
' Till night wins back her losses from the sun.
' Vain is the ancient faith that Ethiop snows
' Send Nile abundant forth upon the lands.
' Those mountains know nor northern wind nor star.
' Of this are proof the breezes of the South,
' Fraught with warm vapours, and the people's hue
' Burned dark by suns: and 'tis in time of spring,
' When first are thawed the snows, that ice-fed streams
' In swollen torrents tumble; but the Nile
' Nor lifts his wave before the Dog star burns;
' Nor seeks again his banks, until the sun
' In equal balance measures night and day.
' Nor are the laws that govern other streams
' Obeyed by Nile. For in the wintry year
'Were he in flood, when distant far the sun,
' His waters lacked their office; but he leaves
' His channel when the summer is at height,
' Tempering the torrid heat of Egypt's clime.
' Such is the task of Nile; thus in the world
' He finds his purpose, lest exceeding heat
' Consume the lands: and rising thus to meet
' Enkindled Lion, to Syene's prayers
' By Cancer burnt gives ear; nor curbs his wave
' Till the slant sun and Meroe's lengthening shades
' Proclaim the autumn. Who shall give the cause?
' 'Twas Parent Nature's self which gave command
' Thus for the needs of earth should flow the Nile.
' Vain too the fable that the western winds
' Control his current, in continuous course
' At stated seasons governing the air;
' Or hurrying from Occident to South
' Clouds without number which in misty folds
' Press on the waters; or by constant blast,
' Forcing his current back whose several mouths
' Burst on the sea;-so, forced by seas and wind,
'Men say, his billows pour upon the land.
' Some speak of hollow caverns, breathing holes
' Deep in the earth, within whose mighty jaws
' Waters in noiseless current underneath
' From northern cold to southern climes are drawn;
'And when hot Meroe pants beneath the sun,
' Then, say they, Ganges through the silent depths
' And Padus pass: and from a single fount
' The Nile arising not in single streams
' Pours all the rivers forth. And rumour says
' That when the sea which girdles in the world
' O'erflows, thence rushes Nile, by lengthy course,
' Softening his saltness. More, if it be true
' That ocean feeds the sun and heavenly fires,
' Then Phoebus journeying by the burning Crab
' Sucks from its waters more than air can hold
' Upon his passage-this the cool of night
' Pours on the Nile. If, Caesar, 'tis my part
' To judge such difference, 'twould seem that since
' Creation's age has passed, earth's veins by chance
' Some waters hold, and shaken cast them forth:
' But others took when first the globe was formed
' A sure abode; by Him who framed the world
' Fixed with the Universe. And, Roman, thou,
' In thirsting thus to know the source of Nile,
' Dost as the Pharian and Persian kings
' And those of Macedon; nor any age
' Refused the secret, but the place prevailed
' Remote by nature. Greatest of the kings
' By Memphis worshipped, Alexander grudged
' To Nile its mystery, and to furthest earth
' Sent chosen Ethiops whom the crimson zone
' Stayed in their further march, while flowed his stream
' Warm at their feet. Sesostris westward far
' Reached, to the ends of earth; and necks of kings
' Bent 'neath his chariot yoke: but of the springs
' Which fill your rivers, Rhone and Po, he drank,
'Not of the fount of Nile. Cambyses king
'In madman quest led forth his host to where
'The long-lived races dwell: then famine struck,
'Ate of his dead and, Nile unknown, returned.
No lying rumour of thy hidden source
'Has e'er made mention; wheresoe'er thou art
'Yet art thou sought, nor yet has nation claimed
'In pride of place thy river as its own.
' Yet shall I tell, so far as has the god,
' Who veils thy fountain, given me to know,
'Thy progress. Daring to upraise thy banks
''Gainst fiery Cancer's heat, thou tak'st thy rise
'Beneath the zenith: straight towards the north
'And mid Bootes flowing; to the couch
'Bending, or to the risings, of the sun
'In sinuous bends alternate; just alike
'To Araby's peoples and to Libyan sands.
'By Seres first beheld, yet know they not
Whence art thou come; and with no native stream
Strik'st thou the Ethiop fields. Nor knows the world
'To whom it owes thee. Nature ne'er revealed
'Thy secret origin, removed afar.
'Nor did she wish thee to be seen of men
' While still a tiny rivulet, but preferred
' Their wonder to their knowledge. Where the sun
' Stays at his limit, dost thou rise in flood
' Untimely; such thy right: to other lands
' Bearing thy winter: and by both the poles
' Thou only wanderest. Here men ask thy rise
' And there thine ending. Meroe rich in soil
'And tilled by swarthy husbandmen divides
'Thy broad expanse, rejoicing in the leaves
'Of groves of ebony, which though spreading far
'Their branching foliage, by no breadth of shade
'Soften the summer sun-whose rays direct
'Pass from the Lion to the fervid earth.
'Next dost thou journey onwards past the realm
'Of burning Phoebus, and the sterile sands,
'With equal volume; now with all thy strength
'Gathered in one, and now in devious streams
'Parting the bank that crumbles at thy touch.
'Then by our kingdom's gates, where Philae parts
'Arabian peoples from Egyptian fields
' The sluggish bosom of thy flood recalls
' Thy wandering currents, which through desert wastes
' Flow gently on to where the merchant track
' Divides the Red Sea waters from our own.
' Who, gazing, Nile, upon thy tranquil flow,
' Could picture how in wild array of foam
' (Where shelves the earth) thy billows shall be plunged
' Down the steep cataracts, in fuming wrath
' That rocks should bar the passage of thy stream
' Free from its source? For whirled on high the spray
' Aims at the stars, and trembles all the air
With rush of waters; and with sounding roar
The foaming mass down from the summit pours
In hoary waves victorious. Next an isle
In all our ancient lore "untrodden" named
Stems firm thy torrent; and the rocks we call
Springs of the river, for that here are marked
The earliest tokens of the coming flood.
With mountain shores now nature hems thee in
And shuts thy waves from Libya; in the midst
Hence do thy waters run, till Memphis first
Forbids the barrier placed upon thy stream
And gives thee access to the open fields.'

> Latin: Fas mihi, magnorum, Caesar, secreta parentum
Prodere, ad hoc aevi populis ignota profanis.
Sit pietas aliis, miracula tanta silere:
Ast ego coelicolis gratum reor, ire per omnes
Hoc opus, et sacras populis notescere leges.
Sideribus, quae sola fugam moderantur Olympi,
Occurruntque polo, diversa potentia prima
Mundi lege data est. Sol tempora dividit anni,
Mutat nocte diem, radiisque potentibus astra
Ire vetat, cursuque vagos statione moratur.
Luna suis vicibus Tethyn terrenaque miscet.
Frigida Saturno glacies et zona nivalis
Cessit. Habet ventos incertaque fulmina Mavors.
Sub Iove temperies et numquam turbidus aer.
At fecunda Venus cunctarum semina rerum
Possidet; immensae Cyllenius arbiter undae est.
Hunc ubi pars coeli tenuit, qua mixta Leonis
Sidera sunt Cancro, rapidos qua Sirius ignes
Exerit, et varii mutator circulus anni
Aegoceron Cancrumque tenet, cui subdita Nili
Ora latent: quae cum dominus percussit aquarum
Igne superiecto, tunc Nilus fonte soluto
Exit, ut Oceanus lunaribus incrementis
Iussus adest, auctusque suos non ante coarctat,
Quam nos aestivas a sole receperit horas.
Vana fides veterum, Nilo, quo crescat in arva,
Aethiopum prodesse nivis. Non Arctos in illis
Montibus, aut Boreas. Testis tibi sole perusti
Ipse color populi, calidique vaporibus Austri.
Adde, quod omne caput fluvii, quodcumque soluta
Praecipitat glaces, ingresso vere tumescit
Prima tabe nivis: Nilus neque suscitat undas
Ante Canis radios, nec ripis adligat amnem
Ante parem nocti, Libra sub iudice, Phoebum.
Inde etiam leges aliarum nescit aquarum:
Nec tumet hibernus, quum, longe sole remoto,
Officiis caret unda suis: dare iussus iniquo
Temperiem coelo, mediis aestatibus exit.
Sub torrente plaga, ne terras dissipet ignis,
Nilus adest mundo, contraque incensa Leonis
Ora tumet: Cancroque suam torrente Syenen,
Imploratus adest: nec campos liberat undis,
Donec in autumnum declinet Phoebus, et umbras
Extendat Meroe. Quis caussas reddere possit
Sic iussit natura parens decurrere Nilum:
Sic opus est mundo. - Zephyros quoque vana vetustas
His adscribit aquis, quorum stata tempora flatus
Continuique dies, et in aera longa potestas:
Vel quod ab occiduo pellunt tot nubila coelo
Trans Noton, et fluvio cogunt incumbere nimbos:
Vel quod aquas toties rumpentis litora Nili
Adsiduo feriunt, coguntque resistere fluctus
Ille mora cursus adversique obiice ponti
Aestuat in campos. - Sunt, qui spiramina terris
Esse putant, magnosque cavae compagis hiatus.
Commeat hac penitus tacitis discursibus unda,
Frigore ab Arctoo medium revocata sub axem,
Cum Phoebus pressit Meroen, tellusque perusta
Illuc duxit aquas. Trahitur Gangesque Padusque
Per tacitum mundi. Tunc omnia flumina Nilus
Uno fonte vomens non uno gurgite perfert.
Rumor, ab Oceano, qui terras adligat omnes,
Exundante procul violentum erumpere Nilum,
Aequoreosque sales longo mitescere tractu.
Nec non Oceano pasci Phoebumque polumque
Credimus: hunc, caldi tetigit cum brachia Cancri,
Sol rapit, atque undae plus, quam quod digerat aer,
Tolitur. Hoc noctes referunt, Niloque refundunt.
Ast ego, si tantam ius est mihi solvere litem,
Quasdam, Caesar, aquas post mundi sera peracti
Saecula, concussis terrarum erumpere venis,
Non id agente deo, quasdam compage sub ipsa
Cum toto coepisse reor, quas ille creator
Atque opifex rerum certo sub iure coercet.
Quae tibi noscendi Nilum, Romane, cupido,
Et Phariis Persisque fuit, Macetumque tyrannis:
Nullaque non aetas voluit conferre futuris
Notitiam: sed vincit adhuc natura latendi.
Summus Alexander regum, quos Memphis adorat,
Invidit Nilo, misitque per ultima terrae
Aethiopum lectos: illos rubicunda perusti
Zona poli tenuit; Nilum videre calentem.
Venit ad occasus mundique extrema Sesostris,
Et Pharios currus regum cervicibus egit:
Ante tamen, vestros amnes, Rhodanumque Padumque,
Quam Nilum, de fonte bibit. Vesanus in ortus
Cambyses longi populos pervenit ad aevi,
Defectusque epulis et pastus caede suorum,
Ignoto te, Nile, redit. Non fabula mendax
Ausa loqui de fonte tuo est. Ubicunque videris,
Quaereris: et nulli contingit gloria genti,
Ut Nilo sit laeta suo. Tua flumina prodam,
Qua deus, undarum colator, Nile, tuarum,
Te mihi isse dedit. Medio consurgis ab axe,
Ausus in ardentem ripas adtollere Cancrum:
In Borean is rectus aquis, mediumque Booten:
ursus in occasum flexu torquetur et ortus,
Nunc Arabum populis, Libycis nunc aequus arenis:
Teque vident primi, quaerunt tamen hi quoque, Seres,
Aethiopumque feris alieno gurgite campos:
Et te terrarum nescit cui debeat orbis.
Arcanum natura caput non prodidit ulli,
Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre,
Amovitque sinus, et gentes maluit ortus
Mirari, quam nosse, tuos. Consurgere in ipsis
Ius tibi solstitiis, aliena crescere bruma,
Atque hiemes adferre tuas: solique vagari
Concessum per utrosque polos. Hic quaeritur ortus,
Illic finis aquae. Late tibi gurgite rupto
Ambitur nigris Meroe fecunda colonis,
Laeta comis ebeni: quae, quamvis arbore multa
Frondeat, aestatem nulla sibi mitigat umbra:
Linea tam rectum mundi ferit illa Leonem.
Inde plagas Phoebi, damnum non passus aquarum,
Praeveheris, sterilesque diu metiris arenas,
Nunc omnes unum vires collectus in amnem,
Nunc vagus, et spargens facilem tibi cedere ripam.
Rursus multifidas revocat piger alveus undas,
Qua dirimunt Arabum populis Aegyptia rura
Regni claustra Philae. Mox te deserta secantem,
Qua dirimunt nostrum rubro commercia pontum,
Mollis lapsus agit. Quis te tam lene fluentem
Moturum tantas violenti gurgitis iras,
Nile, putet? Sed cum lapsus abrupta viarum
Excepere tuos, et praecipites cataractae,
Ac nusquam vetitis ullas obsistere cautes
Indignaris aquis: spuma tunc astra lacessis:
Cuncta fremunt undis: ac multo murmure montis
Spumeus invictis canescit fluctibus amnis.
Hinc, Abaton quam nostra vocat veneranda vetustas,
Terra potens, primos sentit percussa tumultus,
Et scopuli, placuit fluvii quos dicere venas,
Quod manifesta novi primum dant signa tumoris.
Hinc montes natura vagis circumdedit undis,
Qui Libyae te, Nile, negant: quos inter in alta
It convalle iacens iam molibus unda receptis.
Prima tibi campos permittit apertaque Memphis
Rura, modumque vetat crescendi ponere ripas.