---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 3 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/3/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 3. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/3/"
---

# 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.

## 3. Book II · lines 1–438

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/3/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/3/#p-N

[¶0] THUS was made plain the anger of the gods;
The world gave signs of war: Nature reversed
In monstrous tumult fraught with prodigies
Her laws, and prescient spake the coming guilt.
How seemed it just to thee, Olympus' king,
That suffering mortals at thy doom should know
By dreadful omens massacres to come?
Or did the primal parent of the world
When first the flames gave way and yielding left
Matter unformed to his subduing hand,
And realms unbalanced, fix by stern decree
Unalterable laws to bind the whole
(Himself, too, bound by law), so that for aye
All Nature moves within its fated bounds?
Or, is Chance sovereign over all, and we
The sport of Fortune and her turning wheel?
Whate'er be truth, keep thou the future veiled
From mortal vision, and amid their fears
May men still hope.
Thus known how great the woes
The world should suffer, from the truth divine,
A solemn fast was called, the courts were closed,
All men in private garb; no purple hem
Adorned the togas of the chiefs of Rome;
No plaints were uttered, and a voiceless grief
Lay deep in every bosom: as when death
Knocks at some door but enters not as yet,
Before the mother calls the name aloud
Or bids her grieving maidens beat the breast,
While still she marks the glazing eye, and soothes
The stiffening limbs and gazes on the face,
In dread, not sorrow yet, in wondering awe
Of death approaching: and with mind distraught
Clings to the dying in a last embrace.
The matrons laid aside their wonted garb:
Crowds filled the temples-on the unpitying stones
Some dashed their bosoms; others bathed with tears
The statues of the gods; some tore their hair
Upon the holy threshold, and with shrieks
And vows unceasing called upon the names
Of those whom mortals supplicate. Nor all
Lay in the Thunderer's fane: at every shrine
Some prayers were offered which refused would bring
Reproach on heaven. One whose livid arms
Were dark with blows, whose cheeks with tears bedewed,
Cried, 'Now, unhappy mothers, rend the lock,
Nor keep your sorrows till the battle day:
Now ye may weep: when either chieftain wins
Rejoice ye must.' Thus sorrow stirs itself.
Meanwhile the men in seeking either camp
And marching onward in the path to war,
Address the cruel gods in just complaint.
Happy the youths who born in Punic days
On Cannae's uplands or by Trebia's stream
Fought and were slain! What wretched lot is ours!
No peace we ask for: let the nations rage;
Rouse fiercest cities! may the world find arms
To wage a war with Rome: let Parthian hosts
Rush forth from Susa; Scythian Ister curb
' No more the Massagete: unconquered Rhine
' Let loose from furthest North her fair-haired tribes:
' Elbe, pour thy Suevians forth! Let us be foes
' Of all the peoples. May the Getan press
' Here, and the Dacian there; Pompeius meet
'The Eastern archers, Caesar in the West
' Confront th' Iberian. Leave to Rome no hand
' To raise against herself in civil strife.
' Or, if Italia by the gods be doomed,
' Let all the sky, fierce Parent, be dissolved
'And falling on the earth in flaming bolts,
' Their hands still bloodless, strike both leaders down,
' With both their hosts! Why plunge in novel crime
' To settle which of them shall rule in Rome?
' Scarce were it worth the price of civil war
' To hinder either.' Thus the patriot voice
Still found an utterance, soon to speak no more.
Meantime, the aged fathers o'er their fates
In anguish grieved, detesting life prolonged
That brought with it another civil war.

> Latin: Iamque irae patuere deum, manifestaque belli
Signa dedit mundus: legesque et foedera rerum
Praescia monstrifero vertit natura tumultu,
Indixitque nefas. Cur hanc tibi, rector Olympi,
Sollicitis visum mortalibus addere curam,
Noscant venturas ut dira per omina clades?
Sive parens rerum cum primum informia regna
Materiemque rudem flamma cedente recepit,
Finxit in aeternum caussas, qua cuncta coercet,
Se quoque lege tenens, et saecula iussa ferentem
Fatorum immoto divisit limite mundum:
Sive nihil positum est, sed Fors incerta vagatur,
Fertque refertque vices, et habet mortalia casus:
Sit subitum, quodcumque paras: sit caeca futuri
Mens hominum fati: liceat sperare timenti.
Ergo ubi concipiunt, quantis sit cladibus orbi
Constatura fides superum, ferale per urbem
Iustitium: latuit plebeio tectus amictu
Omnis honos: nullos comitata est purpura fasces.
Tunc questus tenuere suos, magnusque per omnes
Errabat sine voce dolor. Sic funere primo
Attonitae tacuere domus, cum corpora nondum
Conclamata iacent, nec mater crine soluto
Exigit ad saevos famularum brachia planctus:
Sed cum membra premit fugiente rigentia vita,
Vultusque exanimes, oculosque in morte natantes,
Necdum est ille dolor, sed iam metus: incubat amens,
Miraturque malum. Cultus matrona priores
Deposuit: moestaeque tenent delubra catervae.
Hae lacrimis sparsere deos, hae pectora duro
Adfixere solo, lacerasque in limine sacro
Attonitae fudere comas, votisque vocari
Adsuetas crebris feriunt ululatibus aures.
Nec cunctae summi templo iacuere Tonantis:
Divisere deos, et nullis defuit aris
Invidiam factura parens: quarum una madentes
Scissa genas, planctu liventes atra lacertos,
Nunc, ait, o miserae contundite pectora matres,
Nunc laniate comas, neve hunc differte dolorem,
Et summis servate malis: nunc flere potestas,
Dum pendet fortuna ducum: cum vicerit alter,
Gaudendum est. His se stimulis dolor ipse lacessit.
Nec non bella viri diversaque castra petentes
Effundunt iustas in numina saeva querelas:
O miserae sortis, quod non in Punica nati
Tempora, Cannarum fuimus Trebiaeque iuventus.
Non pacem petimus, superi: date gentibus iras:
Nunc urbes excite feras: coniuret in armis
Mundus: Achaemeniis decurrant Medica Susis
Agmina: Massageten Sythicus non adliget Ister:
Fundat ab extremo flavos Aquilone Suevos
Albis, et indomitum Rheni caput: omnibus hostes
Reddite nos populis: civile avertite bellum.
Hinc Dacus premat, inde Getes: occurrat Iberis
Alter, ad Eoas hic vertat signa pharetras:
Nulla vacet tibi, Roma, manus. Vel perdere nomen
Si placet Hesperium, superi, collapsus in ignem
Plurimus ad terram per fulmina decidat aether.
Saeve parens, utrasque simul partesque ducesque,
Dum nondum meruere, feri. Tantone novorum
Proventu scelerum quaerunt, uter imperet Urbi?
Vix tanti fuerat, civilia bella movere,
Ut neuter. Tales pietas peritura querelas
Egerit. At miseros angit sua cura parentes,
Oderuntque gravis vivacia fata senectae,
Servatosque iterum bellis civilibus annos.

[¶1] And thus spake one, to justify his fears:
' No other deeds the fates laid up in store
' When Marius, victor over Teuton hosts,
' Afric's high conqueror, cast out from Rome,
'Lay hid in marshy ooze, at thy behest,
' O Fortune! by the yielding soil concealed
' And waving rushes; but ere long the chains
' Of prison wore his weak and aged frame,
' And lengthened squalor: thus he paid for crime
' His punishment beforehand; doomed to die
' Consul in triumph over wasted Rome.
'Death oft refused him; and the very foe,
' In act of slaughter, shuddered in the stroke
' And dropped the weapon from his nerveless hand.
' For through the prison gloom a flame of light
' He saw; the deities of crime abhorred;
' The Marius to come. A voice proclaimed
' Mysterious, " Hold! the fates permit thee not
' " That neck to sever. Many a death he owes
' " To time's predestined laws ere his shall come;
' " Cease from thy madness. If ye seek revenge
' " For that he blotted out your Cimbrian tribes,
' " Let this man live, live out his fated days."
' Not as their darling did the gods protect
' The man of blood, but for his ruthless hand
' Fit to prepare that sacrifice of gore
' Which fate demanded. By the sea's despite
' Borne to our foes, Jugurtha's wasted realm
' He saw, now conquered; there in squalid huts
' Awhile he lay, and trod the hostile dust
' Of Carthage, and his ruin matched with hers:
' Each from the other's fate some solace drew,
' And prostrate, pardoned heaven. On Libyan soil
' Fresh fury gathering, next, when Fortune smiled
'The prisons he threw wide and freed the slaves.
' Forth rushed the murderous bands, their melted chains
' Forged into weapons for his ruffian needs.
' No charge he gave to mere recruits in guilt
' Who brought not to the camp some proof of crime.
' How dread that day when conquering Marius seized
' The city's ramparts! with what fated speed
' Death strode upon his victims! plebs alike
' And nobles perished; far and near the sword
' Struck at his pleasure, till the temple floors
'Ran wet with slaughter and the crimson stream
' Befouled with slippery gore the holy walls.
' No age found pity: men of failing years,
' Just tottering to the grave, were hurled to death;
' From infants, in their being's earliest dawn,
' The growing life was severed. For what crime?
'Twas cause enough for death that they could die.
' The fury grew: soon 'twas a sluggard's part
' To seek the guilty: hundreds died to swell
'The tale of victims. Shamed by empty hands,
' The bloodstained conqueror snatched a reeking head
' From neck unknown. One way of life remained,
' To kiss with shuddering lips the red right hand.
' Degenerate people! Had ye hearts of men,
' Though ye were threatened by a thousand swords,
' Far rather death than centuries of life
' Bought at such price; much more that breathing space
' Till Sulla comes again. But time would fail
' In weeping for the deaths of all who fell.
'Encircled by innumerable bands
' Fell Baebius, his limbs asunder torn,
' His vitals dragged abroad. Antonius too,
' Prophet of ill, whose hoary head was placed,
' Dripping with blood, upon the festal board.
' There headless fell the Crassi; mangled frames
'Neath Fimbria's falchion: and the prison cells
' Were wet with tribunes' blood. Hard by the fane
' Where dwells the goddess and the sacred fire,
' Fell aged Scaevola, though that gory hand
' Had spared him, but the feeble tide of blood
' Still left the flame alive upon the hearth.
' That selfsame year the seventh time restored
' The Consul's rods; that year to Marius brought
' The end of life, when he at Fortune's hands
' All ills had suffered; all her goods enjoyed.
' And what of those who at the Sacriport
' And Colline gate were slain, then, when the rule
' Of Earth and all her nations almost left
' This city for another, and the chiefs
' Who led the Samnite hoped that Rome might bleed
' More than at Caudium's Forks she bled of old?
' Then came great Sulla to avenge the dead,
' And all the blood still left within her frame
' Drew from the city; for the surgeon knife
' Which shore the cancerous limbs cut in too deep,
' And shed the life stream from still healthy veins.
' True that the guilty fell, but not before
' All else had perished. Hatred had free course
' And anger reigned unbridled by the law.
' The victor's voice spake once; but each man struck
' Just as he wished or willed. The fatal steel
' Urged by the servant laid the master low.
' Sons dripped with gore of sires; and brothers fought
' For the foul trophy of a father slain,
' Or slew each other for the price of blood.
' Men sought the tombs and, mingling with the dead,
' Hoped for escape; the wild beasts' dens were full.
' One strangled died; another from the height
' Fell headlong down upon the unpitying earth,
' And from the encrimsoned victor snatched his death:
' One built his funeral pyre and oped his veins,
' And scaled the furnace ere his blood was gone.
' Borne through the trembling town the leaders' heads
' Were piled in middle forum: hence men knew
' Of murders else unpublished. Not on gates
' Of Diomedes, tyrant king of Thrace,
' Nor of Antaeus, Libya's giant brood,
' Were hung such horrors; nor in Pisa's hall
'Were seen and wept for when the suitors died.
' Decay had touched the features of the slain
' When round the mouldering heap, with trembling steps
' The grief-struck parents sought and stole their dead.
' I, too, the body of my brother slain
' Thought to remove, my victim to the peace
' Which Sulla made, and place his loved remains
' On the forbidden pyre. The head I found,
' But not the butchered corse.
Why now renew
' The tale of Catulus's shade appeased?
' And those dread tortures which the living frame
' Of Marius suffered at the tomb of him
' Who haply wished them not? Pierced, mangled, torn-
' Nor speech nor grasp was left: his every limb
' Maimed, hacked and riven; yet the fatal blow
' The murderers with savage purpose spared.
''Twere scarce believed that one poor mortal frame
' Such agonies could bear ere death should come.
' Thus crushed beneath some ruin lie the dead;
' Thus shapeless from the deep are borne the drowned.
' Why spoil delight by mutilating thus,
' The head of Marius? To please Sulla's heart
' That mangled visage must be known to all.
' Fortune, high goddess of Praeneste's fane,
' Saw all her townsmen hurried to their deaths
' In one fell instant. All the hope of Rome,
' The flower of Latium, stained with blood the field
' Where once the peaceful tribes their votes declared.
' Famine and Sword, the raging sky and sea,
' And Earth upheaved, have laid such numbers low:
' But ne'er one man's revenge. Between the slain
' And living victims there was space no more,
' Death thus let slip, to deal the fatal blow.
' Hardly when struck they fell; the severed head
' Scarce toppled from the shoulders; but the slain
' Blent in a weighty pile of massacre
' Pressed out the life and helped the murderer's arm.
' Secure from stain upon his lofty throne,
' Unshuddering sat the author of the whole,
' Nor feared that at his word such thousands fell.
'At length the Tuscan flood received the dead
' The first upon his waves; the last on those
' That lay beneath them; vessels in their course
' Were stayed, and while the lower current flowed
' Yet to the sea, the upper stood on high
Dammed back by carnage. Through the streets meanwhile
' In headlong torrents ran a tide of blood,
' Which furrowing its path through town and field
'Forced the slow river on. But now his banks
' No longer held him, and the dead were thrown
' Back on the fields above. With labour huge
'At length he struggled to his goal and stretched
' In crimson streak across the Tuscan Sea.
' For deeds like these, shall Sulla now be styled
' " Darling of Fortune," " Saviour of the State "?
' For these, a tomb in middle field of Mars
' Record his fame? Like horrors now return
' For us to suffer; and the civil war
' Thus shall be waged again and thus shall end.
'Yet worse disasters may our fears suggest,
' For now with greater carnage of mankind
' The rival hosts in weightier battle meet.
' To exiled Marius, the prize of war
' Was Rome regained; triumphant Sulla knew
' No greater joy than on his hated foes
' To wreak his vengeance with unsparing sword.
'But these more powerful rivals Fortune calls
' To worse ambitions; nor would either chief
'For such reward as Sulla's wage the war.'
Thus, mindful of his youth, the aged man
Wept for the past, but feared the coming days.

> Latin: Atque aliquis, magno quaerens exempla timori,
Non alios, inquit, motus tunc fata parabant,
Cum post Teutonicos victor Libycosque triumphos
Exsul limosa Marius caput abdidit ulva.
Stagna udi texere soli laxaeque paludes
Depositum, Fortuna, tuum: mox vincula ferri
Exedere senem, longusque in carcere paedor.
Consul e eversa felix moriturus in Urbe
Poenas ante dabat scelerum. Mors ipsa refugit
Saepe virum, frustraque hosti concessa potestas
Sanguinis invisi: primo qui caedis in ictu
Diriguit, ferrumque manu torpente remisit.
Viderat immensum tenebroso in carcere lumen
Terribilesque deas scelerum, Mariumque futurum;
Audieratque pavens: Fas haec contingere non est
Colla tibi: debet multas hic legibus aevi,
Ante suam, mortes: vanum depone furorem.
Si libet ulcisci deletae funera gentis,
Hunc, Cimbri, servate senem. Non ille favore
Numinis, ingenti superum protectus ab ira,
Vir ferus, et Romam cupienti perdere fato
Suffciens. Idem pelago delatus iniquo
Hostilem in terram, vacuisque mapalibus actus,
Nuda triumphati iacuit per regna Iugurthae,
Et Poenos pressit cineres. Solatia fati
Carthago Mariusque tulit: pariterue iacentes
Ignovere deis. Libycas ibi colligit iras.
Ut primum fortuna redit, servilia solvit
Agmina: conflato saevas ergastula ferro
Exeruere manus. Nulli gestanda dabantur
Signa ducis, nisi qui scelerum iam fecerat usum,
Attuleratque in castra nefas. Pro fata! quis ille,
Quis fuit ille dies, Marius quo moenia victor
Corripuit! quantoque gradu mors saeva cucurrit!
Nobilitas cum plebe perit: lateque vagatur
Ensis, et a nullo revocatum est pectore ferrum.
Stat cruor in templis: multaque rubentia caede
Lubrica saxa madent. Nulli sua profuit aetas.
Non senis extremum piguit vergentibus annis
Praecipitasse diem: nec prima in limine vitae
Infantis miseri nascentia rumpere fata.
Crimine quo parvi caedem potuere mereri?
Sed satis est iam, posse mori. Trahit ipse furoris
Impetus: et, visum lenti, quaesisse nocentem.
In numerum pars magna perit: rapuitque cruentus
Victor ab ignota vultus cervice recisos,
Dum vacua pudet ire manu. Spes una salutis,
Oscula pollutae fixisse trementia dextrae.
Mille licet gladii mortis nova signa sequantur,
Degener o populus, vix saecula longa decorum
Sic meruisse viris, nedum breve dedecus aevi,
Et vitam, dum Sulla redit. Cui funera vulgi
Flere vacet? Vix te sparsum per viscera, Baebi,
Innumeras intercarpentis membra coronae
Discerpsisse manus: aut te, praesage malorum
Antoni, cuius laceris pendentia canis
Ora ferens miles festae rorantia mensae
Imposuit. Truncos laceravit Fimbria Crassos.
Saeva Tribunicio maduerunt robora tabo.
Te quoque neglectum violatae, Scaevola, dextrae
Ante ipsum penetrale deae semperque calentes
Mactavere focos: parvum sed fessa senectus
Sanguinis effudit iugulo, flammisque pepercit.
Septimus haec sequitur, repetitis fascibus, annus:
Ille fuit vitae Mario modus, omnia passo,
Quae peior fortuna potest, atque omnibus uso,
Quae melior: mensoque, homini quid fata pararent.
Iam, quot apud Sacri cecidere cadavera portum,
Aut Collina tulit stratas quot porta catervas,
Tunc cum paene caput mundi rerumque potestas
Mutavit translata locum, Romanaque Samnis
Ultra Caudinas speravit vulnera Furcas!
Sulla quoque immensis accessit cladibus ultor.
Ille quod exiguum restabat sanguinis Urbi
Hausit: dumque nimis iam putria membra recidit,
Excessit medicina modum, nimiumque secuta est,
Qua morbi duxere, manus. Periere nocentes;
Sed cum iam soli possent superesse nocentes.
Tum data libertas odiis, resolutaque legum
Frenis ira ruit. Non uni cuncta dabantur,
Sed fecit sibi quisque nefas. Semel omnia victor
Iusserat. Infandum domini per viscera ferrum
Exegit famulus: nati maduere paterno
Sanguine. Certatum est, cui cervix caesa parentis
Cederet: in fratrum ceciderunt praemia fratres.
Busta repleta fuga, permixtaque viva sepultis
Corpora: nec populum latebrae cepere ferarum.
Hic laqueo fauces elisaque guttura fregit:
Hic, se praecipiti iaculatus pondere, dura
Dissiluit percussus humo; mortesque cruento
Victori rapuere suas: hic robora busti
Exstruit ipse sui, necdum omni sanguine fuso
Desilit in flammas, et, dum licet, occupat ignes.
Colla ducum pilo trepidam gestata per Urbem,
Et medio congesta foro. Cognoscitur illic,
Quidquid ubique iacet scelerum. Non Thracia tantum
Vidit Bistonii stabulis pendere tyranni;
Postibus Antaei Libye: nec Graecia moerens
Tot laceros artus Pisaea flevit in aula.
Cum iam tabe fluunt, confusaque tempore multo
Amisere notas, miserorum dextra parentum
Colligit, et pavido subducit cognita furto.
Meque ipsum memini, caesi deformia fratris
Ora rogo cupidum vetitisque imponere flammis,
Omnia Sullanae lustrasse cadavera pacis,
Perque omnes truncos, cum qua cervice recisum
Conveniat, quaesisse caput. Quid sanguine manes
Placatos Catuli referam? cum victima tristes
Inferias Marius forsan nolentibus umbris
Pendit, inexpleto non fanda piacula busto:
Cum laceros artus, aequataque vulnera membris
Vidimus, et toto quamvis in corpore caeso
Nil animae letale datum, moremque nefandae
Dirum saevitiae, pereuntis parcere morti.
Avulsae cecidere manus, exsectaque lingua
Palpitat, et muto vacuum ferit aera motu.
Hic aures, alius spiramina naris aduncae
Amputat: ille cavis evolvit sedibus orbes,
Ultimaque effundit spectatis lumina membris.
Vix erit ulla fides, tam saevi criminis unum
Tot poenas cepisse caput. Sic mole ruinae
Fracta sub ingenti miscentur pondere membra:
Nec magis informes veniunt ad litora trunci,
Qui medio periere freto. Quid perdere fructum
Iuvit, et, ut vilem, Marii confundere vultum?
Ut scelus hoc Sullas caedesque ostensa placeret,
Agnoscendus erat. Vidit Fortuna colonos
Praenestina suos cunctos simul ense recisos,
Unius populum pereuntem tempore mortis.
Tunc flos Hesperiae, Latii iam sola iuventus,
Concidit, et miserae maculavit ovilia Romae.
Tot simul infesto iuvenes occumbere leto,
Saepe fames, pelagique furor, subitaeque ruinae,
Aut coeli terraeque lues, aut bellica clades
Numquam poena fuit. Densi vix agmina vulgi
Inter et exsangues, immissa morte, catervas
Victores movere manus. Vix caede peracta
Procumbunt, dubiaque labant cervice: sed illos
Magna premit strages: peraguntque cadavera partem
Caedis: viva graves elidunt corpora trunci.
Intrepidus tanti sedit securus ab alto
Spectator sceleris: miseri tot milia vulgi
Non piguit iussisse mori. Congesta recepit
Omnia Tyrrhenus Sullana cadavera gurges.
In fluvium primi cecidere, in corpora summi.
Praecipites haesere rates, et strage cruenta
Interruptus aquis fluxit prior amnis in aequor.
Ad molem stetit unda sequens, dum sanguinis alti
Vis sibi fecit iter, campumque effusa per omnem,
Praecipitique ruens Tiberina ad flumina rivo
Haerentes adiuvit aquas: nec iam alveus amnem,
Nec retinent ripae, redditque cadavera campo.
Tandem Tyrrhenas vix eluctatus in undas
Sanguine caeruleum torrenti dividit aequor.
Hisne Salus rerum, Felix his Sulla vocari,
His meruit tumulum medio sibi tollere Campo?
Haec rursus patienda manent: hoc ordine belli
Ibitur: hic stabit civilibus exitus armis.
Quamquam agitant graviora metus, multumque coitur
Humani generis maiore in praelia damno,
Exsulibus Mariis bellorum maxima merces
Roma recepta fuit: nec plus victoria Sullae
Praestitit, invisas penitus quam tollere partes.
Hos alio, Fortuna, vocas, olimque potentes
Concurrunt. Neuter civilia bella moveret,
Contentus, quo Sulla fuit. Sic moesta senectus
Praeteritique memor flebat, metuensque futuri.

[¶2] Such terrors found in haughty Brutus' breast
No home. When others sat them down to fear
He did not so, but in the dewy night
When the great wain was turning round the pole
He sought his kinsman Cato's humble home.
Him sleepless did he find, not for himself
Fearing, but pondering the fates of Rome,
And deep in public cares. And thus he spake:
'O thou in whom that virtue, which of yore
Took flight from earth, now finds its only home,
Outcast to all besides, but safe with thee:
Vouchsafe thy counsel to my wavering soul
And make my weakness strength. While Caesar some,
Pompeius others, follow in the fight,
Cato is Brutus' guide. Art thou for peace,
Holding thy footsteps in a tottering world
Unshaken? Or wilt thou with the leaders' crimes
And with the people's fury take thy part,
And by thy presence purge the war of guilt?
In impious battles men unsheath the sword;
But each by cause impelled: the household crime;
Laws feared in peace; want by the sword removed;
And credit, in the ruin of a world
Blending its ruin. Drawn by hope of gain,
And not by thirst for blood, they seek the camp.
Shall Cato for war's sake make war alone?
What profits it through all these wicked years
That thou hast lived untainted? This were all
Thy meed of virtue, that the wars which find
Guilt in all else, shall make thee guilty too.
' Ye gods, permit not that this fatal strife
Should stir those hands to action! When the clouds
Of flying javelins hiss upon the air,
Let not a dart be thine; nor spent in vain
Such virtue! All the fury of the war
' Shall launch itself on thee, for who, when faint
' And wounded, would not rush upon thy sword,
'Take thence his death, and make the murder thine?
'Do thou live on thy peaceful life apart
'As on their paths the stars unshaken roll.
'The lower air that verges on the earth
' Gives flame and fury to the levin bolt;
' The deeps below the world engulph the winds
' And tracts of flaming fire. By Jove's decree
'Olympus rears his summit o'er the clouds:
'In lowlier valleys storms and winds contend,
' But peace eternal reigns upon the heights.
'What joy for Caesar, if the tidings come
'That such a citizen has joined the war?
' Glad would he see thee e'en in Magnus' tents;
'For Cato's conduct shall approve his own.
'Pompeius, with the Consul in his ranks,
' And half the Senate and the other chiefs,
' Vexes my spirit; and should Cato too
' Bend to a master's yoke, in all the world
'The one man free is Caesar. But if thou
' For freedom and thy country's laws alone
'Be pleased to raise the sword, nor Magnus then
' Nor Caesar shall in Brutus find a foe.
' Not till the fight is fought shall Brutus strike,
'Then strike the victor.'
Brutus thus; but spake
Cato from inmost breast these sacred words:
'Chief in all wickedness is civil war,
' Yet virtue in the paths marked out by fate
'Treads on securely. Heaven's will be the crime
'To have made even Cato guilty. Who has strength
' To gaze unawed upon a toppling world?
'When stars and sky fall headlong, and when earth
'Slips from her base, who sits with folded hands?
'Shall unknown nations, touched by western strife,
' And monarchs born beneath another clime
' Brave the dividing seas to join the war?
' Shall Scythian tribes desert their distant north,
' And Getae haste to view the fall of Rome,
'And I look idly on? As some fond sire,
' Reft of his sons, compelled by grief, himself
' Marshals the long procession to the tomb,
' Thrusts his own hand within the funeral flames,
' Soothing his heart, and, as the lofty pyre
'Rises on high, applies the kindled torch:
' Nought, Rome, shall tear thee from me, till I hold
' Thy form in death embraced; and Freedom's name,
' Shade though it be, I'll follow to the grave.
' Yea! let the cruel gods exact in full
' Rome's expiation: of no drop of blood
' The war be robbed. I would that, to the gods
' Of heaven and hell devoted, this my life
' Might satisfy their vengeance. Decius fell,
' Crushed by the hostile ranks. When Cato falls
' Let Rhine's fierce barbarous hordes and both the hosts
'Thrust through my frame their darts! May I alone
' Receive in death the wounds of all the war!
'Thus may the people be redeemed, and thus
' Rome for her guilt pay the atonement due.
' Why should men die who wish to bear the yoke
' And shrink not from the tyranny to come?
'Strike me, and me alone, of laws and rights
'In vain the guardian: this vicarious life
' Shall give Hesperia peace and end her toils.
' Who then will reign shall find no need for war.
' You ask, Why follow Magnus? If he wins
' He too will claim the Empire of the world.
' Then let him, conquering with my service, learn
' Not for himself to conquer.' Thus he spoke
And stirred the blood that ran in Brutus' veins
Moving the youth to action in the war.

> Latin: At non magnanimi percussit pectora Bruti
Terror, et in tanta pavidi formidine motus
Pars populi lugentis erat: sed nocte sopora,
Parrhasis obliquos Helice cum verteret axes,
Atria cognati pulsat non ampla Catonis.
Invenit insomni volventem publica cura
Fata virum casusque Urbis, cunctisque timentem,
Securumque sui; farique his vocibus orsus:
Omnibus expulsae terris olimque fugatae
Virtutis iam sola fides, quam turbine nullo
Excutiet fortuna tibi; tu mente labantem
Dirige me, dubium certo tu robore firma:
Namque alii Magnum vel Caesaris arma sequantur:
Dux Bruto Cato solus erit. Pacemne tueris,
Inconcussa tenens dubio vestigia mundo?
An placuit, ducibus scelerum populique furentis
Cladibus immixtum, civile absolvere bellum?
Quemque suas rapiunt scelerata in proelia caussae:
Hos polluta domus, legesque in pace timendae;
Hos ferro fugienda fames, mundique ruinae
Permiscenda fides. Nullum furor egit in arma;
Castra petunt magna victi mercede: tibi uni
Per se bella placent? Quid tot durasse per annos
Profuit immunem corrupti moribus aevi?
Hoc solum longae pretium virtutis habebis:
Accipient alios, facient te bella nocentem.
Ne tantum, o superi, liceat feralibus armis,
Has etiam movisse manus: nec pila lacertis
Missa tuis caeca telorum in nube ferantur:
Nec tanta in casum virtus eat. Ingeret omnis
Se belli fortuna tibi. Quis nolet in isto
Ense mori, quamvis alieno vulnere labens,
Et scelus esse tuum? Melius tranquilla sine armis
Otia solus ages, sicut coelestia semper
Inconcussa suo volvuntur sidera lapsu.
Fulminibus propior terrae succenditur aer,
Imaque telluris ventos tractusque coruscos
Flammarum accipiunt: nubes excedit Olympus
Lege deum. Minimas rerum discordia turbat:
Pacem summa tenent. Quam laete Caesaris aures
Accipient, tantum venisse in proelia civem!
Nam praelata suis numquam diversa dolebit
Castra ducis Magni. Nimium placet ipse, Catoni
Si bellum civile placet. Pars magna senatus
Et duce privato gesturus proelia consul
Sollicitant, proceresque alii: quibus adde Catonem
Sub iuga Pompeii, tote iam liber in orbe
Solus Caesar erit. Quodsi pro legibus arma
Ferre iuvat patriis, libertatemque tueri:
Nunc neque Pompeii Brutum nec Caesaris hostem,
Post bellum victoris habes. Sic fatur. At illi
Arcano sacras reddit Cato pectore voces:
Summum, Brute, nefas civilia bella fatemur:
Sed quo fata trahunt, virtus secura sequetur.
Crimen erit superis, et me fecisse nocentem.
Sidera quis mundumque valet spectare cadentem,
Expers ipse metus? quis, cum ruat arduus aether,
Terra labet, mixto coeuntis pondere mundi,
Compressas tenuisse manus Gentesne furorem
Hesperium ignotae Romanaque bella sequentur,
Deductique fretis alio sub sidere reges;
Otia solus agam? Procul hunc arcete furorem,
O superi, motura Dahas ut clade Getasque,
Securo me, Roma cadat. Ceu morte parentem
Natorum orbatum, longum producere funus
Ad tumulum iubet ipse dolor: iuvat ignibus atris
Inseruisse manus, constructoque aggere busti
Ipsum atras tenuisse faces: non ante revellar,
Exanimem quam te complectar, Roma, tuumque
Nomen, libertas, et inanem prosequar umbram.
Sic eat: immites Romana piacula divi
Plena ferant: nullo fraudemus sanguine bellum.
O utinam coelique deis erebique liceret
Hoc caput in cunctas damnatum exponere poenas!
Devotum hostiles Decium pressere catervae:
Me geminae figant acies, me barbara telis
Rheni turba petat: cunctis ego pervius hastis
Excipiam medius totius vulnera belli.
Hic redimat sanguis populos: hac caede luatur,
Quidquid Romani meruerunt pendere mores.
Ad iuga cur faciles populi, cur saeva volentes
Regna pati pereunt? Me solum invadite ferro,
Me frustra leges et inania iura tuentem:
Hic dabit, hic pacem iugulus, finemque laborum
Gentibus Hesperiis: post me regnare volenti
Non opus est bello. Quin publica signa ducemque
Pompeium sequimur? Nec, si fortuna favebit,
Hunc quoque totius sibi ius promittere mundi
Non bene compertum est. Ideo me milite vincat,
Ne sibi se vicisse putet. Sic fatur, et acres
Irarum movit stimulos, iuvenisque calorem
Excitat in nimios belli civilis amores.

[¶3] Soon as the sun dispelled the chilly night,
The sounding doors flew wide, and from the tomb
Of dead Hortensius grieving Marcia came.
First joined in wedlock to a greater man
Three children did she bear to grace his home:
Then Cato to Hortensius gave the dame
To be a fruitful mother of his sons
And join their houses in a closer tie.
And now the last sad offices were done
She came with hair dishevelled, beaten breast,
And ashes on her brow, and features worn
With grief; thus only pleasing to the man.
' When youth was in me and maternal power
' I did thy bidding, Cato, and received
' A second husband: now in years grown old
' Ne'er to be parted I return to thee.
' Renew our former pledges undefiled:
' Give back the name of wife: upon my tomb
' Let " Marcia, spouse to Cato," be engraved.
' Nor let men question in the time to come,
' Didst thou compel, or did I willing leave
' My first espousals. Not in happy times,
' Partner of joys, I come; but days of care
' And labour shall be mine to share with thee.
' Nor leave me here, but take me to the camp,
' Thy fond companion: why should Magnus' wife
' Be nearer, Cato, to the wars than thine?'
Although the times were warlike and the fates
Called to the fray, he lent a willing ear.
Yet must they plight their faith in simple form
Of law; their witnesses the gods alone.
No festal wreath of flowers crowned the gate
Nor glittering fillet on each post entwined;
No flaming torch was there, nor ivory steps,
No couch with robes of broidered gold adorned;
No comely matron placed upon her brow
The bridal garland, or forbad the foot
To touch the threshold stone; no saffron veil
Concealed the timid blushes of the bride;
No jewelled belt confined her flowing robe
Nor modest circle bound her neck; no scarf
Hung lightly on the snowy shoulder's edge
Around the naked arm. Just as she came,
Wearing the garb of sorrow, while the wool
Covered the purple border of her robe,
Thus was she wedded. As she greets her sons
She greets her husband. Nor, in Sabine use
Did mournful Cato share the festal taunt:
Nor friend nor foe was bidden: silent both
They joined in marriage, yet content, unseen
By any save by Brutus. Sad and stern
On Cato's lineaments the marks of grief
Were still unsoftened, and the hoary hair
Hung o'er his reverend visage; for since first
Men flew to arms, his locks were left unkempt
To stream upon his brow, and on his chin
His beard untended grew. 'Twas his alone
Who hated not, nor loved, for all mankind
To mourn alike. Nor did their former couch
Again receive them, for his lofty soul
E'en lawful love resisted. 'Twas his rule
Inflexible, to keep the middle path
Marked out and bounded; to observe the laws
Of natural right; and for his country's sake
To risk his life, his all, as not for self
Brought into being, but for all the world:
Such was his creed. To him a sumptuous feast
Was hunger conquered, and the lowly hut,
Which scarce kept out the winter, was a home
Equal to palaces: a robe of price
Such hairy garments as were worn of old:
The end of marriage, offspring. To the State
Father alike and husband, right and law
He ever followed with unswerving step:
No thought of selfish pleasure turned the scale
In Cato's acts, or swayed his upright soul.
Meanwhile Pompeius led his trembling host
To fields Campanian, and held the walls
First founded by the chief of Trojan race.
These chose he for the central seat of war,
Some troops despatching who might meet the foe
Where shady Apennine lifts up the ridge
Of mid Italia; nearest to the sky
Upsoaring, with the seas on either hand,
The upper and the lower. Pisa's sands
Breaking the margin of the Tuscan deep,
Here bound his mountains: there Ancona's towers
Laved by Dalmatian waves. Rivers immense,
In his recesses born, pass on their course,
To either sea diverging. To the left
Metaurus and Crustumium's torrent fall
And Sena's streams and Aufidus who bursts
On Adrian billows; and that mighty flood
Which, more than all the rivers of the earth,
Sweeps down the soil and tears the woods away
And drains Hesperia's springs. In fabled lore
His banks were first by poplar shade enclosed:
And when by Phaethon the waning day
Was drawn in path transverse, and all the heaven
Blazed with his car aflame, and from the depths
Of inmost earth were rapt all other floods,
Padus still rolled in pride of stream along.
Nile were no larger, but that o'er the sand
Of level Egypt he spreads out his waves;
Nor Ister, if he sought the Scythian main
Unhelped upon his journey through the world
By tributary waters not his own.
But on the right hand Tiber has his source,
Deep-flowing Rutuba, Vulturnus swift,
And Sarnus breathing vapours of the night
Rise there, and Liris with Vestinian wave
Still gliding through Marica's shady grove,
And Siler flowing through Salernian meads:
And Macra's swift unnavigable stream
Near Luna rests in Ocean. On the Alps
Whose spurs strike plainwards, and on fields of Gaul
The cloudy heights of Apennine look down
In further distance: on his nearer slopes
The Sabine turns the ploughshare; Umbrian kine
And Marsian fatten; with his pineclad rocks
He girds the tribes of Latium, nor leaves
Hesperia's soil until the waves that beat
On Scylla's cave compel. His southern spurs
Extend to Juno's temple, and of old
Stretched further than Italia, till the main
O'erstepped his limits and the lands repelled.
But, when the seas were joined, Pelorus claimed
His latest summits for Sicilia's isle.

> Latin: Interea, Phoebo gelidas pellente tenebras,
Pulsatae sonuere fores: quas sancta relicto
Hortensi moerens irrupit Marcia busto:
Quondam virgo toris melioris iuncta mariti:
Mox, ubi, connubii pretium mercesque, soluta est
Tertia iam soboles, alios fecunda penates
Impletura datur, geminas ex sanguine matris
Permixtura domos. Sed postquam condidit urna
Supremos cineres, miserando concita vultu,
Effusas laniata comas, concussaque pectus
Verberibus crebris, cineresque ingesta sepulcri,
Non aliter placitura viro, sic moesta profatur:
Dum sanguis inerat, dum vis materna, peregi
Iussa, Cato, et geminos excepi foeta maritos.
Visceribus lassis, partuque exhausta, revertor
Iam nulli tradenda viro. Da foedera prisci
Illibata tori: da tantum nomen inane
Connubii: liceat tumulo scripsisse, CATONIS
MARCIA; nec dubium longo quaeratur in aevo,
Mutarim primas expulsa, an tradita, taedas.
Non me laetorum comitem rebusque secundis
Accipis: in curas venio partemque laborum.
Da mihi castra sequi. Cur tuta in pace relinquar,
Et sit civili propior Cornelia bello?
Hae flexere virum voces, et, tempora quanquam
Sint aliena toris, iam fato in bella vocante,
Foedera sola tamen, vanaque carentia pompa
Iura placent, sacrisque deos admittere testes.
Festa coronato non pendent limine serta;
Infulaque in geminos discurrit candida postes,
Legitimaeque faces, gradibusque adclivis eburnis
Stat torus, et picto vestes discriminat auro:
Turritaque premens frontem matrona corona
Translata vetuit contingere limina planta.
Non, timidum nuptae leviter tectura pudorem,
Lutea demissos velarunt flammea vultus:
Balteus haud fluxos gemmis adstrinxit amictus,
Colla monile decens, humerisque haerentia primis
Suppara nudatos cingunt angusta lacertos.
Sic, ut erat, moesti servat lugubria cultus,
Quoque modo natos, hoc est amplexa maritum.
Obsita funerea celatur purpura lana;
Non soliti lusere sales: nec more Sabino
Excepit tristis convicia festa maritus.
Pignora nulla domus, nulli coiere propinqui.
Iunguntur taciti, contentique auspice Bruto.
Ille nec horrificam sancto dimovit ab ore
Caesariem, duroque admisit gaudia vultu. -
Ut primum tolli feralia viderat arma,
Intonsos rigidam in frontem descendere canos
Passus erat, moestamque genis increscere barbam.
Uni quippe vacat studiisque odiisque carenti,
Humanum lugere genus. - Nec foedera prisci
Sunt tentata tori: iusto quoque robur amori
Restitit. Hi mores, haec duri immota Catonis
Secta fuit: servare modum, finemque tenere,
Naturamque sequi, patriaeque impendere vitam;
Nec sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo.
Huic epulae, vicisse famem: magnique penates,
Submovisse hiemem tecto: pretiosaque vestis,
Hirtam membra super Romani more Quiritis
Induxisse togam: Venerisque huic maximus usus,
Progenies; Urbi pater est, Urbique maritus:
Iustitiae cultor, rigidi servator honesti:
In commune bonus: nullosque Catonis in actus
Subrepsit partemque tulit sibi nata voluptas.
Interea trepido discedens agmine Magnus
Moenia Dardanii tenuit Campana coloni.
Haec placuit belli sedes, hinc summa moventi
Hostis in occursum sparsas extendere partes,
Umbrosis mediam qua collibus Apenninus
Erigit Italiam, nullo qua vertice tellus
Altius intumuit, propiusve accessit Olympo.
Mons inter geminas medius se porrigit undas
Inferni superique maris: collesque coercent
Hinc Tyrrhena vado frangentes aequora Pisae,
Illinc Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon.
Fontibus hic vastis immensos concipit amnes,
Fluminaque in gemini spargit divortia ponti.
In laevum cecidere latus veloxque Metaurus,
Crustumiumque rapax, et iunctus Sapis Isauro,
Senaque, et Adriacas qui verberat Aufidus undas:
Quoque magis nullum tellus se solvit in amnem,
Eridanus fractas devolvit in aequora silvas
Hesperiamque exhaurit aquis. Hunc fabula primum
Populea fluvium ripas umbrasse corona:
Cumque, diem pronum transverso limite ducens,
Succendit Phaethon flagrantibus aethera loris,
Gurgitibus raptis penitus tellure perusta,
Hunc habuisse pares Phoebeis ignibus undas.
Non minor hic Nilo, si non per plana iacentis
Aegypti Libycas Nilus stagnaret arenas.
Nec minor hic Istro, nisi quod, dum permeat orbem
Ister, casuros in quaelibet aequora fontes
Accipit, et Scythicas exit non solus in undas.
Dexteriora petens montis declivia Tibrim
Unda facit, Rutubamque cavum. Delabitur inde
Vulturnusque celer, nocturnaeque editor aurae
Sarnus, et umbrosae Liris per regna Maricae
Vestinis impulsus aquis, radensque Salerni
Culta Siler, nullasque vado qui Macra moratus
Alnos, vicinae percurrit in aequora Lunae.
Longior educto qua surgit in aera dorso,
Gallica rura videt, devexasque aspicit Alpes.
Tunc Umbris Marsisque ferax, domitusque Sabelle
Vomere, piniferis amplexus rupibus omnes
Indigenas Latii populos, non deserit ante
Hesperiam, quam cum Scyllaeis clauditur undis,
Extenditque suas in templa Lacinia rupes;
Longior Italia, donec confinia pontus
Solveret incumbens, terrasque repelleret aequor.
At postquam gemino tellus elisa profundo est,
Extremi colles Siculo cessere Peloro.