---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 4 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/4/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 4. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/4/"
---

# 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.

## 4. Book II · lines 439–736

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/4/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/4/#p-N

[¶0] Caesar, in rage for war, rejoicing finds
Foes in Italia; no bloodless steps
Nor vacant homes had pleased him; so his march
Were wasted: now the coming war was joined
Unbroken to the past; to force the gates,
Not find them open, fire and sword to bring
Upon the harvests, not through fields unharmed
To pass his legions-this was Caesar's joy;
In peaceful guise to march, this was his shame.
Italia's cities, doubtful in their choice,
Though to the earliest onset of the war
About to yield, strengthen their walls with mounds
And deepest trench encircling: massive stones
And bolts of war to hurl upon the foe
They place upon the turrets. Magnus most
The people's favour held, yet faith with fear
Fought in their breasts. As when, with strident blast,
A southern tempest has possessed the main
And all the billows follow in its track:
Then, by the Storm-king smitten, should the earth
Set Eurus free upon the swollen deep,
It shall not yield to him, though cloud and sky
Confess his strength; but in the former wind
Still find its master. But their fears prevailed,
And Caesar's fortune, o'er their wavering faith.
For Libo fled Etruria; Umbria lost
Her freedom, driving Thermus from her bounds;
Great Sulla's son, unworthy of his sire,
Feared at the name of Caesar: Varus sought
The caves and woods, when smote the hostile horse
The gates of Auximon; and Spinther driven
From Asculum, the victor on his track,
Fled with his standards, soldierless; and thou,
Scipio, didst leave Nuceria's citadel
Deserted, though by bravest legions held
Sent home by Caesar for the Parthian war;
Whom Magnus earlier, to his kinsman gave
A loan of Roman blood, to fight the Gaul.
But brave Domitius held firm his post
Behind Corfinium's ramparts; his the troops
Who newly levied kept the judgment hall
At Milo's trial. When from far the plain
Rolled up a dusty cloud, beneath whose veil
The sheen of armour glistening in the sun,
Revealed a marching host. ' Dash down,' he cried,
Swift as ye can, the bridge that spans the stream;
And thou, O river, from thy mountain source
With all thy torrents rushing, planks and beams
Ruined and broken on thy foaming breast
Bear onward to the sea. The war shall pause
Here, at these bounds: here shall this headlong chief
Await in idleness our victory.'
He bade his squadrons, speeding from the walls,
Charge on the bridge: in vain: for Caesar saw
They sought to free the river from his chains
And bar his march; and roused to ire, he cried:
Were not the walls sufficient to protect
Your coward souls? Seek ye by barricades
And streams to keep me back? What though the flood
Of swollen Ganges were across my path?
Now Rubicon is passed, no stream on earth
Shall hinder Caesar! Forward, horse and foot,
And ere it totters rush upon the bridge.'
Urged in their swiftest gallop to the front
Dashed the light horse across the sounding plain;
And suddenly, as storm in summer, flew
A cloud of javelins forth, by sinewy arms
Hurled at the foe; the guard is put to flight,
And conquering Caesar, seizing on the bridge,
Compels the enemy to keep the walls.
Now do the mighty engines, soon to hurl
Gigantic stones, press forward, and the ram
Creeps 'neath the ramparts; when the gates fly back,
And lo! the traitor troops (foul crime in war)
Yield up their leader. Him they place before
His proud compatriot; yet with upright form,
And scornful features and with noble mien,
He asks his death. But Caesar knew his wish
Was punishment, and pardon was his fear:
Live though thou wouldst not,' so the chieftain spake,
And by my gift, unwilling, see the day:
Be to my conquered foes the cause of hope,
Proof of my clemency-or if thou wilt
Take arms again-and should'st thou conquer, count
This pardon nothing.' Thus he spake, and bade
Let loose the bands and set the captive free.
Ah! better had he died, and fortune spared
The Roman's last dishonour, whose worse doom
It is, that he who joined his country's camp
And fought with Magnus for the Senate's cause
Should gain for this-a pardon! Yet he curbed
His anger, thinking, ' Wilt thou then to Rome
' And peaceful scenes, degenerate? Rather war,
The furious battle and the certain end!
Break with life's ties: be Caesar's gift in vain.'

> Latin: Caesar, in arma furens, nulla, nisi sanguine fuso,
Gaudet habere vias, quod non terat hoste vacantes
Hesperiae fines, vacuosque irrumpat in agros,
Atque ipsum non perdat iter, consertaque bellis
Bella gerat. Non tam portas intrare patentes,
Quam fregisse, iuvat: nec tam patiente colono
Arva premi, quam si ferro populetur et igni.
Concessa pudet ire via, civemque videri.
Tunc urbes Latii dubiae, varioque favore
Ancipites, quamquam primo terrore ruentis
Cessurae belli, denso tamen aggere firmant
Moenia, et abrupto circumdant undique vallo:
Saxorumque orbes, et quae super eminus hostem
Tela petant, altis murorum turribus aptant.
Pronior in Magnum populus, pugnatque minaci
Cum terrore fides: ut, cum mare possidet Auster
Flatibus horrisonis, hunc aequora tota sequuntur:
Si rursus tellus, pulsu laxata tridentis
Aeolii, tumidis immittat fluctibus Eurum,
Quamvis icta novo, ventum tenuere priorem
Aequora, nubiferoque polus cum cesserit Euro,
Vindicat unda Notum. Facilis sed vertere mentes
Terror erat, dubiamque fidem fortuna ferebat.
Gens Hetrusca fuga trepidi nudata Libonis,
Iusque sui pulso iam perdidit Umbria Thermo.
Nec gerit auspiciis civilia bella paternis
Caesaris audito conversus nomine Sulla.
Varus, ut admotae pulsarunt Auximon alae,
Per diversa ruens neglecto moenia tergo,
Qua silvae, qua saxa, fugit. Depellitur arce
Lentulus Asculea. Victor cedentibus instat,
Divertitque acies: solusque ex agmine tanto
Dux fugit, et nullas ducentia signa cohortes.
Tu quoque commissae nudatam deseris arcem,
Scipio, Nuceriae: quamquam firmissima pubes
His sedeat castris, iampridem Caesaris armis
Parthorum seducta metu: qua Gallica damna
Supplevit Magnus, dumque ipse ad bella vocaret,
Donavit socero Romani sanguinis usum.
At te Corfini validis circumdata muris
Tecta tenent, pugnax Domiti: tua classica servat
Oppositus quondam polluto tiro Miloni.
Ut procul immensam campo consurgere nubem,
Ardentesque acies percussis sole corusco
Conspexit telis, Socii, decurrite, dixit,
fluminis ad ripas, undaeque immergite pontem:
Et tu montanis totus nunc fontibus exi,
Atque omnes trahe, gurges, aquas ut spumeus alnos,
Discussa compage, feras. Hoc limite bellum
Haereat, hac hostis lentus terat otia ripa.
Praecipitem cohibete ducem: victoria nobis
Hic primum stans Caesar erit. Nec plura locatus,
Devolvit rapidum nequidquam moenibus agmen.
Nam prior e campis ut conspicit, amne soluto,
Rumpi Caesar iter, calida prolatus ab ira:
Non satis est, muris latebras quaesisse pavori?
Obstruitis campos, fluviisque arcere paratis,
Ignavi? Non, si tumido me gurgite Ganges
Submoveat, stabit iam flumine Caesar in ullo,
Post Rubiconis aquas. Equitum properate catervae:
Ite simul pedites: ruiturum adscendite pontem.
Haec ubi dicta, levis totas accepit habenas
In campum sonipes: crebroque simillima nimbo
Trans ripam validi torserunt tela lacerti.
Ingreditur pulsa fluvium statione vacantem
Caesar, et ad tutas hostis compellitur arces.
Et iam moturas ingentia pondera turres
Erigit, et mediis subrepsit vinea muris:
Ecce, nefas belli, reseratis agmina portis
Captivum traxere ducem, civisque superbi
Constitit ante pedes. Vultu tamen alta minaci
Nobilitas recta ferrum cervice poposcit.
Scit Caesar poenamque peti, veniamque timeri.
Vive, licet nolis, et nostro munere, dixit,
Cerne diem. Victis iam spes bona partibus esto,
Exemplumque mei: vel, si libet, arma retenta;
Et nihil hac venia, si viceris ipse, paciscor.
Fatur, et adstrictis laxari vincula palmis
Imperat. Heu quanto melius vel caede peracta
Parcere Romano potuit fortuna pudori;
Poenarum extremum cui fit, quod castra secutus
Sit patriae Magnumque ducem totumque senatum,
Ignosci. Premit ille graves interritus iras,
Et secum: Romamne petes, pacisque recessus,
Degener? In medios belli non ire furores,
Iamdudum moriture, paras? Rue certus, et omnes
Lucis rumpe moras, et Caesaris effuge munus.

[¶1] Pompeius, ignorant that his captain thus
Was taken, armed his levies newly raised
To give his legions strength; and as he thought
To sound his trumpets with the coming dawn,
To test his soldiers ere he moved his camp
Thus in majestic tones their ranks addressed:
True host of Rome! avengers of her laws
Ranked 'neath the standards of the better right,
To whom the Senate gives no private arms,
Ask by your voices for the battle sign.
Fierce falls the pillage on Hesperian fields,
And Gallia's fury o'er the snowy Alps
Is poured upon us. Caesar's swords at last
' Are red with Roman blood. But with the wound
We gain the better cause; the crime is theirs.
Through me her captain Rome for vengeance calls;
' Tis no true fight to wreak your country's ire.
' Was that a war when Catilina's hand
' Lifted against her roofs the flaming torch,
' And, partner in his fury, Lentulus,
' And mad Cethegus with his naked arm?
' Is such thy madness, Caesar? when the Fates
' With great Camillus' and Metellus' names
' Might place thine own, dost thou prefer to rank
' With Marius and Cinna? Swift shall be
' Thy fall: as Lepidus before the sword
' Of Catulus; or who my axes felt,
' Carbo, now buried in Sicanian tomb;
' Or who, in exile, roused Iberia's hordes,
' Sertorius-yet, witness Heaven, with these
' I hate to rank thee; hate the task that Rome
' Has laid upon me, to oppose thy rage.
' Would that in safety from the Parthian war
' And Scythian steppes had conquering Crassus come!
' Then haply hadst thou fallen by the hand
' That smote vile Spartacus the robber foe.
' But if among my triumphs fate has said
' Thy conquest shall be written, know this heart
' Still sends the life blood coursing: and this arm
' Still vigorously flings the dart afield.
' He deems me slothful. Caesar, thou shalt learn
'We brook not peace because we lag in war.
' Old, does he call me? Fear not ye mine age.
' Let me be elder, if his soldiers are.
' The highest point a citizen can reach
' And leave his people free, is mine: a throne
' Alone were higher; whoso would surpass
' Pompeius, aims at that. Both Consuls stand
' Here; here for battle stand your lawful chiefs:
' And shall this Caesar drag the Senate down?
' Not with such blindness, not so lost to shame
' Does Fortune rule. Does he take heart from Gaul,
' For years on years rebellious, and a life
' Spent there in labour? or because he fled
' Rhine's icy torrent and the shifting pools
' He calls an ocean? or unchallenged sought
' Britannia's cliffs; then turned his back in flight?
' Or does he boast because his citizens
' Were driven in arms to leave their hearths and homes?
'Ah, vain delusion! not from thee they fled:
' My steps they follow-mine, whose conquering signs
' Swept all the ocean, and who, ere the moon
' Twice filled her orb and waned, compelled to flight
' The pirate, shrinking from the open sea,
' And humbly begging for a narrow home
' In some poor nook on shore. 'Twas I again
' Who, happier far than Sulla, drave to death
' That king who, exiled to the deep recess
' Of Scythian Pontus, held the fates of Rome
' Still in the balances. Where is the land
' That has not seen my trophies? Icy waves
' Of northern Phasis, hot Egyptian shores,
' And where Syene 'neath its noontide sun
' Knows shade on neither hand: all these have learned
' To fear Pompeius: and far Baetis' stream,
' Last of all floods to join the refluent sea.
' Arabia and the warlike hordes that dwell
' Beside the Euxine wave: the famous land
' That lost the golden fleece; Cilician wastes,
' And Cappadocian, and the Jews who pray
' Before an unknown God; Sophene soft-
' All felt my yoke. What conquests now remain,
' What wars not civil can my kinsman wage? '
No loud acclaim received his words, nor shout
Asked for the promised battle: and the chief
Drew back the standards, for the soldier's fears
Were in his soul alike; nor dared he trust
An army, vanquished by the fame alone
Of Caesar's powers, to fight for such a prize.
And as some bull, his early combat lost,
Forth driven from the herd, in exile roams
Through lonely plains or secret forest depths,
Whets on opposing trunks his growing horn,
And proves himself for battle, till his neck
Is ribbed afresh with muscle: then returns,
Defiant of the hind, and victor now
Leads wheresoever he will his lowing bands:
Thus Magnus, yielding to a stronger foe,
Gave up Italia, and sought in flight
Brundusium's sheltering battlements. Here of old
Fled Cretan settlers when the dusky sail
Spread the false message of the hero dead;
Here, where Hesperia, curving as a bow,
Draws back her coast, a little tongue of land
Shuts in with bending horns the sounding main.
Yet insecure the spot, unsafe in storm,
Were it not sheltered by an isle on which
The Adriatic billows dash and fall,
And tempests lose their strength: on either hand
A craggy cliff opposing breaks the gale
That beats upon them, while the ships within
Held by their trembling cables ride secure.
Hence to the mariner the boundless deep
Lies open, whether for Corcyra's port
He shapes his sails, or for Illyria's shore,
And Epidamnus facing to the main
Ionian. Here, when raging in his might
Fierce Adria whelms in foam Calabria's coast,
When clouds tempestuous veil Ceraunus' height,
The sailor finds a haven.

> Latin: Nescius interea capti ducis, arma parabat
Magnus, ut immixto firmaret robore partes.
Iamque secuturo iussurus classica Phoebo,
Tentandasque ratus moturi militis iras,
Adloquitur tacitas veneranda voce cohortes:
O scelerum ultores, melioraque signa secuti,
O vere Romana manus, quibus arma senatus
Non privata dedit, voti deposcite pugnam.
Ardent Hesperii saevis populatibus agri:
Gallica per gelidas rabies effunditur Alpes:
Iam tetigit sanguis pollutos Caesaris enses.
Di melius, belli tulimus quod damna priores.
Coeperit inde nefas. Iamiam, me praeside, Roma
Supplicium poenamque petat. Neque enim ista vocari
Proelia iusta decet, patriae sed vindicis iram.
Nec magis hoc bellum est, quam cum Catilina paravit
Arsuras in tecta faces, sociusque furoris
Lentulus, exsertique manus vesana Cethegi.
O rabies miseranda ducis! Cum fata Camillis
Te, Caesar, magnisque velint miscere Metellis,
Ad Cinnas Mariosque veni. Sternere profecto,
Ut Catulo iacuit Lepidus, nostrasque secures
Passus, Sicanio tegitur qui Carbo sepulcro,
Quique feros movit Sertorius exsul Iberos.
Quamquam, si qua fides, his te quoque iungere, Caesar,
Invideo, nostrasque manus quod Roma furenti
Opposuit. Parthorum utinam post praelia sospes,
Et Scythicis Crassus victor remeasset ab oris,
Ut simili caussa caderes, qua Spartacus hostis.
Te quoque si superi titulis accedere nostris
Iusserunt, valet in torquendo dextera pilo:
Peridus haec iterum circum praecordia sanguis
Incaluit: disces non esse ad bella fugaces,
Qui pacem potuere pati. Licet ille solutum
Defectumque vocet, ne vos mea terreat aetas.
Dux sit in his castris senior, dum miles in illis.
Quo potuit civem populus perducere liber,
Adscendi, supraque nihil, nisi regna, reliqui.
Non privata cupit, Romana quisquis in urbe
Pompeium transire parat. Hinc consul uterque,
Hinc acies statura ducum est. Caesarne senatus
Victor erit? Non tam caeco trahis omnia cursu,
Teque nihil, Fortuna, pudet. Multisne rebellis
Gallia iam lustris aetasque impensa labori
Dant animos? Rheni gelidis quod fugit ab undis,
Oceanumque vocans incerti stagna profundi,
Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis?
An vanae tumuere minae, quod fama furoris
Expulit armatam patriis e sedibus Urbem?
Heu demens, non te fugiunt, me cuncta sequuntur:
Qui cum signa tuli toto fulgentia ponto,
Ante bis exactum quam Cynthia conderet orbem,
Omne fretum metuens pelagi pirata reliquit,
Angustaque domum terrarum in sede poposcit.
Idem ego per Sythici profugum divortia Ponti
Indomitum regem, Romanaque fata morantem,
Ad mortem, Sulla felicior, ire coegi.
Pars mundi mihi nulla vacat: sed tota tenetur
Terra meis, quocumque iacet sub sole, tropaeis.
Hinc me victorem geldas ad Phasidos undas
Arctos habet: calida medius mihi cognitus axis
Aegypto, atque umbras nusquam flectente Syene.
Occasus mea iura timent, Tethynque fugacem
Qui ferit Hesperius post omnia flumina Baetis.
Me domitus cognovit Arabs, me Marte feroces
Heniochi, notique erepto vellere Colchi.
Cappadoces mea signa timent: et dedita sacris
Incerti Iudaea dei, mollisque Sophene.
Armenios, Cilicasque feros, Taurosque subegi.
Quod socero bellum, praeter civile, reliqui?
Verba ducis nullo partes clamore sequuntur,
Nec matura petunt promissae classica pugnae.
Sensit et ipse metum Magnus; placuitque referri
Signa, nec in tantae discrimina mittere pugnae
Iam victum fama non visi Caesaris agmen.
Pulsus ut armentis primo certamine taurus
Silvarum secreta petit, vacuosque per agros
Exsul in adversis explorat cornua truncis;
Nec redit in pastus, nisi cum cervice recepta
Excussi placuere tori: mox reddita victor
Quoslibet in saltus comitantibus agmina tauris
Invito pastore trahit: sic viribus impar
Tradidit Hesperiam, profugusque per Apula rura
Brundusii tutas conscendit Magnus in arces.
Urbs est Dictaeis olim possessa colonis,
Quos profugos Creta vexere per aequora puppes
Cecropiae, victum mentitis Thesea velis.
Hac latus angustum iam se cogentis in arcum
Hesperiae tenuem producit in aequora linguam,
Hadriacas flexis claudit quae cornibus undas.
Nec tamen hoc arctis immissum faucibus aequor
Portus erat, si non violentos insula Coros
Exciperet saxis, lapsasque refunderet undas.
Hinc illinc montes scopulosae rupis aperto
Opposuit natura mari, flatusque removit,
Ut tremulo starent contentae fune carinae.
Hinc late patet omne fretum, seu vela ferantur
In portus, Corcyra, tuos, seu laeva petatur
Illyris Ionias vergens Epidamnos in undas
Huc fuga nautarum, cum totas Hadria vires
Movit, et in nubes abiere Ceraunia, quumque
Spumoso Calaber perfunditur aequore Sason.

[¶2] When the chief
Could find no hope in battle on the soil
He now was quitting, and the lofty Alps
Forbad Iberia, to his son he spake,
The eldest scion of that noble stock:
Search out the far recesses of the earth,
'Nile and Euphrates, wheresoe'er the fame
Of Magnus lives, where, through thy father's deeds,
The people tremble at the name of Rome.
'Lead to the sea again the pirate bands;
'Rouse Egypt's kings; Tigranes, wholly mine,
'And Pharnaces and all the vagrant tribes
'Of both Armenias; and the Pontic hordes,
' Warlike and fierce; the dwellers on the hills
'Rhipaean, and by that dead northern marsh
'Whose frozen surface bears the loaded wain.
Why further stay thee? Let the eastern world
Sound with the war, all cities of the earth
'Conquered by me, as vassals, to my camp
'Send all their levied hosts. And you whose names
'Within the Latian book recorded stand,
'Strike for Epirus with the northern wind;
'And thence in Greece and Macedonian tracts,
(While winter gives us peace) new strength acquire
'For coming conflicts.' They obey his words
And loose their ships and launch upon the main.
But Caesar's might, intolerant of peace
Or lengthy armistice, lest now perchance
The fates might change their edicts, swift pursued
The footsteps of his foe. To other men,
So many cities taken at a blow,
So many strongholds captured, might suffice;
And Rome herself, the mistress of the world,
Lay at his feet, the greatest prize of all.
Not so with Caesar: instant on the goal
He fiercely presses; thinking nothing done
While aught remained to do. Now in his grasp
Lay all Italia;-but while Magnus stayed
Upon the utmost shore, his grieving soul
Deemed all was shared with him. Yet he essayed
Escape to hinder, and with labour vain
Piled in the greedy main gigantic rocks:
Mountains of earth down to the sandy depths
Were swallowed by the vortex of the sea;
Just as if Eryx and its lofty top
Were cast into the deep, yet not a speck
Should mark the watery plain; or Gaurus huge
Split from his summit to his base, were plunged
In fathomless Avernus' stagnant pool.
The billows thus unstemmed, 'twas Caesar's will
To hew the stately forests and with trees
Enchained to form a rampart. Thus of old
(If fame be true) the boastful Persian king
Prepared a way across the rapid strait
'Twixt Sestos and Abydos, and made one
The European and the Trojan shores;
And marched upon the waters, wind and storm
Counting as nought, but trusting his emprise
To one frail bridge, so that his ships might pass
Through middle Athos. Thus a mighty mole
Of fallen forests grew upon the waves,
Free until then, and lofty turrets rose,
And land usurped the entrance to the main.
This when Pompeius saw, with anxious care
His soul was filled; yet hoping to regain
The exit lost, and win a wider world
Wherein to wage the war, on chosen ships
He hoists the sails; these, driven by the wind
Which filled the bellying sails, not once nor twice
Scattered the beams asunder; and at night
Not seldom engines, worked by stalwart arms,
Flung flaming torches forth. But when the time
For secret flight was come, no sailor shout
Rang on the shore, no trumpet marked the hour,
No clarion called the armament to sea.
Already shone the Virgin in the sky
Leading the Scorpion in her course, whose claws
Foretell the rising Sun, when noiseless all
They cast the vessels loose; no song was heard
To greet the anchor wrenched from stubborn sand;
No captain's order, when the lofty mast
Was raised, or yards were bent; a silent crew
Drew down the sails which hung upon the ropes,
Nor shook the mighty cables, lest the wind
Should sound upon them. But the chief, in prayer,
Thus spake to Fortune: ' Thou whose high decree
Has made us exiles from Italia's shores,
Grant us at least to leave them.' Yet the fates
Hardly permitted, for a murmur vast
Came from the ocean, as the countless keels
Furrowed the waters, and with ceaseless splash
The parted billows rose again and fell.
Then were the gates thrown wide; for with the fates
The city turned to Caesar: and the foe,
Seizing the town, rushed onward by the pier
That circled in the harbour; then they knew
With shame and sorrow that the fleet was gone
And held the open: and Pompeius' flight
Gave a poor triumph. Yet was narrower far
The channel which gave access to the sea
Than that Euboean strait whose waters lave
The shore by Chalcis. Here two ships stuck fast
Alone, of all the fleet; the fatal hook
Grappled their decks and drew them to the land,
And the first bloodshed of the civil war
Here left a blush upon the ocean wave.
As when the famous ship sought Phasis' stream
The rocky gates closed in and hardly gripped
Her flying stern; then from the empty sea
The cliffs rebounding to their ancient seat
Were fixed to move no more. But now the steps
Of morn approaching tinged the eastern sky
With roseate hues: the Pleiades were dim,
The wagon of the Charioteer grew pale,
The planets faded, and the silvery star
Which ushers in the day, was lost in light.
Thou, Magnus, hold'st the deep; yet not the same
Now are thy fates, as when from every sea
Thy fleet triumphant swept the pirate pest.
Tired of thy conquests, Fortune now no more
Shall smile upon thee. With thy spouse and sons,
Thy household gods, and peoples in thy train,
Still great in exile, in a distant land
Thou seek'st thy fated fall; not that the gods,
Wishing to rob thee of a Roman grave,
Decreed the strands of Egypt for thy tomb:
'Twas Italy they spared, that far away
Fortune on shores remote might hide her crime,
And Roman soil be pure of Magnus' blood.

> Latin: Ergo ubi nulla fides rebus post terga relictis,
Nec licet ad duros Martem convertere Iberos,
Cum mediae iaceant immensis tractibus Alpes:
Tum subole ex tanta natum, cui firmior aetas,
Adfatur: Mundi iubeo tentare recessus.
Euphratem Nilumque move, quo nominis usque
Nostri fama venit, quas est vulgata per urbes
Post me Roma ducem. Sparsos per rura colonos
Redde mari Cilicas. Pharios hinc concute reges,
Tigranemque meum. Nec Pharnacis arma relinquas,
Admoneo, nec tu populos utraque vagantes
Armenia, Pontique feras per litora gentes,
Rhipaeasoue manus, et quas tenet aequore denso
Pigra palus Scythici patiens Maeotica plaustri.
Sed quid plura moror? totos mea, nate, per ortus
Bella feres, totoque urbes agitabis in orbe
Perdomitas: omnes redeant in castra triumphi.
Et vos, qui Latios signatis nomine fastos,
Primus in Epirum Boreas agat: inde per arva
Graiorum Macetumque novas adquirite vires,
Dum paci dat tempus hiems. Sic fatur, et omnes
Iussa gerunt, solvuntque cavas a litore puppes.
At numquam patiens pacis longaeque quietis
Armorum, ne quid fatis mutare liceret,
Adsequitur, generique premit vestigia Caesar.
Sufficerent aliis primo tot moenia cursu
Rapta, tot oppressae depulsis hostibus arces:
Ipsa, caput mundi, bellorum maxima merces,
Roma, capi facilis. Sed Caesar, in omnia praeceps,
Nil actum credens, cum quid superesset agendum,
Instat atrox: et adhuc, quamvis possederit omnem
Italiam, extremo sedeat quod litore Magnus,
Communem tamen esse dolet: nec rursus aperto
Vult hostes errare freto, sed molibus undas
Obstruit, et latum deiectis rupibus aequor.
Cedit in immensum cassus labor: omnia pontus
Haurit saxa vorax, montesque immiscet arenis:
Ut maris Aegaei medias si celsus in undas
Depellatur Eryx, nullae tamen aequore rupes
Emineant; vel si convulso vertice Gaurus
Decidat in fundum penitus stagnantis Averni.
Ergo ubi nulla vado tenuit sua pondera moles,
Tunc placuit caesis innectere vincula silvis,
Roboraque immensis late religare catenis.
Tales fama canit tumidam super aequora Xerxem
Construxisse vias, multum cum pontibus ausus,
Europamque Asiae, Sestonque admovit Abydo,
Incessitque fretum rapidi super Hellesponti,
Non Eurum Zephyrumque timens; cum vela ratesque
In medium deferret Athon. Sic ora profundi
Arctantur casu nemorum: tunc aggere multo
Surgit opus, longaeque tremunt super aequor turres.
Pompeius tellure nova compressa profundi
Ora videns, curis animum mordacibus angi,
Ut reseret pelagus, spargatque per aequora bellum.
Saepe Noto plenae, tensisque rudentibus actae
Ipsa maris per claustra rates fastigia molis
Discussere salo, spatiumque dedere carinis:
Tortaque per tenebras validis ballista lacertis,
Multifidas iaculata faces. Ut tempora tandem
Furtivae placuere fugae: ne litora clamor
Nauticus exagitet, neu buccina dividat horas,
Neu tuba praemonitos perducat ad aequora nautas,
Praecepit sociis. Iam coeperat ultima Virgo
Phoebum laturas ortu praecedere Chelas,
Cum taciti solvere rates. Non anchora voces
Movit, dum spissis avellitur uncus arenis:
Dum iuga curvantur mali, dumque ardua pinus
Erigitur, pavidi classis siluere magistri:
Strictaque pendentes deducunt carbasa nautae,
Nec quatiunt validos, ne silibet aura, rudentes.
Dux etiam votis hoc te, Fortuna, precatur,
Quam retinere vetas, liceat sibi perdere saltem
Italiam. Vix fata sinunt: nam murmure vasto
Impulsum rostris sonuit mare, fluctuat unda,
Totque carinarum permixtis aequora sulcis.
Ergo hostes portis, quas omnes solverat urbis
Cum fato conversa fides, murisque recepti,
Praecipiti cursu flexi per cornua portus
Ora petunt, pelagusque dolent contingere classes.
Heu pudor! exigua est fugiens victoria Magnus.
Angustus puppes mittebat in aequora limes,
Arctior Euboica, qua Chalcida verberat, unda.
Hic haesere rates geminae, classique paratas
Excepere manus: tractoque in litora bello
Hic primum rubuit civili sanguine Nereus.
Cetera classis abit, summis spoliata carinis:
Ut, Pagasaea ratis peteret cum Phasidos undas,
Cyaneas tellus emisit in aequora cautes;
Rapta puppe minor subducta est montibus Argo,
Vanaque percussit pontum Symplegas inanem,
Et statura redit. Iam Phoebum urgere monebat
Non idem Eoi color aetheris, albaque nondum
Lux rubet, et flammas propioribus eripit astris:
Et iam Pleias hebet, flexi iam plaustra Bootae
In faciem puri redeunt languentia coeli,
Maioresque latent stellae, calidumque refugit
Lucifer ipse diem. Pelagus iam, Magne, tenebas,
Non ea fata ferens, quae, cum super aequora toto
Praedonem sequerere mari. Lassata triumphis
Destituit Fortuna tuis. Cum coniuge pulsus,
Et natis, totosque trahens in bella penates,
Vadis adhuc ingens, populis comitantibus, exsul.
Quaeritur indignae sedes longinqua ruinae.
Non, quia te superi patrio privare sepulchro
Maluerint, Phariae busto damnantur arenae:
Parcitur Hesperiae; procul hoc ut in orbe remoto
Abscondat Fortuna nefas, Romanaque tellus
Immaculata sui servetur sanguine Magni.