---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 5 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/5/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 5. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/5/"
---

# 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.

## 5. Book III · lines 1–398

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/5/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/5/#p-N

[¶0] WITH canvas yielding to the southern wind
The navy sailed the deep, and every eye
Gazed on Ionian billows. But the chief
Turned not his vision from his native shore
Now left for ever, while the morning mists
Drew down upon the mountains, and the cliffs
Faded in distance till his aching sight
No longer knew them. Then his wearied frame
Sank in the arms of sleep. But Julia's shape,
In mournful guise, dread horror on her brow,
Rose through the gaping earth, and from her tomb
Erect, in form as of a Fury spake:
'Driven from Elysian fields and from the plains
'The blest inhabit, when the war began,
'I dwell in Stygian darkness where abide
'The souls of all the guilty. There I saw
'Th' Eumenides with torches in their hands
'Prepared against thy battles; and the fleets
' Which by the ferryman of the flaming stream
'Were made to bear thy dead: and Hell enlarged
'To hold thy punishments: the sisters three
' With busy fingers all their needful task
' Could scarce accomplish, and the threads of fate
'Dropped from their weary hands. With me thy wife,
'Thou, Magnus, leddest happy triumphs home:
'New wedlock brings new luck. Thy concubine,
' Whose star brings all her mighty husbands ill,
'Cornelia, weds in thee a breathing tomb.
'Through wars and oceans let her cling to thee
'So long as I may break thy nightly rest:
' No moment left thee for her love, but all
'By night to me, by day to Caesar given.
'Me not the oblivious banks of Lethe's stream
' Have made forgetful; and the kings of death
' Have suffered me to join thee; in mid fight
'I will be with thee, and my haunting ghost
'Remind thee Caesar's daughter was thy spouse.
'Thy sword kills not our pledges; civil war
'Shall make thee wholly mine.' She spake and fled.
But he, though heaven and hell thus bode defeat,
More bent on war, with mind assured of ill,
'Why dread vain phantoms of a dreaming brain?
Or nought of sense and feeling to the soul
Is left by death; or death itself is nought.'
Now fiery Titan in declining path
Dipped to the waves, his bright circumference
So much diminished as a growing moon
Not yet full circled, or when past the full;
When to the fleet a hospitable coast
Gave access, and the ropes in order laid,
The sailors struck the masts and rowed ashore.
Thus was the fleet set free and rapt from view
By favouring breezes. On Italian soil
Sole lord stood Caesar: but he found no joy
In triumph over Magnus-rather grieved
That thus in safety had his flight been sped.
Not any gifts of fortune now sufficed
His fiery spirit; and no victory won,
Unless the war was finished with the stroke.
Then arms he laid aside, in guise of peace
Seeking the people's favour; skilled to know
How to arouse their ire, and how to gain
The popular love by corn in plenty given.
Alone through famine cities can be won;
By food a tyrant bribes the crowd to cringe;
And starving peoples know not how to fear.
He orders Curio to stem the waves
And cross to lands Sicilian, where of old
Or ocean by a sudden rise o'erwhelmed
The land, or split the isthmus right in twain,
Leaving a path for seas. The mighty deep
There labours ever lest again should meet
The mountains rent asunder. Nor were left
Sardinian shores unvisited: each isle
Is blest with noble harvests which have filled
More than all else the granaries of Rome,
And poured their plenty on Hesperia's shores.
Not even Libya, with its fertile soil,
Their yield surpasses, when the southern wind
Gives way to northern and permits the clouds
To drop their moisture on the teeming earth.
This ordered, Caesar leads his legions on,
Not armed for war, but as in time of peace
Returning to his home. Ah! had he come
With only Gallia conquered and the North,
What long array of triumph had he brought!
What pictured scenes of battle! how had Rhine
And Ocean borne his chains! How noble Gaul,
And Britain's fair-haired chiefs his lofty car
Had followed! Such a triumph had he lost
By further conquest. Now in silent fear
They watched his marching troops, nor joyful towns
Poured out their crowds to welcome his return.
Yet did the conqueror's proud soul rejoice,
Far more than at their love, at such a fear.

> Latin: Propulit ut classem velis cedentibus Auster
Incumbens, mediumque rates movere profundum,
Omnis in Ionios spectabat navita fluctus:
Solus ab Hesperia non flexit lumina terra
Magnus, dum patrios portus, dum litora numquam
Ad visus reditura suos, tectumque cacumen
Nubibus, et dubios cernit vanescere montes.
Inde soporifero cesserunt languida somno
Membra ducis. Diri tum plena horroris imago
Visa caput moestum per hiantes Iulia terras
Tollere, et accenso furialis stare sepulcro.
Sedibus Elysiis campoque expulsa piorum
Ad Stygias, inquit, tenebras manesque nocentes,
Post bellum civile trahor. Vidi ipsa tenentes
Eumenidas, quaterent quas vestris lampadas armis.
Praeparat innumeras puppes Acherontis adusti
Portitor: in multas laxantur Tartara poenas.
Vix operi cunctae dextra properante sorores
Sufficiunt: lassant rumpentes stamina Parcas.
Coniuge me laetos duxisti, Magne, triumphos:
Fortuna est mutata toris: semperque potentes
Detrahere in cladem fato damnata maritos,
En nupsit tepido pellex Cornelia busto.
Haereat illa tuis per bella, per aequora signis,
Dum non securos liceat mihi rumpere somnos,
Et nullum vestro vacuum sit tempus amori,
Sed teneat Caesarque dies, et Iulia noctes.
Me non Lethaeae, coniux, oblivia ripae
Immemorem fecere tui, regesque silentum
Permisere sequi. Veniam, te bella gerente,
In medias acies. Numquam tibi, Magne, per umbras
Perque meos manes generum non esse licebit.
Abscidis frustra ferro tua pignora. Bellum
Te faciet civile meum. Sic fata, refugit
Umbra per amplexus trepidi dilapsa mariti.
Ille, dei quamvis cladem manesque minentur,
Maior in arma ruit, certa cum mente malorum.
Et, quid, ait, vani terremur imagine visus?
Aut nihil est sensus animis a morte relictum,
Aut mors ipsa nihil. Titan iam pronus in undas
Ibat, et igniferi tantum demerserat orbis,
Quantum deesse solet lunae, seu plena futura est,
Seu iam plena fuit: tunc obtulit hospita tellus
Puppibus accessus faciles: legere rudentes,
Et posito remis petierunt litora malo.
Caesar, ut emissas venti rapuere carinas,
Absconditque fretum classes, et litore solus
Dux stetit Hesperio, non illum gloria pulsi
Laetificat Magni: queritur quod tuta per aequor
Terga ferant hostes. Neque enim iam sufficit ulla
Praecipiti fortuna viro: nec vincere tanti,
Ut bellum differret, erat. Tunc pectore curas
Expulit armorum, pacique intentus agebat,
Quoque modo vanos populi conciret amores,
Gnarus et irarum caussas, et summa favoris
Annona momenta trahi. Namque adserit urbes
Sola fames, emiturque metus, cum segne potentes
Vulgus alunt. Nescit plebes ieiuna timere.
Curio Sicanias transcendere iussus in urbes,
Qua mare tellurem subitis aut obruit undis,
Aut scidit, et medias fecit sibi litora terras.
Via illic ingens pelagi, semperque laborant
Aequora, ne rupti repetant confinia montes.
Bellaque Sardoas etiam sparguntur in oras.
Utraque frugiferis est insula nobilis arvis,
Nec plus Hesperiam longinquis messibus ullae,
Nec Romana magis complerunt horrea terrae.
Ubere vix glebae superat, cessantibus Austris,
Cum medium nubes Borea cogente sub axem
Effusis magnum Libye tulit imbribus annum.
Haec ubi sunt provisa duci, tunc agmina victor
Non armata trahens, sed pacis habentia vultum,
Tecta petit patriae. Pro, si remeasset in Urbem,
Gallorum tantum populis Arctoque subacta,
Quam seriem rerum longa praemittere pompa,
Quas potuit belli facies! Ut vincula Rheno,
Oceanoque daret! Celsos ut Gallia currus
Nobilis, et flavis sequeretur mixta Britannis!
Perdidit o qualem vincendo plura triumphum!
Non ilium laetis vadentem coetibus urbes,
Sed tacitae videre metu. Non constitit usquam
Obvia turba duci. Gaudet tamen esse timori
Tam magno populis, et se non mallet amari.

[¶1] Now Anxur's hold was passed, the oozy road
That separates the marsh, the grove sublime
Where reigns the Scythian goddess, and the path
By which men bear the fasces to the feast
On Alba's summit. From the height afar-
Gazing in awe upon the walls of Rome
His native city, since the Northern war
Unseen, unvisited-thus Caesar spake:
'Seat of the gods, have men deserted thee,
'Thee, Rome, without a blow? Then for what town
'Shall men do battle? Thank the gods, no host
'From Eastern climes has sought Italia's shores
'To wreak its fury; nor Sarmatian horde
'With northern tribes conjoined; by Fortune's gift
'This war is civil: else this coward chief
'Had been thy ruin.'
Trembling at his feet
He found the city: deadly fire and flame,
As from a conqueror; gods and fanes dispersed;
Such was the measure of their fear, as though
His power and wish were one. No festal shout
Greeted his march, no feigned acclaim of joy.
Scarce had they time for hate. In Phoebus' hall
Their hiding places left, a crowd appeared
Of Senators, uncalled, for none could call.
No Consul there the sacred shrine adorned
Nor Praetor next in rank, and every seat
Placed for the officers of state was void:
Caesar was all; his private voice was heard;
All else were dumb. They sat prepared to vote
For him a throne or temple; for themselves
Or death or exile. Thank the gods that he
Blushed more to order than did Rome to serve.
Yet in one breast the spirit of Freedom rose
Enraged lest force should override the laws;
For hot Metellus, when he saw the gates
Of Saturn's temple yielding to the shock,
With rapid step burst in between the ranks
Of Caesar's troops, and stood before the doors
As yet unopened. 'Tis the love of gold
Alone that fears not death; no hand is raised
For perished laws or violated rights:
But for this dross, the vilest cause of all,
Men fight and die. Thus did the Tribune bar
The victor's road to rapine, and with voice
Clear ringing spake: ' Save o'er Metellus dead
'This temple opens not; my sacred blood
' Shall flow, thou robber, ere the gold be thine.
'And surely shall the Tribune's power defied
'Find an avenging god; this Crassus knew,
' Who, followed by our curses, sought the war
'And met disaster on the Parthian plains.
' All Rome is empty; draw thy falchion then,
'Nor fear a crowd to gaze upon the crime.
'Not from our treasury reward for guilt
'Thy hosts shall ravish: other towns are left,
'And other nations; seek thy gifts from them;
'Nor drain Rome's peace for spoil: war still is thine.'
Aroused to anger then the victor spake:
' Vain is thy hope to fall in noble death;
'Dost reckon Freedom safe with thee for guard?
' With all thine honours, thou of Caesar's rage
'Art little worthy: never shall thy blood
' Defile his hand. Time lowest things with high
' Confounds not yet so much that, if thy voice
' Could save the laws, it were not better far
'They fell by Caesar.' Such his lofty words.
But as the Tribune yielded not, his rage
Rose yet the more, and at his soldiers' swords
One look he cast, forgetting for the time
What robe he wore; but soon Metellus heard
These words from Cotta: ' When men bow to power
' Freedom of speech is only Freedom's bane,
' Whose shade at least survives, if with free will
' Thou dost whate'er is bidden thee. For us
' Some pardon may be found: a host of ills
' Compelled submission, and the shame is less
'That to have done which could not be refused.
' Yield, then, this wealth, the seeds of direful war.
' A nation's anger is by losses stirred,
' When laws protect it; but the hungry slave
' Brings danger to his master, not himself.'
At this Metellus yielded from the path;
And as the gates rolled backward, echoed loud
The rock Tarpeian, and the temple's depths
Gave up the treasure which for centuries
No hand had touched: all that the Punic foe
And Perses and Philippus conquered gave,
And all the gold which Pyrrhus panic-struck
Left when he fled: that gold, the price of Rome,
Which yet Fabricius sold not, and the hoard
Laid up by saving sires; the tribute sent
By Asia's richest nations; and the wealth
Which conquering Metellus brought from Crete,
And Cato bore from distant Cyprus home;
And last, the riches torn from captive kings
And borne before Pompeius when he came
In frequent triumph. Thus was robbed the shrine,
And Caesar first brought poverty to Rome.

> Latin: Iamque et praecipites superaverat Anxuris arces,
Et qua Pontinas via dividit uda paludes,
Qua sublime nemus, Scythicae qua regna Dianae;
Quaque iter est Latiis ad summam fascibus Albam:
Excelsa de rupe procul iam prospicit Urbem,
Arctoi toto non visam tempore belli:
Miraturque suae, sic fatus, moenia Romae:
Tene, deum sedes, non ullo Marte coacti
Deseruere viri! Pro qua pugnabitur urbe?
Di melius, quod non Latias Eous in oras
Nunc furor incubuit, nec iuncto Sarmata velox
Pannonio, Dacisque Getes admixtus: habenti
Tam pavidum tibi, Roma, ducem Fortuna pepercit,
Quod bellum civile fuit. Sic fatur, et urbem
Adtonitam terrore subit. Namque ignibus atris
Creditur, ut captae, rapturus moenia Romae,
Sparsurusque deos. Fuit haec mensura timoris:
Velle putant, quaecumque potest. Non omina festa,
Non fictas laeto voces simulare tumultu:
Vix odisse vacat Phoebea palatia complet
Turba Patrum, nullo cogendi iure senatus,
E latebris educta suis. Non consule sacrae
Fulserunt sedes: non proxima lege potestas
Praetor adest: vacuaeque loco cessere curules,
Omnia Caesar erat. Privatae curia vocis
Testis adest. Sedere Patres censere parati,
Si regnum, si templa sibi, iugulumque senatus,
Exsiliumque petat. Melius, quod plura iubere
Erubuit, quam Roma pati. Tamen exit in iram,
Viribus an possent obsistere iura, per unam
Libertas experta virum: pugnaxque Metellus
Ut videt ingenti Saturnia templa revelli
Mole, rapit gressus, et Caesaris agmina rumpens,
Ante fores nondum reseratae constitit aedis.
(Usque adeo solus ferrum mortemque timere
Auri nescit amor. Pereunt discrimine nullo
Amissae leges: sed, pars vilissima rerum,
Certamen movistis, opes) prohibensque rapina
Victorem, clara testatur voce Tribunus:
Non nisi per nostrum vobis percussa patebunt
Templa latus, nullasque feres nisi sanguine sacro
Sparsas, raptor, opes. Certe violata potestas
Invenit ista deos: Crassumque in bella secutae
Saeva tribunitiae voverunt proelia dirae.
Detege iam ferrum: neque enim tibi turba verenda est,
Spectatrix scelerum: deserta stamus in urbe.
Non feret e nostro sceleratus praemia miles:
Sunt quos prosternas populi, quae moenia dones.
Pacis ad exhaustae spolium non cogit egestas:
Bellum Caesar habes. His magnam victor in iram
Vocibus accensus: Vanam spem mortis honestae
Concipis: haud, inquit, iugulo se polluet isto
Nostra, Metelle, manus. Dignum te Caesaris ira
Nullus honos faciet. Te vindice tuta relicta est
Libertas? Non usque adeo permiscuit imis
Longus summa dies, ut non, si voce Metelli
Servantur leges, malint a Caesare tolli.
Dixerat, et, nondum foribus cedente tribuno,
Aerior ira subit: saevos circumspicit enses,
Oblitus simulare togam. Tum Cotta Metellum
Compulit audaci nimium desistere coepto.
Libertas, inquit, populi, quem regna coercent,
Libertate perit; cuius servaveris umbram,
Si, quidquid iubeare, velis. Tot rebus iniquis
Paruimus victi: venia est haec sola pudoris,
Degenerisque metus, nil iam potuisse negari.
Ocius avertat diri mala semina belli.
Damna movent populos, si quos sua iura tuentur.
Non sibi, sed domino gravis est, quae servit, egestas.
Protinus abducto patuerunt templa Metello.
Tunc rupes Tarpeia sonat, magnoque reclusas
Testatur stridore fores; tunc conditus imo
Eruitur templo, multis intactus ab annis,
Romani census populi, quem Punica bella,
Quem dederat Perses, quem victi praeda Philippi:
Quod tibi, Roma, fuga Pyrrhus trepidante reliquit,
Quo te Fabricius regi non vendidit auro,
Quidquid parcorum mores servastis avorum,
Quod dites Asiae populi misere tributum,
Victorique dedit Minoia Creta Metello,
Quod Cato longinqua vexit super aequora Cypro.
Tunc orientis opes, captorumque ultima regum
Quae Pompeianis praelata est gaza triumphis
Egeritur: tristi spoliantur templa rapina;
Pauperiorque fuit tunc primum Caesare Roma.

[¶2] Meanwhile all nations of the earth were moved
To share in Magnus' fortunes and the war,
And in his fated ruin. Graecia sent,
Nearest of all, her succours to the host.
From Cirrha and Parnassus' double peak
And from Amphissa, Phocis sent her youth:
From swift Cephisus' fate-declaring stream,
And Theban Dirce, chiefs Boeotian came:
All Pisa mustered and Alpheus' youths,
Alpheus who in far Sicilian lands
Beyond the billows seeks the day again:
Arcadian Maenalus, and OEta loved
By Hercules, and old Dodona's oaks
Are left to silence; for the sacred train
With all Epirus rushes to the war.
Athens, deserted at the call to arms,
Yet found three vessels in Apollo's port
To prove her triumph o'er the Persian king.
Next seek the battle Creta's hundred tribes
Beloved of Jove and rivalling the east
In skill to wing the arrow from the bow.
The walls of Dardan Oricum, the woods
Where Athamanians wander, and the banks
Of swift Absyrtus foaming to the main
Are left forsaken. Enchelaean tribes
Whose king was Cadmus, and whose name records
His transformation, join the host; and those
Who till Penean fields and turn the share
Above Iolcos in Thessalian lands.
There first men steeled their hearts to dare the waves
And 'gainst the rage of ocean and the storm
To match their strength, when the rude Argo sailed
Upon that distant quest, and spurned the shore,
Joining remotest nations in her flight,
And gave the fates another form of death.
Left too was Pholoe; pretended home
Where dwelt the fabled race of double form;
Arcadian Maenalus; the Thracian mount
Named Hemus; Strymon, whence, as autumn falls,
Winged squadrons seek the banks of warmer Nile;
And all those isles the mouths of Ister bathe
Mixed with the tidal wave; the land through which
The cooling eddies of Caicus flow
Idalian; and Arisbe bare of glebe.
The hinds of Pitane, and those who till
Celaenae's fields which mourned of yore the gift
Of Pallas, and the vengeance of the god,
All draw the sword; and those from Marsyas' flood
First swift, then doubling backwards with the stream
Of sinuous Meander: and from where
Earth gives Pactolus and his golden store
Free passage forth; and where with rival wealth
Rich Hermus parts the meads. Nor stayed the bands
Of Troy, but (doomed as in old time) they joined
Pompeius' fated camp: nor held them back
The fabled past, nor Caesar's claimed descent
From their Iulus. Syrian peoples came
From palmy Idumea and the walls
Of Ninus great of yore; from windy plains
Of far Damascus and from Gaza's hold,
From Sidon's courts enriched with purple dye,
And Tyre oft trembling with the shaken earth.
All these led on by Cynosura's light
Furrow their certain path to reach the war.
Phoenicians first (if story be believed)
Dared to record in characters; for yet
Papyrus was not fashioned, and the priests
Of Memphis, carving symbols upon walls
Of mystic sense (in shape of beast or fowl)
Preserved the secrets of their magic art.
Next Persean Tarsus and high Taurus' groves
Are left deserted, and Corycium's cave;
And all Cilicia's ports, pirate no more,
Resound with preparation. Nor the East
Refused the call, where furthest Ganges dares,
Alone of rivers, to discharge his stream
Against the sun opposing; on this shore
The Macedonian conqueror stayed his foot
And found the world his victor; Indus rolls
Here his vast torrent, by Hydaspes joined
Yet scarce augmented; here from luscious reed
Men draw sweet liquor; here they dye their locks
With tints of saffron, and with coloured gems
Bind down their flowing garments; here are they,
Who satiate of life and proud to die,
Ascend the blazing pyre, and conquering fate,
Scorn to live longer; but triumphant give
The remnant of their days in flame to heaven.
Nor failed to join the host a hardy band
Of Cappadocians, tilling now the soil,
Once pirates of the main: nor those who dwell
Where steep Niphates hurls the avalanche,
And where on Median Coatra's sides
The giant forest rises to the sky.
And you, Arabians, from your distant home
Came to a world unknown, and wondering saw
The shadows fall no longer to the left.
Then fired with ardour for the Roman war
Oretas came, and far Carmania's chiefs,
Whose clime lies southward, yet men thence descry
Low down the Pole star, and Bootes runs
Hasting to set, part seen, his nightly course;
And Ethiopians from that southern land
Which lies without the circuit of the stars,
Did not the Bull with curving hoof advanced
O'erstep the limit. From that mountain zone
They came, where rising from a common fount
Euphrates flows and Tigris, and did earth
Permit, were joined with either name; but now
While like th' Egyptian flood Euphrates spreads
His fertilising water, Tigris first
Drawn down by earth in covered depths is plunged
And holds a secret course; then born again
Flows on unhindered to the Persian sea.
But warlike Parthia wavered 'twixt the chiefs,
Content to have made them two; while Scythia's hordes
Dipped fresh their darts in poison, whom the stream
Of Bactros bounds and vast Hyrcanian woods.
Hence springs that rugged nation swift and fierce,
Descended from the Twins' great charioteer.
Nor failed Sarmatia, nor the tribes that dwell
By richest Phasis, and on Halys' banks,
Which sealed the doom of Croesus king; nor where
From far Rhipaean ranges Tanais flows,
On either hand a quarter of the world,
Asia and Europe, and in winding course
Carves out a continent; nor where the strait
In boiling surge pours to the Pontic deep
Maeotis' waters, rivalling the pride
Of those Herculean pillar-gates that guard
The entrance to an ocean. Thence with hair
In golden fillets, Arimaspians came,
And fierce Massagetae, who quaff the blood
Of the brave steed on which they fight and flee.
Not when great Cyrus on Memnonian realms
His warriors poured; nor when, their weapons piled,
The Persian told the number of his host;
Nor when th' avenger of a brother's shame
Loaded the billows with his mighty fleet,
Beneath one chief so many kings made war;
Nor e'er met nations varied thus in garb
And thus in language. To Pompeius' death
Thus Fortune called them: and a world in arms
Witnessed his ruin. From where Afric's god,
Two-horned Ammon, rears his temple, came
All Libya ceaseless, from the wastes that touch
The bounds of Egypt to the shore that meets
The Western Ocean. Thus, to award the prize
Of Empire at one blow, Pharsalia brought
'Neath Caesar's conquering hand the banded world.

> Latin: Interea totum Magni fortuna per orbem
Secum casuras in proelia moverat urbes.
Proxima vicino vires dat Graecia bello.
Phocaicas Amphissa manus scopulosaque Cirrha,
Parnasusque iugo misit desertus utroque.
Boeoti coiere duces, quos impiger ambit
Fatidica Cephisos aqua, Cadmeaque Dirce,
Pisaeaeque manus, populisque per aequora mittens
Sicaniis Alpheus aquas. Tunc Maenala liquit
Arcas, et Herculeam miles Trachinins Oeten.
Thesproti, Dryopesque ruunt, quercusque silentes
Chaonio veteres liquerunt vertice Selloe.
Exhausit totas quamvis delectus Athenae,
Exiguae Phoebea tenent navalia puppes.
Tresque petunt veram credi Salamiua carinae.
Iam dilecta Iovi centenis venit in arma
Creta vetus populis, Cnososque agitare pharetras
Docta, nec Eois peior Gortyna sagittis.
Tunc qui Dardaniam tenet Oricon, et vagus altis
Dispersus silvis Athamas, et nomine prisco
Encheliae, versi testantes funera Cadmi,
Colchis et Adriacas spumans Apsyrtis in undas,
Et Penei qui rura colunt, quorumque labore
Thessalus Aemoniam vomer proscindit Iolcon.
Inde lacessitum primo mare, cum rudis Argo
Miscuit ignotas temerato litore gentes,
Primaque cum ventis pelagique furentibus undis
Composuit mortale genus, fatisque per illam
Accessit mors una ratem. Tunc linquitur Aemus
Thracius, et populum Pholoe mentita biformem.
Deseritur Strymon tepido committere Nilo
Bistonias consuetus aves, et barbara Cone
Sarmaticas ubi perdit aquas, sparsamque profundo
Multifidi Peucen unum caput adluit latri:
Mysiaque, et gelido tellus perfusa Cayco
Idalis, et nimium glebis exilis Arisbe.
Quique colunt Pitanen, et quae tua munera Pallas
Lugent damnatae Phoebo victore Celaenae:
Qua celer et ripis descendens Marsya rectis
Errantem Maeandron adit, mixtusque refertur:
Passaque ab auriferis tellus exire metallis
Pactolon: qua culta secat non vilior Hermus.
Iliacae quoque signa manus, perituraque castra
Ominibus petiere suis: nec fabula Troiae
Continuit, Phrygiique ferens se Caesar Iuli.
Accedunt Syriae populi; desertus Orontes,
Et felix, (sic fama) Ninos: ventosa Damascos,
Gazaque, et arbusto palmarum dives Idume.
Et Tyros instabilis, pretiosaque murice Sidon.
Has ad bella rates non flexo limite ponti,
Certior haud ullis duxit Cynosura carinis.
Phoenices primi, famae si creditur, ausi
Mansuram rudibus vocem signasse figuris.
Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere biblos
Noverat: et saxis tantum volucresque feraeque
Sculptaque servabant magicas animalia linguas.
Deseritur Taurique nemus, Perseaque Tarsos,
Coryciumque patens exesis rupibus antrum,
Mallos, et extremae resonant navalibus Aegae.
Itque Cilix iusta, iam non pirata, carina.
Movit et Eoos bellorum fama recessus,
Qua colitur Ganges, toto qui solus in orbe
Ostia nascenti contraria solvere Phoebo
Audet, et adversum fluctus impellit in Eurum:
Hic, ubi Pellaeus, post Tethyos aequora, ductor
Constitit, et magno vinci se fassus ab orbe est.
Quaque ferens rapidum diviso gurgite fontem
Vastis Indus aquis mixtum non sentit Hydaspen.
Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos,
Et qui tingentes croceo medicamine crinem
Fluxa coloratis adstringunt carbasa gemmis.
Quique suas struxere pyras, vivique calentes
Conscendere rogos. Pro, quanta est gloria genti,
Iniecisse manum fatis, vitaque repletos,
Quod superest, donasse deis! Venere feroces
Cappadoces; duri populus nunc cultor Amani,
Armeniusque tenens volventem saxa Niphaten:
Aethera tangentes silvas liquere Coatrae.
Ignotum vobis, Arabes, venistis in orbem,
Umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras.
Tunc furor extremos movit Romanus Oretas,
Carmanosque duces, quorum deflexus in Austrum
Aether, non totam mergi tamen adspicit Arcton;
Lucet et exigua velox ibi nocte Bootes.
Aethiopumque solum, quod non premeretur ab ulla
Signiferi regione poli, nisi, poplite lapso,
Ultima curvati procederet ungula Tauri.
Quaque caput rapido tollit cum Tigride magnus
Euphrates, quos non diversis fontibus edit
Persis, et incertum, tellus si misceat amnes,
Quod potius sit nomen aquis. Sed sparsus in agros
Fertilis Euphrates Phariae vice fungitur undae:
At Tigrim subito tellus absorbet hiatu,
Occultosque tegit cursus, rursusque renatum
Fonte novo flumen pelagi non abnegat undis.
Inter Caesareas acies diversaque signa
Pugnaces dubium Parthi tenuere favorem,
Contenti fecisse duos. Tinxere sagittas
Errantes Scythiae populi, quos gurgite Bactros
Includit gelido, vastisque Hyrcania silvis.
Hinc Lacedaemonii, moto gens aspera freno,
Heniochi, saevisque affinis Sarmata Moschis.
Colchorum qua rura secat ditissima Phasis:
Qua Croeso fatalis Halys, qua vertice lapsus
Rhipaeo Tanais diversi nomina mundi
Imposuit ripis, Asiaeque et terminus idem
Europae, mediae dirimens confinia terrae,
Nunc huc, nunc illuc, qua flectitur, ampliat orbem.
Quaque fretum torrens Maeotidos egerit undas,
Pontus et Herculeis aufertur gloria metis,
Oceanumque negat solas admittere Gades.
Hinc Essedoniae gentes, auroque ligatas
Substringens, Arimaspe, comas: hinc fortis Arius,
Longaque Sarmatici solvens ieiunia belli
Massagetes quo fugit equo; volucresque Geloni.
Non, cum Memnoniis deducens agmina regnis
Cyrus, et effusis numerato milite telis
Descendit Perses, fraternique ultor amoris
Aequora cum tantis percussit classibus, unum
Tot reges habuere ducem. Colere nec umquam
Tam variae cultu gentes, tam dissona vulgi
Ora. Tot immensae comites missura ruinae
Excivit populos, et dignas funere Magni
Exsequias Fortuna dedit. Non corniger Hammon
Mittere Marmaridas cessavit in arma catervas:
Quidquid ab occiduis Libye patet arida Mauris,
Usque Paraetonias Eoa ad litora Syrtes.
Acciperet felix ne non semel omnia Caesar,
Vincendum pariter Pharsalia praestitit orbem.

[¶3] Now Caesar left the walls of trembling Rome
And swift across the cloudy Alpine tops
He winged his march; but while all others fled
Far from his path, in terror of his name,
Phocaea's manhood with un-Grecian faith
Held to their pledged obedience, and dared
To follow right, not fate; but first of all
With olive boughs of truce before them borne
The chieftain they approach, with peaceful words
In hope to alter his unbending will
And tame his fury. 'Search the ancient books
Which chronicle the deeds of Latian fame;
Thou'lt ever find, when foreign foes pressed hard,
Massilia's prowess on the side of Rome.
And now, if triumphs in an unknown world
Thou seekest, Caesar, here our arms and swords
Accept in aid: but if, in impious strife
Of civil discord, with a Roman foe
Thou arm'st for battle, tears we give thee then
And hold aloof: no stranger hand may touch
Celestial wounds. Should all Olympus' hosts
Have rushed to war, or should the giant brood
Assault the stars, yet men would not presume
Or by their prayers or arms to help the gods:
And, ignorant of the fortunes of the sky,
Taught by the thunderbolts alone, would know
That Jupiter supreme still held the throne.
Add that unnumbered nations join the fray:
Nor shrinks the world so much from taint of crime
That civil wars reluctant swords require.
But grant that strangers shun thy destinies
And only Romans fight-shall not the son
Shrink ere he strike his father? on both sides
Brothers forbid the weapon to be hurled?
The world's end comes when other hands are armed
' Than those which custom and the gods allow.
' For us, this is our prayer: Leave, Caesar, here
' Thy dreadful eagles, keep thy hostile signs
' Back from our gates, but enter thou in peace
' Massilia's ramparts; let our city rest
' Withdrawn from crime, to Magnus and to thee
' Safe: and should favouring fate preserve our walls
' Inviolate, when both shall wish for peace
' Here meet unarmed. Why hither dost thou turn
' Thy rapid march, when to Iberian fights
'The war commands thee? Weight nor power have we
' To sway the mighty conflicts of the world.
' We boast no victories since our fatherland
'We left in exile: when Phocaea's fort
' Perished in flames, we sought another here;
'And here on foreign shores, in narrow bounds
' Confined and safe, our boast is sturdy faith;
' Nought else. But if our city to blockade
' Is now thy mind-to force the gates, and hurl
' Javelin and blazing torch upon our homes-
' Do what thou wilt: cut off the source that fills
' Our foaming river, force us, prone in thirst,
' To dig the earth and lap the scanty pool;
' Seize on our corn and leave us food abhorred:
' This people shall not shun, for freedom's sake,
' The ills Saguntum bore in Punic siege;
' Torn, vainly clinging, from the shrunken breast
' The starving babe shall perish in the flames.
' Wives at their husbands' hands shall pray their fate,
' And brothers' weapons deal a mutual death.
' Such be our civil war; not, Caesar, thine.'
But Caesar's visage stern betrayed his ire
Which thus broke forth in words: ' Vain is the hope
Ye rest upon my march: speed though I may
Towards my western goal, time still remains
To blot Massilia out. Rejoice, my troops!
' Unsought the war ye longed for meets you now:
The fates concede it. As the tempests lose
Their strength by sturdy forests unopposed,
And as the fire that finds no fuel dies,
Even so to find no foe is Caesar's ill.
When those who may be conquered will not fight,
That is defeat. Degenerate, disarmed
Their gates admit me! Not content, forsooth,
With shutting Caesar out they shut him in!
They shun the taint of war! Such prayer for peace
Brings with it chastisement. In Caesar's age
Learn that not peace, but war within his ranks
Alone can make you safe.'
He turns his march
Upon the fearless city, and beholds
Fast barred the gate-ways, while in arms the youths
Stand on the battlements. Hard by the walls
A hillock rose, upon the further side
Expanding in a plain of gentle slope,
Fit (as he deemed it) for a camp with ditch
And mound encircling. To a lofty height
The nearest portion of the city rose,
While intervening valleys lay between.
These summits with a mighty trench to bind
The chief resolves, gigantic though the toil.
But first, from furthest boundaries of his camp,
Enclosing streams and meadows, to the sea
To draw a rampart, upon either hand
Heaved up with earthy sod; with lofty towers
Crowned; and to shut Massilia from the land.
Then did the Grecian city win renown
Eternal, deathless, for that uncompelled
Nor fearing for herself, but free to act
She made the conqueror pause: and he who seized
All in resistless course found here delay:
And Fortune, hastening to lay the world
Low at her favourite's feet, was forced to stay
For these few moments her impatient hand.
Now fell the forests far and wide, despoiled
Of all their giant trunks: for as the mound
On earth and brushwood stood, a timber frame
Held firm the soil, lest pressed beneath its towers
The mass might topple down.

> Latin: Ille ubi deseruit trepidantis moenia Romae,
Agmine nubiferam rapto superevolat Alpem:
Cumque ali famae populi terrore paverent,
Phocais in dubiis ausa est servare iuventus
Non Graia levitate fidem, signataque iura,
Et caussas, non fata, sequi. Tamen ante furorem
Indomitum duramque viri deflectere mentem
Pacifico sermone parant, hostemque propincum
Orant Cecropiae praelata fronde Minervae:
Semper in externis populo communia vestro
Massiliam bellis testatur fata tulisse,
Comprensa est Latiis quaecunque annalibus aetas.
Et nunc, ignoto si quos petis orbe triumphos,
Accipe devotas externa in proelia dextras.
At si funestas acies, si dira paratis
Proelia discordes, lacrimas civilibus armis
Secretumque damus. Tractentur vulnera nulla
Sacra manu. Si coelicolis furor arma dedisset,
Aut si terrigenae tentarent astra Gigantes,
Non tamen auderet pietas humana vel armis
Vel votis prodesse Iovi; sortisque deorum
Ignarum mortale genus, per fulmina tantum
Sciret adhuc coelo solum regnare Tonantem.
Adde quod innumerae concurrunt undique gentes,
Nec sic horret iners scelerum contagia mundus,
Ut gladiis egeant civilia bella coactis.
Sit mens ista quidem cunctis, ut vestra recusent
Fata, nec haec alius committat proelia miles.
Cui non conspecto languebit dextra parente?
Telaque diversi prohibebunt spargere fratres.
Finis adest rerum, si non committitis illis
Arma, quibus fas est. Nobis haec summa precandi:
Terribiles aquilas infestaque signa relinquas
Urbe procul, nostrisque velis te credere muris,
Excludique sinas, admisso Caesare, bellum.
Sit locus exceptus sceleri, Magnoque tibique
Tutus, ut, invictae fatum si consulat urbi,
Foedera si placeant, sit, quo veniatis inermes.
Vel, cum tanta vocent discrimina Martis Iberi,
Quid rapidum deflectis iter? Non pondera rerum,
Non momenta sumus, numquam felicibus armis
Usa manus, patriae primis a sedibus exsul,
Et post translatas exustae Phocidos arces
Moenibus exiguis alieno in litore tuti,
Illustrat quos sola fides. Si claudere muros
Obsidione paras, et vi perfringere portas:
Excepisse faces tectis et tela parati,
Undarum raptos aversis fontibus haustus
Quaerere, et effossam sitientes lambere terram:
Et, desit si larga Ceres, tunc horrida cerni,
Foedaque contingi maculato carpere morsu.
Nec pavet hic populus pro libertate subire,
Obsessum Poeno gessit quod Marte Saguntum.
Pectoribus rapti matrum, frustraque trahentes
Ubera sicca fame medios mittentur in ignes;
Uxor et a caro poscet sibi fata marito.
Vulnera miscebunt fratres, bellumque coacti
Hoc potius civile gerent. Sic Graia iuventus
Finierat: quum, turbato iam prodita vultu,
Ira ducis tandem testata est voce dolorem.
Vana movet Graios nostri fiducia cursus.
Quamvis Hesperium mundi properemus ad axem,
Massiliam delere vacat. Gaudete cohortes:
Obvia praebentur fatorum munere bella.
Ventus ut amittit vires, nisi robore densae
Occurrant silvae, spatio diffsus inani:
Utque perit magnus nullis obstantibus ignis,
Sic hostes mihi desse nocet: damnumque putamus
Armorum, nisi, qui vinci potuere, rebellent.
Sed si solus eam, dimissis degener armis,
Tunc mihi tecta patent. Iam non exscudere tantum,
Inclusisse volunt. At enim contagia belli
Dira fugant. Dabitis poenas pro pace petita:
Et nihil esse meo discetis tutius aevo,
Quam duce me bellum. Sic postquam fatus, ad urbem
Haud trepidam convertit iter: tunc moenia clausa
Conspicit: et densa iuvenum vallata corona.
Haud procul a muris tumulas surgentis in altum
Telluris parvum diffuso vertice campum
Explicat: haec patiens longo munimine cingi
Visa duci rapes, tutisque aptissima castris.
Proxima pars urbis celsam consurgit in arcem,
Par tumulo, mediisque sedent convallibus arva.
Tunc res immenso placuit statura labore,
Aggere diversos vasto committere colles.
Sed prius ut totam, qua terra cingitur, urbem
Clauderet, a summis perduxit ad aequora castris
Longum Caesar opus, fontesque et pabula campi
Amplexus fossa, densas tollentia pinnas
Cespitibus, crudaque exstruxit brachia terra.
Iam satis hoc Graiae memorandum contigit urbi,
Aeternumque decus, quod non impulsa, nec ipso
Strata metu, tenuit flagrantis in omnia belli
Praecipitem cursum: raptisque a Caesare cunctis,
Vincitur una mora. Quantum est, quod fata tenentur!
Quodque virum toti properans imponere mundo
Hos perdit Fortuna dies! Tunc omnia late
Procumbunt nemora, et spoliantur robore silvae,
Ut, cum terra levis mediam virgultaque molem
Suspendant, structa laterum compage ligatam
Arctet humum, pressus ne cedat turribus agger.