---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 6 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/6/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 6. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/6/"
---

# 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.

## 6. Book III · lines 399–762

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/6/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/6/#p-N

[¶0] There stood a grove
Which from the earliest time no hand of man
Had dared to violate; hidden from the sun
Its chill recesses; matted boughs entwined
Prisoned the air within. No sylvan nymphs
Here found a home, nor Pan, but savage rites
And barbarous worship, altars horrible
On massive stones upreared; sacred with blood
Of men was every tree. If faith be given
To ancient myth, no fowl has ever dared
To rest upon those branches, and no beast
Has made his lair beneath: no tempest falls,
Nor lightnings flash upon it from the cloud.
Stagnant the air, unmoving, yet the leaves
Filled with mysterious trembling; dripped the streams
From coal-black fountains; effigies of gods
Rude, scarcely fashioned from some fallen trunk
Held the mid space: and, pallid with decay,
Their rotting shapes struck terror. Thus do men
Dread most the god unknown. 'Twas said that caves
Rumbled with earthquakes, that the prostrate yew
Rose up again; that fiery tongues of flame
Gleamed in the forest depths, yet were the trees
Unkindled; and that snakes in frequent folds
Were coiled around the trunks. Men flee the spot
Nor dare to worship near: and e'en the priest
Or when bright Phoebus holds the height, or when
Dark night controls the heavens, in anxious dread
Draws near the grove and fears to find its lord.
Spared in the former war, still dense it rose
Where all the hills were bare, and Caesar now
Its fall commanded. But the brawny arms
Which swayed the axes trembled, and the men,
Awed by the sacred grove's dark majesty,
Held back the blow they thought would be returned.
This Caesar saw, and swift within his grasp
Uprose a ponderous axe, which downward fell
Cleaving a mighty oak that towered to heaven,
While thus he spake: ' Henceforth let no man dread
'To fell this forest: all the crime is mine.
'This be your creed.' He spake, and all obeyed,
For Caesar's ire weighed down the wrath of Heaven.
Yet ceased they not to fear. Then first the oak,
Dodona's ancient boast; the knotty holm;
The cypress, witness of patrician grief,
The buoyant alder, laid their foliage low
Admitting day; though scarcely through the stems
Their fall found passage. At the sight the Gauls
Grieved; but the garrison within the walls
Rejoiced: for thus shall men insult the gods
And find no punishment? Yet fortune oft
Protects the guilty; on the poor alone
The gods can vent their ire. Enough hewn down,
They seize the country wagons; and the hind,
His oxen gone which else had drawn the plough,
Mourns for his harvest.
But the eager chief
Impatient of the combat by the walls
Carries the warfare to the furthest west.
Meanwhile a giant mound, on star-shaped wheels
Concealed, they fashion, crowned with double towers
High as the battlements, by cause unseen
Slow creeping onwards; while amazed the foe
Beheld, and thought some subterranean gust
Had burst the caverns of the earth and forced
The nodding pile aloft, and wondered sore
Their walls should stand unshaken. From its height
Hissed down the weapons; but the Grecian bolts
WVith greater force were on the Romans hurled;
Nor by the arm unaided, for the lance
Urged by the catapult resistless rushed
Through arms and shield and flesh, and left a death
Behind, nor stayed its course: and massive stones
Cast by the beams of mighty engines fell;
As from the mountain top some time-worn rock
At length by winds dislodged, in all its track
Spreads ruin vast: nor crushed the life alone
Forth from the body, but dispersed the limbs
In fragments undistinguished and in blood.
But as protected by the armour shield
The might of Rome drew nigh beneath the wall
(The front rank with their bucklers interlaced
And held above their helms), the missiles fell
Behind their backs, nor could the toiling Greeks
Deflect their engines, throwing still the bolts
Far into space; but from the rampart top
Flung ponderous masses down. Long as the shields
Held firm together, like to hail that falls
Harmless upon a roof, so long the stones
Crushed down innocuous; but as the blows
Rained fierce and ceaseless and the Romans tired,
Some here and there sank fainting. Next the roof
Moves on with earth besprinkled: underneath
The ram conceals his head, which, poised and swung,
They dash with mighty force upon the wall,
Covered themselves with mantlets. Though the head
Light on the lower stones, yet as the shock
Falls and refalls, from battlement to base
The rampart soon shall topple. But by balks
And rocky fragments overwhelmed, and flames,
The roof at length gives way; and worn with toil
All spent in vain, the wearied troops withdraw
And seek the shelter of their tents again.
Thus far to hold their battlements was all
The Greeks had hoped; now, venturing attack,
With glittering torches for their arms, by night
Fearless they sallied forth: nor lance they bear
Nor deadly bow, nor shaft; for fire alone
Is now their weapon. Through the Roman works
Driven by the wind the conflagration spread:
Nor did the newness of the wood make pause
The fury of the flames, which, fed afresh
By living torches, 'neath a smoky pall
Leaped on in fiery tongues. Not wood alone
But stones gigantic crumbling into dust
Dissolved beneath the heat; the mighty mound
Lay prone, yet in its ruin larger seemed.

> Latin: Lucus erat longo numquam violatus ab evo,
Obscurum cingens connexis aera ramis,
Et gelidas alte submotis solibus umbras.
Hunc non ruricolae Panes, nemorumque potentes
Silvani Nymphaeque tenent, sed barbara ritu
Sacra deum, structae diris altaribus arae;
Omnisque humanis lustrata cruoribus arbos.
Si qua fidem meruit superos mirata vetustas,
Illis et volucres metuunt insistere ramis,
Et lustris recubare ferae: nec ventus in illas
Incubuit silvas, excussaque nubibus atris
Fulgura: non ullis frondem praebentibus auris
Arboribus suus horror inest. Tum plurima nigris
Fontibus unda cadit, simulacraque moesta deorum
Arte carent, caesisque extant informia truncis.
Ipse situs putrique facit iam robore pallor
Attonitos: non vulgatis sacrata figuris
Numina sic metuunt: tantum terroribus addit,
Quos timeant non nosse deos. Iam fama ferebat
Saepe cavas motu terrae mugire cavernas,
Et procumbentes iterum consurgere taxos,
Et non ardentis fulgere incendia silvae,
Roboraque amplexos circumfluxisse dracones.
Non illum cultu populi propiore frequentant,
Sed cessere deis. Medio cum Phoebus in axe est,
Aut coelum nox atra tenet, pavet ipse sacerdos
Acessus, dominumque timet deprendere luci.
Hanc iubet immisso silvam procumbere ferro:
Nam vicina operi belloque intacta priore
Inter nudatos stabat densissima montes.
Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda
Maiestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent,
In sua credebant redituras membra secures.
Implicitas magno Caesar torpore cohortes
Ut vidit, primus raptam librare bipennem
Ausus, et aeriam ferro proscindere quercum,
Effatur, merso violata in robora ferro:
Iam ne quis vestrum dubitet subvertere silvam,
Credite me fecisse nefas. Tunc paruit omnis
Imperiis non sublato secura pavore
Turba, sed expensa superorum et Caesaris ira.
Procumbunt orni, nodosa impellitur ilex,
Silvaque Dodones, et fluctibus aptior alnus,
Et non plebeios luctus testata cupressus,
Tum primum posuere comas, et fronde carentes
Admisere diem: propulsaque robore denso
Sustinuit se silva cadens. Gemuere videntes
Gallorum populi: muris sed clausa iuventus
Exsultat. Quis enim laesos impune putaret
Esse deos? Servat multos fortuna nocentes:
Et tantum miseris irasci numina possunt.
Utque satis caesi nemoris, quaesita per agros
Plaustra ferunt: curvoque soli cessantis aratro
Agricolae raptis annum flevere iuvencis.
Dux tamen, impatiens haesuri ad moenia Martis,
Versus ad Hispanas acies extremaque mundi,
Iussit bella geri. Stellatis axibus agger
Erigitur, geminasque aequantes moenia turres
Accipit: hae nullo fixerunt robore terram,
Sed per iter longum caussa repsere latenti.
Cum tantum nutaret onus, telluris inanes
Concussisse sinus quaerentem erumpere ventum
Credidit, et muros mirata est stare iuventus.
Illinc tela cadunt excelsas urbis in arces.
Sed maior Graio Romana in corpora ferro
Vis inerat. Neque enim solis excussa lacertis
Lancea, sed tenso ballistae turbine rapta,
Haud unum contenta latus transire, quiescit:
Sed pandens perque arma viam, perque ossa, relicta
Morte, fugit: superest telo post vulnera cursus.
At saxum quoties ingenti verberis actu
Excutitur, qualis rupes, quam vertice montis
Abscidit impulsu ventorum adiuta vetustas,
Frangit cuncta ruens: nec tantum corpora pressa
Exanimat: totos cum sanguine dissipat artus.
Ut tamen hostiles densa testudine muros
Tecta subit virtus, armisque innexa priores
Arma ferunt, galeamque extentus protegit umbo,
Quae prius ex longo nocuerunt missa recessu,
Iam post terga cadunt: nec Graiis flectere iactum,
Aut facilis labor est longinqua ad tela parati
Tormenti mutare modum: sed pondere solo
Contenti, nudis evolvunt saxa lacertis.
Dum fuit armorum series, ut grandine tecta
Innocua percussa sonant, sic omnia tela
Respuit: at postquam virtus incensa virorum
Perpetuam rupit defesso milite cratem,
Singula continuis cesserunt ictibus arma.
Tunc adoperta levi procedit vinea terra,
Sub cuius pluteis et tecta fronte latentes
Moliri nunc ima parant, et vertere ferro
Moenia: nunc aries suspenso fortior ictu
Incussus densi compagem solvere muri
Tentat, et impositis unum subducere saxis.
Sed super et flammis, et magnae fragmine molis,
Et sudibus crebris, et adusti roboris ictu
Percussae cedunt crates, frustraque labore
Exhausto fessus repetit tentoria miles.
Summa fuit Grais, starent ut moenia, voti.
Ultro acies inferre parant: armisque coruscas
Nocturni texere faces: audaxque iuventus
Erupit: non hasta viris, non letifer arcus,
Telum flamma fuit, rapiensque incendia ventus
Per Romana tulit celeri munimina cursu.
Nec, quamvis viridi lactetur robore, lentas
Ignis agit vires: teda sed raptus ab omni
Consequitur nigri spatiosa volumina fumi:
Nec solum silvas, sed saxa iugentia solvit,
Et crudae putri fluxerunt pulvere cautes.
Procubuit, maiorque iacens adparuit agger.

[¶1] Next, conquered on the land, upon the main
They try their fortunes. On their simple craft
No painted figure-head adorned the bows
Nor claimed protection from the gods; but rude,
Just as they fell upon their mountain homes,
The trees were knit together, and the deck
Gave steady foot-hold for an ocean fight.
Meanwhile had Caesar's squadron left the Rhone
And reached with Brutus' turret ship the strait
By Stoechas' isles. Nor less the Grecian host-
Boys not yet grown to war, and aged men,
Armed for the conflict, with their all at stake.
Nor only did they marshal for the fight
Ships meet for service; but their ancient keels
Brought from the dockyards. When the morning rays
Broke from the waters, and the sky was clear,
And all the winds were still upon the deep,
Smoothed for the battle, swift on either part
The fleets essay the open; and the ships
Tremble beneath the oars that urge them on,
By sinewy arms impelled. Upon the wings
That bound the Roman fleet, the larger craft
With triple and quadruple banks of oars
Gird in the lesser: so they front the sea;
While in their rear, shaped as a crescent moon,
Liburnian galleys follow. Over all
Towers Brutus' deck praetorian. Oars on oars
Propel the bulky vessel through the main,
Six ranks; the topmost strike the waves afar.
When such a space remained between the fleets
As could be covered by a single stroke,
Innumerable voices rise in air
Drowning with resonant din the beat of oars
And note of trumpet summoning: and all
Sit on the benches and with mighty stroke
Sweep o'er the sea and gain the space between.
Then crashed the prows together, and the keels
Rebounded backwards, and unnumbered darts
Or darkened all the sky or, in their fall,
The vacant ocean. As the wings grew wide,
Less densely packed the fleet, some Grecian ships
Pressed in between; as when with west and east
The tide contends, this way the waves are driven
And that the sea; so as they plough the deep
In various lines converging, what the prow
Throws up advancing, from the foemen's oars
Falls back repelled. But soon the Grecian fleet
Was handier found in battle, and in flight
Pretended, and in shorter curves could round;
More deftly governed by the guiding helm:
While on the Roman side their steadier keels
Gave vantage, as to men who fight on land.
Then Brutus to the pilot of his ship:
' Dost suffer them to range the wider deep,
'Contending with the foe in naval skill?
' Draw close the war and drive us on the prows
'Of these Phocaeans.' Him the pilot heard;
And turned his vessel slantwise to the foe.
Then was the sea all covered with the war:
Then Grecian ships attacking Brutus found
Their ruin in the stroke, and vanquished lay
Beside his bulwarks; with curved hooks and chains
The foe they grapple, by entangled oars
Themselves held back. And now no outstretched arm
Hurls forth the javelin, but sword in hand
They wage a naval fight: each from his ship
Leans forward to the stroke, and falls when slain
Upon a foeman's deck. Deep flows the stream
Of purple slaughter to the foamy main:
By piles of floating corpses are the sides,
Though grappled, kept asunder. Some, half dead,
Plunge in the ocean, gulping down the brine
Encrimsoned with their blood; some lingering still
Draw their last struggling breath amid the wreck
Of broken navies: weapons which have missed
Find yet their victims, and the falling steel
Fails not in middle deep to deal the wound.
One vessel circled by Phocaean keels
Divides her strength, and on the right and left
On either side with equal war contends;
On whose high poop while Tagus fighting gripped
The stern Phocaean, pierced his back and breast
Two fatal weapons; in the midst the steel
Met, and the blood, uncertain whence to flow,
Stood still, arrested, till with double course
Forth by a sudden gush it drove each dart,
And sent the life abroad through either wound.
Here fated Telon also steered his ship:
No pilot's hand upon an angry sea
More deftly ruled a vessel. Well he knew,
Or by the sun or crescent moon, how best
To set his canvas fitted for the breeze
The coming hours would bring. His rushing stem
Shattered a Roman vessel: but a dart
Hurled at the moment quivered in his breast.
He falls, and in the fall his dying hand
Diverts the prow. Then Gyareus, in act
To climb the friendly deck, by javelin pierced,
Still as he hung, by the retaining steel
Fast to the side was nailed.
Twin brethren stand
A fruitful mother's pride; with different fates,
But ne'er distinguished till death's savage hand
Struck once, and ended error: he that lived,
Cause of fresh anguish to their sorrowing souls,
Called ever to the weeping parents back
The image of the lost: who, as the oars
Grecian and Roman mixed their teeth oblique,
Grasped with his dexter hand the Roman ship;
When fell a blow that shore his arm away.
So died, upon the side it held, the hand,
Nor loosed its grasp in death. Yet with the wound
His noble courage rose, and maimed he dared
Renew the fray, and stretched across the sea
To grasp the lost-in vain! another blow
Lopped arm and hand alike. Nor shield nor sword
Henceforth are his. Yet even now he seeks
No sheltering hold, but with his chest advanced
Before his brother armed, he claims the fight,
And holding in his breast the darts which else
Had slain his comrades, pierced with countless spears,
He falls in death well earned; yet ere his end
Collects his parting life, and all his strength
Strains to the utmost and with failing limbs
Leaps on the foeman's deck; by weight alone
Injurious; for streaming down with gore
And piled on high with corpses, while her sides
Sounded to ceaseless blows, the fated ship
Let in the greedy brine until her ways
Were level with the waters-then she plunged
In whirling eddies downwards-and the main
First parted, then closed in upon its prey.
Full many wondrous deaths, with fates diverse,
Upon the sea in that day's fight befell.

> Latin: Spes victis telluris abit, placuitque profundo
Fortunam tentare mari Non robore picto
Ornatas decuit fulgens tutela carinas,
Sed rudis, et qualis procumbit montibus arbor,
Conseritur stabilis navalibus area bellis.
Et iam turrigeram Bruti comitata carinam
Venerat in fluctus Rhodani cum gurgite classis,
Stoechados arva tenens. Nec non et Graia iuventua,
Omne suum fatis voluit committere robur,
Grandaevosque senes mixtis armavit ephebis.
Accepit non sola viros, quae stabat in undis
Classis; et emeritas repetunt navalibus alnos.
Ut matutinos spargens super aequora Phoebus
Fregit aquis radios, et liber nubibus aether,
Et posito Borea, pacemque tenentibus Austris,
Servatum bello iacuit mare, movit ab omni
Quisque suam statione ratem, paribusque lacertis
Caesaris hinc puppes, hinc Graio remige classis
Tollitur: impulsae tonsis tremuere carinae,
Crebraque sublimes convellunt verbera puppes.
Cornua Romanae classis validaeque triremes,
Quasque quater surgens exstructi remigis ordo
Commovet, et plures quae mergunt aequore pinus,
Multiplices cinxere rates. Hoc robur aperto
Oppositum pelago. Lunata fronte recedunt
Ordine contentae gemino crevisse Liburnae.
Celsior at cunctis Bruti praetoria puppis
Verberibus senis agitur, molemque profundo.
Invehit, et summis longe petit aequora remis.
Ut tantum medii fuerat maris, utraque classis
Quod semel excussis posset transcurrere tonsis,
Innumerae vasto miscentur in aethere voces:
Remorumque sonus premitur clamore: nec ullae
Audiri potuere tubae. Tunc caerula verrunt,
Atque in transtra cadunt, et remis pectora pulsant.
Ut primum rostris crepuerunt obvia rostra,
In puppim rediere rates, emissaque tela
Aera texerunt vacuumque cadentia pontum.
Et iam diductis extendunt cornua proris,
Diversaeque rates laxata classe receptae.
Ut, quoties aestus Zephyris Eurisque repugnat,
Huc abeunt fluctus, illuc mare: sic, ubi puppes
Sulcato varios duxerunt gurgite tractus,
Quod tulit illa ratis remis, haec repulit aequor.
Sed Graiis habiles pugnamque lacessere pinus
Et tentare fugam, nec longo frangere gyro
Cursum, nec tarde flectenti cedere clavo.
At Romana ratis stabilem praebere carinam
Certior, et terrae similem bellantibus usum.
Tunc in signifera residenti puppe magistro
Brutus ait: Paterisne acies errare profundo,
Artibus et certas pelagi? Iam consere bellum:
Phocaicis medias rostris oppone carinas.
Paruit, obliquas et praebuit hostibus alnos.
Tunc, quaecumque ratis tentavit robora Bruti,
Ictu victa suo percussae capta cohaesit.
Ast alias manicaeque ligant, teretesque catenae,
Seque tenent remis: tecto stetit aequore bellum.
Iam non excussis torquentur tela lacertis,
Nec longinqua cadunt iaculato vulnera ferro:
Miscenturque manus. Navali plurima bello
Ensis agit. Stat quisque suae de robore puppis
Pronus in adversos ictus: nullique perempti
In ratibus cecidere suis. Cruor altus in undis
Spumat, et obducti concreto sanguine fluctus.
Et quas immissi traxerunt vincula ferri,
Has prohibent iungi conserta cadavera puppes.
Semianimes alii vastum subiere profundum,
Hauseruntque suo permixtum sanguine pontum.
Hi, luctantem animam lenta cum morte trahentes,
Fractarum subita ratium periere ruina.
Irrita tela suas peragunt in gurgite caedes:
Et quodcumque cadit frustrato pondere ferrum,
Exceptum mediis invenit vulnus in undis.
Phocaicis Romana ratis vallata carinis,
Robore diducto dextrum laevumque tuetur
Aequo Marte latus: cuius dum pugnat ab alta
Puppe Tagus, Graiumque audax aplustre retentat,
Terga simul pariter missis et pectora telis
Transigitur: medio concurrit pectore ferrum,
Et stetit incertus, flueret quo vulnere, sanguis,
Donec utrasque simul largus cruor expulit hastas,
Divisitque animam, sparsitque in vulnera letum.
Dirigit huc puppim miseri quoque dextra Telonis,
Qua nullam melius, pelago turbante, carinae
Audivere manum: nec lux est notior ulli
Crastina, seu Phoebum videat, seu cornua lunae,
Semper venturis componere carbasa ventis.
Hic Latiae rostro compagem ruperat alni:
Pila sed in medium venere trementia pectus,
Avertitque ratem morientis dextra magistri.
Dum cupit in seciam Gyareus erepere puppim,
Excipit immissum suspensa per ilia ferrum,
Adfixusque rati, telo retinente, pependit.
Stant gemini fratres, fecundae gloria matris,
Quos eadem variis genuerunt viscera fatis.
Discrevit mors saeva viros: unumque relictum
Agnorunt miseri, sublato errore, parentes,
Aeternis caussam lacrimis. Tenet ille dolorem
Semper, et amissum fratrem lugentibus obfert.
Quorum alter, mixtis obliquo pectine remis,
Ausus Romanae Graia de puppe carinae
Iniectare manum: sed eam gravis insuper ictus
Amputat: ilia tamen nisu, quo prenderat, haesit,
Deriguitque tenens strictis immortua nervis.
Crevit in adversis virtus: plus nobilis irae
Truncus habet, fortique instaurat proelia laeva,
Rapturusque suam procumbit in aequora dextram.
Haec quoque cum toto manus est abscisa lacerto.
Iam clypeo telisque carens, non conditur ima
Puppe, sed expositus, fraternaque pectore nudo
Arma tegens, crebra confixus cuspide perstat:
Telaque multorum leto casura suorum
Emerita iam morte tenet. Tum vulnere multo
Effugientem animam lassos collegit in artus,
Membraque contendit toto, quicumque manebat,
Sanguine, et hostilem, defectis robore membris,
Insiluit, solo nociturus pondere, puppim.
Strage virum cumulata ratis, multoque cruore
Plena, per oblicum crebros latus accipit ictus.
At postquam ruptis pelagus compagibus hausit,
Ad summos repleta foros, descendit in undas,
Vicinum involvens contorto vertice pontum.
Aequora discedunt mersa diducta carina,
Inque locum puppis cecidit mare. - Multaque ponto
Praebuit illa dies varii miracula fati.

[¶2] Caught by a grappling-hook that missed the side,
Had Lycidas been whelmed in middle deep;
But by his feet his comrades dragged him back,
And rent in twain he hung; nor slowly flowed
As from a wound the blood; but all his veins
Were torn asunder and the stream of life
Gushed o'er his limbs till lost amid the waves.
From no man dying has the vital breath
Rushed by so wide a path; the lower trunk
Succumbed to death, but with the lungs and heart
Long strove the fates, and hardly won the whole.
While, bent upon the fight, an eager crew
Were gathered to the margin of their deck
(Leaving the upper side as bare of foes),
Their ship was overset. Beneath the keel
Which floated upwards, prisoned in the sea,
And powerless by spread of arms to float
The main, they perished. One who haply swam
Amid the battle, chanced upon a death
Strange and unheard of; for two meeting prows
Transfixed his body. At the double stroke
Wide yawns his chest; blood issues from his mouth
With flesh commingled; and the brazen beaks
Resounding clash together, by the bones
Unhindered: now they part and through the gap
Swift pours the sea and drags the corse below.
Next, of a shipwrecked crew, the larger part
Struggling with death upon the waters, reached
A comrade bark; but when with elbows raised
They seized upon the bulwarks and the ship
Rolled, nor could bear their weight, the ruthless crew
Hacked off their straining arms; then maimed they sank
Below the seething waves, to rise no more.
Now every dart was hurled and every spear,
The soldier weaponless; yet their rage found arms:
One hurls an oar; another's brawny arm
Tugs at the twisted stern; or from the seats
The oarsmen driving, swings a bench in air.
The ships are broken for the fight. They seize
The fallen dead and snatch the sword that slew.
Nay, many from their wounds, frenzied for arms,
Pluck forth the deadly steel, and pressing still
Upon their yawning sides, hurl forth the spear
Back to the hostile ranks from which it came;
Then ebbs their life blood forth.
But deadlier yet
Was that fell force most hostile to the sea;
For, thrown in torches and in sulphurous bolts
Fire all-consuming ran among the ships,
Whose oily timbers soaked in pitch and wax
Inflammable, gave welcome to the flames.
Nor could the waves prevail against the blaze
Which claimed as for its own the fragments borne
Upon the waters. Lo! on burning plank
One hardly 'scapes destruction; one to save
His flaming ship, gives entrance to the main.
Of all the forms of death each fears the one
That brings immediate dying: yet quail not
Their hearts in shipwreck: from the waves they pluck
The fallen darts and furnishing the ships
Essay the feeble stroke; and should that hope
Still fail their hand, they call the sea to aid
And seizing in their grasp some floating foe
Drag him to mutual death. But on that day
Phoceus above all others proved his skill.
Well trained was he to dive beneath the main
And search the waters with unfailing eye;
And should an anchor 'gainst the straining rope
Too firmly bite the sands, to wrench it free.
Oft in his fatal grasp he seized a foe
Nor loosed his grip until the life was gone.
Such was his frequent deed; but this his fate:
For rising, victor (as he thought), to air,
Full on a keel he struck and found his death.
Some, drowning, seized a hostile oar and checked
The flying vessel; not to die in vain,
Their single care; some on their vessel's side
Hanging, in death, with wounded frame essayed
To check the charging prow. Tyrrhenus high
Upon the bulwarks of his ship was struck
By leaden bolt from Balearic sling
Of Lygdamus; straight through his temples passed
The fated missile; and in streams of blood
Forced from their seats his trembling eyeballs fell.
Plunged in a darkness as of night, he thought
That life had left him; yet ere long he knew
The living vigour of his limbs; and cried,
'Place me, O friends, as some machine of war
Straight facing towards the foe; then shall my darts
Strike as of old; and thou, Tyrrhenus, spend
Thy latest breath, still left, upon the fight:
So shalt thou play, not wholly dead, the part
That fits a soldier, and the spear that strikes
Thy frame, shall miss the living.' Thus he spake,
And hurled his javelin, blind, but not in vain;
For Argus, generous youth of noble blood,
Below the middle waist received the spear
And falling drave it home. His aged sire
From furthest portion of the conquered ship
Beheld; than whom in pride of manhood none
More brave in battle: now no more he fought,
Yet did the memory of his prowess stir
Phocaean youths to emulate his fame.
Oft stumbling o'er the benches the old man hastes
To reach his boy, and finds him breathing still.
No tear bedewed his cheek; upon his breast
No blow he struck; but all his frame was stiff,
His hands outspread: and o'er his eyes there fell
A dark impenetrable veil of mist
That blotted out the day; nor could he more
Discern his luckless Argus. He, who saw
His parent, raising up his drooping head
With parted lips and silent features asks
A father's latest kiss, a father's hand
To close his dying eyes. But soon his sire,
Recovering from his swoon, when ruthless grief
Possessed his spirit, 'This short space,' he cried,
' I lose not, which the cruel gods have given,
' But die before thee. Grant thy sorrowing sire
' Forgiveness that he fled thy last embrace.
Not yet has passed thy life blood from the wound
Nor yet is death upon thee-still thou may'st
Outlive thy parent.' Thus he spake, and seized
The reeking sword and drave it to the hilt,
Then plunged into the deep, with headlong bound,
To anticipate his son: for this he feared
A single form of death should not suffice.
Now gave the fates their judgment, and in doubt
No longer was the war: the Grecian fleet
In most part sunk; -some ships by Romans oared
Conveyed the victors home: in headlong flight
Some sought the yards for shelter. On the strand
What tears of parents for their offspring slain,
How wept the mothers! 'Mid the pile confused
Ofttimes the wife sought madly for her spouse
And chose for her last kiss some Roman slain;
While wretched fathers by the blazing pyres
Fought for the dead. But Brutus thus at sea
First gained a triumph for great Caesar's arms.

> Latin: Ferrea dum puppi rapidos manus inserit uncos,
Adfixit Lycidam. Mersus foret ille profundo;
Sed prohibent socii, suspensaque crura retentant.
Scinditur avulsus: nec, sicut vulnere, sanguis
Emicuit lentus: ruptis cadit undique venis:
Discursusque animae diversa in membra meantis
Interceptus aquis. Nullius vita perempti
Est tanta dimissa via: pars ultima trunci
Tradidit in letum vacuos vitalibus artis;
At tumidus qua pulmo iacet, qua viscera fervent,
Haeserunt ibi fata diu: luctataque multum
Hac cum parte viri vix omnia membra tulerunt.
Dum nimium pugnax unius turba carinae
Incumbit prono lateri, vacuamque relinquit,
Qua caret hoste, ratem: congesto pondere puppis
Versa, cava texit pelagus nautasque carina;
Brachia nec licuit vasto iactare profundo,
Sed clauso periere mari. - tunc unica diri
Conspecta est leti facies, cum forte natantem
Diversae rostris iuvenem fixere carinae.
Discessit medium tam vastos pectus ad ictus:
Nec prohibere valent obtritis ossibus artus,
Quo minus aera sonent. Eliso ventre, per ora
Eiectat saniem permixtus viscere sanguis.
Postquam inhibent remis puppes, ac rostra recedunt,
Deiectum in pelagus perfosso pectore corpus
Vulneribus transmisit aquas. - Pars maxima turbae
Naufraga, iactatis morti obluctata lacertis,
Puppis ad auxilium sociae concurrit: at illi
Robora cum vetitis prensarent altius ulnis,
Nutaretque ratis populo peritura recepto,
Impia turba super medios ferit ense lacertos:
Brachia linquentes Graia pendentia puppi,
A manibus cecidere suis: non amplius undae
Sustinuere graves in summo gurgite truncos.
Iamque omni fusis nudato milite telis,
Invenit arma furor: remum contorsit in hostem
Alter: at hi tortum validis aplustre lacertis
Avulsasque rotant, excusso remige, sedes.
In pugnam fregere rates. Sidentia pessum
Corpora caesa tenent, spoliantque cadavera ferro.
Multi, inopes teli, iaculum letale revulsum
Visceribus traxere suis, et vulnera laeva
Oppressere manu, validos dum praebeat ictus
Sanguis et hostilem cum torserit exeat hastam.
Nulla tamen plures hoc edidit aequore clades,
Quam pelago diversa lues. Nam pinguibus ignis
Adfixus tedis, et tecto sulfure vivax
Spargitur: at faciles praebere alimenta carinae
Nunc pice, nunc liquida rapuere incendia cera.
Nec flammas superant undae: sparsisque per aequor
Iam ratibus, fragmenta ferus sibi vindicat ignis.
Hic recipit fluctus, extinguat ut aequore flammas:
Hi, ne mergantur, tabulis ardentibus haerent.
Mille modos inter leti, mors una timori est,
Qua coepere mori. Nec cessat naufraga virtus.
Tela legunt deiecta mari, ratibusque ministrant:
Incertasque manus ictu languente per undas
Exercent. Nunc, rara datur si copia ferri,
Utuntur pelago. Saevus complectitur hostem
Hostis, et implicitis gaudent subsidere membris,
Mergentesque mori. - Pugna fuit unus in illa
Eximius Phoceus animiam servare sub undis,
Scrutarique fretum si quid mersisset arenis,
Et nimis adfixos unci convellere morsus,
Adductum quoties non senserat ancora funem.
Hic ubi compressum penitus deduxerat hostem,
Victor et incolumis summas remeabat ad undas;
Sed, se per vacuos credit dum surgere fluctus,
Puppibus occurrit, tandemque sub aequore mansit.
Hi super hostiles iecerunt brachia remos,
Et ratium tenuere fugam. Non perdere letum
Maxima cura fuit; multus sua vulnera puppi
Adfixit moriens, et rostris abstulit ictus.
Stantem sublimi Tyrrhenum culmine prorae
Lygdamus excussa, Balearis tortor habenae,
Glande petens, solido fregit cava tempora plumbo.
Sedibus expulsi, postquam cruor omnia rupit
Vincula, procumbunt oculi: stat lumine rapto
Adtonitus, mortisque illas putat esse tenebras.
At postquam membris sensit constare vigorem,
Vos, ait, o socii, sicut tormenta soletis,
Me quoque mittendis rectum componite telis.
Egere quod superest animae, Tyrrhene, per omnes
Bellorum casus. Ingentem militis usum
Hoc habet ex magna defunctum parte cadaver:
Viventis feriere loco. Sic fatus in hostem
Caeca tela manu, sed non tamen irrita, mittit.
Excipit haec iuvenis generosi sanguinis Argus,
Qua iam non medius descendit in ilia venter,
Adiuvitque suo procumbens pondere ferrum.
Stabat diversa victae iam parte carinae
Infelix Argi genitor: non ille iuventae
Tempore Phocaicis ulli cessurus in armis:
Victum aevo robur cecidit, fessusque senecta
Exemplum, non miles erat. Qui, funere viso,
Saepe cadens longae senior per transtra carinae
Pervenit ad puppim, spirantesque invenit artus.
Non lacrimae cecidere genis, non pectora tundit,
Distentis toto riguit sed corpore palmis.
Nox subit, atque oculos vastae obduxere tenebrae,
Et miserum cernens agnoscere desinit Argum.
Ille caput labens et iam languentia colla,
Viso patre, levat: vox fauces nulla solutas
Prosequitur: tacito tantum petit oscula vultu,
Invitatque patris claudenda ad lumina dextram.
Ut torpore senex caruit, viresque cruentus
Coepit habere dolor, Non perdam tempora, dixit,
A saevis permissa deis, iugulumque senilem
Confodiam. Veniam misero concede parenti,
Arge, quod amplexus, extrema quod oscula fugi.
Nondum destituit calidus tua vulnera sanguis,
Semianimisque iaces, et adhuc potes esse superstes.
Sic fatus, quamvis capulum per viscera missi
Polluerat gladii, tamen alta sub aequora tendit
Praecipiti saltu. Letum praecedere nati
Festinantem animam morti non credidit uni.
Inclinant iam fata ducum, nec iam amplius anceps
Belli casus erat: Graiae pars maxima classis
Mergitur: ast aliae mutato remige puppes
Victores vexere suos: navalia paucae
Praecipiti tenuere fuga. Quis in urbe parentum
Fletus erat! quanti matrum per litora planctus!
Coniunx saepe sui, confusis vultibus unda,
Credidit ora viri, Romanum amplexa cadaver:
Accensisque rogis miseri de corpore trunco
Certavere patres. - At Brutus, in aequore victor,
Primus Caesareis pelagi decus addidit armis.