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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Pharsalia - Book 1</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The Crossing of the Rubicon </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Wars worse than civil on Emathian plains, <br>And crime let loose we sing; how Rome's high race <br>Plunged in her vitals her victorious sword; <br>Armies akin embattled, with the force <br>Of all the shaken earth bent on the fray; <br>And burst asunder, to the common guilt, <br>A kingdom's compact; eagle with eagle met, <br>Standard to standard, spear opposed to spear. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Whence, citizens, this rage, this boundless lust <br>To sate barbarians with the blood of Rome? <br>Did not the shade of Crassus, wandering still, <br>Cry for his vengeance? Could ye not have spoiled, <br>To deck your trophies, haughty Babylon? <br>Why wage campaigns that send no laurels home? <br>What lands, what oceans might have been the prize <br>Of all the blood thus shed in civil strife! <br>Where Titan rises, where night hides the stars, <br>'Neath southern noons all quivering with heat, <br>Or where keen frost that never yields to spring <br>In icy fetters binds the Scythian main: <br>Long since barbarians by the Eastern sea <br>And far Araxes' stream, and those who know <br>(If any such there be) the birth of Nile <br>Had felt our yoke. Then, Rome, upon thyself <br>With all the world beneath thee, if thou must, <br>Wage this nefarious war, but not till then. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now view the houses with half-ruined walls <br>Throughout Italian cities; stone from stone <br>Has slipped and lies at length; within the home <br>No guard is found, and in the ancient streets so <br>Scarce seen the passer by. The fields in vain, <br>Rugged with brambles and unploughed for years, <br>Ask for the hand of man; for man is not. <br>Nor savage Pyrrhus nor the Punic horde <br>E'er caused such havoc: to no foe was given <br>To strike thus deep; but civil strife alone <br>Dealt the fell wound and left the death behind. <br>Yet if the fates could find no other way <br>For Nero coming, nor the gods with ease <br>Gain thrones in heaven; and if the Thunderer <br>Prevailed not till the giant's war was done, <br>Complaint is silent. For this boon supreme <br>Welcome, ye gods, be wickedness and crime; <br>Thronged with our dead be dire Pharsalia's fields, <br>Be Punic ghosts avenged by Roman blood; <br>Add to these ills the toils of Mutina; <br>Perusia's dearth; on Munda's final field <br>The shock of battle joined; let Leucas' Cape <br>Shatter the routed navies; servile hands <br>Unsheath the sword on fiery Etna's slopes: <br>Still Rome is gainer by the civil war. <br>Thou, Caesar, art her prize. When thou shalt choose, <br>Thy watch relieved, to seek divine abodes, <br>All heaven rejoicing; and shalt hold a throne, <br>Or else elect to govern Phoebus' car <br>And light a subject world that shall not dread <br>To owe her brightness to a different Sun; <br>All shall concede thy right: do what thou wilt, <br>Select thy Godhead, and the central clime <br>Whence thou shalt rule the world with power divine. <br>And yet the Northern or the Southern Pole <br>We pray thee, choose not; but in rays direct <br>Vouchsafe thy radiance to thy city Rome. <br>Press thou on either side, the universe <br>Should lose its equipoise: take thou the midst, <br>And weight the scales, and let that part of heaven <br>Where Caesar sits, be evermore serene <br>And smile upon us with unclouded blue. <br>Then may all men lay down their arms, and peace <br>Through all the nations reign, and shut the gates <br>That close the temple of the God of War. <br>Be thou my help, to me e'en now divine! <br>Let Delphi's steep her own Apollo guard, <br>And Nysa keep her Bacchus, uninvoked. <br>Rome is my subject and my muse art thou! </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">First of such deeds I purpose to unfold <br>The causes -- task immense -- what drove to arms <br>A maddened nation, and from all the world <br>Struck peace away. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">By envious fate's decrees <br>Abide not long the mightiest lords of earth; <br>Beneath too heavy a burden great the fall. <br>Thus Rome o'ergrew her strength. So when that hour, <br>The last in all the centuries, shall sound <br>The world's disruption, all things shall revert <br>To that primaeval chaos, stars on stars <br>Shall crash; and fiery meteors from the sky <br>Plunge in the ocean. Earth shall then no more <br>Front with her bulwark the encroaching sea: <br>The moon, indignant at her path oblique, <br>Shall drive her chariot 'gainst her brother Sun <br>And claim the day for hers; and discord huge <br>Shall rend the spheres asunder. <br>On themselves <br>Great powers are dashed: such bounds the gods have placed <br>Upon the prosperous; nor doth Fortune lend <br>To any nations, so that they may strike <br>The sovereign power that rules the earth and sea, <br>The weapons of her envy. Triple reign <br>And baleful compact for divided power -- <br>Ne'er without peril separate before -- <br>Made Rome their victim. Oh! Ambition blind, <br>That stirred the leaders so to join their strength <br>In peace that ended ill, their prize the world! <br>For while the Sea on Earth and Earth on Air <br>Lean for support: while Titan runs his course, <br>And night with day divides an equal sphere, <br>No king shall brook his fellow, nor shall power <br>Endure a rival. Search no foreign lands: <br>These walls are proof that in their infant days <br>A hamlet, not the world, was prize enough <br>To cause the shedding of a brother's blood. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Concord, on discord based, brief time endured, <br>Unwelcome to the rivals; and alone <br>Crassus delayed the advent of the war. <br>Like to the slender neck that separates <br>The seas of Graecia: should it be engulfed <br>Then would th' Ionian and Aegean mains <br>Break each on other: thus when Crassus fell, <br>Who held apart the chiefs, in piteous death, <br>And stained Assyria's plains with Latian blood, <br>Defeat in Parthia loosed the war in Rome. <br>More in that victory than ye thought was won, <br>Ye sons of Arsaces; your conquered foes <br>Took at your hands the rage of civil strife. <br>The mighty realm that earth and sea contained, <br>To which all peoples bowed, split by the sword, <br>Could not find space for two . For Julia bore, <br>Cut off by fate unpitying, the bond <br>Of that ill-omened marriage, and the pledge <br>Of blood united, to the shades below. <br>Had'st thou but longer stayed, it had been thine <br>To keep the husband and the sire apart, <br>And, as the Sabine women did of old, <br>Dash down the threatening swords and join the hands. <br>With thee all trust was buried, and the chiefs <br>Could give their courage vent, and rushed to war. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Lest newer glories triumphs past obscure, <br>Late conquered Gaul the bays from pirates won, <br>This, Magnus, was thy fear; thy roll of fame, <br>Of glorious deeds accomplished for the state <br>Allows no equal; nor will Caesar's pride <br>A prior rival in his triumphs brook; <br>Which had the right 'twere impious to enquire; <br>Each for his cause can vouch a judge supreme; <br>The victor, heaven: the vanquished, Cato, thee. <br>Nor were they like to like: the one in years <br>Now verging towards decay, in times of peace <br>Had unlearned war; but thirsting for applause <br>Had given the people much, and proud of fame <br>His former glory cared not to renew, <br>But joyed in plaudits of the theatre, <br>His gift to Rome: his triumphs in the past, <br>Himself the shadow of a mighty name. <br>As when some oak, in fruitful field sublime, <br>Adorned with venerable spoils, and gifts <br>Of bygone leaders, by its weight to earth <br>With feeble roots still clings; its naked arms <br>And hollow trunk, though leafless, give a shade; <br>And though condemned beneath the tempest's shock <br>To speedy fall, amid the sturdier trees <br>In sacred grandeur rules the forest still. <br>No such repute had Ceesar won, nor fame; <br>But energy was his that could not rest -- <br>The only shame he knew was not to win. <br>Keen and unvanquished, where revenge or hope <br>Might call, resistless would he strike the blow <br>With sword unpitying: every victory won <br>Reaped to the full; the favour of the gods <br>Pressed to the utmost; all that stayed his course <br>Aimed at the summit of power, was thrust aside: <br>Triumph his joy, though ruin marked his track. <br>As parts the clouds a bolt by winds compelled, <br>With crack of riven air and crash of worlds, <br>And veils the light of day, and on mankind, <br>Blasting their vision with its flames oblique, <br>Sheds deadly fright; then turning to its home, ' <br>Nought but the air opposing, through its path <br>Spreads havoc, and collects its scattered fires. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Such were the hidden motives of the chiefs; <br>But in the public life the seeds of war <br>Their hold had taken, such as are the doom <br>Of potent nations: and when fortune poured <br>Through Roman gates the booty of a world, <br>The curse of luxury, chief bane of states, <br>Fell on her sons. Farewell the ancient ways! <br>Behold the pomp profuse, the houses decked <br>With ornament; their hunger loathed the food <br>Of former days; men wore attire for dames <br>Scarce fitly fashioned; poverty was scorned, <br>Fruitful of warriors; and from all the world <br>Came that which ruins nations; while the fields <br>Furrowed of yore by great Camillus' plough, <br>Or by the mattock which a Curius held, <br>Lost their once narrow bounds, and widening tracts <br>By hinds unknown were tilled. No nation this <br>To sheathe the sword, with tranquil peace content <br>And with her liberties; but prone to ire; <br>Crime holding light as though by want compelled: <br>And great the glory in the minds of men, <br>Ambition lawful even at point of sword, <br>To rise above their country: might their law: <br>Decrees are forced from Senate and from Plebs: <br>Consul and Tribune break the laws alike: <br>Bought are the fasces, and the people sell <br>For gain their favour: bribery's fatal curse <br>Corrupts the annual contests of the Field. <br>Then covetous usury rose, and interest <br>Was greedier ever as the seasons came; <br>Faith tottered; thousands saw their gain in war. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Caesar has crossed the Alps, his mighty soul <br>Great tumults pondering and the coming shock. <br>Now on the marge of Rubicon, he saw, <br>In face most sorrowful and ghostly guise, <br>His trembling country's image; huge it seemed <br>Through mists of night obscure; and hoary hair <br>Streamed from the lofty front with turrets crowned: <br>Torn were her locks and naked were her arms. <br>Then thus, with broken sighs the Vision spake: <br>"What seek ye, men of Rome? and whither hence <br>Bear ye my standards? If by right ye come, <br>My citizens, stay here; these are the bounds; <br>No further dare." But Caesar's hair was stiff <br>With horror as he gazed, and ghastly dread <br>Restrained his footsteps on the further bank. <br>Then spake he, "Thunderer, who from the rock <br>Tarpeian seest the wall of mighty Rome; <br>Gods of my race who watched o'er Troy of old; <br>Thou Jove of Alba's height, and Vestal fires, <br>And rites of Romulus erst rapt to heaven, <br>And God-like Rome; be friendly to my quest. <br>Not with offence or hostfie arms I come, <br>Thy Caesar, conqueror by land and sea, <br>Thy soldier here and wheresoe'er thou wilt: <br>No other's; his, his only be the guilt <br>Whose acts make me thy foe.' He gives the word <br>And bids his standards cross the swollen stream. <br>So in the wastes of Afric's burning clime <br>The lion crouches as his foes draw near, <br>Feeding his wrath the while, his lashing tail <br>Provokes his fury; stiff upon his neck <br>Bristles his mane: deep from his gaping jaws <br>Resounds a muttered growl, and should a lance <br>Or javelin reach him from the hunter's ring, <br>Scorning the puny scratch he bounds afield. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">From modest fountain blood-red Rubicon <br>In summer's heat flows on; his pigmy tide <br>Creeps through the valleys and with slender marge <br>Divides the Italian peasant from the Gaul. <br>Then winter gave him strength, and fraught with rain <br>The third day's crescent moon; while Eastern winds <br>Thawed from the Alpine slopes the yielding snow. <br>The cavalry first form across the stream ' <br>To break the torrent's force; the rest with ease <br>Beneath their shelter gain the further bank. <br>When Csesar crossed and trod beneath his feet <br>The soil of Italy's forbidden fields, <br>"Here," spake he, "peace, here broken laws be left; <br>Farewell to treaties. Fortune, lead me on; <br>War is our judge, and in the fates our trust." <br>Then in the shades of night he leads the troops <br>Swifter than Balearic sling or shaft <br>Winged by retreating Parthian, to the walls <br>Of threatened Rimini, while fled the stars, <br>Save Lucifer, before the coming sun, <br>Whose fires were veiled in clouds, by south wind driven, <br>Or else at heaven's command: and thus drew on <br>The first dark morning of the civil war. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now stand the troops within the captured town, <br>Their standards planted; and the trumpet clang <br>Rings forth in harsh alarums, giving note <br>Of impious strife: roused from their sleep the men <br>Rush to the hall and snatch the ancient arms <br>Long hanging through the years of peace; the shield <br>With crumbling frame; dark with the tooth of rust <br>Their swords ; and javelins with blunted point. <br>But when the well-known signs and eagles shone, <br>And Caesar towering o'er the throng was seen, <br>They shook for terror, fear possessed their limbs, <br>And thoughts unuttered stirred within their souls. <br>"O miserable those to whom their home <br>Denies the peace that all men else enjoy! <br>Placed as we are beside the Northern bounds <br>And scarce a footstep from the restless Gaul, <br>We fall the first; would that our lot had been <br>Beneath the Eastern sky, or frozen North, <br>To lead a wandering life, rather than keep <br>The gates of Latium. Brennus sacked the town <br>And Hannibal, and all the Teuton hosts. <br>For when the fate of Rome is in the scale <br>By this path war advances." Thus they moan <br>Their fears but speak them not; no sound is heard <br>Giving their anguish utterance: as when <br>In depth of winter all the fields are still, <br>The birds are voiceless and no sound is heard <br>To break the silence of the central sea. <br>But when the day had broken through the shades <br>Of chilly darkness, lo! the torch of war! <br>For by the hand of Fate is swift dispersed <br>All Caesar's shame of battle, and his mind <br>Scarce doubted more; and Fortune toiled to make <br>His action just and give him cause for arms. <br>For while Rome doubted and the tongues of men <br>Spoke of the chiefs who won them rights of yore, <br>The hostile Senate, in contempt of right, <br>Drove out the Tribunes. They to Caesar's camp <br>With Curio hasten, who of venal tongue, <br>Bold, prompt, persuasive, had been wont to preach <br>Of Freedom to the people, and to call <br>Upon the chiefs to lay their weapons down . <br>And when he saw how deeply Caesar mused, <br>"While from the rostrum I had power," he said, <br>To call the populace to aid thy cause, <br>By this my voice against the Senate's will <br>Was thy command prolonged. But silenced now <br>Are laws in war: we driven from our homes; <br>Yet is our exile willing; for thine arms <br>Shall make us citizens of Rome again. <br>Strike; for no strength as yet the foe hath gained. <br>Occasion calls, delay shall mar it soon: <br>Like risk, like labour, thou hast known before, <br>But never such reward. Could Gallia hold <br>Thine armies ten long years ere victory came, <br>That little nook of earth? One paltry fight <br>Or twain, fought out by thy resistless hand, <br>And Rome for thee shall have subdued the world: <br>'Tis true no triumph now would bring thee home; <br>No captive tribes would grace thy chariot wheels <br>Winding in pomp around the ancient hill. <br>Spite gnaws the factions; for thy conquests won <br>Scarce shalt thou be unpunished. Yet 'tis fate <br>Thou should'st subdue thy kinsman: share the world <br>With him thou canst not; rule thou canst, alone." <br>As when at Elis' festival a horse <br>In stable pent gnaws at his prison bars <br>Impatient, and should clamour from without <br>Strike on his ear, bounds furious at restraint, <br>So then was Caesar, eager for the fight, <br>Stirred by the words of Curio. To the ranks <br>He bids his soldiers; with majestic mien <br>And hand commanding silence as they come. <br>"Comrades," he cried, "victorious returned, <br>Who by my side for ten long years have faced, <br>'Mid Alpine winters and on Arctic shores, <br>The thousand dangers of the battle-field -- <br>Is this our country's welcome, this her prize <br>For death and wounds and Roman blood outpoured? <br>Rome arms her choicest sons; the sturdy oaks <br>Are felled to make a fleet; -- what could she more <br>If from the Alps fierce Hannibal were come <br>With all his Punic host? By land and sea <br>Caesar shall fly! Fly? Though in adverse war <br>Our best had fallen, and the savage Gaul <br>Were hard upon our track, we would not fly. <br>And now, when fortune smiles and kindly gods <br>Beckon us on to glory! -- Let him come <br>Fresh from his years of peace, with all his crowd <br>Of conscript burgesses, Marcellus' tongue <br>And Cato's empty name! We will not fly. <br>Shall Eastern hordes and greedy hirelings keep <br>Their loved Pompeius ever at the helm? <br>Shall chariots of triumph be for him <br>Though youth and law forbad them? Shall he seize <br>On Rome's chief honours ne'er to be resigned? <br>And what of harvests blighted through the world <br>And ghastly famine made to serve his ends? <br>Who hath forgotten how Pompeius' bands <br>Seized on the forum, and with glittering arms <br>Made outraged justice tremble, while their swords <br>Hemmed in the judgment-seat where Milo stood? <br>And now when worn and old and ripe for rest , <br>Greedy of power, the impious sword again <br>He draws. As tigers in Hyrcanian woods <br>Wandering, or in the caves that saw their birth, <br>Once having lapped the blood of slaughtered kine, <br>Shall never cease from rage; e'en so this whelp <br>Of cruel Sulla, nursed in civil war, <br>Outstrips his master; and the tongue which licked <br>That reeking weapon ever thirsts for more. <br>Stain once the lips with blood, no other meal <br>They shall enjoy. And shall there be no end <br>Of these long years of power and of crime? <br>Nay, this one lesson, e'er it be too late, <br>Learn of thy gentle Sulla -- to retire! <br>Of old his victory o'er Cilician thieves <br>And Pontus' weary monarch gave him fame, <br>By poison scarce attained. His latest prize <br>Shall I be, Caesar, I, who would not quit <br>My conquering eagles at his proud command? <br>Nay, if no triumph is reserved for me, <br>Let these at least of long and toilsome war <br>'Neath other leaders the rewards enjoy. <br>Where shall the weary soldier find his rest? <br>What cottage homes their joys, what fields their fruit <br>Shall to our veterans yield? Will Magnus say <br>That pirates only till the fields alight? <br>Unfurl your standards; victory gilds them yet, <br>As through those glorious years. Deny our rights! <br>He that denies them makes our quarrel just. <br>Nay! use the strength that we have made our own. <br>No booty seek we, nor imperial power. <br>This would-be ruler of subservient Rome <br>We force to quit his grasp; and Heaven shall smile <br>On those who seek to drag the tyrant down." </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thus Caesar spake; but doubtful murmurs ran <br>Throughout the listening crowd, this way and that <br>Their wishes urging them; the thoughts of home <br>And household gods and kindred gave them pause: <br>But fear of Caesar and the pride of war <br>Their doubts resolved. Then Laelius, who wore <br>The well-earned crown for Roman life preserved, <br>The foremost Captain of the army, spake: <br>"O greatest leader of the Roman name, <br>If 'tis thy wish the very truth to hear <br>'Tis mine to speak it; we complain of this, <br>That gifted with such strength thou did'st refrain <br>From using it. Had'st thou no trust in us? <br>While the hot life-blood fills these glowing veins, <br>While these strong arms avail to hurl the lance, <br>Wilt thou make peace and bear the Senate's rule? <br>Is civil conquest then so base and vile? <br>Lead us through Scythian deserts, lead us where <br>The inhospitable Syrtes line the shore <br>Of Afric's burning sands, or where thou wilt: <br>This hand, to leave a conquered world behind, <br>Held firm the oar that tamed the Northern Sea <br>And Rhine's swift torrent foaming to the main. <br>To follow thee fate gives me now the power: <br>The will was mine before. No citizen <br>I count the man 'gainst whom thy trumpets sound. <br>By ten campaigns of victory, I swear, <br>By all thy world-wide triumphs, though with hand <br>Unwilling, should'st thou now demand the life <br>Of sire or brother or of faithful spouse, <br>Caesar, the life were thine. To spoil the gods <br>And sack great Juno's temple on the hill, <br>To plant our arms o'er Tiber's yellow stream, <br>To measure out the camp, against the wall <br>To drive the fatal ram, and raze the town, <br>This arm shall not refuse, though Rome the prize." </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">His comrades swore consent with lifted hands <br>And vowed to follow wheresoe'er he led. <br>And such a clamour rent the sky as when <br>Some Thracian blast on Ossa's pine-clad rocks <br>Falls headlong, and the loud re-echoing woods, <br>Or bending, or rebounding from the stroke, <br>In sounding chorus lift the roar on high. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">When Csesar saw them welcome thus the war <br>And Fortune leading on, and favouring fates, <br>He seized the moment, called his troops from Gaul, <br>And breaking up his camp set on for Rome. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The tents are vacant by Lake Leman's side; <br>The camps upon the beetling crags of Vosges <br>No longer hold the warlike Lingon down, <br>Fierce in his painted arms; Isere is left, <br>Who past his shallows gliding, flows at last <br>Into the current of more famous Rhone, <br>To reach the ocean in another name. <br>The fair-haired people of Cevennes are free: <br>Soft Aude rejoicing bears no Roman keel, <br>Nor pleasant Var, since then Italia's bound; <br>The harbour sacred to Alcides' name <br>Where hollow crags encroach upon the sea, <br>Is left in freedom: there nor Zephyr gains <br>Nor Caurus access, but the Circian blast <br>Forbids the roadstead by Monaecus' hold. <br>And others left the doubtful shore, which sea <br>And land alternate claim, whene'er the tide <br>Pours in amain or when the wave rolls back -- <br>Be it the wind which thus compels the deep <br>From furthest pole, and leaves it at the flood; <br>Or else the moon that makes the tide to swell, <br>Or else, in search of fuel for his fires, <br>The sun draws heavenward the ocean wave; -- <br>Whate'er the cause that may control the main <br>I leave to others; let the gods for me <br>Lock in their breasts the secrets of the world. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Those who kept watch beside the western shore <br>Have moved their standards home; the happy Gaul <br>Rejoices in their absence; fair Garonne <br>Through peaceful meads glides onward to the sea. <br>And where the river broadens, neath the cape <br>Her quiet harbour sleeps. No outstretched arm <br>Except in mimic war now hurls the lance. <br>No skilful warrior of Seine directs <br>The scythed chariot 'gainst his country's foe. <br>Now rest the Belgians, and the Arvernian race <br>That boasts our kinship by descent from Troy; <br>And those brave rebels whose undaunted hands <br>Were dipped in Cotta's blood, and those who wear <br>Sarmatian garb. Batavia's warriors fierce <br>No longer listen for the bugle call, <br>Nor those who dwell where Rhone's swift eddies sweep <br>Saone to the ocean; nor the mountain tribes <br>Who dwell about its source. Thou, too, oh Treves, <br>Rejoicest that the war has left thy bounds. <br>Ligurian tribes, now shorn, in ancient days <br>First of the long-haired nations, on whose necks <br>Once flowed the auburn locks in pride supreme; <br>And those who pacify with blood accursed <br>Savage Teutates, Hesus' horrid shrines, <br>And Taranis' altars cruel as were those <br>Loved by Diana, goddess of the north; <br>All these now rest in peace. And you, ye Bards, <br>Whose martial lays send down to distant times <br>The fame of valorous deeds in battle done, <br>Pour forth in safety more abundant song. <br>While you, ye Druids , when the war was done, <br>To mysteries strange and hateful rites returned: <br>To you alone 'tis given the gods and stars <br>To know or not to know; secluded groves <br>Your dwelling-place, and forests far remote. <br>If what ye sing be true, the shades of men <br>Seek not the dismal homes of Erebus <br>Or death's pale kingdoms; but the breath of life <br>Still rules these bodies in another age -- <br>Life on this hand and that, and death between. <br>Happy the peoples 'neath the Northern Star <br>In this their false belief; for them no fear <br>Of that which frights all others: they with hands <br>And hearts undaunted rush upon the foe <br>And scorn to spare the life that shall return. <br>Ye too depart who kept the banks of Rhine <br>Safe from the foe, and leave the Teuton tribes <br>Free at their will to march upon the world. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Caesar, with strength increased and gathered troops <br>New efforts daring, spreads his bands afar <br>Through Italy, and fills the neighbouring towns. <br>Then empty rumour to well-grounded fear <br>Gave strength, and heralding the coming war <br>In hundred voices 'midst the people spread. <br>One cries in terror, "Swift the squadrons come <br>Where Nar with Tiber joins: and where, in meads <br>By oxen loved, Mevania spreads her walls, <br>Fierce Caesar hurries his barbarian horse. <br>Eagles and standards wave above his head, <br>And broad the march that sweeps across the land." <br>Nor is he pictured truly; greater far <br>More fierce and pitiless -- from conquered foes <br>Advancing; in his rear the peoples march. <br>Snatched from their homes between the Rhine and Alps, <br>To pillage Rome while Roman chiefs look on. <br>Thus each man's panic thought swells rumour's lie: <br>They fear the phantoms they themselves create. <br>Nor does the terror seize the crowd alone: <br>But fled the Fathers, to the Consuls first <br>Issuing their hated order, as for war; <br>And doubting of their safety, doubting too <br>Where lay the peril, through the choking gates, <br>Each where he would, rushed all the people forth. <br>Thou would'st believe that blazing to the torch <br>Were men's abodes, or nodding to their fall. <br>So streamed they onwards, frenzied with affright, <br>As though in exile only could they find <br>Hope for their country. So, when southern blasts <br>From Libyan whirlpools drive the boundless main, <br>And mast and sail crash down upon a ship <br>With ponderous weight, but still the frame is sound, <br>Her crew and captain leap into the sea, <br>Each making shipwreck for himself. 'Twas thus <br>They passed the city gates and fled to war. <br>No aged parent now could stay his son; <br>Nor wife her spouse, nor did they pray the gods <br>To grant the safety of their fatherland. <br>None linger on the threshold for a look <br>Of their loved city, though perchance the last. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ye gods, who lavish priceless gifts on men, <br>Nor care to guard them, see victorious Rome <br>Teeming with life, chief city of the world, <br>With ample walls that all mankind might hold, <br>To coming Caesar left an easy prey. <br>The Roman soldier, when in foreign lands <br>Pressed by the enemy, in narrow trench <br>And hurried mound finds guard enough to make <br>His slumber safe; but thou, imperial Rome, <br>Alone on rumour of advancing foes <br>Art left a desert, and thy battlements <br>They trust not for one night. Yet for their fear <br>This one excuse was left; Pompeius fled. <br>Nor found they room for hope; for nature gave <br>Unerring portents of worse ills to come. <br>The angry gods filled earth and air and sea <br>With frequent prodigies; in darkest nights <br>Strange constellations sparkled through the gloom: <br>The pole was all afire, and torches flew <br>Across the depths of heaven; with horrid hair <br>A blazing comet stretched from east to west <br>And threatened change to kingdoms. From the blue <br>Pale lightning flashed, and in the murky air <br>The fire took divers shapes; a lance afar <br>Would seem to quiver or a misty torch; <br>A noiseless thunderbolt from cloudless sky <br>Rushed down, and drawing fire in northern parts <br>Plunged on the summit of the Alban mount. <br>The stars that run their courses in the night <br>Shone in full daylight; and the orbed moon, <br>Hid by the shade of earth, grew pale and wan. <br>The sun himself, when poised in mid career, <br>Shrouded his burning car in blackest gloom <br>And plunged the world in darkness, so that men <br>Despaired of day -- like as he veiled his light <br>From that fell banquet which Mycenae saw <br>The jaws of Etna were agape with flame <br>That rose not heavenwards, but headlong fell <br>In smoking stream upon the Italian flank. <br>Then black Charybdis, from her boundless depth, <br>Threw up a gory sea. In piteous tones <br>Howled the wild dogs; the Vestal fire was snatched <br>From off the altar; and the flame that crowned <br>The Latin festival was split in twain, <br>As on the Theban pyre in ancient days; <br>Earth tottered on its base: the mighty Alps <br>From off their summits shook th' eternal snow . <br>In huge upheaval Ocean raised his waves <br>O'er Calpe's rock and Atlas' hoary head. <br>The native gods shed tears, and holy sweat <br>Dropped from the idols; gifts in temples fell: <br>Foul birds defiled the day; beasts left the woods <br>And made their lair among the streets of Rome. <br>All this we hear; nay more: dumb oxen spake; <br>Monsters were brought to birth and mothers shrieked <br>At their own offspring; words of dire import <br>From Cumae's prophetess were noised abroad. <br>Bellona's priests with bleeding arms, and slaves <br>Of Cybele's worship, with ensanguined hair, <br>Howled chants of havoc and of woe to men. <br>Arms clashed; and sounding in the pathless woods <br>Were heard strange voices; spirits walked the earth: <br>And dead men's ashes muttered from the urn. <br>Those who live near the walls desert their homes, <br>For lo! with hissing serpents in her hair, <br>Waving in downward whirl a blazing pine, <br>A fiend patrols the town, like that which erst <br>At Thebes urged on Agave , or which hurled <br>Lycurgus' bolts, or that which as he came <br>From Hades seen, at haughty Juno's word, <br>Brought terror to the soul of Hercules. <br>Trumpets like those that summon armies forth <br>Were heard re-echoing in the silent night: <br>And from the earth arising Sulla's ghost <br>Sang gloomy oracles, and by Anio's wave <br>All fled the homesteads, frighted by the shade <br>Of Marius waking from his broken tomb. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">In such dismay they summon, as of yore, <br>The Tuscan sages to the nation's aid. <br>Aruns, the eldest, leaving his abode <br>In desolate Luca, came, well versed in all <br>The lore of omens; knowing what may mean <br>The flight of hovering bird, the pulse that beats <br>In offered victims, and the levin bolt. <br>All monsters first, by most unnatural birth <br>Brought into being, in accursd flames <br>He bids consume.Then round the walls of Rome <br>Each trembling citizen in turn proceeds. <br>The priests, chief guardians of the public faith, <br>With holy sprinkling purge the open space <br>That borders on the wall; in sacred garb <br>Follows the lesser crowd: the Vestals come <br>By priestess led with laurel crown bedecked, <br>To whom alone is given the right to see <br>Minerva's effigy that came from Troy <br>Next come the keepers of the sacred books <br>And fate's predictions; who from Almo's brook <br>Bring back Cybebe laved; the augur too <br>Taught to observe sinister flight of birds; <br>And those who serve the banquets to the gods; <br>And Titian brethren; and the priest of Mars, <br>Proud of the buckler that adorns his neck; <br>By him the Flamen, on his noble head <br>The cap of office. While they tread the path <br>That winds around the walls, the aged seer <br>Collects the thunderbolts that fell from heaven, <br>And lays them deep in earth, with muttered words <br>Naming the spot accursed. Next a steer, <br>Picked for his swelling neck and beauteous form, <br>He leads to the altar, and with slanting knife <br>Spreads on his brow the meal, and pours the wine. <br>The victim's struggles prove the gods averse; <br>But when the servers press upon his horns </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">He bends the knee and yields him to the blow. <br>No crimson torrent issued at the stroke, <br>But from the wound a dark empoisoned stream <br>Ebbed slowly downward. Aruns at the sight <br>Aghast, upon the entrails of the beast <br>Essayed to read the anger of the gods. <br>Their very colour terrified the seer; <br>Spotted they were and pale, with sable streaks <br>Of lukewarm gore bespread; the liver damp <br>With foul disease, and on the hostile part <br>The angry veins defiant; of the lungs <br>The fibre hid, and through the vital parts <br>The membrane small; the heart had ceased to throb; <br>Blood oozes through the ducts; the caul is split: <br>And, fatal omen of impending ill, <br>One lobe o'ergrows the other; of the twain <br>The one lies flat and sick, the other beats <br>And keeps the pulse in rapid strokes astir. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Disaster's near approach thus learned, he cries -- <br>"Whate'er may be the purpose of the gods, <br>'Tis not for me to tell; this offered beast <br>Not Jove possesses, but the gods below. <br>We dare not speak our fears, yet fear doth make <br>The future worse than fact. May all the gods <br>Prosper the tokens, and the sacrifice <br>Be void of truth, and Tages <br>Have vainly taught these mysteries." Such his words <br>Involved, mysterious. Figulus, to whom <br>For knowledge of the secret depths of space <br>And laws harmonious that guide the stars, <br>Memphis could find no peer, then spake at large: <br>"Either," he said, "the world and countless orbs <br>Throughout the ages wander at their will; <br>Or, if the fates control them, ruin huge <br>Hangs o'er this city and o'er all mankind. <br>Shall Earth yawn open and engulph the towns? <br>Shall scorching heat usurp the temperate air <br>And fields refuse their timely fruit? The streams <br>Flow mixed with poison? In what plague, ye gods, <br>In what destruction shall ye wreak your ire? <br>Whate'er the truth, the days in which we live <br>Shall find a doom for many. Had the star <br>Of baleful Saturn, frigid in the height, <br>Kindled his lurid fires, the sky had poured <br>Its torrents forth as in Deucalion's time, <br>And whelmed the world in waters. Or if thou, <br>Phoebus, beside the Nemean lion fierce <br>Wert driving now thy chariot, flames should seize <br>The universe and set the air ablaze. <br>These are at peace; but, Mars, why art thou bent <br>On kindling thus the Scorpion, his tail <br>Portending evil and his claws aflame? <br>Deep sunk is kindly Jupiter, and dull <br>Sweet Venus' star, and rapid Mercury <br>Stays on his course: Mars only holds the sky. <br>Why does Orion's sword too brightly shine? <br>Why planets leave their paths and through the void <br>Thus journey on obscure? 'Tis war that comes, <br>Fierce rabid war: the sword shall bear the rule <br>Confounding justice; hateful crime usurp <br>The name of virtue; and the havoc spread <br>Through many a year. But why entreat the gods? <br>The end Rome longs for and the final peace <br>Comes with a despot. Draw thou out thy chain <br>Of lengthening slaughter, and (for such thy fate) <br>Make good thy liberty through civil war." </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The frightened people heard, and as they heard <br>His words prophetic made them fear the more. <br>But worse remained; for as on Pindus' slopes <br>Possessed with fury from the Theban god <br>Speeds some Bacchante, thus in Roman streets <br>Behold a matron run, who, in her trance, <br>Relieves her bosom of the god within. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Where dost thou snatch me, Paean, to what shore <br>Through airy regions borne? I see the snows <br>Of Thracian mountains; and Philippi's plains <br>Lie broad beneath. But why these battle lines, <br>No foe to vanquish -- Rome on either hand? <br>Again I wander 'neath the rosy hues <br>That paint thine eastern skies, where regal Nile <br>Meets with his flowing wave the rising tide. <br>Known to mine eyes that mutilated trunk <br>That lies upon the sand! Across the seas <br>By changing whirlpools to the burning climes <br>Of Libya borne, again I see the hosts <br>From Thracia brought by fate's command. And now <br>Thou bear'st me o'er the cloud-compelling Alps <br>And Pyrenean summits; next to Rome. <br>There in mid-Senate see the closing scene <br>Of this foul war in foulest murder done. <br>Again the factions rise; through all the world <br>Once more I pass; but give me some new land, <br>Some other region, Phoebus, to behold! <br>Washed by the Pontic billows! for these eyes <br>Already once have seen Philippi's plains!" </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=451905" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The frenzy left her and she speechless fell.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br/></a><a href="https://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="https://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Marcus+Annaeus+Lucanus">Marcus Annaeus Lucanus</a></strong></div>

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