Claudian: PANEGYRICUS DE SEXTO CONSULATU HONORII AUGUSTI

Omnia, quae sensu volvuntur vota diurno,
Pectore sopito reddit amica quies.
Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit,
Mens tamen ad silvas et sua lustra redit.
Iudicibus lites, aurigae somnia currus

All the vows that are revolved by diurnal sense,
friendly rest returns with the breast lulled.
When the hunter sets his weary limbs on the couch,
yet his mind returns to the woods and to his own lairs.
For judges, lawsuits; for the charioteer, dreams of chariots

Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
Furto gaudet amans, permutat navita merces
Et vigil elapsas quaerit avarus opes
Blandaque largitur frustra sitientibus aegris
Inriguus gelido pocula fonte sopor.

And the illusory turning-post is avoided by the nocturnal horses.
The lover rejoices in furtive theft; the sailor exchanges his wares,
and the wakeful miser seeks the wealth that has slipped away;
and soothing, irriguous slumber lavishes in vain upon the thirsty sick
cups from a cold fountain.

Me quoque Musarum studium sub nocte silenti
Artibus adsuetis sollicitare solet.
Namque poli media stellantis in arce videbar
Ante pedes summi carmina ferre Iovis;
Vtque favet somnus, plaudebant numina dictis

Me too the study of the Muses under the silent night
By accustomed arts is wont to stir.
For in the mid citadel of the starry pole I seemed
To bear songs before the feet of highest Jove;
And, as sleep favors, the divinities applauded the words

Et circumfusi sacra corona chori.
Enceladus mihi carmen erat victusque Typhoeus:
Hic subit Inarimen, hunc gravis Aetna domat.
Quam laetum post bella Iovem susceperat aether
Phlegraeae referens praemia militiae!

And, poured around, in a sacred crown, the choirs.
Enceladus was my song, and Typhoeus vanquished:
This one goes beneath Inarime, that one heavy Etna subdues.
How gladly had the aether received Jove after the wars,
bringing back the prizes of the Phlegraean campaign!

Additur ecce fides nec me mea lusit imago,
Inrita nec falsum somnia misit ebur.
En princeps, en orbis apex aequatus Olympo!
En quales memini, turba verenda, deos
Fingere nil maius potuit sopor, altaque vati

Behold, credence is added, nor did my image delude me,
nor did the ivory send false, ineffectual dreams.
Behold the princeps, behold the apex of the world made equal to Olympus!
Behold such gods as I remember, a venerable throng,
Sleep could fashion nothing greater, and lofty to the seer

Conventum caelo praebuit aula parem.

The hall presented an assembly equal to heaven.

PANEGYRICVS

PANEGYRIC

Aurea Fortunae Reduci si templa priores
Ob reditum vovere ducum, non dignius umquam
Haec dea pro meritis amplas sibi posceret aedes,
Quam sua cum pariter trabeis reparatur et urbi
Maiestas: neque enim campus sollemnis et urna

If the men of old vowed golden temples to Fortuna Redux
for the return of leaders, never more worthily
would this goddess, for her merits, claim ample halls for herself,
than when her own Majesty is restored alike to the trabeae and to the city,
for not even the solemn Campus and the urn

Luditur in morem, species nec dissona coetu
Aut peregrina nitet simulati iuris imago.
Indigenas habitus nativa palatia sumunt,
Et, patriis plebem castris sociante Quirino,
Mars Augusta sui renovat suffragia campi.

It is played according to custom, the appearance not dissonant with the assembly,
nor does a foreign image of simulated right gleam.
The native palaces assume indigenous attire,
and, with Quirinus uniting the plebs to the ancestral camps,
August Mars renews the suffrages of his Campus.

Qualis erit terris, quem mons Euandrius offert
Romanis avibus, quem Thybris inaugurat, annus?
Quamquam omnes, quicumque tui cognominis, anni
Semper inoffensum dederint successibus omen
Sintque tropaea tuas semper comitata secures,

What will the year be for the lands, which the Evandrian mount offers to the Roman birds, which Tiber inaugurates?
Although all years, whichever share your cognomen, have always given an unoffending omen to successes,
and may trophies always have accompanied your axes,

Hic tamen ante omnes miro promittitur ortu,
Vrbis et Augusti geminato numine felix.
Namque velut stellas Babylonia cura salubres
Optima tunc spondet mortalibus edere
Caelicolae cum celsa tenent summoque feruntur

This one, however, before all, is promised with a wondrous rising,
fortunate by the twin numen of the City and of Augustus.
For just as the Babylonian care promises then that the salubrious
stars will produce the best things for mortals,
when the heaven-dwellers hold the heights and are borne at the summit

Cardine nec radios humili statione recondunt:
Haud aliter Latiae sublimis Signifer aulae,
Imperii sidus propria cum sede locavit,
Auget spes Italas; et certius omina surgunt
Victrici concepta solo. Cum pulcher Apollo

nor at the pole do they hide their rays in a low station:
not otherwise the exalted Standard-bearer of the Latin hall,
has located the star of the Empire in its proper seat,
he augments Italian hopes; and the omens rise more surely
conceived in victorious soil. When fair Apollo

Lustrat Hyperboreas Delphis cessantibus aras,
Nil tum Castaliae rivis communibus undae
Dissimiles, vili nee discrepat arbore laurus,
Antraque maesta silent inconsultique recessus.
At si Phoebus adest et frenis grypha iugalem

He lustrates the Hyperborean altars, with Delphi idle;
then the waters are in no way dissimilar to the common rills of Castalia,
nor does the laurel differ from a cheap tree,
and the gloomy antra are silent and the recesses unconsulted.
But if Phoebus is present and with the reins he couples the yokemate griffin

Riphaeo tripodas repetens detorsit ab axe,
Tune silvae, tune antra loqui, tunc vivere fontes,
Tunc sacer horror aquis adytisque effunditur Echo
Clarior et doctae spirant praesagia rupes.
Ecce Palatino crevit reverentia monti

Returning the tripods, he turned them away from the Rhipaean axis,
then the woods, then the caves speak, then the springs live,
then sacred dread is poured into the waters and the adyta, Echo
clearer, and the learned cliffs breathe presages.
Behold, reverence grew for the Palatine mount

Exultatque habitante deo potioraque Delphis
Supplicibus late populis oracula pandit
Atque suas ad signa iubet revirescere laurus.
Non alium certe decuit rectoribus orbis
Esse larem, nulloque magis se colle potestas

And it exults, with the god inhabiting, and it unfolds oracles more potent than Delphi widely to the suppliant peoples,
and it bids its laurels at the standards to grow green again.
Surely no other hearth-home befitted the rulers of the orb,
and on no hill did authority seat itself more.

Aestimat et summi sentit fastigia iuris.
Attoliens apicem subiectis regia rostris
Tot circum delubra videt tantisque deorum
Cingitur excubiis! Iuvat infra recta Tonantis
Cernere Tarpeia pendentes rupe Gigantas

And it appraises and senses the pinnacles of supreme law.
Uplifting its crest with the rostra set beneath, the royal house
sees so many shrines around and is girded by such great sentries of the gods!
It pleases to behold, beneath the right of the Thunderer,
the Giants hanging from the Tarpeian crag.

Caelatasque fores mediisque volantia signa
Nubibus et densum stipantibus aethera templis
Arvaque vestitis numerosa puppe columnis
Consita subnixasque iugis inmanibus aedes,
Naturam cumulante manu, spoliisque micantes

and the engraved doors and the standards flying in the midst,
and clouds and temples crowding the dense aether,
and grounds thick-sown with columned colonnades, with numerous prows,
and halls resting on enormous ridges,
the hand heaping upon Nature, and glittering with spoils.

Innumeros arcus. Acies stupet igne metalIi
Et circumfuso trepidans obtunditur auro.
Agnoscisne tuos, princeps venerande, penates?

Countless arches. The gaze is astounded by the fire of the metal,
and, quivering, is blunted by the gold poured all around.
Do you recognize your own Penates, venerable prince?

Haec sunt, quae primis olim miratus in annis
Patre pio monstrante puer. Nil optimus ille

These are the things which once in my earliest years
with a pious father demonstrating, as a boy, I marveled at. Nothing did that excellent man

Divorum toro meruit felicius aevo
Quam quod Romuleis victor sub moenibus egit
Te consorte dies, cum se melioribus addens
Exemplis civem gereret terrore remoto
Alternos cum plebe iocos dilectaque passus

More happily did the day merit the couch of the gods in immortal age
than that which, victorious beneath the Romulean walls, he spent
with you as consort, when, adding himself to better exemplars,
he bore himself as a citizen with terror removed,
allowing alternate jests with the plebs and the dear delights.

Iurgia patriciasque domos privataque passim
Visere deposito dignatus limina fastu.
Publicus hinc ardescit amor, cum moribus aequis
Inclinat populo regale modestia culmen.
Teque rudem vitae, quamvis diademate necdum

You, with haughtiness laid aside, deigned to visit everywhere the thresholds of patrician houses and private ones, to look into quarrels.
Hence public love kindles, when, with equitable morals, regal modesty inclines its summit to the people.
And you, untutored in life, though not yet crowned with the diadem,

Cingebare comas, socium sumebat honorum
Purpureo forum gremio, parvumque triumphis
Imbuit et magnis docuit praeludere fatis.
Te linguis variae gentes missique rogatum
Foedera Persarum proceres cum patre sedentem

You were having your locks bound, the Forum in its purple lap was taking you as a partner of honors,
and, small, it imbued you with triumphs and taught you to prelude to great fates.
Peoples of varied tongues and the nobles of the Persians, sent to request
treaties, beheld you sitting with your father

Hac quondam videre domo positoque tiaram
Summisere genu. Tecum praelarga vocavit
Ditandas ad dona tribus; fulgentia tecum
Collecti trabeatus adit delubra senatus
Romano puerum gaudens offerre favori,

In this house once they saw, and, the tiara set aside,
they lowered the knee. With you a very bountiful largess called
the tribes to be endowed with gifts; together with you
the assembled, trabea-clad senate approaches the gleaming shrines
rejoicing to offer the boy to Roman favor,

Vt novus imperio iam tunc adsuesceret heres.
Hinc tibi concreta radice tenacius haesit
Et penitus totis inolevit Roma medullis,
Dilectaeque urbis tenero conceptus ab ungue
Tecum crevit amor. Nec te mutare reversum

That the new heir might even then become accustomed to imperial power.
Hence Rome, with root concreted, clung to you more tenaciously,
and grew in deep into all your marrow;
and the conception of love for the beloved city from the tender nail
grew with you. Nor did returning change you

Evaluit propria nutritor Bosphorus arce.
Et quotiens optare tibi quae moenia malles
Adludens genitor regni pro parte dedisset,
Divitis Aurorae solium sortemque paratam
Sponte remittebas fratri: 'regat ille volentes

The Bosporus, your nourisher, prevailed by its own citadel.
And whenever your sire, jesting, had granted as a portion of the realm
that you might opt which walls you would prefer,
the throne of rich Aurora and a lot made ready,
you of your own accord would remit it to your brother: 'let him rule the willing

Assyrios; habeat Pharium cum Tigride Nilum;
Contingat mea Roma mihi.' Nec vota fefellit
Eventus. Fortuna novum molita tyrannum
Iam tibi quaerebat Latium belloque secundo
Protinus Eoa velox accitus ab aula

the Assyrians; let him have the Pharian Nile together with the Tigris;
'Let my Rome fall to me.' Nor did the event disappoint his vows.
Fortune, contriving a new tyrant,
now was seeking Latium for you, and with war seconding,
straightway, swiftly summoned from the Eastern court

Suscippis Hesperiam patrio bis Marte receptam.
Ipsa per Illyricas urbes Oriente relicto
Ire Serena comes nullo deterrita casu,
Materna te mente fovens Latioque futurum
Rectorem generumque sibi seniore supernas

You assume Hesperia, recovered twice by your father’s Mars.
She herself, the Orient left behind, through Illyrian cities
to go, Serena as companion, deterred by no mishap,
cherishing you with a maternal mind, and for Latium to be
a ruler and a son-in-law to herself, the elder having sought the supernal abodes

Iam repetente plagas. Illo sub cardine rerum
Sedula servatum per tot discrimina pignus
Restituit sceptris patrui castrisque mariti.
Certavit pietate domus, fidaeque reductum
Coniugis officio Stilichonis cura recepit.

Now, as he was already retracing the regions. Under that hinge of affairs
the assiduous woman restored the pledge, preserved through so many crises,
to the scepters of his uncle and the camps of her husband.
The household vied in piety, and Stilicho’s care received back
the one brought back by the service of his faithful wife.

100

Felix ille parens, qui te securus Olympum
Succedente petit! quam laetus ab aethere cernit
Se factis crevisse tuis! Duo namque fuere
Europae Libyaeque hostes: Maurusius Atlas
Gildonis Furias, Alaricum barbara Peuce

Happy that parent, who, with you succeeding, untroubled seeks Olympus!
How joyous from the aether he discerns
himself to have grown by your deeds! For there were two
enemies of Europe and Libya: the Maurusian Atlas
the Furies of Gildo, the barbarian Peuce Alaric

105

Nutrierat, qui saepe tuum sprevere profana
Mente patrem. Thracum venientem finibus alter
Hebri clausit aquis; alter praecepta vocantis
Respuit auxiliisque ad proxima bella negatis
Abiurata palam Libyae possederat arva:

Had nurtured those who often spurned your father with a profane
mind. One coming from the borders of the Thracians
the Hebrus shut in with its waters; the other rejected the precepts
of the summoner, and, with aid for the nearest wars denied,
had openly possessed the fields of Libya, his allegiance abjured:

110

Quorum nunc meritam repetens non inmemor iram
Suppliciis fruitur natoque ultore triumphat.
Ense Thyestiadae poenas exegit Orestes,
Sed mixtum pietate nefas dubitandaque caedis
Gloria, materno laudem cumm crimine pensat;

Of whom now, not unmindful, recalling the deserved wrath,
he takes delight in punishments and triumphs with his son as avenger.
By the sword Orestes exacted penalties from the Thyestiad,
but a wrongdoing mixed with pietas and a glory of the slaughter to be questioned,
he balances praise with the crime against his mother;

115

Pavit Iuleos inviso sanguine manes
Augustus, sed falsa pii praeconia sumpsit
In luctum patriae civili strage parentans:
At tibi causa patris rerum coniuncta saluti
Bellorum duplicat laurus, isdemque tropaeis

He fed the Iulean Manes with detested blood
Augustus did, but he assumed the false proclamations of “pious,”
propitiating the mourning of his fatherland by civil carnage:
But for you, your father’s cause, conjoined to the safety of the state,
doubles the laurels of wars, and with the same trophies

120

Reddita libertas orbi, vindicta parenti.
Sed mihi jam pridem captum Parnasia Maurum
Pieriis egit fidibus chelys; arma Getarum
Nuper apud socerum plectro celebrata recenti.
Adventus nunc sacra tui libet edere Musis

Liberty restored to the world, vengeance for the parent.
But for me, long since, the Parnassian lyre with Pierian strings has set forth the captured Moor;
the arms of the Getae I recently celebrated before my father-in-law with a fresh plectrum.
Now it pleases me to publish for the Muses the sacred rites of your advent

125

Grataque patratis exordia sumere bellis.
Iam Pollentini tenuatus funere campi
Concessaque sibi (rerum sic admonet usus)
Luce, tot amissis sociis atque omnibus una
Direptis opibus, Latio discedere iussus

and to take welcome beginnings when the wars are accomplished.
Now, thinned by the funerary slaughter of the Pollentine field,
and, a day granted to him (so the usage of affairs admonishes),
with so many allies lost and all his resources at once
plundered, he was ordered to depart from Latium

130

Hostis et inmensi revolutus culmine fati
Turpe retexit iter. Qualis pitatica puppis,
Quae cunctis infensa freeis scelerumque referta
Divitiis multasque diu populata carinas
Incidit in magnam bellatricemque triremim,

The foe too, rolled down from the summit of immense Fate,
laid open again a shameful path. Like a piratical ship,
which, hostile to all the straits and replete with the riches of crimes,
and, having long plundered many hulls,
runs into a great and warlike trireme,

135

Dum praedam de more putat; viduataque caesis
Remigibus, scissis velorum debilis alis,
Orba gubernaclis, antennis saucia fractis
Ludibrium pelagi vento iactatur et unda,
Vastato tandem poenas luitura profundo:

While she, according to custom, thinks it is prey; and, bereft with her oarsmen slain,
with the wings of her sails torn, enfeebled,
rudderless, wounded with her yards broken,
a plaything of the sea, she is tossed by wind and wave,
having laid waste to the deep, at last about to pay the penalties:

140

Talis ab urbe minas retro flectebat inanes
Italiam fugiens, et quae venientibus ante
Prona fuit, jam difficilis, jam dura reversis.
Clausa putat sibi cuncta pavor, retroque relictos
Quos modo temnebat, rediens exhorruit amnes.

Thus from the city he was turning back empty menaces,
fleeing Italy; and what before for those coming
had been easy, now difficult, now harsh for those returning.
Fear thinks all things closed to him, and the rivers left behind
which just now he contemned, returning, he shuddered at.

145

Vndosa tum forte domo vitreisque sub antris
Rerum ignarus adhuc ingentes pectore curas
Volvebat pater Eridanus: quis bella maneret
Exitus? imperiumne Iovi legesque placerent
Et vitae Romana quies, an iura perosus

Then, in his billowy home and beneath glassy caverns
as yet ignorant of affairs, great cares in his breast
Father Eridanus was turning over: what outcome would await the wars
Outcome? Would imperium be pleasing to Jove and the laws,
and the Roman quiet of life, or, detesting the rights?

150

Ad priscos pecudum damnaret saecula ritus?
Talia dum secum movet anxius, advolat una
Naiadum resoluta comam, complexaque patrem:
'En Alaricus' ait 'non qualem nuper ovantem
Vidimus; exangues, genitor, mirabere vultus.

Would he condemn the ages to the ancient rites of beasts?
While he anxiously revolves such things with himself, there flies to him one
of the Naiads, hair unbound, and, having embraced her father:
'Lo, Alaric,' she says, 'not such as we lately saw exultant;
you will marvel, father, at his bloodless features.'

155

Percensere manum tantaque ex genre iuvabit
Relliquias numerasse breves. Iam desine maesta
Fronte queri Nymphasque choris jam redde sorores'.
Dixerat; ille caput placidis sublime fluentis
Extulit, et totis lucem spargentia ripis

To review the band, and from so great a lineage it will be a delight
to have numbered the brief relics. Now cease, with a sad brow,
to complain, and now restore the Nymphs, the sisters, to their choruses.'
She had spoken; he lifted his head on high from the placid currents,
and, over all the banks, shedding light

160

Aurea roranti micuerunt cornua vultu.
Non illi madidum vulgaris harundine crinem
Velat honos; rami caput umbravere virentes
Heliadum totisque fluunt electra capillis.
Palla tegit latos umeros, curruque paterno

Golden horns gleamed upon his dewy face.
No common honor with reed veils his dripping hair;
the green branches of the Heliades have shaded his head, and amber flows through all his hair.
A mantle covers his broad shoulders, and with his father’s chariot

165

Intextus Phaethon glaucos incendit amictus.
Fultaque sub gremio caelatis nobilis astris
Aetherium probat urna decus. Namque omnia luctus
Argumenta sui Titan signavit Olympo:
Mutatumque senem plumis et fronde sorores

The embroidered Phaethon sets ablaze the sea-green garments.
And a noble urn, supported beneath her lap with stars in relief, attests the aetherial adornment.
For Titan has marked on Olympus all the evidences of his mourning:
both the old man transformed with feathers, and the sisters with foliage

170

Et fluvium, nati qui vulnera lavit anheli;
Stat gelidis Auriga plagis; vestigia fratris
Germanae servant Hyades, Cygnique sodalis
Lacteus extentas adspergit circulus alas;
Stelliger Eridanus sinuatis flexibus errans

And the river, which washed the wounds of his panting son;
The Charioteer stands in the gelid regions;
the sister Hyades preserve the footprints of their brother,
and the Milky circle sprinkles the outstretched wings of the Swan and his comrade;
star-bearing Eridanus, wandering with sinuous flexures

175

Clara Noti convexa rigat gladioque tremendum
Gurgite sidereo subterluit Oriona.
Hoc deus effulgens habitu prospexit euntes
Deiecta cervice Getas; tunc talia fatur:
'Sicine mutatis properas, Alarice, reverti

It waters the bright vaults of Notus, and with a starry surge washes beneath Orion, dreadful with his sword.
In this habit the god, shining, looked forth at the Getae going with neck cast down; then he speaks such words:
'Is it thus, with things changed, that you hasten, Alaric, to return

180

Consiliis? Italae sic te jam paenitet orae?
Nec jam cornipedem Thybrino gramine pascis,
Vt rebare tuum?

By counsels? Is it thus that you already repent of the Italian shore?
And no longer do you pasture the hoofed steed on Tiberine grass,
as you reckoned to be yours?

Tuscis nec figis aratrum
Collibus? 0 cunctis Erebi dignissime poenis,
Tune Giganteis urbem temptare deorum

Do you not set the plow in the Tuscan hills?
O, most worthy of all the punishments of Erebus,
Are you then attempting the city of the gods in Gigantean fashion

185

Adgressus furiis? nec te meus, improbe, saltem
Terruit exemplo Phaethon, qui fulmina praeceps
In nostris efflavit aquis, dum flaremea caeli
Flectere terrenis meditatur frena lacertis
Mortalique diem sperat diffundere vultu?

Have you set upon this in frenzies? Nor did my Phaethon, shameless one, at least terrify you by his example, he who, headlong, exhaled the thunderbolts in our waters, while he meditates to bend the flaming reins of the sky with terrene sinews and hopes to diffuse the day with a mortal visage?

190

Crede mihi, simili bacchatur crimine, quisquis
Adspirat Romae spoliis aut Solis habenis'.
Sic fatus Ligures Venetosque erectior amnes
Magna voce ciet. Frondentibus umida ripis
Colla levant: pulcher Ticinus et Addua visu

Believe me, whoever aspires to the spoils of Rome or to the reins of the Sun, raves in Bacchic frenzy with a like crime'.
Thus having spoken, more erect he summons with a great voice the Ligurian and Venetian rivers.
From their leafy banks they lift their moist necks: fair to behold are the Ticinus and the Adda.

195

Caerulus et velox Athesis tardusque meatu
Mincius inque novem consurgens ora Timavus.
Insultant omnes profugo pacataque laetum
Invitant ad prata pecus; iam Pana Lycaeum,
Iam Dryadas revocant et rustica numina Faunos.

Cerulean and swift Athesis, and slow in its course
Mincius, and Timavus rising into nine mouths.
All exult for the exile, and the peaceful herd invites
the glad one to the meadows; now they call back Lycaean Pan,
now the Dryads and the rustic divinities, the Fauns.

200

Tu quoque non parvum Getico, Verona, triumpho
Adiungis cumulum, nec plus Pollentia rebus
Contulit Ausoniis aut moenia vindicis Hastae.
Hic, rursus dum pacta movet damnisque coactus
Extremo mutare parat praesentia casu,

You too, Verona, add no small cumulus to the Getic triumph, nor did Pollentia contribute more to Ausonian affairs, nor the walls of avenging Hasta. Here, again, while he unsettles the pacts and, compelled by losses, prepares to exchange the things at hand for an extreme chance,

205

Nil sibi periurum sensit prodesse furorem
Converti nec rata loco, multisque suorum
Diras pavit aves, inimicaque corpora volvens
Ionios Athesis mutavit sanguine fluctus.
Oblatum Stilicho violato foedere Martem

He realized that his perjured fury profited him nothing, nor that, by changing his ground, the ratified terms were reversed; and with many of his own he fed the dire birds, and as it rolled inimical bodies the Athesis mutated its Ionian waves with blood. Stilicho, the treaty violated, proffered Mars.

210

Omnibus adripuit votis, ubi Roma periclo
Iam procul et belli medio Padus arbiter ibat.
Iamque opportunam motu strepuisse rebelli
Gaudet perfidiam praebensque exempla labori
Sustinet accensos aestivo pulvere soles.

With every wish he snatched at it, when Rome was now far from peril and the Po went as arbiter in the midst of the war.
And now he rejoices that perfidy has made an opportune stir with a rebellious motion, and, offering examples for toil,
he endures suns inflamed with estival dust.

215

Ipse manu metuendus adest inopinaque cunctis
Instruit arma locis et, qua vocat usus, ab omni
Parte venit. Fesso si deficit agmine miles,
Vtitur auxiliis damni securus, et astu
Debilitat saevum cognatis viribus Histrum

He himself, formidable in hand, is present, and he arrays arms in places unexpected to all,
and, where use calls, he comes from every quarter.
From every side he comes. If a soldier fails the weary column,
he employs auxiliaries, unconcerned about loss, and by stratagem
he weakens the savage Ister with kindred forces.

220

Et duplici lucro committens proelia vertit
In se barbariem nobis utrimque cadentem.
Ipsum te caperet letoque, Alarice, dedisset,
Ni calor incauti male festinatus Alani
Dispositum turbasset opus; prope captus anhelum

And by joining the battles he turned it to a double profit,
turning the barbarism upon itself, falling on both sides for us.
He would have taken you yourself and delivered you to death, Alaric,
if the heat of the incautious Alan, hastening ill-timed, had not
disturbed the arranged work; you, almost captured, breathless

225

Verbere cogis equum, nec te vitasse dolemus.
I potius genti reliquus tantisque superstes
Danuvii populis, i, nostrum vive tropaeum.
Non tamen ingenium tantis se cladibus atrox
Deicit: occulto temptabat tramite montes,

You drive the horse with a lash, nor do we lament that you have escaped.
Go rather, remaining to your people and surviving so many Danubian peoples—go, live as our trophy.
Yet his fierce spirit does not cast itself down under such great disasters:
by a hidden track he was attempting the mountains,

230

Si qua per scopulos subitas exquirere posset
In Raetos Gallosque vias. Sed fortior obstat
Cura ducis. Quis enim divinum fallere pectus
Possit et excubiis vigilantia lumina regni?
Cuius consilium non umquam repperit hostis

If he could by any means seek out sudden routes through the crags
into the Raetians and the Gauls. But the stronger care of the leader stands in the way.
For who indeed could deceive the divine heart
and the vigilant eyes of the kingdom in their sentry-watches?
Whose counsel no enemy ever discovered

235

Nec potuit texisse suum. Secreta Getarum
Nosse prior celerique dolis occurrere sensu.
Omnibus exclusus coeptis consedit in uno
Colle tremens; frondesque licet depastus amaras
Arboreo figat sonipes in cortice morsus

Nor could he conceal his own. To know first the secrets of the Getae and to forestall stratagems with a swift sense.
Shut out from all attempts, he sat down on a single
hill, trembling; and though, having devoured the bitter fronds,
the sounding-footed steed fixes his bites in arboreal bark

240

Et taetris collecta cibis annique vapore
Saeviat aucta lues et miles probra superbus
Ingerat obsesso captivaque pignora monstret:
Non tamen aut morbi tabes aut omne periclum
Docta subire fames aut praedae luctus ademptae

And let the pestilence, augmented, collected from foul foods and the year’s vapor, rage, and let the proud soldier heap reproaches upon the besieged and display captive pledges (hostages):
Not, however, either the wasting of disease or every peril,
hunger taught to undergo, or the grief for booty taken away.

245

Aut pudor aut dictis movere procacibus irae,
Vt male temptato totiens se credere campo
Comminus auderet. Nulla est victoria maior,
Quam quae confessos animo quoque subiugat hostes.
Iamque frequens rarum decerpere transfuga robur

Either shame, or angers roused by procacious words,
That, with the field so often ill-attempted, he would trust himself
to dare at close quarters. No victory is greater,
Than that which subjugates foes confessed in spirit as well.
And now, in numbers, the deserter was plucking away the scant strength

250

Coeperat inque dies numerus decrescere castris,
Nec jam deditio paucis occulta parari,
Sed cunei totaeque palam discedere turmae.
Consequitur vanoque fremens clamore retentat
Cumque suis jam bella gerit; mox nomina supplex

And day by day the number had begun to dwindle in the camp,
nor now was the surrender being prepared, hidden from only a few,
but wedge-formations and whole squadrons openly began to depart.
He pursues, and, roaring with a vain clamor, tries to hold them back,
and now he wages war with his own; soon, a suppliant, he calls them by name

255

Cum fletu precibusque ciet veterumque laborum
Admonet et frustra iugulum parcentibus offert,
Defixoque malis animo sua membra suasque
Cernit abire manus: qualis Cybeleia quassans
Hyblaeus procul aera senex revocare fugaces

With weeping and with prayers he summons, and reminds them of ancient labors,
and in vain he offers his throat to the sparing;
and with mind fixed on evils he sees his members and his bands
departing from him: like the Hyblaean old man, shaking
from afar the Cybeleian bronzes to recall the fugitives.

260

Tinnitu conatur apes, quae sponte relictis
Descivere favis, sonituque exhaustus inani
Raptas mellis opes solitaeque oblita latebrae
Perfida deplorat vacuis examina ceris.
Ergo ubi praeclusae voci laxata remisit

With tinkling he tries the bees, which of their own accord, the combs left behind, have defected; and, exhausted by empty sound, he bewails the plundered wealth of honey and the treacherous swarms, forgetful of their accustomed hiding-place, with the wax empty. Therefore, when, relaxing, he gave his choked voice a respite,

265

Frena dolor, notas oculis umentibus Alpes
Adspicit et nimium diversi stamine fati
Praesentes reditus fortunatosque revolvit
Ingressus: solo peragens tum murmure bellum
Protento leviter flangebat moenia conto

Rein in, grief; he gazes upon the well-known Alps with moist eyes,
and, with the thread of fate too divergent, he revolves
the present returns and the fortunate ones, on entering;
then prosecuting war only with a murmur,
he was lightly tapping the walls with his protended spear.

270

Inridens scopulos; nunc desolatus et expes
Debita pulsato reddit spectacula monti.
Tunc sic Ausonium respectans aethera fatur:

Deriding the crags; now desolate and hopeless
he renders the due spectacles to the battered mountain.
Then thus, looking back toward the Ausonian aether, he speaks:

'Heu regio funesta Getis, heu terra sinistris
Auguriis calcata mihi, satiare nocentum

'Alas, region fatal to the Getae, alas land trodden by me under sinister auguries, be sated with the guilty

275

Cladibus et tandem nostris inflectere poenis!
En ego, qui toto sublimior orbe ferebar
Ante tuum felix aditum, ceu legibus exul
Addictusque reus flatu propiore sequentum
Terga premor. Quae prima miser, quae funera dictis

Be sated with slaughters and at last relent at our punishments!
Lo, I—who was carried loftier than the whole world before my happy approach to you—now, as if an exile from the laws and a bound-over defendant, am pressed in the back by the nearer breath of those pursuing.
What first, wretched as I am, what deaths in words

280

Posteriora querar? Non me Pollentia tanrum
Nec captae cruciastis opes; hoc aspera fati
Sots tulerit Martisque vices. Non funditus armis
Concideram; stipatus adhuc equitumque catervis
Integer ad montes reliquo cum robore cessi,

Shall I complain of later things? Not Pollentia so much
nor have captured riches tortured me; this the harsh lot
of fate and the turns of Mars would have borne. I had not utterly
fallen by arms; still attended, and by squadrons of horse,
unharmed I withdrew to the mountains with the remaining strength,

285

Quos Appenninum perhibent. Hunc esse ferebat
Incola, qui Siculum porrectus ad usque Pelorum
Finibus ab Ligurum populos complectitur omnes
Italiae geminumque latus stringentia 1onge
Vtraque perpetuo discriminat aequora tractu.

Which they call the Apennine. A local declared this to be it,
which, stretched out even to Sicilian Pelorus,
from the borders of the Ligurians embraces all the peoples of Italy,
and, with its perpetual stretch, divides both seas that press the twin flank far along on either side.

290

Haec ego continuum si per iuga tendere cursum,
Vt prior iratae fuerat sententia menti,
Iam desperata voluissem luce, quid ultra?
Omnibus oppeterem fama maiore perustis!
Et certe moriens propius re, Roma, viderem,

These things—if I were to stretch a continuous course over the ridges,
as the prior sentiment had been to my irate mind,
with the light now despaired of I would have wished—what further?
I would meet death with fame greater than all the scorched!
And surely, dying, I would see you, Rome, nearer in reality,

295

Ipsaque per cultas segetes mors nostra secuto
Victori damnosa foret. Sed pignora nobis
Romanus carasque nurus praedamque tenebat.
Hoc magis exertum raperem succinctior agmen.
'Heu quibus insidiis, qua me circumdedit arte

And our very death, through the cultivated grainfields, would have been damaging to the pursuing victor.
Victori damnosa foret. But the Roman held our pledges, and dear daughters-in-law, and the plunder.
But the Roman held our pledges, and dear daughters-in-law, and the plunder.
For this all the more I, more tightly girded, would sweep along the drawn-out column.
'Alas, by what ambushes, with what art he surrounded me

300

Fatalis semper Stilicho! Dum parcere fingit,
Rettulit hostiles animos bellumque remenso
Evaluit transferre Pado. Pro foedera saevo
Deteriora iugo!

Ever fatal Stilicho! While he pretends to spare,
he brought back hostile spirits and, with the Po re-crossed,
had the strength to transfer the war. Alas for treaties
worse than a savage yoke!

tunc vis extincta Getarum;
Tunc mihi, tunc letum pepigi. Violentior armis

then the force of the Getae was extinguished;
Then for myself, then I struck a pact for death. More violent than weapons

305

Omnibus expugnat nostram clementia gentem,
Mars gravior sub pace latet, capiorque vicissim
Fraudibus ipse meis. Quis jam solacia fesso
Consiliumve dabit? Socius suspectior hoste.

Clemency in all things overcomes our nation,
Mars, more grievous, lies hidden under peace, and in turn I myself am captured
by my own frauds. Who now will give solaces to the weary one,
or counsel? A comrade more suspect than an enemy.

'Atque utinam cunctos licuisset perdere bello!

'And would that it had been permitted to destroy all in war!'

310

Nam quisquis duro cecidit certamine, numquam
Desinit esse meus. Melius mucrone perirent,
Auferretque mihi luctu leviore sodales
Victa manus quam laesa fides. Nullusne clientum
Permanet?

For whoever has fallen in hard combat never
ceases to be mine. It would have been better that they perish by the blade,
and that a conquered band take away my comrades from me with lighter grief
than wounded faith. Does none of the clients
remain?

offensi comites, odere propinqui.

the companions are offended, the kinsmen hate.

315

Quid moror invisam lucem? qua sede recondam
Naufragii fragmenta mei? quaeve arva requiram,
In quibus hand umquam Stilicho nimiumque potentis
Italiae nomen nostras circumsonet aures?'
Haec memorans instante fugam Stilichone tetendit

Why do I linger in the hateful light? In what seat shall I hide away
the fragments of my shipwreck? And what fields shall I seek,
in which the name of Stilicho and of over-mighty Italy
shall never ring around our ears?'
Saying these things, with Stilicho pressing on, he made for flight

320

Expertas horrens aquilas; comitatur euntem
Pallor et atra Fames et saucia lividus ora
Luctus et inferno stridentes agmine Morbi.
Lustralem tum rite facem, cui lumen odorum
Sulphure caeruleo nigroque bitumine fumat,

Shuddering at the veteran eagles; Pallor and black Hunger accompany him as he goes, and Grief, livid with wounded face, and Diseases screeching in an infernal column.
Then duly the lustral torch, whose light of odors smokes with blue sulphur and black bitumen,

325

Circum membra rotat doctus purganda sacerdos
Rore pio spargens, et dira fugantibus herbis
Numina purificumque Iovem Triviatoque precatus
Trans caput aversis manibus iaculatur in Austrum
Secum rapturas cantata piacula taedas.

Around the limbs-to-be-purified the learned priest wheels,
sprinkling with pious dew, and with herbs that banish dire things;
having prayed to the numina and to purifying Jove and to Trivia,
over the head, with hands averted, he hurls into the South
the torches of chanted expiations, destined to carry away with them.

330

Acrior interea visendi principis ardor
Accendit cam plebe partes et saepe negatum
Flagitat adventum; nec tali publica vota
Consensu tradunt atavi caluisse per urbem,
Dacica bellipotens cum fregerat Vlpius arma

Meanwhile a keener ardor for seeing the prince inflames
the parties together with the plebs, and clamors for the often-denied advent;
nor do forefathers hand down that public vows, with such consensus,
have grown hot throughout the city, when Ulpius, mighty in war,
had broken the Dacian arms.

335

Atque indignantes in jura redegerat Arctos,
Cam fasces cinxere Hypanin mirataque leges
Romanum stupuit Maeotia terra tribunal.
Nec tantis patriae studiis ad templa vocatus,
Clemens Marce, redis, cum gentibus undique cinctam

And he had brought the indignant Arctic regions back under law,
when the fasces encircled the Hypanis, and, having marveled at the laws,
the Maeotian land stood astonished at the Roman tribunal.
Nor, summoned to the temples by such great zeal of your fatherland,
Clement Marcus, do you return, with it girded on every side by nations.

340

Exult Hesperiam paribus Fortuna periclis.
Laus ibi nulla ducum; nam flammeus imber in hostem
Decidit; hunc dorso trepidum ffumante ferebat
Ambustus sonipes; hic tabescente solutus
Subsedit galea liquefactaque fulgure cuspis

Fortune tossed Hesperia with equal perils.
There was no praise of the leaders there; for a fiery rain fell upon the enemy;
one, trembling, a scorched steed was bearing on its smoking back;
another, with his helmet wasting away, undone, sank down,
and the spear-point, liquefied by the lightning

345

Canduit et subitis fluxere vaporibus enses.
Tum contenta polo mortalis nescia teli
Pugna fuit: Chaldaea mago seu carmina ritu
Armavere deos, seu, quod reor, omne Tonantis
Obsequium Marci mores potuere mereri.

The blades glowed white and, with sudden vapors, melted and flowed.
Then the battle, confined to the sky, was unacquainted with mortal weapon:
whether Chaldean incantations, by the rite of a magus, armed the gods,
or, as I reckon, Marcus’s morals could merit the Thunderer’s every compliance.

350

Nunc quoque praesidium Latio non deesset Olympi,
Deficeret si nostra manus; sed providus aether
Noluit humano titulos auferre labori,
Ne tibi jam, princeps, soceri sudore paratam,
Quam meruit virtus, ambirent fulmina laurum.

Now too the protection of Olympus would not be lacking to Latium,
if our hand should fail; but the provident aether
did not wish to take away the titles from human labor,
lest now, princeps, the laurel prepared for you by your father-in-law’s sweat,
which valor deserved, the thunderbolts should court.

355

Iam totiens missi proceres responsa morandi
Rettulerant, donec differri longius urbis
Communes non passa preces penetralibus altis
Prosiluit vultusque palam confessa coruscos
Impulit ipsa suis cunctantem Roma querellis:

Already so many times the nobles, sent, responses of postponement
had brought back, until the common prayers of the city
not enduring to be deferred longer,
burst forth from the lofty inner sanctums,
and, her flashing countenance openly revealed, Rome herself with her own complaints impelled the hesitating one:

360

'Dissimulata diu tristes in amore repulsas
Vestra parens, Auguste, queror. Quonam usque tenebit
Praelatus mea vota Ligus? vetitumque propinqua
Lace frui, spatiis discernens gaudia parvis,
Torquebit Rubicon vicino numine Thybrim?

'Long dissimulated, I, your parent, Augustus, lament sad repulses in love.
How long will the preferred Ligurian hold my vows? and, forbidden to enjoy nearby Lace,
dividing joys by small spaces, will the Rubicon, by a neighboring numen, torment the Tiber?

365

Nonne semel sprevisse satis, cam reddita bellis
Africa venturi lusit spe principis urbem
Nec duras tantis precibus permovimus aures?
Ast ego frenabam geminos, quibus altior ires,
Electi candoris equos et numinis arcum

Is it not enough to have spurned me once, when Africa, returned to wars, mocked the city with the hope of a coming prince,
Nor did we move the hard ears by such great prayers?
But I was bridling the twin horses, by which you might go higher,
horses of chosen whiteness and the bow of the divinity

370

Iam molita tui, per quem radiante decorus
Ingrederere toga, pugnae monumenta dicabam
Defensam titulo Libyam testata perenni.
Iamque parabantur pompae simulacra futurae
Tarpeio spectanda Iovi: caelata metallo

Already, the monuments of the battle, wrought for you—through which, adorned with a radiant toga, you would enter—I was dedicating,
attesting with a perennial title Libya defended.
And already the simulacra of the future pomp were being prepared
to be beheld by Tarpeian Jove: chased in metal

375

Classis ut auratum sulcaret remige fluctum,
Vt Massyla tuos anteirent oppida currus
Palladiaque comas innexus harundine Triton
Edomitis veheretur aquis et in aere trementem
Succinctae famulum ferrent Atlanta cohortes.

The fleet, how it would furrow the gilded wave with its oar,
how the Massylian towns would precede your chariots,
and Triton, his hair entwined with the Palladian reed,
would be borne with the waters tamed, and in the air the girded
cohorts would carry as a servant the trembling Atlas.

380

Ipse Iugurthinam subiturus carcere poenam.
Praeberet fera colla iugo, vi captus et armis,
Non Bocchi Syllaeque dolls. 'Sed prima remitto.

He himself, about to undergo the Jugurthine punishment in prison,
would offer his wild neck to the yoke, captured by force and by arms,
not by the stratagems of Bocchus and Sulla. 'But I remit the first matters.

Num praesens etiam Getici me laurea belli
Declinare potest? sedesve capacior alia

Can even the present laurel of the Getic war turn me aside?
Or is there another, more capacious seat

385

Tantae laudis erit? Tua te benefacta morantem
Conveniunt, meritisque suis obnoxia virtus
Quod servavit amat. Iam flavescentia centum
Messibus aestivae detondent Gargara falces,
Spectatosque iterum nulli celebrantia ludos

Will there be praise so great? Your benefactions befit you lingering,
and Virtue, indebted to its own merits, loves what it has saved.
Already for a hundred harvests the summer sickles shear yellowing Gargara,
and the games, once beheld, now celebrating again for no one

390

Circumvexa rapit centenus saecula consul:
His annis, qui lustra mihi bis dena recensent,
Nostra ter Augustos intra pomeria vidi,
Temporibus variis; eadem sed causa tropaei
Civilis dissensus erat. Venere superbi,

The consul of the hundredth year takes up the ages borne around:
in these years, which reckon for me twice ten lustra,
thrice I have seen our Augusti within the pomerium,
at various times; but the same cause of the trophy
was civil dissension. They came proud,

395

Scilicet ut Latio respersos sanguine currus
Adspicerem! Quisquamne piae laetanda parenti
Natorum lamenta putet? periere tyranni,
Sed nobis periere tamen.

Of course, so that I might behold in Latium chariots spattered with blood!
Would anyone think the laments of sons are to be rejoiced at by a pious parent?
The tyrants have perished—
yet for us they have perished nonetheless.

Cum Gallica vulgo
Proelia iactaret, tacuit Pharsalica Caesar.

While he vaunted the Gallic battles to the crowd
Caesar kept silent about the Pharsalian ones.

400

Namque inter socias acies cognataque signa
Vt vinci miserum, numquam vicisse decorum.
Restituat priscum per te jam gloria morem
Verior, et fructum sincerae laudis ab hoste
Desuetum jam redde mihi iustisque furoris

For indeed, among allied battle-lines and kindred standards,
how wretched to be conquered, never is it decorous to have conquered.
Let truer glory, through you, now restore the ancient custom,
and now restore to me the fruit of sincere praise from an enemy,
long disused, and the just dues of frenzy

405

Externi spoliis sontes absolve triumphos.
`Quem, precor, ad finera laribus seiuncta potestas
Exulat imperiumque suis a sedibus errat?
Cur mea quae cunctis tribuere palatia nomen
Neglecto squalent senio? nec creditur orbis

Absolve the guilty triumphs with the spoils of the foreigner.
`Whom, I pray, does a power separated from its household gods exile to the borders, and does sovereignty wander from its own seats?
Why do my palaces, which have bestowed a name upon all, lie squalid in neglected old age? nor is the world believed

410

Illinc posse regi? Medium non deserit umquam
Caeli Phoebus iter, radiis tamen omnia lustrat.
Segnius an veteres Histrum Rhenumque tenebant,
Qui nostram coluere domum? leviusve timebant
Tigris et Euphrates, cum foedera Medus et Indus

Can it be governed from there? Phoebus never deserts the middle course of the sky, yet with his rays he illuminates all things.
Did the ancients hold the Danube and the Rhine less steadily,
they who cultivated our home? or did the Tigris and Euphrates fear less,
when the Mede and the Indian struck treaties

415

Hinc peteret pacemque mea speraret ab arce?
Hic illi mansere viri, quas mutua virtus
Legit et in nomen Romanis rebus adoptans
Iudicio pulchram seriem, non sanguine duxit;
Hic proles atavum deducens Aelia Nervam

From here would he sue and hope for peace from my citadel?
Here for him remained the men whom mutual virtue chose, and, adopting them into the name for Roman affairs,
by judgment he drew a fair succession, not by blood;
Here the Aelian progeny, tracing down its forefather Nerva

420

Tranquillique Pii bellgrotesque Severi.
Hunc civis dignare chorum conspectaque dudum
Ora refer, pompam recolens ut mente priorem,
Quem tenero patris comitem susceperat aevo,
Nunc duce cum socero iuvenem te Thybris adoret.'

and the tranquil Pious and the Severi, strong in war.
Citizen, deign this chorus, and bring back the faces long since beheld,
recollecting in mind the earlier pomp,
which had received him as a companion of his father in his father’s tender age; now, with his father-in-law as leader, let the Tiber adore you as a youth.'

425

Orantem medio princeps sermone refovit:
'Numquam aliquid frustra per me voluisse dolebis,
O dea, nec legum fas est occurrere matri.
Sed nec post Libyam (falsis ne perge querellis
Incusare tuos) patriae mandata vocantis

The prince comforted him as he prayed, in mid-speech:
'Never will you grieve that you have wished anything in vain through me,
O goddess, nor is it lawful by the laws to run counter to a mother.
But neither after Libya (do not proceed with false complaints
to accuse your own) the mandates of a homeland that calls

430

Sprevimus: advectae misso Stilichone curules,
Vt nostras tibi, Roma, vices pro principe consul
Impleret generoque socer. Vidistis in illo
Me quoque; sic credit pietas non sanguine solo,
Sed claris potius factis experta parentem.

We spurned: Stilicho having been sent, the curule chairs conveyed,
that in our stead, for the princeps, a consul might fulfill your duties, Rome, and a father-in-law for his son-in-law.
You saw in him me as well; thus piety deems a parent not by blood alone,
but rather by illustrious deeds, proven by experience.

435

Cuncta quidem centum nequeam perstringere linguis
Quae pro me mundoqne gerit; sed ab omnibus unum,
Si fama necdum patuit, te, Roma, docebo
Subiectum nostris oculis et cuius agendi
Spectator vel causa fui. 'Populator Achivae

Indeed I could not with a hundred tongues run through all the things
which he carries out for me and for the world; but of them all, one,
if report has not yet spread, you, Rome, I will teach,
set beneath my own eyes and of whose doing
I was a spectator or even a cause. 'Ravager of Achaean

440

Bistoniaeque plagae, crebris successibus amens
Et ruptas animis spirans inmanibus Alpes
Iam Ligurum trepidis admoverat agmina muris
Tutior auxilio brumae (quo gentibus illis
Sidere consueti favet inclementia caeli)

And the Bistonian tracts, mad with frequent successes,
and, with monstrous spirits, breathing the Alps broken-through,
had already brought up his battle-lines to the trembling walls of the Ligurians,
safer by the aid of winter (in which season
the inclementness of the sky, to which those peoples are accustomed, is wont to favor them)

445

Meque minabatur calcato obsidere vallo
Spem vano terrore fovens, si forte, remotis
Praesidiis, urgente metu, qua vellet obirem
Condicione fidem; nec me timor impulit ullus
Et duce venturo fretum memoremque tuorum,

And he threatened to besiege me, the rampart trampled underfoot,
nurturing hope by empty terror, that perhaps, with the garrisons withdrawn,
with fear pressing, I would enter into a pledge on whatever terms he wished;
nor did any fear impel me, relying on the leader about to come and mindful of your favors,

450

Roma, ducum, quibus hand umquam vel morte parata
Foedus lucis amor pepigit dispendia famae.
Nox erat et late stellarurn more videbam
Barbaricos ardere focos; iam classica primos
Excierant vigiles, gelida cum pulcher ab Arcto

Rome, of leaders, for whom not ever, even with death prepared,
did love of the light strike a pact at the expense of renown.
It was night, and far and wide I saw, after the manner of the stars,
barbarian fires burning; already the battle-trumpets had summoned the first
sentries, when fair from the gelid Arctic

455

Adventat Stilicho. Medius sed clauserat hostis
Inter me socerumque viam pontemque tenebat,
Addua quo scissas spumosior incitat undas.
Quid faceret?

Stilicho is approaching. But the enemy, in the midst, had shut the road between me and my father-in-law and held the bridge,
where the Adda, more foamy, urges on its riven waves.
What was he to do?

differret iter? Discrimina nullas
Nostra dabant adeunda moras. Perrumperet agmen?

Should he defer the march? Our crises admitted no delays.
Should he break through the line?

460

Sed paucis comitatus erat; nam plurima retro,
Dum nobis properat succurrere, liquerat arma
Extera vel nostras acies. Hoc ille locatus
Ancipiti, longum socias tardumque putarit
Expectasse manus et nostra pericula tendit

But he had been accompanied by few; for very many forces behind,
while he hastened to bring succor to us, he had left—
foreign arms, or even our own battle-lines. He, positioned
in this dilemma, may have judged it long and slow
to have waited for allied hands, and he makes for our perils

465

Posthabitis pulsare suis mediumque per hostem
Flammatus virtute pia propriaeque salutis
Inmemor et stricto prosternens obvia ferro
Barbara fulmineo secuit tentoria cursu.
'Nunc tibi Tydiden attollant carmina vatum,

His own set aside, he smote and through the midst of the foe;
inflamed by pious valor and
forgetful of his own safety, and, with drawn steel, laying low whatever met him,
he cleft the barbarian tents at a lightning course.
'Now let the songs of bards exalt for you the Tydides,'

470

Quod iuncto fidens Ithaco pateracta Dolonis
Indicio dapibusque simul religataque somno
Thracia sopiti penetraverit agmina Rhesi
Graiaque rettulerit captos ad castra jugales,
Quorum, si qua fides augentibus omnia Musis,

That, confident, with the Ithacan joined, he accomplished by Dolon’s disclosure,
and, with banquets at the same time and bound by sleep,
he penetrated the Thracian ranks of Rhesus, lulled,
and carried back to the Grecian camp the captured yoke-team,
of which, if there is any trust in the Muses who augment all things,

475

Impetus excessit Zephyros candorque pruinas.
Ecce virum, taciti nulla qui fraude soporis
Ense palam sibi pandit iter remeatque cruentus
Et Diomedeis tantum praeclarior ausis,
Quantum lux tenebris manifestaque proelia furtis!

The impetus outstripped the Zephyrs, and the brightness the frosts.
Behold the man, who by no fraud of silent sleep
with his sword openly opens a path for himself and returns bloodstained,
and by so much more illustrious than the Diomedean ventures,
as light to darkness and manifest battles to furtive ones!

480

Adde quod et ripis steterat munitior hostis
Et cui nec vigilem fas est componere Rhesum:
Thrax erat, hic Thracum domitor. Non tela retardant,
Obice non haesit fluvii. Sic ille minacem
Tyrrhenam labente manum pro ponte repellens

Add, too, that the enemy had stood more fortified on the banks,
and one against whom it is not lawful to pit even wakeful Rhesus:
he was a Thracian; this, a tamer of Thracians. No missiles delay him,
he did not stick at the river’s barrier. Thus he, beating back
the threatening Tyrrhenian band before the bridge while it was being loosened

485

Traiecit clipeo Thybrim, quo texerat urbem,
Tarquinio mirante Cocles mediisque superbus
Porsennam respexit aquis. Celer Addua nostro
Sulcatus socero: sed, cum transnaret, Etruscis
Ille dabat tergum, Geticis hic pectora bellis.

He crossed the Tiber with his shield, with which he had covered the city,
Cocles, with Tarquin marveling, and proud, looked back at Porsenna from the mid-waters. The swift Adda was furrowed by our father-in-law;
but, when he was swimming across, that man was giving his back to the Etruscans, this man his breast to the Getic wars.

490

'Exere nunc doctos tantum certamine laudis,
Roma, choros et, quanta tuis facundia poller
Ingeniis, nostrum digno sonet ore parentem.'
Dixit et antiquae muros egressa Ravennae
Signa movet; iamque ora Padi portusque relinquit

'Now, Rome, bring forth learned choruses, so great in the contest of praise,
and let the eloquence that prevails in your talents
sound our parent with a worthy mouth.'
She spoke, and, having gone forth beyond the walls of ancient Ravenna,
she sets the standards in motion; and now she leaves the mouths of the Po and the harbors

495

Flumineos, certis ubi legibus advena Nereus
Aestuat et pronas puppes nunc amne retuso,
Nunc redeunte vehit nudataque litora fluctu
Deserit, Oceani lunaribus aemula damnis.
Laetior hinc Fano recipit Fortuna vetusto,

the river reaches, where, by fixed laws, the newcomer Nereus
seethes, and now, with the stream driven back, holds the leaning sterns,
now, as it returns, he carries them, and the bared shores with the flood
he abandons, a rival of Ocean in lunar losses.
Happier hence, at her ancient shrine in Fano, Fortune receives him,

500

Despiciturque vagus praerupta valle Metaurus,
Qua mons arte patens vivo se perforat arcu
Admisitque viam sectae per viscera rupis,
Exuperans delubra Iovis saxoque minantes
Appenninigenis cultas pastoribus aras.

and the wandering Metaurus is looked down upon from a precipitous valley,
where the mountain, opened by art, pierces itself with a living arch
and has admitted a way through the bowels of the hewn cliff,
overtopping the shrines of Jove and, with its rock, threatening
the altars tended by shepherds born of the Apennines.

505

Quin et Clitumni sacras victoribus undas,
Candida quae Latiis praebent armenta triumphis,
Visere cura fuit; nec te miracula fontis
Praetereunt, tacito passu quem si quis adiret,
Lentus erat; si voce gradum maiore citasset,

Indeed even the sacred waters of Clitumnus, for victors,
which provide white herds for Latin triumphs,
were a care to visit; nor do the marvels of the spring
escape you: if someone approached it with a silent step,
it was slow; if he had quickened his pace with a louder voice,

510

Commixtis fervebat aquis; cumque omnibus una
Sit natura vadis, similes ut corporis undas
Ostendant, haec sola novam iactantia sortem
Humanos properant imitari flumina mores.
Celsa dehinc patulum prospectans Narnia campum

It seethed with commingled waters; and although one nature is common to all shallows, so that they display waves similar in body, this one alone, boasting a new lot, the streams hasten to imitate human mores. Then lofty Narnia, looking out over the broad plain

515

Regali calcatur equo, rarique coloris
Non procul amnis abest, urbi qui nominis auctor:
Ilice sub densa silvis artatus opacis
Inter utrumque iugum tortis anfractibus albet.
Inde salutato libatis Thybride lymphis

It is trodden by a regal horse, and a river of rare color
is not far away, which is the author of the city’s name:
confined beneath dense ilex in shadowy woods
between the two ridges it gleams white with tortuous windings.
Thence, the Tiber having been saluted, you libate with the waters

520

Excipiunt arcus operosaque semita vastis
Molibus et quidquid tantum praemittitur urbi.
Ac velut officiis trepidantibus ora puellae
Spe propiore tori mater sollertior ornat
Adveniente proco vestesque et cingula comit

Arches and an operose pathway with vast masses receive them,
and whatever of such magnitude is sent before the city.
And just as, with offices all a‑tremble, the countenance of a maiden
a more skillful mother adorns, with nearer hope of the bridal bed,
as the suitor arrives, and she arranges the garments and girdles

525

Saepe manu viridique angustat iaspide pectus
Substringitque comam gemmis et colla monili
Circuit et bacis onerat candentibus aures:
Sic oculis placitum tuis insignior auctis
Collibus et nora major se Roma ridendum

Often with her hand and with green jasper she constricts her breast,
and she binds her hair with gems and her neck with a necklace,
she encircles and loads her ears with gleaming beads:
thus, more conspicuous, pleasing to your eyes, with her hills increased,
and as a newer, greater Rome, she offers herself for laughing

530

Obtulit. Addebant pulchrum nova moenia vultum
Audito perrecta recens rumore Getarum,
Profecitque opifex decori timor, et vice mira,
Quam pax intulerat, bello discussa senectus
Erexit subitas turres cunetosque coegit

She offered. The new walls were adding a fair visage
completed at the fresh rumor of the Getae having been heard,
and fear, a craftsman of adornment, made progress, and, in a wondrous turn,
the old age which peace had brought in, shaken off by war,
raised sudden towers and compelled all

535

Septem continuo colles iuvenescere muro.
Ipse favens votis solitoque decentior aer,
Quamvis adsiduo noctem foedaverat imbre,
Prineipis et solis radiis detersa removit
Nubila; namque ideo pluviis turbaverat omnes

Straightway the seven hills grew young again with a wall.
The air itself, favoring the vows and more becoming than usual,
although it had befouled the night with assiduous rain,
wiped clean and removed the clouds by the rays of the Prince and of the sun;
for indeed for that reason it had troubled all with rains

540

Ante dies lunamque rudem madefecerat Auster,
Vt tibi servatum scirent convexa serenum.
Omne Palatino quod pons a colle recedit
Mulvius et quantum licuit consurgere tectis,
Vna replet turbae facies: undare videres

Beforehand the South Wind had soaked the day and the unworked moon,
so that the convex vaults might know that a clear sky was kept for you.
All the space which the Mulvian Bridge withdraws from the Palatine Hill
and as far as it was permitted to rise with roofs,
one unbroken face of the crowd fills: you would see it billow

545

Ima viris, altas effulgere matribus aedes.
Exultant iuvenes aequaevi principis annis;
Temnunt prisca senes et in hunc sibi prospera fati
Gratantur durasse diem moderataque laudant
Tempora, quod clemens aditu, quod peetore solus

The lower places for the men, the lofty halls shine for the mothers.
The youths, of equal age with the prince, exult;
the elders disdain the ancient things, and for this man, by the prosperous favor of fate,
they congratulate themselves that their day has lasted, and they praise the moderated times,
because he is clement in access, because in heart alone

550

Romanos vetuit currum praecedere patres:
Cume tamen Eucherius, cui regius undique sanguis,,
Atque Augusta soror fratri praeberet ovanti
Militis obsequium; sic illum dura parentis
Instituit pietas in se vel pignora parci

He forbade the Roman Fathers to precede the chariot:
Yet when Eucherius, of royal blood on every side,,
and his sister, an Augusta, would offer to her triumphing brother
the service of a soldier; thus the stern dutifulness of the parent
trained him to be sparing toward himself as well as his pledges.

555

Quique neget nato, procerum quod praestat honori.
Haec sibi curva senum maturaque comprobat aetas
Idque inter veteris speciem praesentis et aulae
Iudicat: hunc civem, dominos venisse priores.
Conspicuas tam flore genas, diademate crinem

And who would deny to the son what he renders to the nobles’ honor.
This the bent age of old men and a mature age approves for itself,
and judges, between the aspect of the former and the present court:
that this one is a citizen, that the earlier ones came as lords.
Cheeks so conspicuous in bloom, hair with a diadem

560

Membraque gemmato trabeae viridantia cinctu
Et fortes umeros et certatura Lyaeo
Inter Erythraeas surgentia colla smaragdos
Mirari sine fine nurus; ignaraque virgo,
Cui simplex calet ore pudor, per singula cernens

And the limbs verdant with the gem-studded girding of the trabea,
and the strong shoulders, and throats set to vie with Lyaeus,
necks rising amid Erythraean emeralds—
the daughters-in-law marvel without end; and the unknowing maiden,
in whose face simple modesty burns, discerning through each particular

565

Nutricem consultat anum: quid fixa draconum
Ora velint? ventis fluitent an vera minentur
Sibila suspensum rapturi faucibus hostem?
Vt chalybe indutos equites et in aere latentes
Vidit cornipedes: 'quanam de genre' rogabat

She consults her nurse, the old woman: what might the fixed mouths of the dragons intend? do their hisses float on the winds, or do they truly menace, about to snatch a suspended enemy with their jaws? When she saw equestrians clad in Chalybean steel and the hoof-footed ones hidden in bronze, she kept asking, 'of what kind'

570

'Ferrati venere viri? quae terra metallo
Nascentes informat equos? num Lemnius auctor
Indidit hinnitum ferro simulacraque belli
Viva dedit?' Gaudet metuens et pollice monstrat,
Quod picturatas galeae Iunonia cristas

'Have iron-clad men come? What land with metal
forms nascent horses? Surely the Lemnian artificer
has set a neigh into iron and given living simulacra of war?
She rejoices, afraid, and with her thumb points out,
that the helmet’s Juno-like crests are painted

575

Ornet avis vel quod rigidos vibrata per armos
Rubra sub aurato crispentur serica dorso.
Tune tibi magnorum mercem Fortuna laborum
Persolvit, Stilicho, curru cum vectus eodem
Vrbe triumphantem generum florente iuventa

Let a bird adorn it, or because, shaken across the rigid shoulders,
the red silks ripple beneath the gilded back.
Then did Fortune pay you the meed of great labors,
Stilicho, when, borne in the same chariot,
you had your son-in-law, triumphant in the City, flourishing in youth

580

Conspiceres illumque diem sub corde referres,
Quo tibi confusa dubiis formidine rebus
Infantem genitor moriens commisit alendum.
Virtutes variae fructus sensere receptos;
Depositum servasse, fides; constantia, parvum

You would behold, and would carry back beneath your heart, that day,
when, with affairs confounded by doubtful dread,
your father, dying, entrusted to you an infant to be nourished.
Various virtues felt their fruits received:
Faith, for having kept the deposit; Constancy, the little one

585

Praefecisse orbi; pietas, fovisse propinquum.
Hic est ille puer, qui nunc ad rostra Quirites
Evocat et solio fultus genitoris eburno
Gestarum patribus causas ex ordine rerum
Eventusque refert veterumque exempla secutus

to have set over the world; dutifulness, to have cherished a kinsman.
Here is that boy, who now summons the Quirites to the rostra,
and, propped on his father’s ivory throne,
recounts to the Fathers, in order, the causes of the things accomplished
and their outcomes, following the examples of the ancients.

590

Digerit imperii sub iudice facta senatu.
Nil cumulat verbis quae nil fiducia celat;
Fucati sermonis opem mens conscia laudis
Abnuit. Agnoscunt proceres; habituque Gabino
Principis et ducibus circumstipata togatis

He sets out the deeds of the empire for judgment before the senate.
He piles up nothing in words; a confidence that hides nothing conceals nothing;
the mind conscious of its own praise refuses the aid of painted discourse.
The nobles recognize him; and, in the Gabine attire of the Princeps,
closely encompassed by toga-clad leaders and commanders

595

Iure paludatae iam curia militat aulae.
Adfuit ipsa suis ales Victoria templis
Romanae tutela togae: quae divite penna
Patricii reverenda fovet sacraria coetus
Castrorumque eadem comes indefessa tuorum

By right now the Curia serves in arms for the paludate court.
Winged Victory herself was present to her own temples,
the tutelage of the Roman toga: who, with rich plumage,
cherishes the venerable shrines of the Patrician assembly,
and likewise is an indefatigable companion of your camps.

600

Nunc tandem fruitur votis atque omne futurum
Te Romae seseque tibi promittit in aevum.
Hinc te jam patriis latibus via nomine vero
Sacra refert. Flagrat studiis concordia vulgi,
Quam non inlecebris dispersi colligis auri;

Now at last she enjoys the fruition of her vows, and all the future
promises you at Rome, and promises itself to you forever.
From here already the Sacred Way, in its ancestral breadth, under its true name,
brings you back. The concord of the common crowd flames with zeal,
which you do not gather by the allurements of scattered gold;

605

Nec tibi venales captant aeraria plausus
Corruptura fidem: meritis offertur inemptus
Pura mente favor. Nam munere carior omni
Obstringit sua quemque salus. Procul ambitus erret!

Nor do the treasuries chase venal applause for you,
that would corrupt faith: for your merits unbought
favor is offered with a pure mind. For his own safety,
dearer than any gift, binds each man. Let canvassing wander far away!

Non quaerit pretium, vitam qui debet amori.

He does not seek a price, who owes his life to love.

610

O quantum populo secreti numinis addit
Imperii praesens genius! quantamque rependit
Maiestas alterna vicem, cum regia circi
Conexum gradibus veneratur purpura vulgus,
Adsensuque cavae sublatus in aethera vallis

O how much to the people the secret numen adds
the Empire’s present genius! and how great a return
Majesty pays in turn, when, in the royal box of the circus,
the purple venerates the crowd linked by the tiers,
and the hollow valley is borne aloft to the aether by its applause

615

Plebis adoratae reboat fragor, unaque totis
Intonat Augustum septenis arcibus Echo!
Nec solis hic cursus equis: adsueta quadrigis
Cingunt arva trabes, subitaeque adspectus harenae
Diffundit Libycos aliena valle cruores.

The roar of the adoring plebs re-echoes, and as one through all the seven citadels Echo thunders “Augustus”!
Nor here are the courses for horses alone: beams gird the fields accustomed to quadrigae,
and the spectacle of a sudden arena diffuses Libyan gore in an alien valley.

620

Haec et belligeros exercuit area lusus,
Armatos haec saepe choros, certaque vagandi
Textas lege fugas inconfusosque recursus
Et pulchras errorum artes iucundaque Martis
Cernimus. Insonuit cum verbere signa magister,

This area too has trained belligerent games,
this has often [trained] armed choruses, and the fixed rules of roaming,
flights woven by law and unconfused returns,
and the beautiful arts of feints and the delights of Mars
we behold. When the master made the signals resound with the lash,

625

Mutatos edunt pariter tot pectora motus
In latus adlisis clipeis aut rursus in altum
Vibratis; grave parma sonat, mucronis acutum
Murmur, et umbonum pulsu modulante resultans
Ferreus alterno concentus clauditur ense.

So many hearts equally display altered motions,
with shields dashed to the side, or else again brandished on high;
the parma sounds heavy, the sharp murmur of the blade,
and, echoing back, with the pulse of the bosses keeping time,
the iron concert is closed with the alternating sword.

630

Vna omnis summissa phalanx tantaeque salutant
Te, princeps, galeae. Partiris inde catervis
In varios docto discurritur ordine gyros,
Quos neque semiviri Gortynia recta iuvenci
Flumina nec crebro vincant Maeandria flexu.

As one, the whole lowered phalanx and so many helmets salute you, princeps.
From there you divide the ranks into companies, and in learned order they run about in various gyres,
which neither the straight Gortynian streams of the half-man bullock
nor the Maeandrian windings with their frequent flexure surpass.

635

Discreto revoluta gradu torquentur in orbes
Agmina, perpetuisque imnoto cardine claustris
Ianus bella premens laeta sub imagine pugnae
Armorum innocuos paci largitur honores.
Iamque novum fastis aperit felicibus annum

With discrete, measured step the ranks, wheeling back, are turned into circles,
and, with the everlasting bars, the hinge unmoved, Janus,
pressing wars beneath the glad image of combat,
bestows upon Peace the innocuous honors of arms.
And now he opens in auspicious fasti the new year

640

Ore coronatus gemino; iam Thybris in uno
Et Bruti cernit trabeas et sceptra Quirini.
Consule laetatur post plurima saecula viso
Pallanteus apex; agnoscunt rostra curules
Auditas quondam proavis, desuetaque cingit

Crowned with a twin face; now the Tiber at once
beholds both the trabeae of Brutus and the scepters of Quirinus.
The Pallantean apex rejoices, a consul seen after very many ages;
the rostra and the curule chairs recognize voices once heard by the forefathers,
and he girds the long-disused

645

Regius auratis fora fascibus Vlpia lictor,
Et sextas Getica praevelans fronde secures
Colla triumphati proculcat Honorius Histri.
Exeat in populos cunctis inlustrior annus,
Natus fonte suo, quem non aliena per arva

The royal lictor, in the Ulpian fora with gilded fasces,
and, veiling the six axes with Getic frondage,
Honorius tramples the necks of the conquered Histerites.
Let a year go forth among the peoples more illustrious than all,
born from its own fount, which not through alien fields

650

Induit hospes bonos, cuius cunabula fovit
Curia, quem primi tandem videre Quirites,
Quem domitis auspex peperit Victoria bellis!
Hunc et privati titulis famulantibus anni
Et, quos armipotens genitor retroque priores

As a guest he dons the good [fasces], whose cradle the Curia fostered;
whom at last the foremost Quirites beheld,
whom, with wars tamed, auspicious Victory bore!
Him both the private years with their attendant titles
and those earlier ones which his war‑powerful father, and prior ones,

655

Diversis gessere locis, ceu numen adorent;
Hunc et quinque tui vel, quos habiturus in urbe
Post alios, Auguste, colant. Licet unus in omues
Consul eas, magno sextus tamen iste superbit
Nomine: praeteritis melior, venientibus auctor.

Diverse places have they borne it, as though they adore a numen;
let him too be honored by your five—those whom you will have in the city
after others—Augustus. Although you alone go as Consul for all,
yet that sixth is proud in a great name:
better than those gone by, an author for those to come.

660