Lucan: DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA

Bella per Emathios plus quam ciuilia campos
iusque datum sceleri canimus, populumque potentem
in sua uictrici conuersum uiscera dextra
cognatasque acies, et rupto foedere regni
certatum totis concussi uiribus orbis                  5
in commune nefas, infestisque obuia signis
signa, pares aquilas et pila minantia pilis.
      quis furor, o ciues, quae tanta licentia ferri?
gentibus inuisis Latium praebere cruorem
cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda tropaeis                  10
Ausoniis umbraque erraret Crassus inulta
bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos?
heu, quantum terrae potuit pelagique parari
hoc quem ciuiles hauserunt sanguine dextrae,
unde uenit Titan et nox ubi sidera condit                  15

Wars through the Emathian fields, more than civil, and right granted to crime we sing, and a powerful people turned with its victorious right hand against its own entrails, and kindred battle-lines, and, the compact of kingship broken, the contest waged with all the forces of a shaken world                  5
to a common nefarious crime; and standards meeting hostile standards, equal eagles, and javelins threatening javelins.
      what madness, O citizens, what so great license of steel?
to offer Latin blood to hated nations, and when proud Babylon was to be despoiled for Ausonian trophies,
and the shade of Crassus would wander unavenged, did it please that wars be waged destined to have no triumphs?                  10
alas, how much land and sea could have been procured by this blood which civil right hands have drained, from where the Titan comes and where night hides the stars                  15

quaque dies medius flagrantibus aestuat horis
et qua bruma rigens ac nescia uere remitti
astringit Scythico glacialem frigore pontum!
sub iuga iam Seres, iam barbarus isset Araxes
et gens siqua iacet nascenti conscia Nilo.                  20
tum, si tantus amor belli tibi, Roma, nefandi,
totum sub Latias leges cum miseris orbem,
in te uerte manus: nondum tibi defuit hostis.
at nunc semirutis pendent quod moenia tectis
urbibus Italiae lapsisque ingentia muris                  25
saxa iacent nulloque domus custode tenentur
rarus et antiquis habitator in urbibus errat,
horrida quod dumis multosque inarata per annos
Hesperia est desuntque manus poscentibus aruis,
non tu, Pyrrhe ferox, nec tantis cladibus auctor                  30

and where the mid-day seethes with blazing hours,
and where the rigid winter, unknowing to relent to spring,
constricts the sea with Scythic, glacial cold!
by now the Seres, by now the barbarous Araxes would have gone under the yoke,
and whatever tribe lies conscious of the Nile in its nascency.                  20
then, if so great a love of nefarious war is yours, Rome,
when you shall have sent the whole orb under Latian laws,
turn your hands upon yourself: an enemy has not yet been lacking to you.
but now, that walls hang with half-ruined roofs
in the cities of Italy, and, the walls having fallen, vast stones lie,                  25
and homes are held by no custodian,
and a rare inhabitant wanders in ancient cities,
because Hesperia is bristling with briars and for many years unploughed,
and hands are lacking to the fields that are calling for them,
not you, fierce Pyrrhus, nor the author of such great disasters                  30

Poenus erit: nulli penitus descendere ferro
contigit; alta sedent ciuilis uolnera dextrae.
      quod si non aliam uenturo fata Neroni
inuenere uiam magnoque aeterna parantur
regna deis caelumque suo seruire Tonanti                  35
non nisi saeuorum potuit post bella gigantum,
iam nihil, o superi, querimur; scelera ipsa nefasque
hac mercede placent. diros Pharsalia campos
inpleat et Poeni saturentur sanguine manes,
ultima funesta concurrant proelia Munda,                  40
his, Caesar, Perusina fames Mutinaeque labores
accedant fatis et quas premit aspera classes
Leucas et ardenti seruilia bella sub Aetna,
multum Roma tamen debet ciuilibus armis
quod tibi res acta est. te, cum statione peracta                  45

It will not be a Carthaginian: to no one has it fallen to plunge the blade utterly deep; the deep wounds of the civil right hand sink in.
      But if the fates have found no other way for the coming Nero, and eternal realms are being prepared for the great gods, and the sky could not serve its own Thunderer save after the wars of the savage Giants,                  35
now we, O powers above, complain of nothing; the crimes themselves and impieties please at this price. Let Pharsalia fill the dread fields, and let the Punic shades be glutted with blood; let the last baleful battles clash at Munda;                  40
to these fates, Caesar, let the Perusine famine and the toils of Mutina be added, and Leucas, which the harsh fleets press, and the servile wars beneath blazing Etna; much, however, does Rome owe to civil arms, for this, that the thing has been done for you. You, when your post is completed,                  45

astra petes serus, praelati regia caeli
excipiet gaudente polo: seu sceptra tenere
seu te flammigeros Phoebi conscendere currus
telluremque nihil mutato sole timentem
igne uago lustrare iuuet, tibi numine ab omni                  50
cedetur, iurisque tui natura relinquet
quis deus esse uelis, ubi regnum ponere mundi.
sed neque in Arctoo sedem tibi legeris orbe
nec polus auersi calidus qua uergitur Austri,
unde tuam uideas obliquo sidere Romam.                  55
aetheris inmensi partem si presseris unam,
sentiet axis onus. librati pondera caeli
orbe tene medio; pars aetheris illa sereni
tota uacet nullaeque obstent a Caesare nubes.
tum genus humanum positis sibi consulat armis                  60

you will seek the stars late; the royal palace of heaven will receive you as the pole rejoices: whether to hold the scepters, or it please you to mount the flame-bearing chariots of Phoebus and with wandering fire to survey the earth, fearing nothing with the sun changed—by every numen it will be yielded to you, and nature will leave to your jurisdiction what god you wish to be, and where to place the dominion of the world.                  50
but you will neither choose a seat for yourself in the Arctic orb, nor where the pole inclines to the hot Auster turned away, whence you would see your Rome with an oblique star.                  55
if you press one part of the immense aether, the axis will feel the burden. hold to the middle circle, the weights of the balanced heaven; let that part of the serene aether be wholly empty, and let no clouds stand in the way of Caesar. then let the human race, with arms laid aside, take counsel for itself.                  60

inque uicem gens omnis amet; pax missa per orbem
ferrea belligeri conpescat limina Iani.
sed mihi iam numen; nec, si te pectore uates
accipio, Cirrhaea uelim secreta mouentem
sollicitare deum Bacchumque auertere Nysa:                  65
tu satis ad uires Romana in carmina dandas.
      fert animus causas tantarum expromere rerum,
inmensumque aperitur opus, quid in arma furentem
inpulerit populum, quid pacem excusserit orbi.
inuida fatorum series summisque negatum                  70
stare diu nimioque graues sub pondere lapsus
nec se Roma ferens. sic, cum conpage soluta
saecula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora
antiquum repetens iterum chaos, [omnia mixtis
sidera sideribus concurrent,] ignea pontum                   75

and in turn let every nation love; let peace, sent through the orb, restrain the iron thresholds of warlike Janus.
but for me now be a numen; nor, if as a vates I receive you in my breast, would I wish to trouble the Cirrhaean god stirring his secrets, and to turn Bacchus away from Nysa:                  65
you are sufficient to give strength to Roman songs.
      my spirit bears me to set forth the causes of such great affairs, and a vast work is opened: what impelled the people, raging, into arms, what shook peace from the world.
the envious sequence of the fates, and that it was denied to the highest to stand for long, and the grievous downfalls under too great a weight, and Rome not bearing herself. thus, when with its framework loosened the last hour of the world, after so many ages, shall have compelled, returning again to ancient chaos, [all the stars will run together with stars mingled,] fiery ... the sea                   75

astra petent, tellus extendere litora nolet
excutietque fretum, fratri contraria Phoebe
ibit et obliquum bigas agitare per orbem
indignata diem poscet sibi, totaque discors
machina diuolsi turbabit foedera mundi. 80
in se magna ruunt: laetis hunc numina rebus
crescendi posuere modum. nec gentibus ullis
commodat in populum terrae pelagique potentem
inuidiam Fortuna suam. tu causa malorum
facta tribus dominis communis, Roma, nec umquam 85
in turbam missi feralia foedera regni.
o male concordes nimiaque cupidine caeci,
quid miscere iuuat uires orbemque tenere
in medio?

they will seek the stars, earth will not wish to extend her shores
and will shake off the sea; Phoebe, contrary to her brother,
will go and, indignant to drive her team through an oblique orbit,
will demand day for herself, and the whole discordant
machine of the torn-asunder world will trouble its compacts. 80
great things collapse upon themselves: for glad affairs the divinities
have set this limit of growing. Nor to any nations does Fortune
lend her envy against the people potent of land and sea.
you, Rome, made the common cause of evils to three masters,
and never were the deadly pacts of rule sent into a crowd. 85
O ill-concordant and blind with excessive cupidity,
what pleasure is there to mingle forces and to hold the orb
in common?

dum terra fretum terramque leuabit
aer et longi uoluent Titana labores 90

so long as earth will lift the sea,
the air will lift the earth, and long labors will roll Titan 90

noxque diem caelo totidem per signa sequetur,
nulla fides regni sociis, omnisque potestas
inpatiens consortis erit. nec gentibus ullis
credite nec longe fatorum exempla petantur:
fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri.                  95
nec pretium tanti tellus pontusque furoris
tunc erat: exiguum dominos commisit asylum.
      temporis angusti mansit concordia discors
paxque fuit non sponte ducum; nam sola futuri
Crassus erat belli medius mora. qualiter undas                  100
qui secat et geminum gracilis mare separat Isthmos
nec patitur conferre fretum, si terra recedat,
Ionium Aegaeo frangat mare, sic, ubi saeua
arma ducum dirimens miserando funere Crassus
Assyrias Latio maculauit sanguine Carrhas,                  105

and night will follow day in the sky through just as many signs,
no loyalty of rule for allies, and every power
will be impatient of a partner. Put no trust in any nations,
nor let examples of fates be sought far away:
the walls were first made wet with fraternal blood.                  95
nor then were earth and sea the price of so great fury:
a meager asylum engaged the lords.
      for a narrow time a discordant concord lasted,
and there was a peace not by the leaders’ will; for Crassus alone
was the middle delay of the future war. Just as the slender Isthmus cuts the waves                  100
who cleaves and separates a twin sea, and does not allow the strait to come together—
if the land should recede, the Ionian sea would break upon the Aegean—so, when
Crassus, sundering the savage arms of the leaders by his pitiable funeral,
stained Assyrian Carrhae with Latin blood,                  105

Parthica Romanos soluerunt damna furores.
plus illa uobis acie, quam creditis, actum est,
Arsacidae: bellum uictis ciuile dedistis.
diuiditur ferro regnum, populique potentis,
quae mare, quae terras, quae totum possidet orbem, 110
non cepit fortuna duos. nam pignora iuncti
sanguinis et diro ferales omine taedas
abstulit ad manes Parcarum Iulia saeua
intercepta manu. quod si tibi fata dedissent
maiores in luce moras, tu sola furentem 115
inde uirum poteras atque hinc retinere parentem
armatasque manus excusso iungere ferro,
ut generos soceris mediae iunxere Sabinae.
morte tua discussa fides bellumque mouere
permissum ducibus.

Parthian losses unleashed Roman furies.
More was accomplished for you in that battle-line than you believe, Arsacids: you gave to the conquered a civil war.
The kingdom is divided by iron, and Fortune did not contain two for the power of a mighty people that possesses the sea, the lands, the whole orb; 110
for the pledges of joined blood and the funereal torches, with dire omen, Julia, intercepted by the cruel hand of the Parcae, snatched away to the shades.
But if the fates had granted to you longer delays in the light, you alone could have held back the raging husband from there and the father from here,
and, the iron shaken out, could have joined armed hands, as the Sabine women in the midst joined sons-in-law to fathers-in-law.
By your death trust was shattered, and it was permitted to the leaders to set war in motion. 115

stimulos dedit aemula uirtus. 120

emulous virtue gave spurs. 120

tu, noua ne ueteres obscurent acta triumphos
et uictis cedat piratica laurea Gallis,
Magne, times; te iam series ususque laborum
erigit inpatiensque loci fortuna secundi;
nec quemquam iam ferre potest Caesarue priorem 125
Pompeiusue parem. quis iustius induit arma
scire nefas: magno se iudice quisque tuetur;
uictrix causa deis placuit sed uicta Catoni.
nec coiere pares. alter uergentibus annis
in senium longoque togae tranquillior usu 130
dedidicit iam pace ducem, famaeque petitor
multa dare in uolgus, totus popularibus auris
inpelli plausuque sui gaudere theatri,
nec reparare nouas uires, multumque priori
credere fortunae.

you, lest new deeds obscure old triumphs
and the piratical laurel yield to the conquered Gauls,
Great One, you fear; already a succession and practice of labors
lifts you up, and a fortune impatient of the place of second;
nor now can Caesar endure anyone before him 125
or Pompey an equal. who put on arms more justly
it is impious to know: with a great judge each protects himself;
the victorious cause pleased the gods, but the vanquished [pleased] Cato.
nor did equals come together. the one, with his years inclining
into old age, and more tranquil through long use of the toga, 130
has now unlearned, in peace, to be a leader, and, a seeker of fame,
to give many things to the crowd, wholly to be driven by popular breezes
and to rejoice in the applause of his own theater,
nor to restore new forces, and to trust much
in his former fortune.

stat magni nominis umbra, 135

the shadow of a great name stands, 135

qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro
exuuias ueteris populi sacrataque gestans
dona ducum nec iam ualidis radicibus haerens
pondere fixa suo est, nudosque per aera ramos
effundens trunco, non frondibus, efficit umbram,                  140
et quamuis primo nutet casura sub Euro,
tot circum siluae firmo se robore tollant,
sola tamen colitur. sed non in Caesare tantum
nomen erat nec fama ducis, sed nescia uirtus
stare loco, solusque pudor non uincere bello.                  145
acer et indomitus, quo spes quoque ira uocasset,
ferre manum et numquam temerando parcere ferro,
successus urguere suos, instare fauori
numinis, inpellens quidquid sibi summa petenti
obstaret gaudensque uiam fecisse ruina,                  150

just as a lofty oak in a fruit-bearing field,
bearing the spoils of an old people and the consecrated gifts
of leaders, and now no longer clinging by strong roots,
is fixed by its own weight, and, pouring bare branches through the air,
with its trunk, not with leaves, it makes shade,                  140
and although ready to fall it nods at the first Eurus,
while so many woods around lift themselves with firm oak-strength,
yet it alone is worshiped. but in Caesar there was not only
a name nor the fame of a leader, but a virtue ignorant
to stand in place, and his sole shame was not to conquer in war.                  145
fierce and indomitable, wherever hope and even anger had called,
to bring the hand, and never, by any scrupling, to spare the iron,
to press his successes, to press hard upon the favor
of the numen, driving away whatever might stand in the way to him seeking
the heights, and rejoicing to have made a way by ruin,                  150

qualiter expressum uentis per nubila fulmen
aetheris inpulsi sonitu mundique fragore
emicuit rupitque diem populosque pauentes
terruit obliqua praestringens lumina flamma:
in sua templa furit, nullaque exire uetante                  155
materia magnamque cadens magnamque reuertens
dat stragem late sparsosque recolligit ignes.
hae ducibus causae; suberant sed publica belli
semina, quae populos semper mersere potentis.
namque, ut opes nimias mundo fortuna subacto                  160
intulit et rebus mores cessere secundis
praedaque et hostiles luxum suasere rapinae,
non auro tectisue modus, mensasque priores
aspernata fames; cultus gestare decoros
uix nuribus rapuere mares; fecunda uirorum                  165

just as a thunderbolt, pressed out by winds, through the clouds,
with the sound of the aether impelled and the crash of the world,
flashed forth and broke the day and the terrified peoples
it frightened, a slanting flame dazzling their eyes:
it rages into its own precincts, and, with no matter forbidding it to go out,                  155
falling it gives great slaughter and, returning, great,
and gathers back the fires scattered far and wide.
these were causes for the leaders; but there were underlying the public
seeds of war, which have always submerged powerful peoples.
for, when Fortune, the world subdued, brought in excessive wealth,                  160
and morals yielded to prosperous circumstances,
and spoil and hostile rapine urged luxury,
there was no measure for gold or for roofs, and a hunger scornful of earlier
tables; to wear handsome adornments the males scarcely snatched from their daughters-in-law;
fertile in men                  165

paupertas fugitur totoque accersitur orbe
quo gens quaeque perit; tum longos iungere fines
agrorum, et quondam duro sulcata Camilli
uomere et antiquos Curiorum passa ligones
longa sub ignotis extendere rura colonis.                  170
non erat is populus quem pax tranquilla iuuaret,
quem sua libertas inmotis pasceret armis.
inde irae faciles et, quod suasisset egestas,
uile nefas, magnumque decus ferroque petendum
plus patria potuisse sua, mensuraque iuris                  175
uis erat: hinc leges et plebis scita coactae
et cum consulibus turbantes iura tribuni;
hinc rapti fasces pretio sectorque fauoris
ipse sui populus letalisque ambitus urbi
annua uenali referens certamina Campo;                  180

poverty is fled, and from the whole orb is summoned that whereby each gens perishes; then to join the long boundaries of fields, and the lands once furrowed by Camillus’s hard ploughshare and that endured the ancient hoes of the Curii to stretch long under unknown colonists.                  170
not a people whom tranquil peace would delight, whom their own liberty would nourish with arms unmoved. thence easy angers and, as indigence had urged, cheap impiety, and that what must be sought with iron and great honor could have more power than their own fatherland, and the measure of right was force:                  175
hence laws and the plebs’ decrees coerced, and tribunes, together with consuls, throwing rights into turmoil; hence fasces snatched for a price, and the people themselves an auctioneer of its own favor, and deadly canvassing for the city, bringing back annual contests for sale on the Field (Campus).                  180

hinc usura uorax auidumque in tempora fenus
et concussa fides et multis utile bellum.
      iam gelidas Caesar cursu superauerat Alpes
ingentisque animo motus bellumque futurum
ceperat. ut uentum est parui Rubiconis ad undas,                  185
ingens uisa duci patriae trepidantis imago
clara per obscuram uoltu maestissima noctem
turrigero canos effundens uertice crines
caesarie lacera nudisque adstare lacertis
et gemitu permixta loqui: 'quo tenditis ultra?                  190
quo fertis mea signa, uiri? si iure uenitis,
si ciues, huc usque licet.' tum perculit horror
membra ducis, riguere comae gressumque coercens
languor in extrema tenuit uestigia ripa.
mox ait 'o magnae qui moenia prospicis urbis                  195

hence voracious usury and interest greedy for terms, and shaken credit, and a war useful to many.
      already Caesar by his swift course had overpassed the icy Alps and had conceived in his mind vast motions and the war to come. when it was come to the waves of the little Rubicon,                  185
a huge image of the trembling fatherland seemed to the leader—clear through the obscure night, most mournful in countenance—pouring out her gray hairs from a turret-bearing crown, with her hair torn, and standing with bare upper arms, and to speak words mingled with a groan: 'Whither do you go beyond?                  190
whither do you bear my standards, men? If you come by right, if as citizens, thus far it is permitted.' Then horror smote the leader’s limbs, his tresses grew stiff, and a faintness restraining his step held his footprints on the extreme bank. Soon he says: 'O you who look forth over the walls of the great city                  195

Tarpeia de rupe Tonans Phrygiique penates
gentis Iuleae et rapti secreta Quirini
et residens celsa Latiaris Iuppiter Alba
Vestalesque foci summique o numinis instar
Roma, faue coeptis. non te furialibus armis                  200
persequor: en, adsum uictor terraque marique
Caesar, ubique tuus (liceat modo, nunc quoque) miles.
ille erit ille nocens, qui me tibi fecerit hostem.'
inde moras soluit belli tumidumque per amnem
signa tulit propere: sicut squalentibus aruis                  205
aestiferae Libyes uiso leo comminus hoste
subsedit dubius, totam dum colligit iram;
mox, ubi se saeuae stimulauit uerbere caudae
erexitque iubam et uasto graue murmur hiatu
infremuit, tum torta leuis si lancea Mauri                  210

From the Tarpeian rock the Thunderer and the Phrygian household-gods
of the Iulean race, and the secret rites of Quirinus the snatched,
and Jupiter Latiaris sitting on lofty Alba,
and the Vestaean hearths, and, O likeness of the highest divinity,
Rome, favor the undertakings. Not with furial arms do I pursue you:                  200
behold, I am here, a victor by land and sea,
Caesar, everywhere your soldier (if only it be allowed, now also).
He shall be—he, the guilty one—who has made me your enemy.'
Then he loosed delays of war and through the swollen river
quickly bore the standards: just as on the scabrous fields                  205
of heat-bearing Libya, when a lion has seen the foe at close quarters,
he crouched irresolute, while he gathers his whole wrath;
soon, when he has goaded himself with the lash of his cruel tail,
and has bristled his mane and with a vast gape has growled a grave murmur,
then, even if the light lance of a Moor be hurled, twisted,                  210

haereat aut latum subeant uenabula pectus,
per ferrum tanti securus uolneris exit.
      fonte cadit modico paruisque inpellitur undis
puniceus Rubicon, cum feruida canduit aestas,
perque imas serpit ualles et Gallica certus                  215
limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arua colonis.
tum uires praebebat hiemps atque auxerat undas
tertia iam grauido pluuialis Cynthia cornu
et madidis Euri resolutae flatibus Alpes.
primus in obliquum sonipes opponitur amnem                  220
excepturus aquas; molli tum cetera rumpit
turba uado faciles iam fracti fluminis undas.
Caesar, ut aduersam superato gurgite ripam
attigit, Hesperiae uetitis et constitit aruis,
'hic' ait 'hic pacem temerataque iura relinquo;                  225

let it stick fast, or let the hunting-spears go beneath his broad breast—through the iron he makes an exit, heedless of so great a wound.
from a modest spring and driven by little waves falls the crimson Rubicon, when the searing summer has glowed white; and through the lowest valleys it creeps, and as a sure boundary separates the Gallic fields from the Ausonian colonists. 215
then winter supplied strength and had increased the waters, as rainy Cynthia now with her third horn was heavy, and the Alps were loosened by the damp blasts of Eurus.
the hoofed steed is first set against the slanting river, to take the waters; then the rest of the soft throng breaks through at the ford the easy waves of the river now broken.
Caesar, when, the whirlpool overcome, he touched the opposite bank and stood upon the forbidden fields of Hesperia, said, 'here, here I leave peace and the profaned laws behind.' 225

te, Fortuna, sequor. procul hinc iam foedera sunto;
credidimus satis <his>, utendum est iudice bello.'
sic fatus noctis tenebris rapit agmina ductor
inpiger, et torto Balearis uerbere fundae
ocior et missa Parthi post terga sagitta,                  230
uicinumque minax inuadit Ariminum, et ignes
solis Lucifero fugiebant astra relicto.
iamque dies primos belli uisura tumultus
exoritur; sed sponte deum, seu turbidus Auster
inpulerat, maestam tenuerunt nubila lucem.                  235
constitit ut capto iussus deponere miles
signa foro, stridor lituum clangorque tubarum
non pia concinuit cum rauco classica cornu.
rupta quies populi, stratisque excita iuuentus
deripuit sacris adfixa penatibus arma                  240

I follow you, Fortune. Far from here now let treaties be; we have trusted enough <in these>; war must be used as judge.'
Thus having spoken, the leader, untiring, sweeps the columns through the shadows of night, swifter than the twisted lash of a Balearic sling and than a Parthian arrow sent behind the back,                  230
and menacing he attacks neighboring Ariminum, and the fires of the sun, Lucifer left behind, were driving off the stars.
And now the day, destined to behold the first tumults of war, rises; but whether by the will of the gods, or the turbid South Wind had driven them, clouds held a mournful light.                  235
When, in the captured forum, the soldier, ordered to lay down the standards, halted, the screech of the litui and the clangor of the trumpets, the war-trumpets, sounded together with the hoarse horn, not piously.
The people’s repose was broken, and the youth, roused from their beds, tore down the weapons affixed to the sacred household Penates.                  240

quae pax longa dabat: nuda iam crate fluentis
inuadunt clipeos curuataque cuspide pila
et scabros nigrae morsu robiginis enses.
ut notae fulsere aquilae Romanaque signa
et celsus medio conspectus in agmine Caesar,                  245
deriguere metu, gelidos pauor occupat artus,
et tacito mutos uoluunt in pectore questus.
'o male uicinis haec moenia condita Gallis,
o tristi damnata loco! pax alta per omnes
et tranquilla quies populos: nos praeda furentum                  250
primaque castra sumus. melius, Fortuna, dedisses
orbe sub Eoo sedem gelidaque sub Arcto
errantisque domos, Latii quam claustra tueri.
nos primi Senonum motus Cimbrumque ruentem
uidimus et Martem Libyes cursumque furoris                  255

what a long peace had produced: with the wicker-lattice now stripped bare, they fall upon dripping shields, and on javelins with a curved point, and on swords rough from the bite of black rust. as soon as the familiar eagles and the Roman standards flashed, and Caesar, towering, was seen in the middle of the column,                  245
they stiffened with fear; dread seizes their icy limbs, and in silence they roll mute complaints within the breast. ‘o, ill-founded these walls, with Gauls so near, o doomed to a grim location! deep peace and tranquil quiet through all peoples: we are the prey of the frenzied and the first camp.                  250
better, Fortune, you would have given a seat beneath the Eastern orb and beneath the icy North and wandering homes, than to guard the barriers of Latium. we first saw the stirrings of the Senones and the Cimbrian rushing, and the Mars of Libya and the course of frenzy.                  255

Teutonici: quotiens Romam fortuna lacessit,
hac iter est bellis.' gemitu sic quisque latenti,
non ausus timuisse palam: uox nulla dolori
credita, sed quantum, uolucres cum bruma coercet,
rura silent, mediusque tacet sine murmure pontus,                  260
tanta quies. noctis gelidas lux soluerat umbras:
ecce, faces belli dubiaeque in proelia menti
urguentes addunt stimulos cunctasque pudoris
rumpunt fata moras: iustos Fortuna laborat
esse ducis motus et causas inuenit armis.                   265
expulit ancipiti discordes urbe tribunos
uicto iure minax iactatis curia Gracchis.
hos iam mota ducis uicinaque signa petentes
audax uenali comitatur Curio lingua,
uox quondam populi libertatemque tueri                  270

The Teutons: whenever Fortune provokes Rome, by this route is the march for wars.' Thus each with hidden groan, not daring to fear openly: no voice was entrusted to grief, but as much as, when midwinter restrains the birds, the fields are silent, and the mid-sea is hushed without a murmur, so great the quiet.                  260
The light had loosed the icy shades of night: behold, the torches of war and, to a mind doubtful for battles, spurs that urge are added, and the fates break all delays of shame: Fortune strives that the leader’s movements be just, and finds causes for arms.                  265
The Curia, menacing with law overcome, with the Gracchi bandied about, expelled from the two-edged city the discordant tribunes. These men, now seeking the stirred leader and the standards close at hand, bold Curio with a venal tongue accompanies, once the voice of the people and to guard liberty.                  270

ausus et armatos plebi miscere potentes.
utque ducem uarias uoluentem pectore curas
conspexit 'dum uoce tuae potuere iuuari,
Caesar,' ait 'partes, quamuis nolente senatu
traximus imperium, tum cum mihi rostra tenere                  275
ius erat et dubios in te transferre Quirites.
at postquam leges bello siluere coactae
pellimur e patriis laribus patimurque uolentes
exilium: tua nos faciet uictoria ciues.
dum trepidant nullo firmatae robore partes,                  280
tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis.
[par labor atque metus pretio maiore petuntur.]
bellantem geminis tenuit te Gallia lustris,
pars quota terrarum! facili si proelia pauca
gesseris euentu, tibi Roma subegerit orbem.                  285

and having dared even to mix the armed potentates with the plebs.
and when he saw the leader revolving various cares in his breast
'While by your voice your party could be aided,
Caesar,' he said, 'although the senate was unwilling
we drew power, then, when it was my right to hold the Rostra                  275
and to transfer the wavering Quirites onto you.
But after the laws, compelled by war, fell silent,
we are driven from our ancestral Lares and willingly endure
exile: your victory will make us citizens.
while the parties, strengthened by no strength, are in trepidation,                  280
remove delays: it has always harmed the prepared to defer.
[equal toil and fear are sought at a greater price.]
Gaul has held you, fighting, for two lustrums (10 years),
what fraction of the lands! if you should wage a few battles with an easy outcome,
for you Rome will have subdued the world.'
                  285

nunc neque te longi remeantem pompa triumphi
excipit aut sacras poscunt Capitolia laurus:
liuor edax tibi cuncta negat, gentesque subactas
uix inpune feres. socerum depellere regno
decretum genero est: partiri non potes orbem,                  290
solus habere potes.' sic postquam fatus, et ipsi
in bellum prono tantum tamen addidit irae
accenditque ducem, quantum clamore iuuatur
Eleus sonipes, quamuis iam carcere clauso
inmineat foribus pronusque repagula laxet.                  295
conuocat armatos extemplo ad signa maniplos,
utque satis trepidum turba coeunte tumultum
conposuit uoltu dextraque silentia iussit
'bellorum o socii, qui mille pericula Martis
mecum' ait 'experti decimo iam uincitis anno,                  300

now neither does the pomp of a long triumph receive you returning,
nor do the Capitoline ask for sacred laurels:
devouring envy denies you everything, and the peoples subdued
you will scarcely bear with impunity. To drive a father-in-law from his realm
is decreed for the son-in-law: you cannot partition the orb; you alone can hold it.'                  290
thus after he had spoken, he added only so much to the wrath
already prone to war, and inflamed the leader, as much as the Elean
hoofed steed is aided by the shouting, although now, the starting-gate closed,
he leans toward the doors and, leaning forward, would loosen the bars.                  295
at once he summons the armed maniples to the standards,
and when he had set in order the sufficiently panicked tumult as the crowd gathered
and by his look and right hand had ordered silence,
“O comrades of wars, who, having tested a thousand perils of Mars
with me,” he says, “now are winning in the 10th year,                  300

hoc cruor Arctois meruit diffusus in aruis
uolneraque et mortes hiemesque sub Alpibus actae?
non secus ingenti bellorum Roma tumultu
concutitur, quam si Poenus transcenderit Alpes
Hannibal: inplentur ualidae tirone cohortes, 305
in classem cadit omne nemus, terraque marique
iussus Caesar agi. quid, si mihi signa iacerent
Marte sub aduerso ruerentque in terga feroces
Gallorum populi? nunc, cum fortuna secundis
mecum rebus agat superique ad summa uocantes, 310
temptamur.

has the gore spilled in Arctic fields deserved this, and the wounds and deaths and winters spent beneath the Alps? no otherwise is Rome shaken by a vast tumult of wars than if Punic Hannibal had overpassed the Alps: sturdy cohorts are filled with tyros, 305
for the fleet every grove falls, and Caesar is ordered to be pressed by land and sea. what, if my standards were lying low with Mars adverse, and the fierce peoples of the Gauls were rushing upon our backs? now, when Fortune deals with me in prosperous affairs and the gods above, calling to the heights, 310
are with me, we are being put to the test.

ueniat longa dux pace solutus
milite cum subito partesque in bella togatae
Marcellusque loquax et nomina uana Catones.
scilicet extremi Pompeium emptique clientes
continuo per tot satiabunt tempora regno? 315

let there come a leader, unbound by long peace,
with sudden soldiery, and the toga-clad parties into wars,
and a loquacious Marcellus and the Catos, empty names.
surely the latest-arrived and the bought clients
will straightway sate Pompey with rule through so many seasons? 315

ille reget currus nondum patientibus annis,
ille semel raptos numquam dimittet honores?
quid iam rura querar totum suppressa per orbem
ac iussam seruire famem? quis castra timenti
nescit mixta foro, gladii cum triste micantes                  320
iudicium insolita trepidum cinxere corona
atque auso medias perrumpere milite leges
Pompeiana reum clauserunt signa Milonem?
nunc quoque, ne lassum teneat priuata senectus,
bella nefanda parat suetus ciuilibus armis                  325
et docilis Sullam scelerum uicisse magistrum.
utque ferae tigres numquam posuere furorem,
quas, nemore Hyrcano matrum dum lustra secuntur,
altus caesorum pauit cruor armentorum,
sic et Sullanum solito tibi lambere ferrum                  330

will that man guide the chariots, his years not yet patient; will that man, once honors snatched, never dismiss them? why should I now complain of the fields suppressed throughout the whole orb and hunger commanded to serve? who, in fear, does not know the camp mixed with the forum, when swords grimly flashing encircled the trembling court with an unusual corona, and, when he dared to break through the midst of the laws with soldiery, Pompeian standards shut up the defendant Milo? now also, lest private old age hold him weary, he prepares nefarious wars, accustomed to civil arms, and, a docile pupil, that he has surpassed Sulla, the master of crimes. and as wild tigers have never put aside their furor, those whom, while in the Hyrcanian grove they follow the lairs of their mothers, the deep gore of slaughtered herds has fed, so too to lick for you, as is their wont, the Sullan steel                  320
with the years not yet enduring?
he will never release the honors once seized?
why should I now complain that the countryside has been suppressed through the whole world
and hunger ordered to be a slave? who does not know, to one who fears,
the camp mingled with the forum, when the swords, grimly flashing,                  325
girded the trembling court with an unwonted circle,
and, when he dared to burst through the midst of the laws with soldiery,
the Pompeian standards shut up Milo, the defendant?
now too, lest private old age hold him tired,
he prepares unspeakable wars, used to civil arms,                  330
and, teachable, has outdone Sulla, the master of crimes.
and as wild tigers have never set aside their rage—those whom,
while they follow their mothers’ lairs in the Hyrcanian grove,
the deep blood of slaughtered herds has fed—so too to lick, for you,
the Sullan steel, as is their wont—

durat, magne, sitis. nullus semel ore receptus
pollutas patitur sanguis mansuescere fauces.
quem tamen inueniet tam longa potentia finem?
quis scelerum modus est? ex hoc iam te, inprobe, regno
ille tuus saltem doceat descendere Sulla. 335
post Cilicasne uagos et lassi Pontica regis
proelia barbarico uix consummata ueneno
ultima Pompeio dabitur prouincia Caesar,
quod non uictrices aquilas deponere iussus
paruerim?

endures, great one, the thirst. no blood, once taken into the mouth,
allows the defiled throats to grow gentle.
what end, however, will so long a potency find?
what limit is there to crimes? from this realm now at least, shameless one, let that Sulla of yours teach you to descend. 335
after the roving Cilicians and the battles of the weary Pontic king,
scarcely consummated by barbaric poison,
will the last province be given to Pompey by Caesar,
because, when ordered to lay down the victorious eagles,
I did not obey?

mihi si merces erepta laborum est, 340
his saltem longi non cum duce praemia belli
reddantur; miles sub quolibet iste triumphet.
conferet exanguis quo se post bella senectus?
quae sedes erit emeritis? quae rura dabuntur
quae noster ueteranus aret, quae moenia fessis? 345

if to me the wage of labors has been snatched away, 340
let at least to these be rendered the rewards of the long war, not to the leader;
let that soldier triumph under any commander whatsoever.
whither will exsanguine old age betake itself after wars?
what seat will there be for the emeriti? what fields will be given
for our veteran to plough, what walls for the weary? 345

an melius fient piratae, Magne, coloni?
tollite iam pridem uictricia tollite signa:
uiribus utendum est quas fecimus. arma tenenti
omnia dat, qui iusta negat. nec numina derunt;
nam neque praeda meis neque regnum quaeritur armis: 350
detrahimus dominos urbi seruire paratae.'
dixerat; at dubium non claro murmure uolgus
secum incerta fremit.

Or will pirates, Magnus, become better as colonists?
lift, long since, lift the victorious standards:
we must use the forces which we have made. To one holding arms
he gives everything, who denies what is just. Nor will the divinities be lacking;
for neither prey nor a kingdom is sought by my arms: 350
we are dragging down the masters from a city ready to serve.'
He had spoken; but the wavering mob, with no clear murmur,
mutters uncertainties to itself.

pietas patriique penates
quamquam caede feras mentes animosque tumentes
frangunt; sed diro ferri reuocantur amore 355
ductorisque metu. summi tum munera pili
Laelius emeritique gerens insignia doni,
seruati ciuis referentem praemia quercum,
'si licet,' exclamat 'Romani maxime rector
nominis, et ius est ueras expromere uoces, 360

piety and the fatherland’s Penates
although they break minds savage with slaughter and spirits swelling
are broken; but they are called back by a dire love of steel and by fear of the leader 355
then Laelius, bearing the gifts of the highest pilus
and the insignia of a well‑earned gift,
bearing the oak, the reward for a saved citizen,
'if it is permitted,' he exclaims, 'greatest ruler
of the Roman name, and if it is right to bring forth true voices, 360

quod tam lenta tuas tenuit patientia uires
conquerimur. deratne tibi fiducia nostri?
dum mouet haec calidus spirantia corpora sanguis
et dum pila ualent fortes torquere lacerti,
degenerem patiere togam regnumque senatus? 365
usque adeo miserum est ciuili uincere bello?
duc age per Scythiae populos, per inhospita Syrtis
litora, per calidas Libyae sitientis harenas:
haec manus, ut uictum post terga relinqueret orbem,
Oceani tumidas remo conpescuit undas 370
fregit et Arctoo spumantem uertice Rhenum:
iussa sequi tam posse mihi quam uelle necesse est.
nec ciuis meus est, in quem tua classica, Caesar,
audiero.

we complain that such slow patience has held back your forces. did confidence in us fail you? while hot blood moves these breathing bodies and while strong upper arms are able to hurl the javelins, will you suffer the degenerate toga and the dominion of the senate? 365
is it then so wretched to conquer in a civil war? lead us, come, through the peoples of Scythia, through the inhospitable shores of the Syrtis, through the hot sands of thirsty Libya: this band, so that it might leave the conquered world behind its back, with the oar has restrained the swollen waves of Ocean
and has broken the Rhine foaming at its Arctic crest: it is necessary for me to be as able to follow orders as to will it.
nor is he my fellow citizen, against whom I shall have heard your war-trumpets, Caesar.

per signa decem felicia castris
perque tuos iuro quocumque ex hoste triumphos, 375

by the ten auspicious standards in the camp
and by your triumphs from whatever enemy I swear, 375

pectore si fratris gladium iuguloque parentis
condere me iubeas plenaeque in uiscera partu
coniugis, inuita peragam tamen omnia dextra;
si spoliare deos ignemque inmittere templis,
numina miscebit castrensis flamma monetae;                  380
castra super Tusci si ponere Thybridis undas,
Hesperios audax ueniam metator in agros.
tu quoscumque uoles in planum effundere muros,
his aries actus disperget saxa lacertis,
illa licet, penitus tolli quam iusseris urbem,                   385
Roma sit.' his cunctae simul adsensere cohortes
elatasque alte, quaecumque ad bella uocaret,
promisere manus. it tantus ad aethera clamor,
quantus, piniferae Boreas cum Thracius Ossae
rupibus incubuit, curuato robore pressae                  390

if you bid me to sheathe the sword in my brother’s breast and my father’s throat, and in the full-with-child entrails of my wife, unwilling, yet with my right hand I shall accomplish all; if to despoil the gods and to send fire into the temples, the camp-mint’s flame shall commingle with the divinities (numina); 380
if to pitch the camp above the waves of the Tuscan Tiber, I, bold as a metator, will come into the Hesperian fields. you, whatever walls you wish to pour down into the plain, with these sinews the driven aries shall scatter their stones—though that city be Rome itself, which you command to be utterly razed.' to these words all the cohorts together assented, and, their hands lifted high, they pledged them for whatever wars he might summon. such a great shout goes to aether as when Thracian Boreas has brooded upon the crags of pine-bearing Ossa, the cliffs pressed by timber bent and bowed. 390

fit sonus aut rursus redeuntis in aethera siluae.
      Caesar, ut acceptum tam prono milite bellum
fataque ferre uidet, nequo languore moretur
fortunam, sparsas per Gallica rura cohortes
euocat et Romam motis petit undique signis.                  395
deseruere cauo tentoria fixa Lemanno
castraque quae Vosegi curuam super ardua ripam
pugnaces pictis cohibebant Lingonas armis.
hi uada liquerunt Isarae, qui, gurgite ductus
per tam multa suo, famae maioris in amnem                  400
lapsus ad aequoreas nomen non pertulit undas.
soluuntur flaui longa statione Ruteni;
mitis Atax Latias gaudet non ferre carinas
finis et Hesperiae, promoto limite, Varus;
quaque sub Herculeo sacratus nomine portus                  405

there is a sound, or else of a forest springing back into the upper air.
      Caesar, when he sees the war accepted by so prone a soldiery and the Fates bearing it, lest he delay Fortune by any languor, calls out the cohorts scattered through the Gallic countryside and, the standards set in motion, seeks Rome from every side.                  395
they abandoned the tents fixed by hollow Lemannus and the camps which, above the steep bank of the curving Vosges, were restraining the warlike Lingones with painted arms.
these left the shallows of the Isara, which, drawn by its own whirl through so many [regions], slipping into a river of greater renown, did not carry its name to the sea-waves.                  400
the blond Ruteni are released from long stationing; the gentle Atax rejoices not to bear Latin keels; and the Varus, boundary of Hesperia, with the boundary pushed forward;
and where beneath the Herculean name a port is consecrated                  405

urguet rupe caua pelagus: non Corus in illum
ius habet aut Zephyrus, solus sua litora turbat
Circius et tuta prohibet statione Monoeci:
quaque iacet litus dubium quod terra fretumque
uindicat alternis uicibus, cum funditur ingens                  410
Oceanus uel cum refugis se fluctibus aufert.
uentus ab extremo pelagus sic axe uolutet
destituatque ferens, an sidere mota secundo
Tethyos unda uagae lunaribus aestuet horis,
flammiger an Titan, ut alentes hauriat undas,                  415
erigat Oceanum fluctusque ad sidera ducat,
quaerite, quos agitat mundi labor; at mihi semper
tu, quaecumque moues tam crebros causa meatus,
ut superi uoluere, late. tum rura Nemetis
qui tenet et ripas Atyri, qua litore curuo                  420

the hollow crag constrains the sea: neither Corus has right over it nor Zephyrus; the Circius alone disturbs its own shores and forbids Monoecus a safe anchorage:
and where there lies a doubtful strand which land and strait claim by alternate turns, when the huge Ocean pours out or when it withdraws itself with receding waves.                  410
whether a wind from the far axis so rolls the sea and, bearing it, leaves it stranded, or whether, moved by a propitious star, the wave of Tethys swells with the moon’s wandering hours,
or the fire-bearing Titan, that he may drink the nourishing waters, raises Ocean and leads the waves to the stars—                  415
inquire, you whom the world’s travail stirs; but for me, may you—the cause, whatever you are, that moves such frequent currents—range widely, as the gods above have willed. Then he who holds the fields of the Nemetis and the banks of the Atyrus, where on the curved shore                  420

molliter admissum claudit Tarbellicus aequor,
signa mouet, gaudetque amoto Santonus hoste
et Biturix longisque leues Suessones in armis,
optimus excusso Leucus Remusque lacerto,
optima gens flexis in gyrum Sequana frenis,                  425
et docilis rector monstrati Belga couinni,
Aruernique, ausi Latio se fingere fratres
sanguine ab Iliaco populi, nimiumque rebellis
Neruius et caesi pollutus foedere Cottae,
et qui te laxis imitantur, Sarmata, bracis                   430
Vangiones, Batauique truces, quos aere recuruo
stridentes acuere tubae; qua Cinga pererrat
gurgite, qua Rhodanus raptum uelocibus undis
in mare fert Ararim, qua montibus ardua summis
gens habitat cana pendentes rupe Cebennas.                  435

the Tarbellic sea softly closes the inlet that has been let in,
he moves the standards, and the Santonian rejoices with the enemy removed,
and the Biturix and the Suessones, light in their long arms,
the most excellent Leucian and Remian, with the upper arm shaken free,
the best clan, the Sequani, with reins bent into a gyre, 425
and the Belgic, a teachable driver of the pointed-out covinnus (chariot),
and the Arverni, who dared to fashion themselves brothers to Latium,
a people from Iliac blood, and the Nervian, all too rebellious,
and he stained by the pact of the slain Cotta,
and the Vangiones, who imitate you, Sarmatian, with loose braccae, 430
and the fierce Batavi, whom the hissing trumpets of curved bronze sharpened; where the Cinga wanders
with its surge, where the Rhone with swift waves bears the snatched Arar
into the sea, where on the topmost mountains dwells a clan, hoary,
the Cevennes hanging on a crag.

tu quoque laetatus conuerti proelia, Treuir,                  441
et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decore
crinibus effusis toti praelate Comatae,
et quibus inmitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates horrensque feris altaribus Esus                  445
et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae.
uos quoque, qui fortes animas belloque peremptas
laudibus in longum uates dimittitis aeuum,
plurima securi fudistis carmina, Bardi.
et uos barbaricos ritus moremque sinistrum                  450

you too rejoiced that battles were turned, Trever,                  441
and you now shorn, Ligurian, once, with hair poured down over your neck with grace,
preferred before all the whole Long‑Haired;
and you by whom the ruthless Teutates is appeased with dire blood,
and Esus, bristling with savage altars,                  445
and Taranis, whose altar is no gentler than that of Scythian Diana.
you also, who send forth by your praises to a long age
the brave souls and those slain in war, poets—
fearless, you have poured out very many songs, Bards.
and you too, the barbarian rites and sinister custom                  450

sacrorum, Dryadae, positis repetistis ab armis.
solis nosse deos et caeli numina uobis
aut solis nescire datum; nemora alta remotis
incolitis lucis; uobis auctoribus umbrae
non tacitas Erebi sedes Ditisque profundi                  455
pallida regna petunt: regit idem spiritus artus
orbe alio; longae, canitis si cognita, uitae
mors media est. certe populi quos despicit Arctos
felices errore suo, quos ille timorum
maximus haut urguet leti metus. inde ruendi                  460
in ferrum mens prona uiris animaeque capaces
mortis, et ignauum rediturae parcere uitae.
et uos, crinigeros Belgis arcere Caycos
oppositi, petitis Romam Rhenique feroces
deseritis ripas et apertum gentibus orbem.                  465

with arms laid aside, you Dryads have resumed sacred rites.
to you alone it is given to know the gods and the numina of heaven,
or to you alone to be ignorant; you inhabit high groves removed
from the light; on your authority the shades seek not the silent seats of Erebus
but the pallid realms of deep Dis; the same spirit rules the limbs                  455
in another orb; of a long life, if as you chant it is known, death is the middle.
surely the peoples whom the Bear looks down upon are happy in their error,
whom the greatest of fears, the fear of death, does not press. hence the mind
of men is prone to rush into iron, and souls capable of death,
and to spare a cowardly life that will return. and you, set opposite to ward off the shaggy-haired                  460
Cauci from the Belgae, you seek Rome, and, fierce, you desert the banks of the Rhine
and the world laid open to the nations.                  465

      Caesar, ut inmensae conlecto robore uires
audendi maiora fidem fecere, per omnem
spargitur Italiam uicinaque moenia conplet.
uana quoque ad ueros accessit fama timores
inrupitque animos populi clademque futuram                  470
intulit et uelox properantis nuntia belli
innumeras soluit falsa in praeconia linguas.
est qui tauriferis ubi se Meuania campis
explicat audaces ruere in certamina turmas
adferat, et qua Nar Tiberino inlabitur amni                  475
barbaricas saeui discurrere Caesaris alas;
ipsum omnes aquilas conlataque signa ferentem
agmine non uno densisque incedere castris.
nec qualem meminere uident: maiorque ferusque
mentibus occurrit uictoque inmanior hoste.                  480

      Caesar, when strength collected with immense vigor gave credence to daring greater things,
is spread through all Italy and fills the neighboring walls.
Empty rumor too added to the true fears
and burst into the minds of the people and brought the coming disaster,                  470
and the swift messenger of the hastening war
loosed countless tongues into false proclamations.
There is one to report that where Mevania on bull-bearing plains
unfolds itself, bold squadrons rush into combats,
and where the Nar glides into the Tiberine river,                  475
the barbarian wings of savage Caesar run about;
that he himself, bearing all the eagles and the mustered standards,
advances in more than one column and with close-set camps.
Nor do they see him such as they remember: greater and more feral
he meets their minds, and more monstrous than the conquered enemy.                  480

hunc inter Rhenum populos Albimque iacentes
finibus Arctois patriaque a sede reuolsos
pone sequi, iussamque feris a gentibus urbem
Romano spectante rapi. sic quisque pauendo
dat uires famae, nulloque auctore malorum 485
quae finxere timent. nec solum uolgus inani
percussum terrore pauet, sed curia et ipsi
sedibus exiluere patres, inuisaque belli
consulibus fugiens mandat decreta senatus.
tum, quae tuta petant et quae metuenda relinquant 490
incerti, quo quemque fugae tulit impetus urguent
praecipitem populum, serieque haerentia longa
agmina prorumpunt.

add that he pursues the peoples lying between the Rhine and the Elbe,
torn from Arctic confines and from their native seat,
and that, with the Roman looking on, the city is ordered by savage nations
to be snatched. thus each, by fearing, gives strength to rumor, and, with no author of the evils,
they fear what they themselves have fabricated. 485
nor does only the common crowd, smitten by empty terror, quake, but the Curia and the Fathers themselves
have leapt from their seats, and fleeing, to consuls to whom war is odious,
it entrusts the decrees of the Senate.
then, uncertain what safe places to seek and what, to be feared, to leave behind,
wherever the impulse of flight has carried each, they press the headlong people, and in a long series the clinging
columns burst forth.

credas aut tecta nefandas
corripuisse faces aut iam quatiente ruina
nutantes pendere domos, sic turba per urbem 495

you would believe either that nefarious torches had seized the roofs,
or that now, with ruin shaking, the tottering houses hung, thus the crowd through the city 495

praecipiti lymphata gradu, uelut unica rebus
spes foret adflictis patrios excedere muros,
inconsulta ruit. qualis, cum turbidus Auster
reppulit a Libycis inmensum Syrtibus aequor
fractaque ueliferi sonuerunt pondera mali,                  500
desilit in fluctus deserta puppe magister
nauitaque et nondum sparsa conpage carinae
naufragium sibi quisque facit, sic urbe relicta
in bellum fugitur. nullum iam languidus aeuo
eualuit reuocare parens coniunxue maritum                  505
fletibus, aut patrii, dubiae dum uota salutis
conciperent, tenuere lares; nec limine quisquam
haesit et extremo tunc forsitan urbis amatae
plenus abit uisu: ruit inreuocabile uolgus.
o faciles dare summa deos eademque tueri                  510

with headlong, frenzied step, as if the only hope for afflicted affairs were to depart their fathers’ walls, unadvisedly it rushes. just as, when the turbid Auster has driven back the immense sea from the Libyan Syrtes, and the weights of the sail-bearing mast have cracked and resounded,                  500
the helmsman, the ship deserted, leaps into the waves, and the sailor, and while the structure of the keel is not yet scattered, each makes shipwreck for himself, so, the city abandoned, there is flight into war. no parent, debilitated by age, now had the strength to call back a son, nor a wife her husband by tears,                  505
nor did their ancestral Lares, while they were conceiving vows for doubtful safety, hold them; nor did anyone linger on the threshold, and then perhaps, full of a last sight of the beloved city, he departs: the unrecallable crowd rushes headlong. O gods, easy to grant the heights and to guard the same!                  510

difficiles! urbem populis uictisque frequentem
gentibus et generis, coeat si turba, capacem
humani facilem uenturo Caesare praedam
ignauae liquere manus. cum pressus ab hoste
clauditur externis miles Romanus in oris, 515
effugit exiguo nocturna pericula uallo,
et subitus rapti munimine caespitis agger
praebet securos intra tentoria somnos:
tu tantum audito bellorum nomine, Roma,
desereris; nox una tuis non credita muris. 520
danda tamen uenia est tantorum danda pauorum:
Pompeio fugiente timent.

difficult! a city thronged with peoples and with conquered
nations, and, if the throng should come together, capacious
of the human race, an easy prey for the coming Caesar,
the slothful hands have left. When, hard-pressed by the foe,
the Roman soldier is shut in on foreign shores, 515
he escapes the dangers of the night by a slight rampart,
and a sudden embankment with the bulwark of snatched turf
offers secure sleeps within the tents: you, at the mere hearing of the name of wars, Rome,
are deserted; not even one night is entrusted to your walls. 520
yet pardon must be given—pardon must be given for such great fears:
they fear with Pompey fleeing.

tum, nequa futuri
spes saltem trepidas mentes leuet, addita fati
peioris manifesta fides, superique minaces
prodigiis terras inplerunt, aethera, pontum. 525

then, lest any hope of the future
at least might lighten trembling minds, a manifest proof
of a worse fate was added, and the menacing gods above
filled with prodigies the lands, the aether, the sea. 525

ignota obscurae uiderunt sidera noctes
ardentemque polum flammis caeloque uolantes
obliquas per inane faces crinemque timendi
sideris et terris mutantem regna cometen.
fulgura fallaci micuerunt crebra sereno,                  530
et uarias ignis denso dedit aere formas,
nunc iaculum longo, nunc sparso lumine lampas.
emicuit caelo tacitum sine nubibus ullis
fulmen et Arctois rapiens de partibus ignem
percussit Latiare caput, stellaeque minores                  535
per uacuum solitae noctis decurrere tempus
in medium uenere diem, cornuque coacto
iam Phoebe toto fratrem cum redderet orbe
terrarum subita percussa expalluit umbra.
ipse caput medio Titan cum ferret Olympo                  540

the dark nights saw unknown stars
and the pole burning with flames, and torches flying obliquely through the void in the sky, and the hair of the fearful
star, and a comet changing the realms over the lands.
lightnings flickered frequent on a deceitful clear sky,                  530
and fire gave various forms in the dense air,
now a javelin with a long train, now a lamp with scattered light.
a silent thunderbolt flashed from the sky with no clouds at all,
and, snatching fire from the Arctic quarters,
struck the Latian head, and the lesser stars                  535
accustomed to run through the empty time of night
came into the midst of day, and, with her horn contracted,
now Phoebe, when with her whole orb she was giving back her brother,
the lands, smitten by a sudden shadow, turned pale.
and Titan himself, when he was bearing his head in mid Olympus                  540

condidit ardentis atra caligine currus
inuoluitque orbem tenebris gentesque coegit
desperare diem; qualem fugiente per ortus
sole Thyesteae noctem duxere Mycenae.
ora ferox Siculae laxauit Mulciber Aetnae, 545
nec tulit in caelum flammas sed uertice prono
ignis in Hesperium cecidit latus. atra Charybdis
sanguineum fundo torsit mare; flebile saeui
latrauere canes. Vestali raptus ab ara
ignis, et ostendens confectas flamma Latinas 550
scinditur in partes geminoque cacumine surgit
Thebanos imitata rogos.

he hid his burning chariot with black murk
and wrapped the orb in shadows and drove the nations to despair of the day; such a night as Thyestean Mycenae led when, with the sun fleeing through the East at his rising.
the fierce Mulciber loosened the mouths of Sicilian Etna, 545
nor did he carry flames into heaven, but with the summit bowed
the fire fell upon the Hesperian flank. black Charybdis
twisted the blood-red sea from the depth; the savage
dogs bayed in lamentation. the fire, snatched from the Vestal altar,
and, showing the Latin fortunes worn down, the flame 550
is split into parts and with a twin summit rises,
imitating the Theban pyres.

tum cardine tellus
subsedit, ueteremque iugis nutantibus Alpes
discussere niuem. Tethys maioribus undis
Hesperiam Calpen summumque inpleuit Atlanta. 555

then at the hinge the earth
subsided, and the Alps with nodding ridges
shook off their ancient snow. Tethys, with greater waves,
filled Hesperian Calpe and the summit of Atlas. 555

indigetes fleuisse deos, urbisque laborem
testatos sudore Lares, delapsaque templis
dona suis, dirasque diem foedasse uolucres
accipimus, siluisque feras sub nocte relictis
audaces media posuisse cubilia Roma.                  560
tum pecudum faciles humana ad murmura linguae,
monstrosique hominum partus numeroque modoque
membrorum, matremque suus conterruit infans;
diraque per populum Cumanae carmina uatis
uolgantur. tum, quos sectis Bellona lacertis                  565
saeua mouet, cecinere deos, crinemque rotantes
sanguineum populis ulularunt tristia Galli.
conpositis plenae gemuerunt ossibus urnae.
tum fragor armorum magnaeque per auia uoces
auditae nemorum et uenientes comminus umbrae.                  570

we receive that the Indigenous gods wept, and that the Lares attested the city’s travail with sweat, and that gifts slipped down from their own temples, and that dire birds fouled the day; and that beasts, the woods left behind under night, dared to set their lairs in the middle of Rome. 560
then the tongues of cattle were pliant to human murmurs,
and monstrous births of men, in both the number and the manner of limbs, and a mother was terrified by her own infant;
and the dire songs of the Cumaean prophetess are spread abroad through the people. Then those whom savage Bellona stirs with slashed upper arms
sang of the gods, and, whirling their blood-red hair, the Galli ululated mournful things to the peoples.565
the urns, full with bones laid together, groaned.
then a crash of arms and great voices were heard through the pathless places of the groves, and shadows coming close at hand. 570

quique colunt iunctos extremis moenibus agros
diffugiunt: ingens urbem cingebat Erinys
excutiens pronam flagranti uertice pinum
stridentisque comas, Thebanam qualis Agauen
inpulit aut saeui contorsit tela Lycurgi                  575
Eumenis, aut qualem iussu Iunonis iniquae
horruit Alcides uiso iam Dite Megaeram.
insonuere tubae et, quanto clamore cohortes
miscentur, tantum nox atra silentibus auris
edidit. e medio uisi consurgere Campo                  580
tristia Sullani cecinere oracula manes,
tollentemque caput gelidas Anienis ad undas
agricolae fracto Marium fugere sepulchro.
      haec propter placuit Tuscos de more uetusto
acciri uates. quorum qui maximus aeuo                  585

and those who cultivate the fields joined to the farthest ramparts scatter: a vast Erinys was girding the city, brandishing a pine leaning forward with a blazing crest and her hissing locks, such as the Eumenis who drove Theban Agave or whirled the weapons of savage Lycurgus,                  575
or such as Megaera—at the bidding of iniquitous Juno—Hercules shuddered at, though Dis had already been seen. The trumpets resounded, and as great a clamor as that with which cohorts are thrown into commotion did black night produce for silent ears. From the midst of the Field they were seen to rise—the Sullan shades chanted gloomy oracles,                  580
and farmers fled Marius, lifting his head by the icy waves of the Anio, from his broken sepulcher.
      for these things it pleased that the Tuscan seers be summoned according to ancient custom, of whom he who was greatest in age                  585

Arruns incoluit desertae moenia Lucae,
fulminis edoctus motus uenasque calentis
fibrarum et monitus errantis in aere pinnae,
monstra iubet primum quae nullo semine discors
protulerat natura rapi sterilique nefandos                   590
ex utero fetus infaustis urere flammis.
mox iubet et totam pauidis a ciuibus urbem
ambiri et festo purgantes moenia lustro
longa per extremos pomeria cingere fines
pontifices, sacri quibus est permissa potestas.                  595
turba minor ritu sequitur succincta Gabino,
Vestalemque chorum ducit uittata sacerdos
Troianam soli cui fas uidisse Mineruam.
tum, qui fata deum secretaque carmina seruant
et lotam paruo reuocant Almone Cybeben,                  600

Arruns inhabited the walls of deserted Luca,
taught the motions of the thunderbolt and the veins of hot
entrails, and the warnings of a feather wandering in the air;
he orders first that the prodigies which discordant Nature had brought forth with no seed
be seized, and that unspeakable offspring from a sterile womb be burned with ill-omened                   590
flames.
Soon he also bids that the whole city, with its citizens afraid,
be gone around, and that, purging the walls with a festal lustration,
the pontiffs gird the long outskirts along the farthest bounds—
to whom the sacred power has been permitted.                  595
A lesser throng follows, girded in the Gabine rite,
and a filleted priestess leads the Vestal chorus—
to whom alone it is lawful to have seen the Trojan Minerva.
Then those who keep the fates of the gods and the secret chants,
and who call back Cybele washed in the little Almo,                  600

et doctus uolucres augur seruare sinistras
septemuirque epulis festus Titiique sodales
et Salius laeto portans ancilia collo
et tollens apicem generoso uertice flamen.
dumque illi effusam longis anfractibus urbem                  605
circumeunt Arruns dispersos fulminis ignes
colligit et terrae maesto cum murmure condit
datque locis numen; sacris tunc admouet aris
electa ceruice marem. iam fundere Bacchum
coeperat obliquoque molas inducere cultro,                  610
inpatiensque diu non grati uictima sacri,
cornua succincti premerent cum torua ministri,
deposito uictum praebebat poplite collum.
nec cruor emicuit solitus, sed uolnere laxo
diffusum rutilo dirum pro sanguine uirus.                  615

and the augur taught to observe sinistral birds,
and the festal septemvir for the banquets and the Sodales of Titius,
and a Salian bearing the ancilia on a glad neck,
and a flamen lifting the apex on a noble brow.
and while they go around the city outspread in long circuits,                  605
Arruns gathers the scattered fires of the thunderbolt
and, with a mournful murmur, buries them in the earth
and gives the places a numen; then he brings to the sacred altars
a male, with a chosen neck. Already he had begun to pour Bacchus
and to lay on the molae with a slanting blade,                  610
and the victim, long impatient of the unpleasing sacrificial rite,
while the grim attendants, girded, were pressing its horns,
with knee let down was offering its neck, conquered.
Nor did the wonted gore spurt forth, but from a slack wound
there spread, for blood, a dread ruddy slime instead.                  615

palluit attonitus sacris feralibus Arruns
atque iram superum raptis quaesiuit in extis.
terruit ipse color uatem; nam pallida taetris
uiscera tincta notis gelidoque infecta cruore
plurimus asperso uariabat sanguine liuor.                  620
cernit tabe iecur madidum, uenasque minaces
hostili de parte uidet. pulmonis anheli
fibra latet, paruusque secat uitalia limes.
cor iacet, et saniem per hiantis uiscera rimas
emittunt, produntque suas omenta latebras.                  625
quodque nefas nullis inpune apparuit extis,
ecce, uidet capiti fibrarum increscere molem
alterius capitis. pars aegra et marcida pendet,
pars micat et celeri uenas mouet inproba pulsu.
his ubi concepit magnorum fata malorum                  630

Arruns, thunderstruck by the funereal rites, grew pale,
and sought the wrath of the supernal ones in the snatched entrails.
The very color terrified the seer; for pallid viscera, stained with grim marks
and dyed with icy gore, were mottled by abundant lividity
with blood spattered about. 620
He sees the liver soaked with corruption, and he sees menacing veins
on the hostile side. The fiber of the panting lung lies hidden,
and a narrow boundary cuts the vital parts. The heart lies collapsed,
and through gaping fissures the viscera emit sanies, and the omenta
betray their hiding places. And what a monstrosity never appeared with impunity in any entrails—look!—he sees a mass of a second head
growing upon the head of the fibers. One part hangs sick and withered,
another flashes and, shameless, stirs the veins with a swift pulse.
From these he conceived the fates of great evils, 625

exclamat 'uix fas, superi, quaecumque mouetis,
prodere me populis; nec enim tibi, summe, litaui,
Iuppiter, hoc sacrum, caesique in pectora tauri
inferni uenere dei. non fanda timemus,
sed uenient maiora metu. di uisa secundent,                  635
et fibris sit nulla fides, sed conditor artis
finxerit ista Tages.' flexa sic omina Tuscus
inuoluens multaque tegens ambage canebat.
      at Figulus, cui cura deos secretaque caeli
nosse fuit, quem non stellarum Aegyptia Memphis                  640
aequaret uisu numerisque <seque>ntibus astra,
'aut hic errat' ait 'nulla cum lege per aeuum
mundus et incerto discurrunt sidera motu,
aut, si fata mouent, urbi generique paratur
humano matura lues.

he exclaims: 'Scarcely is it right, you above-gods, whatever you are stirring, to betray me to the peoples; for I did not sacrifice this sacred rite to you, highest Jupiter, and upon the breast of the slaughtered bull the gods of the infernal have come. We do not fear things unspeakable, but greater things to fear will come. May the gods favor the visions, and let there be no faith in the entrails, but let Tages, the founder of the art, have fabricated these.' Thus the Tuscan, twisting the omens and wrapping them, and covering much with circumlocution, was chanting.
But Figulus, whose care it was to know the gods and the secrets of the heaven, whom Egyptian Memphis could not equal in sight of the stars and in numbers following them,640
'either this is in error,' he says, 'that through the age the cosmos is with no law and the stars run about with uncertain motion, or, if the Fates move things, for the city and for the human race a ripe pestilence is being prepared.

terraene dehiscent 645

will the lands gape open 645

subsidentque urbes, an tollet feruidus aer
temperiem? segetes tellus infida negabit,
omnis an infusis miscebitur unda uenenis?
quod cladis genus, o superi, qua peste paratis
saeuitiam? extremi multorum tempus in unum 650
conuenere dies.

and will cities subside, or will the fervid air take away the temperate balance?
will the faithless earth deny crops,
or will every wave be mingled with infused poisons?
what kind of calamity, o gods above, with what plague are you preparing
savagery? the final days of many have come together into one time 650
have assembled.

summo si frigida caelo
stella nocens nigros Saturni accenderet ignis,
Deucalioneos fudisset Aquarius imbres
totaque diffuso latuisset in aequore tellus.
si saeuum radiis Nemeaeum, Phoebe, Leonem 655
nunc premeres, toto fluerent incendia mundo
succensusque tuis flagrasset curribus aether.
hi cessant ignes. tu, qui flagrante minacem
Scorpion incendis cauda chelasque peruris,
quid tantum, Gradiue, paras? nam mitis in alto 660

if in the highest heaven the cold
baneful star were to kindle the black fires of Saturn,
if Aquarius had poured Deucalionian showers
and the whole earth had lain hidden in a spread-out sea.
if now, Phoebus, you were pressing with your rays the savage Nemean Lion 655
fires would stream through the whole world,
and the aether, set ablaze, would have flamed from your chariots.
these fires are idle. you, who ignite the menacing
Scorpion with its blazing tail and sear its claws,
what vast thing are you preparing, Gradivus? for gentle on high 660

Iuppiter occasu premitur, Venerisque salubre
sidus hebet, motuque celer Cyllenius haeret,
et caelum Mars solus habet. cur signa meatus
deseruere suos mundoque obscura feruntur,
ensiferi nimium fulget latus Orionis? 665
inminet armorum rabies, ferrique potestas
confundet ius omne manu, scelerique nefando
nomen erit uirtus, multosque exibit in annos
hic furor. et superos quid prodest poscere finem?
cum domino pax ista uenit.

Jupiter is pressed by his setting, and the healthful star of Venus grows dim,
and the swift Cyllenian (Mercury) halts in his motion, and Mars alone holds the sky. Why have the constellations deserted their courses and are borne obscure across the world, does the flank of sword-bearing Orion shine too intensely? 665
The madness of arms threatens, and the power of iron will confound every law by force, and to unspeakable crime the name of virtue will be given, and for many years this fury will go forth. And what profit is there to ask the gods above for an end? For this peace comes with a master.

duc, Roma, malorum                  670
continuam seriem clademque in tempora multa
extrahe ciuili tantum iam libera bello.'
      terruerant satis haec pauidam praesagia plebem,
sed maiora premunt. nam, qualis uertice Pindi
Edonis Ogygio decurrit plena Lyaeo,                  675

Lead, Rome, a continuous series of evils                  670
and draw out disaster into many ages,
now free only from civil war.'
      these presages had sufficiently terrified the fearful plebs,
but greater things press. for, just as from the summit of Pindus
an Edonian, Ogygian band, full of Lyaeus, runs down,                  675

talis et attonitam rapitur matrona per urbem
uocibus his prodens urguentem pectora Phoebum:
'quo feror, o Paean? qua me super aethera raptam
constituis terra? uideo Pangaea niuosis
cana iugis latosque Haemi sub rupe Philippos. 680
quis furor hic, o Phoebe, doce, quo tela manusque
Romanae miscent acies bellumque sine hoste est.
quo diuersa feror?

such, too, a matron, thunderstruck, is swept through the city,
by these voices revealing Phoebus pressing upon her breast:
'whither am I borne, O Paean? upon what land do you set me, snatched above the upper aether?
I see Pangaea hoary with snowy ridges
and Philippi broad beneath the cliff of Haemus. 680
what fury is this, O Phoebus, teach me, in which weapons and Roman hands
mingle their battle-lines and war is without an enemy.
whither, to opposing sides, am I carried?'

primos me ducis in ortus,
qua mare Lagei mutatur gurgite Nili:
hunc ego, fluminea deformis truncus harena 685
qui iacet, agnosco. dubiam super aequora Syrtim
arentemque feror Libyen, quo tristis Enyo
transtulit Emathias acies. nunc desuper Alpis
nubiferae colles atque aeriam Pyrenen
abripimur.

you lead me into the first risings,
where the sea is changed by the surge of the Lagean Nile:
this one I recognize, the misshapen trunk lying in the riverine sand 685
over the seas above the treacherous Syrtis and I am borne to arid Libya, whither gloomy Enyo
transferred the Emathian battle-lines. Now from above the cloud-bearing hills of the Alps and the airy Pyrenees
we are snatched away.

patriae sedes remeamus in urbis, 690

let us return to the fatherland’s seats, into the city, 690

inpiaque in medio peraguntur bella senatu.
consurgunt partes iterum, totumque per orbem
rursus eo. noua da mihi cernere litora ponti
telluremque nouam: uidi iam, Phoebe, Philippos.'
haec ait, et lasso iacuit deserta furore.

and impious wars are prosecuted in the midst of the senate.
the parties rise again, and again I go through the whole orb
give me to discern new shores of the sea
and new earth: I have already seen, Phoebus, Philippi.'
so he spoke, and, his frenzy wearied and withdrawn, he lay down.