Lucan: DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA

Iamque irae patuere deum manifestaque belli
signa dedit mundus legesque et foedera rerum
praescia monstrifero uertit natura tumultu
indixitque nefas. cur hanc tibi, rector Olympi,
sollicitis uisum mortalibus addere curam,                  5
noscant uenturas ut dira per omina clades?
siue parens rerum, cum primum informia regna
materiamque rudem flamma cedente recepit,
fixit in aeternum causas, qua cuncta coercet
se quoque lege tenens, et saecula iussa ferentem                  10
fatorum inmoto diuisit limite mundum,
siue nihil positum est, sed fors incerta uagatur
fertque refertque uices et habet mortalia casus,
sit subitum quodcumque paras; sit caeca futuri
mens hominum fati; liceat sperare timenti.                  15

And already the wraths of the gods lay open, and the world gave manifest signs of war, and Nature, prescient, turned with a monster-bearing tumult and proclaimed abomination. Why did it seem good to you, ruler of Olympus, to add this care to anxious mortals, that they may know through omens the dire disasters to come? whether the parent of things, when first with the flame yielding he recovered the shapeless realms and the rude matter, fixed causes forever, by which he coerces all things, himself too holding to law, and with the unmoved limit of the fates divided the world, the world bearing the decrees commanded; or whether nothing is fixed, but uncertain Chance wanders and brings and brings back vicissitudes, and Happenstance holds mortal things—let whatever you prepare be sudden; let the mind of men be blind to the future of fate; let it be permitted to the fearful to hope. 5

     ergo, ubi concipiunt quantis sit cladibus orbi
constatura fides superum, ferale per urbem
iustitium; latuit plebeio tectus amictu
omnis honos, nullos comitata est purpura fasces.
tum questus tenuere suos magnusque per omnis                  20
errauit sine uoce dolor. sic funere primo
attonitae tacuere domus, cum corpora nondum
conclamata iacent nec mater crine soluto
exigit ad saeuos famularum bracchia planctus,
sed cum membra premit fugiente rigentia uita                  25
uoltusque exanimes oculosque in morte minaces,
necdum est ille dolor nec iam metus: incubat amens
miraturque malum. cultus matrona priores
deposuit maestaeque tenent delubra cateruae:
hae lacrimis sparsere deos, hae pectora duro                  30

therefore, when they conceive with how great disasters for the world the credibility of the gods would be made good, a funereal stoppage of public business through the city; every honor lay hidden, veiled in a plebeian cloak, the purple accompanied no fasces. then each kept his own laments, and a great grief without voice wandered through all. 20
thus at the first funeral the houses, thunderstruck, fell silent, when the bodies lie not yet wailed-for nor does a mother, with hair loosened, drive the arms to cruel beatings of her handmaids, but when she presses the limbs stiffening as life flees, the exanimate faces and the eyes menacing in death; not yet is that grief, nor now fear: witless, she broods and marvels at the evil. the matron laid aside her former adornments, and mournful crowds occupy the shrines: these have sprinkled the gods with tears, these their breasts with hard 30

adflixere solo, lacerasque in limine sacro
attonitae fudere comas uotisque uocari
adsuetas crebris feriunt ululatibus aures.
nec cunctae summi templo iacuere Tonantis:
diuisere deos, et nullis defuit aris 35
inuidiam factura parens. quarum una madentis
scissa genas, planctu liuentis atra lacertos,
'nunc', ait 'o miserae, contundite pectora, matres,
nunc laniate comas neue hunc differte dolorem
et summis seruate malis.

they cast themselves to the ground, and, stunned, on the sacred threshold
they poured out their torn tresses, and with frequent ululations they smote the ears
accustomed to be called upon by vows. Nor did all lie in the temple of the Highest Thunderer:
they apportioned the gods, and at no altars was a mother, destined to make envy, lacking. 35
of whom one, with cheeks dripping, torn, and arms black, livid from beating,
said: 'now, O wretched ones, mothers, batter your breasts,
now rend your hair, and do not defer this grief
and keep it for the utmost evils.'

nunc flere potestas 40
dum pendet fortuna ducum: cum uicerit alter
gaudendum est.' his se stimulis dolor ipse lacessit.
nec non bella uiri diuersaque castra petentes
effundunt iustas in numina saeua querellas.
'o miserae sortis, quod non in Punica nati 45

now the power to weep 40
while the fortune of the leaders hangs: when one has conquered,
there must be rejoicing.' With these goads grief itself goads itself on.
And the men too, seeking wars and diverse camps,
pour out just complaints against the savage divinities.
'O of wretched lot, that we were not born in Punic 45

tempora Cannarum fuimus Trebiaeque iuuentus.
non pacem petimus, superi: date gentibus iras,
nunc urbes excite feras; coniuret in arma
mundus, Achaemeniis decurrant Medica Susis
agmina, Massageten Scythicus non adliget Hister, 50
fundat ab extremo flauos Aquilone Suebos
Albis et indomitum Rheni caput; omnibus hostes
reddite nos populis: ciuile auertite bellum.
hinc Dacus, premat inde Getes; occurrat Hiberis
alter, ad Eoas hic uertat signa pharetras; 55
nulla uacet tibi, Roma, manus.

we were the era of Cannae and the youth of the Trebia.
we do not seek peace, you gods above: grant wrath to the peoples,
now excite the savage cities; let the world conspire into arms;
let Median battalions run down from Achaemenian Susa,
let the Scythian Ister not shackle the Massagete, 50
let the Elbe pour forth the blond Suebi from the far North Wind,
and the untamed head of the Rhine; make us enemies to all peoples:
avert the civil war. On this side let the Dacian, on that the Getae, press;
let one meet the Hiberi, let this one turn his standards toward the Eoan quivers; 55
let no hand be free for you, Rome.

uel, perdere nomen
si placet Hesperium, superi, conlatus in ignes
plurimus ad terram per fulmina decidat aether.
saeue parens, utrasque simul partesque ducesque,
dum nondum meruere, feri. tantone nouorum 60

or, if it pleases you, gods above, to destroy the Hesperian name,
let the vast ether, massed into fires, fall to the earth by thunderbolts.
savage parent, strike both sides at once, both the parties and the leaders,
while as yet they have not deserved it. to such a degree of new 60

prouentu scelerum quaerunt uter imperet urbi?
uix tanti fuerat ciuilia bella mouere
ut neuter.' talis pietas peritura querellas
egerit. at miseros angit sua cura parentes,
oderuntque grauis uiuacia fata senectae 65
seruatosque iterum bellis ciuilibus annos.

By the harvest of crimes do they ask which of the two should rule the city?
it had scarcely been worth so much to set in motion civil wars
that neither.' Such piety, destined to perish, drove these complaints
forth. But their own care afflicts the wretched parents,
and they hate the long-lived fates of grave old age 65
and the years preserved, again, for civil wars.

atque aliquis magno quaerens exempla timori
'non alios' inquit 'motus tum fata parabant
cum post Teutonicos uictor Libycosque triumphos
exul limosa Marius caput abdidit ulua. 70
stagna auidi texere soli laxaeque paludes
depositum, Fortuna, tuum; mox uincula ferri
exedere senem longusque in carcere paedor.
consul et euersa felix moriturus in urbe
poenas ante dabat scelerum. mors ipsa refugit 75

and someone, seeking examples for great fear,
'no other upheavals,' he says, 'were the fates then preparing
when, after Teutonic and Libyan triumphs as victor,
Marius, an exile, hid his head in the muddy sedge. 70
the pools of the greedy soil and the loose marshes covered
your deposit, Fortune; soon the chains of iron
ate away the old man, and the long foulness in prison.
a consul and—happy, destined to die in an overthrown city—
was paying beforehand the penalties of his crimes. Death itself shrank back 75

saepe uirum, frustraque hosti concessa potestas
sanguinis inuisi, primo qui caedis in actu
deriguit ferrumque manu torpente remisit.
uiderat inmensam tenebroso in carcere lucem
terribilisque deos scelerum Mariumque futurum, 80
audieratque pauens "fas haec contingere non est
colla tibi; debet multas hic legibus aeui
ante suam mortes: uanum depone furorem."
si libet ulcisci deletae funera gentis,
hunc, Cimbri, seruate senem. non ille fauore 85
numinis, ingenti superum protectus ab ira,
uir ferus et Romam cupienti perdere fato
sufficiens.

often the man, and the power granted in vain to the enemy
over the detested blood—who, in the first act of slaughter,
grew rigid and, with a torpid hand, let the steel fall back.
he had seen an immense light in the tenebrous prison
and the terrible gods of crimes, and Marius who was to come, 80
and, fearful, had heard: "it is not right for you to touch
this neck; this man owes many deaths to the laws of time
before his own: lay down your vain frenzy."
if it pleases you to avenge the funerals of an obliterated nation,
preserve this old man, Cimbri. not by the favor 85
of a numen, protected from the vast ire of the gods above—
a savage man, and sufficient for a fate desiring to destroy Rome—
is he preserved.

idem pelago delatus iniquo
hostilem in terram uacuisque mapalibus actus
nuda triumphati iacuit per regna Iugurthae 90

the same man, borne over an unfriendly sea,
driven into a hostile land and to empty mapalia-huts,
lay naked through the realms of Jugurtha, the triumphed-over. 90

et Poenos pressit cineres. solacia fati
Carthago Mariusque tulit, pariterque iacentes
ignouere deis. Libycas ibi colligit iras.

and he pressed the Punic cinders. Carthage and Marius brought solaces of fate, and, lying equally low, forgave the gods. There he gathers Libyan ire.

ut primum fortuna redit, seruilia soluit
agmina, conflato saeuas ergastula ferro 95
exeruere manus. nulli gestanda dabantur
signa ducis, nisi qui scelerum iam fecerat usum
adtuleratque in castra nefas. pro fata, quis ille,
quis fuit ille dies, Marius quo moenia uictor
corripuit, quantoque gradu mors saeua cucurrit! 100
nobilitas cum plebe perit, lateque uagatus
ensis, et a nullo reuocatum pectore ferrum.

as soon as Fortune returns, he loosed the servile ranks; the slave-prisons, with their iron fused,
put forth savage hands. To no one were the standards of the general given to be borne,
except to one who had already made practice in crimes and had brought impiety into the camp.
O Fates, what a man he was, what a day that was, on which Marius, as victor,
seized the walls, and with how great a stride savage Death ran! 95
the nobility perished together with the plebs, and the sword ranged far and wide,
and the steel was checked by no breast. 100

stat cruor in templis multaque rubentia caede
lubrica saxa madent. nulli sua profuit aetas:
non senis extremum piguit uergentibus annis 105

blood stands in the temples, and many stones, reddened with slaughter, slippery, are drenched.
to no one did his own age profit:
nor did they shrink from the old man’s final span, with his years declining 105

praecepisse diem, nec primo in limine uitae
infantis miseri nascentia rumpere fata.
crimine quo parui caedem potuere mereri?
sed satis est iam posse mori.

to have anticipated the day, nor, at the very threshold of life,
to break the nascent fates of a wretched infant.
by what crime could the little ones have been able to merit slaughter?
but now it is enough merely to be able to die.

trahit ipse furoris
impetus, et uisum lenti quaesisse nocentem. 110
in numerum pars magna perit, rapuitque cruentus
uictor ab ignota uoltus ceruice recisos
dum uacua pudet ire manu. spes una salutis
oscula pollutae fixisse trementia dextrae.
mille licet gladii mortis noua signa sequantur, 115
degener o populus, uix saecula longa decorum
sic meruisse uiris, nedum breue dedecus aeui
et uitam dum Sulla redit.

the very impetus of frenzy drags one along, and it seemed a crime to have sought the guilty with slowness. 110
a great part perishes for the tally, and the blood-stained
victor snatched faces cut from an unknown neck, while he is ashamed to go with an empty hand.
the one hope of safety: to have fixed trembling kisses on the polluted right hand.
though a thousand swords may follow fresh insignia of death, 115
degenerate, O people, scarcely have long ages thus merited honor for men,
much less the brief disgrace of an age and mere life while Sulla returns.

cui funera uolgi
flere uacet? uix te sparsum per viscera, Baebi,
innumeras inter carpentis membra coronae 120

to whom is there leisure to weep the funerals of the mob?
hardly you, Baebius, scattered through the viscera,
amid innumerable coronae tearing at limbs. 120

discessisse manus, aut te, praesage malorum
Antoni, cuius laceris pendentia canis
ora ferens miles festae rorantia mensae
inposuit. truncos lacerauit Fimbria Crassos;
saeua tribunicio maduerunt robora tabo. 125
te quoque neclectum uiolatae, Scaeuola, Vestae
ante ipsum penetrale deae semperque calentis
mactauere focos; paruom set fessa senectus
sanguinis effudit iugulo flammisque pepercit.
septimus haec sequitur repetitis fascibus annus. 130
ille fuit uitae Mario modus, omnia passo
quae peior fortuna potest, atque omnibus uso
quae melior, mensoque hominis quid fata paterent.

that the bands had departed, or you, Antony, presager of evils,
whose face, with torn gray hairs hanging, a soldier bearing
placed upon a festive table, dripping. Fimbria mangled the trunks of the Crassi;
the cruel tribunician oaken timbers were soaked with gore. 125
you too, Scaevola, neglected by violated Vesta, before the very inner shrine
of the goddess and the ever-warm hearths, they sacrificed; but weary old age
poured out only a small amount of blood from your throat and spared the flames.
a seventh year follows these things, with the fasces resumed. 130
that was the limit of life for Marius, having suffered all that worse
fortune can, and having enjoyed all that better can, and having measured
what the fates would allow to a human being.

iam quot apud Sacri cecidere cadauera Portum
aut Collina tulit stratas quot porta cateruas, 135

already how many cadavers have fallen at the Sacred Harbor
or how many bands the Colline gate has borne laid low, 135

tum cum paene caput mundi rerumque potestas
mutauit translata locum, Romanaque Samnis
ultra Caudinas sperauit uolnera Furcas!
Sulla quoque inmensis accessit cladibus ultor.
ille quod exiguum restabat sanguinis urbi 140
hausit; dumque nimis iam putria membra recidit
excessit medicina modum, nimiumque secuta est,
qua morbi duxere, manus.

then when almost the head of the world and the power of affairs
changed place, having been transferred, and the Samnite hoped for Roman
wounds beyond the Caudine Forks! Sulla too, an avenger, was added to the immense
disasters. He drained what small remainder of blood there was left to the city; 140
and while he cut away limbs now too putrid too greatly,
the medicine exceeded the measure, and the hand followed too much
where the diseases led.

periere nocentes,
sed cum iam soli possent superesse nocentes.
tum data libertas odiis, resolutaque legum 145
frenis ira ruit. non uni cuncta dabantur
sed fecit sibi quisque nefas: semel omnia uictor
iusserat.

the guilty perished,
but when by now only the guilty could have survived.
then liberty was given to hatreds, and ire, the reins of the laws loosed, 145
rushed headlong. not to one were all things granted,
but each man perpetrated a nefas for himself: once for all the victor
had ordered everything.

infandum domini per uiscera ferrum
exegit famulus, nati maduere paterno
sanguine, certatum est cui ceruix caesa parentis 150

the slave drove unspeakable steel through his master’s viscera,
sons were drenched with paternal blood, there was a contest over whose parent’s severed neck 150

cederet, in fratrum ceciderunt praemia fratres.
busta repleta fuga, permixtaque uiua sepultis
corpora, nec populum latebrae cepere ferarum.
hic laqueo fauces elisaque guttura fregit,
hic se praecipiti iaculatus pondere dura 155
dissiluit percussus humo, mortesque cruento
uictori rapuere suas; hic robora busti
exstruit ipse sui necdum omni sanguine fuso
desilit in flammas et, dum licet, occupat ignes.

as it yielded, brothers fell as prizes to brothers.
the sepulchres were filled by the rout, and bodies living were mingled with the buried,
nor did the lairs of wild beasts contain the people.
here a man with a noose broke his jaws and crushed his throat,
here, having hurled himself with headlong weight, he burst asunder, smitten upon the hard 155
ground, and they snatched away their deaths from the blood-stained victor; here he piles up the oaken timbers
of his own pyre himself, and, with not yet all his blood poured out,
he leaps down into the flames and, while he may, he occupies the fires.

colla ducum pilo trepidam gestata per urbem 160
et medio congesta foro: cognoscitur illic
quidquid ubique iacet. scelerum non Thracia tantum
uidit Bistonii stabulis pendere tyranni,
postibus Antaei Libye, nec Graecia maerens
tot laceros artus Pisaea fleuit in aula. 165

the necks of the leaders, borne on a pike through the trembling city 160
and heaped up in the middle of the forum: there is recognized
whatever lies everywhere. Not Thrace alone of crimes
saw men hanging in the stables of the Bistonian tyrant,
nor Libya at the doorposts of Antaeus, nor grieving Greece
bewailed so many torn limbs in the Pisaean hall. 165

cum iam tabe fluunt confusaque tempore multo
amisere notas, miserorum dextra parentum
colligit et pauido subducit cognita furto.
meque ipsum memini, caesi deformia fratris
ora rogo cupidum uetitisque inponere flammis, 170
omnia Sullanae lustrasse cadauera pacis
perque omnis truncos, cum qua ceruice recisum
conueniat, quaesisse, caput. quid sanguine manes
placatos Catuli referam?

when now they flow with rot and, confused by much time,
have lost their marks, the right hand of wretched parents
gathers and, in a fearful theft, removes what it has recognized.
and I remember myself, eager to place upon the pyre and upon forbidden flames
the disfigured features of my slaughtered brother, 170
to have traversed all the cadavers of Sullan peace
and through all the trunks, seeking the head with which
cut off, it might fit with what cervix. Why should I recount the Manes of Catulus
placated with blood?

cum uictima tristis
inferias Marius forsan nolentibus umbris 175
pendit inexpleto non fanda piacula busto,
cum laceros artus aequataque uolnera membris
uidimus et toto quamuis in corpore caeso
nil animae letale datum, moremque nefandae
dirum saeuitiae, pereuntis parcere morti. 180

when, as a sad victim,
Marius perhaps paid funeral offerings to unwilling shades, 175
paid unspeakable expiations to an unfilled tomb,
when we saw mangled limbs and wounds made equal to the members,
and, although the whole body was hewn, nothing lethal given to the soul,
and the dire custom of nefarious savagery: to spare death to one perishing. 180

auolsae cecidere manus exsectaque lingua
palpitat et muto uacuum ferit aera motu.
hic aures, alius spiramina naris aduncae
amputat, ille cauis euoluit sedibus orbes
ultimaque effodit spectatis lumina membris. 185
uix erit ulla fides tam saeui criminis, unum
tot poenas cepisse caput. sic mole ruinae
fracta sub ingenti miscentur pondere membra,
nec magis informes ueniunt ad litora trunci
qui medio periere freto.

torn-off hands fell, and the excised tongue
palpitates and strikes the empty air with mute motion.
here one amputates ears, another the breathing-holes of the hooked nose
cuts off, that one rolls the orbs from their hollow seats
and, the limbs inspected, he digs out the last lights, the eyes. 185
hardly will there be any belief in so savage a crime, that one
head took so many punishments. thus, broken by the mass of ruin,
the limbs are mingled beneath the huge weight,
nor do trunks that perished in mid-sea come to the shores more misshapen.

quid perdere fructum 190
iuuit et, ut uilem, Marii confundere uoltum?
ut scelus hoc Sullae caedesque ostensa placeret
agnoscendus erat. uidit Fortuna colonos
Praenestina suos cunctos simul ense recepto
unius populum pereuntem tempore mortis. 195

what good was it to forfeit the fruit, 190
and, as if cheap, to confound Marius’s visage?
that this crime of Sulla and the slaughters displayed might please,
he had to be recognized. Fortuna saw her Praenestine colonists
all together, with the sword taken up, a populace of one man perishing at the moment of death. 195

tum flos Hesperiae, Latii iam sola iuuentus,
concidit et miserae maculauit ouilia Romae.
tot simul infesto iuuenes occumbere leto
saepe fames pelagique furor subitaeque ruinae
aut terrae caelique lues aut bellica clades, 200
numquam poena fuit. densi uix agmina uolgi
inter et exangues inmissa morte cateruas
uictores mouere manus; uix caede peracta
procumbunt, dubiaque labant ceruice; sed illos
magna premit strages peraguntque cadauera partem 205
caedis: uiua graues elidunt corpora trunci.

then the flower of Hesperia, now the only youth of Latium,
fell and stained the sheepfolds of wretched Rome.
that so many youths at once should succumb to hostile, lethal doom
often hunger and the sea’s fury and sudden collapse,
or the pestilence of earth and sky or warlike disaster, 200
was never a penalty. Scarcely could the victors move their hands
amid the thick columns of the throng and the bloodless bands,
death having been sent in; scarcely, the slaughter completed,
do they prostrate themselves, and they sway with wavering necks; but them
a great carnage presses, and cadavers complete part 205
of the killing: heavy trunks crush living bodies.

intrepidus tanti sedit securus ab alto
spectator sceleris: miseri tot milia uolgi
non timuit iussisse mori. congesta recepit
omnia Tyrrhenus Sullana cadauera gurges. 210

Intrepid, he sat secure on high, a spectator of such a crime:
he did not fear to have ordered so many thousands of the wretched vulgus to die.
Heaped together, the Tyrrhenian gulf received all the Sullan cadavers. 210

in fluuium primi cecidere, in corpora summi.
praecipites haesere rates, et strage cruenta
interruptus aquae fluxit prior amnis in aequor,
ad molem stetit unda sequens. iam sanguinis alti
uis sibi fecit iter campumque effusa per omnem 215
praecipitique ruens Tiberina in flumina riuo
haerentis adiuuit aquas; nec iam alueus amnem
nec retinent ripae, redditque cadauera campo.

into the river the first fell, onto the bodies the highest.
headlong the rafts stuck fast, and by bloody slaughter
interrupted, the prior river-flow of water poured into the level expanse,
at a mole the following wave stood. Now the force of deep
blood made itself a path, and, poured out over the whole field, 215
rushing headlong with a rivulet into the Tiberine streams
it aided the waters that were stuck fast; nor now does the channel hold the river
nor do the banks, and it gives back the cadavers to the field.

tandem Tyrrhenas uix eluctatus in undas
sanguine caeruleum torrenti diuidit aequor. 220
hisne salus rerum, felix his Sulla uocari,
his meruit tumulum medio sibi tollere Campo?
haec rursus patienda manent, hoc ordine belli
ibitur, hic stabit ciuilibus exitus armis.
quamquam agitant grauiora metus, multumque coitur 225

at last, scarcely having struggled forth into the Tyrrhenian waves,
with blood he divides the cerulean level sea with a torrent. 220
Is it by these that there is the safety of affairs, that Sulla is to be called “Felix” by these,
by these did he deserve to raise a tomb for himself in the middle of the Campus?
these things remain to be suffered again; by this order of war men will go;
here will the outcome of civil arms stand.
although fears drive weightier things, and much is being gathered together 225

humani generis maiore in proelia damno.
exulibus Mariis bellorum maxima merces
Roma recepta fuit, nec plus uictoria Sullae
praestitit inuisas penitus quam tollere partes:
hos alio, Fortuna, uocas, olimque potentes 230
concurrunt. neuter ciuilia bella moueret
contentus quo Sulla fuit.' sic maesta senectus
praeteritique memor flebat metuensque futuri.

with a greater loss to the human race into battles.
for the exiled Marii the greatest reward of wars was Rome recovered, nor did Sulla’s victory
provide more than to remove utterly the odious factions:
you call these to another, Fortune, and the once-powerful 230
clash. neither would have set civil wars in motion,
content with that which Sulla was.' thus mournful old age,
mindful of the past and fearing the future, wept.

     at non magnanimi percussit pectora Bruti
terror et in tanta pauidi formidine motus                  235
pars populi lugentis erat, set nocte sopora,
Parrhasis obliquos Helice cum uerteret axes,
atria cognati pulsat non ampla Catonis.
inuenit insomni uoluentem publica cura
fata uirum casusque urbis cunctisque timentem                  240

     Yet the terror did not strike the breast of magnanimous Brutus,
nor, moved amid so great a timid dread,                  235
was he a part of the grieving populace; but, in soporific night,
when Parrhasian Helice was turning her oblique axes,
he knocks at the not-spacious atrium of his kinsman Cato.
He finds the man, sleepless, revolving with public care the fates and the chances of the city, and fearing for all                  240

securumque sui, farique his uocibus orsus:
'omnibus expulsae terris olimque fugatae
uirtutis iam sola fides, quam turbine nullo
excutiet fortuna tibi, tu mente labantem
derige me, dubium certo tu robore firma.                  245
namque alii Magnum uel Caesaris arma sequantur,
dux Bruto Cato solus erit. pacemne tueris
inconcussa tenens dubio uestigia mundo,
an placuit ducibus scelerum populique furentis
cladibus inmixtum ciuile absoluere bellum?                  250
quemque suae rapiunt scelerata in proelia causae:
hos polluta domus legesque in pace timendae,
hos ferro fugienda fames mundique ruinae
permiscenda fides. nullum furor egit in arma;
castra petunt magna uicti mercede: tibi uni                  255

and (he found him) self-possessed, and began to speak with these words:
‘Virtue’s sole fidelity, expelled from all lands and long since put to flight, which by no whirlwind will Fortune shake from you—do you guide me, wavering in mind; do you, being sure, strengthen the doubtful with your strength.                  245
For let others follow Magnus or the arms of Caesar; for Brutus, Cato alone shall be leader. Do you keep to peace, holding your steps unshaken in a doubtful world, or has it pleased you to bring to completion the civil war, embroiled with the crimes of the leaders and the disasters of a frenzied people?                  250
Each man’s own wicked causes snatch him into battles: these, a polluted household and laws to be feared in peace; those, hunger to be fled by the sword, and the ruin of the world, and an allegiance that must be commingled. No one has been driven to arms by frenzy; they seek the camps, overcome by a great wage: to you alone                  255

per se bella placent? quid tot durare per annos
profuit inmunem corrupti moribus aeui?
hoc solum longae pretium uirtutis habebis:
accipient alios, facient te bella nocentem.

Do wars please in and of themselves? What has it profited to have endured for so many years immune from the morals of a corrupted age?
This alone you will have as the price of long virtue: wars will receive others; they will make you guilty.

ne tantum, o superi, liceat feralibus armis, 260
has etiam mouisse manus. nec pila lacertis
missa tuis caeca telorum in nube ferentur:
ne tanta in cassum uirtus eat, ingeret omnis
se belli fortuna tibi. quis nolet in isto
ense mori, quamuis alieno uolnere labens, 265
et scelus esse tuum?

let it not be permitted, O gods above, to death-bearing arms 260
to have stirred even these hands. nor let javelins, launched by your upper arms,
be borne in a blind cloud of missiles: lest so great Virtue go to vain, the whole
fortune of war would thrust itself upon you. who would not wish to die by that
sword of yours, though sinking by another’s wound, 265
and for the crime to be yours?

melius tranquilla sine armis
otia solus ages, sicut caelestia semper
inconcussa suo uoluuntur sidera lapsu.
fulminibus propior terrae succenditur aer,
imaque telluris uentos tractusque coruscos 270

better you will pass tranquil leisures without arms, alone, just as the celestial stars always
roll unshaken in their own course. the air, nearer to the earth, is kindled by thunderbolts,
and the lowest regions of the earth feel winds and coruscating tracts 270

flammarum accipiunt; nubes excedit Olympus.
lege deum minimas rerum discordia turbat,
pacem magna tenent. quam laetae Caesaris aures
accipient tantum uenisse in proelia ciuem!

they receive flames; Olympus goes beyond the clouds.
by the law of the gods, discord perturbs the smallest things,
great things hold peace. how gladly will Caesar’s ears
receive that so great a citizen has come into the battles!

nam praelata suis numquam diuersa dolebit 275
castra ducis Magni. nimium placet ipse Catoni,
si bellum ciuile placet. pars magna senatus
et duce priuato gesturus proelia consul
sollicitant proceresque alii; quibus adde Catonem
sub iuga Pompei, toto iam liber in orbe 280
solus Caesar erit.

for, if a camp must be preferred to one’s own, the camp of the Great leader will never grieve as alien 275
you yourself are too pleasing to Cato, if the civil war pleases;
a great part of the Senate and the consul, about to wage battles under a private leader, and other nobles, urge you; to whom add Cato
under Pompey’s yokes—then, now, in the whole world 280
Caesar alone will be free.

quod si pro legibus arma
ferre iuuat patriis libertatemque tueri
nunc neque Pompei Brutum neque Caesaris hostem,
post bellum uictoris habes.' sic fatur; at illi
arcano sacras reddit Cato pectore uoces. 285

But if it pleases to bear arms for the laws
of our fathers and to protect liberty
now you have Brutus neither of Pompey nor an enemy of Caesar,
after the war you will have him of the victor.' thus he speaks; but to him
Cato returns sacred voices from his arcane breast. 285

'summum, Brute, nefas ciuilia bella fatemur,
sed quo fata trahunt uirtus secura sequetur.
crimen erit superis et me fecisse nocentem.
sidera quis mundumque uelit spectare cadentem
expers ipse metus?

'the highest, Brutus, impiety we confess—civil wars—
but whither the fates drag, virtue, unafraid, will follow.
it will be a crime before the supernal ones that I too have made myself guilty.
who would wish to behold the stars and the world collapsing,
himself devoid of fear?

quis, cum ruat arduus aether, 290
terra labet mixto coeuntis pondere mundi,
complossas tenuisse manus? gentesne furorem
Hesperium ignotae Romanaque bella sequentur
diductique fretis alio sub sidere reges,
otia solus agam? procul hunc arcete furorem, 295
o superi, motura Dahas ut clade Getasque
securo me Roma cadat.

who, when the lofty aether crashes down, 290
when the earth gives way beneath the mingled weight of a world coming together,
would have kept his hands folded? Shall peoples unknown pursue Hesperian frenzy
and follow Roman wars, and, kings parted by straits beneath another star,
shall I alone enjoy ease? Far off ward this frenzy, O gods above— 295
that Rome should fall, while I am untroubled, by a ruin to stir the Dahae and the Getae.

ceu morte parentem
natorum orbatum longum producere funus
ad tumulos iubet ipse dolor, iuuat ignibus atris
inseruisse manus constructoque aggere busti 300

as, by death, a parent bereft of his children,
grief itself bids him to lead forth the long funeral
to the tumuli; it pleases to have inserted his hands into the black fires
and, the agger of the pyre constructed, 300

ipsum atras tenuisse faces, non ante reuellar
exanimem quam te conplectar, Roma; tuumque
nomen, Libertas, et inanem persequar umbram.
sic eat: inmites Romana piacula diui
plena ferant, nullo fraudemus sanguine bellum. 305
o utinam caelique deis Erebique liceret
hoc caput in cunctas damnatum exponere poenas!
deuotum hostiles Decium pressere cateruae:
me geminae figant acies, me barbara telis
Rheni turba petat, cunctis ego peruius hastis 310
excipiam medius totius uolnera belli.

to have himself held the black torches; not before shall I be torn away
than when, lifeless, I embrace you, Rome; and your
name, Liberty, I too shall pursue, and your empty shade.
so let it go: let the cruel divine ones bring Roman expiations
full; let us defraud the war of no blood. 305
O would that it were permitted to the gods of heaven and of Erebus
to expose this head, condemned, to all penalties!
the hostile cohorts pressed down the devoted Decius:
let twin battle-lines transfix me, let the barbarian with weapons
throng of the Rhine assail me; I, pervious to all spears, 310
will receive, in the midst, the wounds of the entire war.

hic redimat sanguis populos, hac caede luatur
quidquid Romani meruerunt pendere mores.
ad iuga cur faciles populi, cur saeua uolentes
regna pati pereunt? me solum inuadite ferro, 315

here let blood redeem the peoples, let this slaughter atone
for whatever the Roman mores have deserved to pay.
why are the peoples so compliant to yokes, why, willing
to endure savage kingdoms, do they perish? Invade me alone with steel, 315

me frustra leges et inania iura tuentem.
hic dabit hic pacem iugulus finemque malorum
gentibus Hesperiis: post me regnare uolenti
non opus est bello. quin publica signa ducemque
Pompeium sequimur?

me, in vain protecting the laws and empty rights.
here this throat will give peace and an end of evils
to the Hesperian peoples: for one willing to reign after me
there is no need of war. Why not follow the public standards and the leader
Pompey?

nec, si fortuna fauebit,                  320
hunc quoque totius sibi ius promittere mundi
non bene conpertum est: ideo me milite uincat
ne sibi se uicisse putet.' sic fatur, et acris
irarum mouit stimulos iuuenisque calorem
excitat in nimios belli ciuilis amores,                  325
     interea Phoebo gelidas pellente tenebras
pulsatae sonuere fores, quas sancta relicto
Hortensi maerens inrupit Marcia busto.
quondam uirgo toris melioris iuncta mariti,
mox, ubi conubii pretium mercesque soluta est                  330

nor, if Fortune will favor,                  320
that he too claim for himself the right of the whole world
is not well ascertained: therefore let him conquer with me as his soldier,
lest he think that he has conquered himself.' thus he speaks, and he moved the sharp
goads of angers and rouses the young man’s heat
into excessive loves of civil war,                  325
     meanwhile, as Phoebus drives the icy darkness away,
the beaten doors resounded, which the chaste Marcia, mourning,
burst through, Hortensius’s tomb being left behind.
once a maiden joined to the couches of a better husband,
soon, when the price and wage of wedlock had been paid                  330

tertia iam suboles, alios fecunda penates
inpletura datur geminas et sanguine matris
permixtura domos; sed, postquam condidit urna
supremos cineres, miserando concita uoltu,
effusas laniata comas contusaque pectus                  335
uerberibus crebris cineresque ingesta sepulchri,
non aliter placitura uiro, sic maesta profatur:
'dum sanguis inerat, dum uis materna, peregi
iussa, Cato, et geminos excepi feta maritos:
uisceribus lassis partuque exhausta reuertor                  340
iam nulli tradenda uiro. da foedera prisci
inlibata tori, da tantum nomen inane
conubii; liceat tumulo scripsisse "Catonis
Marcia", nec dubium longo quaeratur in aeuo
mutarim primas expulsa an tradita taedas.                  345

a third progeny now, fecund, to fill other Penates,
is given, and to commix the twin houses with a mother’s blood;
but, after the urn concealed the last ashes,
stirred with a pitiable countenance,
her loosened hair torn and her breast bruised by frequent blows, 335
and the ashes of the sepulcher heaped upon her, not otherwise to please the man, thus, mournful, she speaks forth:
'while blood was in me, while maternal force, I accomplished
your commands, Cato, and, fruitful, I received twin husbands:
with my womb weary and exhausted by childbirth I return,
now to be handed over to no man. grant the inviolate bonds of the former
bed, grant only the empty name of connubium;
let it be permitted to have inscribed upon the tomb “Cato’s
Marcia,” nor let it be sought as a doubt in a long age
whether, driven out or handed over, I changed the first bridal torches.' 345

non me laetorum sociam rebusque secundis
accipis: in curas uenio partemque laborum.
da mihi castra sequi: cur tuta in pace relinquar
et sit ciuili propior Cornelia bello?'
     hae flexere uirum uoces, et, tempora quamquam                  350
sint aliena toris iam fato in bella uocante,
foedera sola tamen uanaque carentia pompa
iura placent sacrisque deos admittere testes.
festa coronato non pendent limine serta,
infulaque in geminos discurrit candida postes,                  355
legitimaeque faces, gradibusque adclinis eburnis
stat torus et picto uestes discriminat auro,
turritaque premens frontem matrona corona
translata uitat contingere limina planta;
non timidum nuptae leuiter tectura pudorem                  360

you do not receive me as a companion of joys and of favorable affairs:
I come into cares and a share of labors.
grant me to follow the camp: why should I be left safe in peace
and Cornelia be nearer to the civil war?'
     these voices bent the man, and, although the times                  350
are alien to marriage-beds now that fate is calling into wars,
yet covenants alone and laws empty and lacking pomp
please, and to admit the gods as witnesses to the rites.
festal garlands do not hang from the wreathed threshold,
and a white infula runs across the twin doorposts,                  355
and the lawful torches, and the couch leaning on ivory steps
stands, and garments are distinguished with painted gold,
and the matron, pressing her brow with a turreted crown,
avoids touching the thresholds with her shifted sole;
not to cover lightly the timid modesty of the bride.                  360

lutea demissos uelarunt flammea uoltus,
balteus aut fluxos gemmis astrinxit amictus,
colla monile decens umerisque haerentia primis
suppara nudatos cingunt angusta lacertos.
sicut erat, maesti seruat lugubria cultus 365
quoque modo natos hoc est amplexa maritum.
obsita funerea celatur purpura lana,
non soliti lusere sales, nec more Sabino
excepit tristis conuicia festa maritus.

the saffron flammeal veils covered the lowered faces,
or a belt, or a flowing mantle bound with gems, constrained the loose garments,
a becoming necklace girds the neck, and narrow suppara, clinging to the foremost shoulders,
encircle the bared upper arms. just as she was, the mournful woman keeps her lugubrious attire, 365
and in the same way as she embraced her sons, in this way she has embraced her husband.
the purple is concealed, overlaid by funeral wool,
the customary sallies did not play, nor, in the Sabine manner,
did the sad husband receive festive taunts.

pignora nulla domus, nulli coiere propinqui: 370
iunguntur taciti contentique auspice Bruto.
ille nec horrificam sancto dimouit ab ore
caesariem duroque admisit gaudia uoltu
(ut primum tolli feralia uiderat arma,
intonsos rigidam in frontem descendere canos 375

no pledges of the household, no kinsmen came together: 370
they are joined in silence and, content with Brutus as auspice.
he neither removed the horrific mane from his hallowed face
nor, with a stern visage, did he admit joys
(as soon as he had seen the funereal arms being lifted,
unshorn gray hairs to descend upon his rigid forehead) 375

passus erat maestamque genis increscere barbam:
uni quippe uacat studiis odiisque carenti
humanum lugere genus), nec foedera prisci
sunt temptata tori: iusto quoque robur amori
restitit. hi mores, haec duri inmota Catonis                  380
secta fuit, seruare modum finemque tenere
naturamque sequi patriaeque inpendere uitam
nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo.
huic epulae uicisse famem, magnique penates
summouisse hiemem tecto, pretiosaque uestis                  385
hirtam membra super Romani more Quiritis
induxisse togam, Venerisque hic us usus,
progenies: urbi pater est urbique maritus,
iustitiae cultor, rigidi seruator honesti,
in commune bonus; nullosque Catonis in actus                  390

he had allowed a mournful beard to grow up on his cheeks:
for to one man alone, lacking studies and hatreds,
it is free to mourn the human race), nor were the covenants of the ancient
marriage-bed attempted: he even withstood the strength of a just love.
these were the morals, this was the unmoved sect of harsh Cato,                  380
to preserve measure and to hold to the end,
to follow nature and to expend his life for his fatherland,
and to believe himself born not for himself but for the whole world.
for this man, feasts were to have conquered hunger, and great Penates
to have driven off winter from the roof, and a precious garment                  385
to have put upon his shaggy limbs, after the Roman manner of the Quiris,
the toga, and here the only use of Venus,
offspring: he is father to the city and husband to the city,
a cultivator of justice, a preserver of rigid honor,
good for the commonweal; and into no acts of Cato                  390

subrepsit partemque tulit sibi nata uoluptas.
interea trepido discedens agmine Magnus
moenia Dardanii tenuit Campana coloni.
haec placuit belli sedes, hinc summa mouentem
hostis in occursum sparsas extendere partis, 395
umbrosis mediam qua collibus Appenninus
erigit Italiam nulloque a uertice tellus
altius intumuit propiusque accessit Olympo.

crept in, and native pleasure took for itself a share.
meanwhile Magnus, departing with a trembling column,
held the Campanian walls of the Dardanian colonist.
this pleased him as the seat of war; from here, as he set the main strength in motion,
to extend the scattered detachments to meet the foe, 395
where with shady hills the Apennine raises Italy in the middle,
and from no summit has the land swelled higher nor come nearer to Olympus.

mons inter geminas medius se porrigit undas
inferni superique maris, collesque coercent 400
hinc Tyrrhena uado frangentes aequora Pisae,
illinc Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon.
fontibus hic uastis inmensos concipit amnes
fluminaque in gemini spargit diuortia ponti
(in laeuum cecidere latus ueloxque Metaurus 405

a mountain, in the middle, stretches itself between the twin waves
of the lower and the upper sea, and the hills confine it: 400
here Pisae, breaking the Tyrrhenian waters with a shoal,
there Ancon, subject to the Dalmatian billows.
here with vast springs it conceives immense rivers,
and it scatters the streams into the divergences of the twin sea
(to the left side have fallen the swift Metaurus 405

Crustumiumque rapax et iuncto Sapis Isauro
Senaque et Hadriacas qui uerberat Aufidus undas;
quoque magis nullum tellus se soluit in amnem
Eridanus fractas deuoluit in aequora siluas
Hesperiamque exhaurit aquis. hunc fabula primum                  410
populea fluuium ripas umbrasse corona,
cumque diem pronum transuerso limite ducens
succendit Phaethon flagrantibus aethera loris,
gurgitibus raptis penitus tellure perusta,
hunc habuisse pares Phoebeis ignibus undas.                  415
non minor hic Nilo, si non per plana iacentis
Aegypti Libycas Nilus stagnaret harenas;
non minor hic Histro, nisi quod, dum permeat orbem,
Hister casuros in quaelibet aequora fontes
accipit et Scythicas exit non solus in undas.                  420

and the rapacious Crustumium and the Sapis joined to the Isaurus,
and the Sena, and the Aufidus who lashes the Hadriac waves;
and than which into no river does the earth dissolve itself more,
the Eridanus rolls shattered forests down into the seas
and drains Hesperia with its waters. This one, fable says, first                  410
shaded its banks as a river with a poplar crown,
and when Phaethon, drawing the day slantwise with a cross-track
set the ether aflame with blazing reins,
the ground thoroughly scorched and torrents snatched away,
this one had waves equal to Phoebean fires.                  415
Not lesser is it than the Nile, if the Nile did not through the flats of prone
Egypt stagnate its Libyan sands; not lesser is it than the Ister, unless that, while it permeates the globe,
the Ister receives springs destined to fall into whatever seas
and issues not alone into Scythian waves.                  420

dexteriora petens montis decliuia Thybrim
unda facit Rutubamque cauum. delabitur inde
Vulturnusque celer nocturnaeque editor aurae
Sarnus et umbrosae Liris per regna Maricae
Vestinis inpulsus aquis radensque Salerni                  425
tesca Siler nullasque uado qui Macra moratus
alnos uicinae procurrit in aequora Lunae).
longior educto qua surgit in aera dorso,
Gallica rura uidet deuexasque excipit Alpes.
tunc Vmbris Marsisque ferax domitusque Sabello                  430
uomere, piniferis amplexus rupibus omnis
indigenas Latii populos, non deserit ante
Hesperiam, quam cum Scyllaeis clauditur undis,
extenditque suas in templa Lacinia rupes,
longior Italia, donec confinia pontus                  435

seeking the right-hand slopes of the mountain, the wave makes the Tiber
and the hollow Rutuba. From there glides down
the swift Volturnus, and the Sarnus, begetter of the nocturnal breeze,
and the Liris of shade through the realms of Marica,
driven by Vestine waters, and the Siler, skimming the wastes of Salernum,                  425
and the Macra, which, delaying no alders with its shallow,
runs out into the waters of neighboring Luna).
longer where, with a drawn-out back, it rises into the air,
it sees the Gallic fields and receives the sloping Alps.
then fertile for Umbrians and Marsians, and tamed by the Sabellian                  430
ploughshare, having embraced with pine-bearing crags all
the indigenous peoples of Latium, it does not leave
Hesperia before, when it is shut in by Scyllaean waves,
it stretches its crags toward the Lacinian temple—
longer is Italy, until the sea makes the boundaries.                  435

solueret incumbens terrasque repelleret aequor,
at, postquam gemino tellus elisa profundo est,
extremi colles Siculo cessere Peloro.
     Caesar in arma furens nullas nisi sanguine fuso
gaudet habere uias, quod non terat hoste uacantis                  440
Hesperiae fines uacuosque inrumpat in agros
atque ipsum non perdat iter consertaque bellis
bella gerat. non tam portas intrare patentis
quam fregisse iuuat, nec tam patiente colono
arua premi quam si ferro populetur et igni.                  445
concessa pudet ire uia ciuemque uideri.

that the overhanging sea might loosen and drive back the lands,
but, after the earth was crushed by a twin deep,
the farthest hills yielded to Sicilian Pelorus.
     Caesar, raging for arms, rejoices to have no ways save with blood poured out,
that he may not tread the borders of Hesperia empty of foe and burst into empty fields,                  440
and not waste the very march, but wage wars interwoven with wars.
it pleases him not so much to enter gates that stand open
as to have broken them, nor that the fields be pressed by a patient colonist
so much as if they were ravaged with iron and with fire.                  445
he is ashamed to go by a conceded road and to seem a citizen.

tunc urbes Latii dubiae uarioque fauore
ancipites, quamquam primo terrore ruentis
cessurae belli, denso tamen aggere firmant
moenia et abrupto circumdant undique uallo, 450

then the cities of Latium, wavering and with varied favor,
in suspense, although at the first terror of war rushing in
they would have yielded, yet with a dense agger they make firm
the walls and on all sides surround them with a sheer rampart, 450

saxorumque orbes et quae super eminus hostem
tela petant altis murorum turribus aptant.
pronior in Magnum populus, pugnatque minaci
cum terrore fides, ut, cum mare possidet Auster
flatibus horrisonis, hunc aequora tota secuntur, 455
si rursus tellus pulsu laxata tridentis
Aeolii tumidis inmittat fluctibus Eurum,
quamuis icta nouo, uentum tenuere priorem
aequora, nubiferoque polus cum cesserit Euro
uindicat unda Notum. facilis sed uertere mentes 460
terror erat, dubiamque fidem fortuna ferebat.

and circles of stones and the missiles which might seek the enemy from above and from afar they fit upon the high towers of the walls.
the people are more inclined to the Great, and loyalty fights with menacing terror, just as, when the South Wind possesses the sea with horrisonous blasts, all the waters follow him, 455
if in turn the land, loosened by the stroke of the Aeolian trident, lets Eurus into the swelling waves, although struck by a new wind, the waters have held to the prior wind, and when the sky has yielded to the cloud-bearing Eurus the wave vindicates Notus. but terror was easy to turn minds, and Fortune was bearing a dubious loyalty.

gens Etrusca fuga trepidi nudata Libonis,
iusque sui pulso iam perdidit Vmbria Thermo.
nec gerit auspiciis ciuilia bella paternis
Caesaris audito conuersus nomine Sulla. 465

the Etruscan race, stripped bare by the flight of panicky Libo,
and Umbria, with Thermus driven out, has already lost its own right.
nor does Sulla wage civil wars under paternal auspices,
turned at the name of Caesar once heard. 465

Varus, ut admotae pulsarunt Auximon alae,
per diuersa ruens neclecto moenia tergo,
qua siluae, qua saxa, fugit. depellitur arce
Lentulus Asculea; uictor cedentibus instat
deuertitque acies, solusque ex agmine tanto 470
dux fugit et nullas ducentia signa cohortes.
tu quoque nudatam commissae deseris arcem,
Scipio, Nuceriae, quamquam firmissima pubes
his sedeat castris, iam pridem Caesaris armis
Parthorum seducta metu, qua Gallica damna 475
suppleuit Magnus, dumque ipse ad bella uocaret
donauit socero Romani sanguinis usum.

Varus, when the wings brought up struck Auximon,
rushing through divers ways with the walls neglected at his back,
where woods are, where rocks, he flees. From the Asculan citadel
Lentulus is driven; the victor presses on the yielding
and diverts the battle-lines, and alone out of so great a column 470
the leader flees and the standards lead no cohorts.
You too abandon the laid-bare citadel entrusted to you,
Scipio, of Nuceria, although the stoutest manpower
sits in these camps, long since by Caesar’s arms
drawn away in fear from the Parthians, with which Gallic losses 475
Magnus supplemented; and while he himself was summoning to wars
he granted to his father-in-law the use of Roman blood.

at te Corfini ualidis circumdata muris
tecta tenent, pugnax Domiti; tua classica seruat
oppositus quondam polluto tiro Miloni. 480

but you, pugnacious Domitius, the roofs of Corfinium, girded with strong walls, hold; your war-trumpets are kept by a raw recruit, once opposed to the befouled Milo. 480

ut procul inmensam campo consurgere nubem
ardentisque acies percussis sole corusco
conspexit telis, 'socii, decurrite' dixit
'fluminis ad ripas undaeque inmergite pontem.
et tu montanis totus nunc fontibus exi 485
atque omnis trahe, gurges, aquas, ut spumeus alnos
discussa conpage feras. hoc limite bellum
haereat, hac hostis lentus terat otia ripa.

when from afar he beheld an immense cloud rise over the plain,
and the blazing battle-lines, their weapons smitten by the coruscant sun,
he said, 'comrades, run down
to the river’s banks and plunge the bridge into the wave.
and you too, come forth now in all your force from your mountain fountains, 485
and draw all waters, O whirlpool, so that, foaming, you may carry off the alders
with the framework shattered. Let the war stick at this boundary,
let the enemy, slow, wear away his idleness on this bank.'

praecipitem cohibete ducem: uictoria nobis
hic primum stans Caesar erit.' nec plura locutus 490
deuoluit rapidum nequiquam moenibus agmen.
nam prior e campis ut conspicit amne soluto
rumpi Caesar iter calida prolat ab ira
'non satis est muris latebras quaesisse pauori?
obstruitis campos fluuiisque arcere paratis, 495

Restrain the headlong leader: here, with Caesar standing still, will be our first victory.' and, having spoken no more, he rolled the swift column down from the walls in vain. 490
for, being first, as from the plains he sees his route being broken with the river set loose, he cries out in hot anger: 'Is it not enough to have sought hiding-places for fear within walls?
you obstruct the plains and are preparing to ward me off with rivers, 495

ignaui? non, si tumido me gurgite Ganges
summoueat, stabit iam flumine Caesar in ullo
post Rubiconis aquas. equitum properate cateruae,
ite simul pedites, ruiturum ascendite pontem.'
haec ubi dicta, leuis totas accepit habenas 500
in campum sonipes, crebroque simillima nimbo
trans ripam ualidi torserunt tela lacerti.

cowards? No, not if the Ganges with its swollen whirlpool should drive me back, will Caesar now stand in any river after the waters of the Rubicon. Squadrons of horse, make haste; go likewise, foot-soldiers; mount the bridge that is about to collapse.'
when these things were said, the fleet courser received the full reins into the field, 500
and in frequent showers, most like to a storm-cloud, stout arms hurled missiles across the bank.

ingreditur pulsa fluuium statione uacantem
Caesar, et ad tutas hostis conpellitur arces.
et iam moturas ingentia pondera turris 505
erigit, et mediis subrepit uinea muris:
ecce, nefas belli, reseratis agmina portis
captiuum traxere ducem, ciuisque superbi
constitit ante pedes. uoltu tamen alta minaci
nobilitas recta ferrum ceruice poposcit. 510

Caesar enters the river, lying vacant with the station driven off,
and is compelled toward the enemy’s safe citadels.
And now he raises a tower that will set immense weights in motion, 505
and a vinea creeps up to the middle of the walls:
behold, a nefas of war—the gates unbarred—the ranks
have dragged a captive leader, and a proud citizen
stood before his feet. Yet with lofty, menacing countenance
nobility, with neck held straight, demanded the steel. 510

scit Caesar poenamque peti ueniamque timeri.
'uiue, licet nolis, et nostro munere' dixit
'cerne diem. uictis iam spes bona partibus esto
exemplumque mei.

Caesar knows that both punishment is sought and pardon is feared.
'Live, though you are unwilling, and by our gift,' he said,
'behold the day. Let there now be good hope for the conquered party
and an example of me.

uel, si libet, arma retempta,
et nihil hac uenia, si uiceris, ipse paciscor.' 515
fatur et astrictis laxari uincula palmis
imperat. heu, quanto melius uel caede peracta
parcere Romano potuit fortuna pudori!
poenarum extremum ciui, quod castra secutus
sit patriae Magnumque ducem totumque senatum, 520
ignosci.

or, if you please, retry arms, and I myself make no pact by this pardon, if you should conquer.' 515
he speaks and orders the bonds to be loosened from the bound hands.
alas, how much better could Fortune, even with slaughter completed,
have spared Roman modesty!
the ultimate of punishments for a citizen: that he be pardoned because he followed
the camp of his fatherland and the Great leader and the whole Senate, 520
to be forgiven.

premit ille grauis interritus iras,
et secum 'Romamne petes pacisque recessus
degener? in medios belli non ire furores
iam dudum moriture paras? rue certus et omnis
lucis rumpe moras et Caesaris effuge munus.' 525

He presses down his heavy wrath, unterrified,
and to himself: 'Will you seek Rome and the recesses of peace,
degenerate? Do you, long since doomed to die, plan not to go
into the very furies of war? Rush, resolute, and break every
delay of the light and escape Caesar’s gift.' 525

     nescius interea capti ducis arma parabat
Magnus, ut inmixto firmaret robore partis.
iamque secuturo iussurus classica Phoebo
temptandasque ratus moturi militis iras
adloquitur tacitas ueneranda uoce cohortes.                  530
'o scelerum ultores melioraque signa secuti,
o uere Romana manus, quibus arma senatus
non priuata dedit, uotis deposcite pugnam,
ardent Hesperii saeuis populatibus agri,
Gallica per gelidas rabies ecfunditur Alpes,                  535
iam tetigit sanguis pollutos Caesaris enses.
di melius, belli tulimus quod damna priores:
coeperit inde nefas, iam iam me praeside Roma
supplicium poenamque petat.

     unaware meanwhile of the captured leader, Magnus was preparing arms, that he might strengthen his party by a mingled vigor.
and now, about to order the war-trumpets, with Phoebus about to rise,
and thinking the angers of the soldier about to move should be tested,
he addresses the silent cohorts with a venerable voice.                  530
'o avengers of crimes, and you who have followed better standards,
o truly Roman band, to whom the senate, not private persons, gave arms,
with vows demand a battle;
the Hesperian fields burn with savage ravagings,
Gallic rage is poured out across the icy Alps;                  535
already blood has touched Caesar’s polluted swords.
may the gods grant better, that we earlier have borne the damages of war:
let the wickedness have begun from that side; now, now let Rome, with me as praesides,
seek punishment and penalty.

neque enim ista uocari
proelia iusta decet, patriae sed uindicis iram; 540

for it is not fitting that those be called just battles, but rather the wrath of the fatherland’s avenger; 540

nec magis hoc bellum est, quam quom Catilina parauit
arsuras in tecta faces sociusque furoris
Lentulus exertique manus uaesana Cethegi.
o rabies miseranda ducis! cum fata Camillis
te, Caesar, magnisque uelint miscere Metellis, 545
ad Cinnas Mariosque uenis.

nor is this war any more, than when Catiline prepared
torches to burn the roofs, and Lentulus, associate of frenzy,
and the mad hands of Cethegus stripped bare.
O pitiable madness of the leader! when the Fates would wish
you, Caesar, to be mingled with the Camilli and the great Metelli, 545
you come to the Cinnae and the Marii.

sternere profecto
ut Catulo iacuit Lepidus, nostrasque securis
passus Sicanio tegitur qui Carbo sepulchro,
quique feros mouit Sertorius exul Hiberos.
quamquam, siqua fides, his te quoque iungere, Caesar, 550
inuideo nostrasque manus quod Roma furenti
opposuit. Parthorum utinam post proelia sospes
et Scythicis Crassus uictor remeasset ab oris,
ut simili causa caderes, quoi Spartacus, hosti.

to lay you low assuredly
as Lepidus lay to Catulus, and Carbo,
having suffered our axes, is covered by a Sicilian sepulcher,
and Sertorius in exile, who stirred the fierce Iberians.
although, if there is any faith, to join you also to these, Caesar, 550
I begrudge, and that Rome set our hands against you in your frenzy.
Would that, safe after battles with the Parthians,
and a victor, Crassus had returned from Scythian shores,
so that you might fall for a like cause, to the foe to whom Spartacus fell.

te quoque si superi titulis accedere nostris 555

you too, if the gods above had allowed, to be added to our titles 555

iusserunt, ualet, en, torquendo dextera pilo,
feruidus haec iterum circa praecordia sanguis
incaluit; disces non esse ad bella fugaces
qui pacem potuere pati. licet ille solutum
defectumque uocet, ne uos mea terreat aetas: 560
dux sit in his castris senior, dum miles in illis.
quo potuit ciuem populus perducere liber
ascendi, supraque nihil nisi regna reliqui.

They have ordered; it is well; lo, by whirling the pilum with my right hand,
this fervid blood has again grown warm around these precordia;
you will learn that they are not prone to flight for wars
who have been able to endure peace. Though he may call it loosened
and exhausted, let not my age terrify you: 560
let the leader in these camps be older, provided I be a soldier in those.
To the height to which a free people could conduct a citizen
I have ascended, and above I have left nothing except kingdoms.

non priuata cupis, Romana quisquis in urbe
Pompeium transire paras. hinc consul uterque, 565
hinc acies statura ducum est. Caesarne senatus
uictor erit?

you do not seek private interests, whoever in the Roman city you prepare to cross over to Pompey.
on this side each consul, on this side the battle-line will be set up by the leaders, 565
will Caesar or the Senate be the victor?

non tam caeco trahis omnia cursu
teque nihil, Fortuna, pudet. multisne rebellis
Gallia iam lustris aetasque inpensa labori
dant animos? Rheni gelidis quod fugit ab undis 570

not with so blind a course do you drag all things,
and, Fortune, nothing shames you. Do rebellious
Gaul through many lustrums, and an age expended on labor,
give courage? that it flees from the Rhine’s gelid waves 570

Oceanumque uocans incerti stagna profundi
territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis?
an uanae tumuere minae quod fama furoris
expulit armatam patriis e sedibus urbem?
heu demens, non te fugiunt, me cuncta secuntur. 575
qui cum signa tuli toto fulgentia ponto,
ante bis exactum quam Cynthia conderet orbem,
omne fretum metuens pelagi pirata reliquit
angustaque domum terrarum in sede poposcit.

and calling the Ocean the stagnant pools of the uncertain profound,
did it, terrified, show its back to the Britons when sought out?
or did empty threats swell because the fame of frenzy
drove the armed city from its paternal seats?
alas, madman, they do not flee you; all things follow me. 575
I—when I bore standards gleaming over the whole sea,
before, twice completed, Cynthia should hide her orb,
the pirate, fearing every strait of the sea, abandoned all the deep
and sought a home in the narrow seat of the lands.

idem per Scythici profugum diuortia ponti 580
indomitum regem Romanaque fata morantem
ad mortem Sulla felicior ire coegi.
pars mundi mihi nulla uacat, sed tota tenetur
terra meis, quocumque iacet sub sole, tropaeis:
hinc me uictorem gelidas ad Phasidos undas 585

I likewise through the straits of the Scythian Sea the fugitive, untamed king, delaying the Roman fates, I compelled to go to death, a more fortunate Sulla. 580
no part of the world is vacant for me, but the whole earth, wherever it lies beneath the sun, is held by my trophies: from here me, victorious, to the icy waves of the Phasis 585

Arctos habet, calida medius mihi cognitus axis
Aegypto atque umbras nusquam flectente Syene,
occasus mea iura timent Tethynque fugacem
qui ferit Hesperius post omnia flumina Baetis,
me domitus cognouit Arabs, me Marte feroces                  590
Heniochi notique erepto uellere Colchi,
Cappadoces mea signa timent et dedita sacris
incerti Iudaea dei mollisque Sophene,
Armenios Cilicasque feros Taurumque subegi:
quod socero bellum praeter ciuile reliqui?'                  595
     uerba ducis nullo partes clamore secuntur
nec matura petunt promissae classica pugnae.
sensit et ipse metum Magnus, placuitque referri
signa nec in tantae discrimina mittere pugnae
iam uictum fama non uisi Caesaris agmen.                  600

The Bears I hold; the middle hot axis is to me known in Egypt and at Syene, which bends shadows nowhere; the West fears my laws, and the Hesperian Baetis, which, after all rivers, strikes fleeing Tethys; me the subdued Arab has recognized; me, the Heniochi fierce in war, and the well-known Colchians with the fleece snatched away; the Cappadocians fear my standards, and Judaea devoted to the sacred rites of an uncertain god, and soft Sophene; Armenians and the fierce Cilicians and the Taurus I have subdued: because I left to my father-in-law a war in addition to the civil one? 590
the leader’s words the party follows with no shout, nor do the war-trumpets seek a timely signal of the promised fight. Magnus himself sensed fear, and it pleased to draw back the standards, and not to send into the hazards of so great a battle a line already defeated by the rumor of the not-yet-seen Caesar. 595

pulsus ut armentis primo certamine taurus
siluarum secreta petit uacuosque per agros
exul in aduersis explorat cornua truncis
nec redit in pastus, nisi cum ceruice recepta
excussi placuere tori, mox reddita uictor                  605
quoslibet in saltus comitantibus agmina tauris
inuito pastore trahit, sic uiribus inpar
tradidit Hesperiam profugusque per Apula rura
Brundisii tutas concessit Magnus in arces.
     urbs est Dictaeis olim possessa colonis,                  610
quos Creta profugos uexere per aequora puppes
Cecropiae uictum mentitis Thesea uelis.
hinc latus angustum iam se cogentis in artum
Hesperiae tenuem producit in aequora linguam,
Hadriacas flexis claudit quae cornibus undas.                  615

driven from the herds in the first contest a bull
seeks the secrets of the woods and through empty fields
an exile tests his horns against opposing trunks,
nor does he return to the pastures, until, with neck recovered,
the shaken muscles have pleased; soon, returned as victor,                  605
he draws into whatever glades, with bands of bulls accompanying,
the herds, the shepherd unwilling; thus, unequal in strength,
he surrendered Hesperia, and as a fugitive through the Apulian fields
Great Pompey withdrew into the safe citadels of Brundisium.
     a city was once possessed by Dictaean colonists,                  610
whom ships, refugees from Crete, carried across the seas,
when the Cecropian Theseus was overcome by feigned sails.
From here the side of Hesperia, now forcing itself into a narrows,
projects a slender tongue into the waters,
which with bent horns encloses the Hadriac waves.                  615

nec tamen hoc artis inmissum faucibus aequor
portus erat, si non uiolentos insula Coros
exciperet saxis lassasque refunderet undas.
hinc illinc montes scopulosae rupis aperto
opposuit natura mari flatusque remouit, 620
ut tremulo starent contentae fune carinae.
hinc late patet omne fretum, seu uela ferantur
in portus, Corcyra, tuos, seu laeua petatur
Illyris Ionias uergens Epidamnos in undas.

nor yet was this sea, let in by art into jaws, a harbor, if the island did not catch the violent Corus-winds upon its rocks and pour back the wearied waves.
on this side and that nature set mountains of a craggy cliff against the open sea and removed the blasts, 620
so that the hulls, content with a trembling rope, might stand.
from here the whole strait lies open wide, whether the sails are borne into your harbors, Corcyra, or the left be sought, Illyrian Epidamnos inclining toward the Ionian waves.

hoc fuga nautarum, cum totas Hadria uires                  625
mouit et in nubes abiere Ceraunia cumque
spumoso Calaber perfunditur aequore Sason.
     ergo, ubi nulla fides rebus post terga relictis
nec licet ad duros Martem conuertere Hiberos,
cum mediae iaceant inmensis tractibus Alpes,                  630

this was the sailors’ flight, when the Adriatic moved all its forces                  625
and the Ceraunian peaks went into the clouds, and
Sason, together with the Calabrian coast, is drenched by the foamy sea.
     therefore, when there is no trust in the things left behind one’s back,
nor is it permitted to turn Mars toward the hardy Iberians,
since the central Alps lie in immense stretches,                  630

tum subole e tanta natum cui firmior aetas
adfatur. 'mundi iubeo temptare recessus:
Euphraten Nilumque moue, quo nominis usque
nostri fama uenit, quas est uolgata per urbes
post me Roma ducem. sparsos per rura colonos 635
redde mari Cilicas; Pharios hinc concute reges
Tigranemque meum; nec Pharnacis arma relinquas
admoneo nec tu populos utraque uagantis
Armenia Pontique feras per litora gentis
Riphaeasque manus et quas tenet aequore denso 640
pigra palus Scythici patiens Maeotia plaustri
et—quid plura moror?

then he addresses, from so great a offspring, the son whose age was sturdier.
‘I bid you to attempt the recesses of the world:
stir the Euphrates and the Nile, wherever the fame
of our name has come, through whatever cities
Rome has been spread abroad as leader with me as general. restore to the sea the Cilicians, settlers scattered through the fields; 635
from here shake the Pharian kings and my Tigranes; nor leave, I advise, the arms of Pharnaces
unattended, nor the peoples wandering through both
Armenias and the tribes along the shores of Pontus,
and the Rhipaean bands, and those whom, with its dense waters, the sluggish marsh of Maeotis holds, enduring the Scythian wagon— 640
and—why do I linger longer?’

totos mea, nate, per ortus
bella feres totoque urbes agitabis in orbe
perdomitas; omnes redeant in castra triumphi.
at uos, qui Latios signatis nomine fastos, 645

through all the East, my son, you will wage wars,
and through the whole orb you will agitate cities thoroughly subdued;
let all triumphs return into the camp.
but you, who mark the Latin fasti with a name, 645

primus in Epirum Boreas agat; inde per arua
Graiorum Macetumque nouas adquirite uires
dum paci dat tempus hiemps.' sic fatur, et omnes
iussa gerunt soluuntque cauas a litore puppes.
     at numquam patiens pacis longaeque quietis                  650
armorum, nequid fatis mutare liceret,
adsequitur generique premit uestigia Caesar.
sufficerent aliis primo tot moenia cursu
rapta, tot oppressae depulsis hostibus arces,
ipsa, caput mundi, bellorum maxima merces,                  655
Roma capi facilis; sed Caesar in omnia praeceps,
nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum,
instat atrox et adhuc, quamuis possederit omnem
Italiam, extremo sedeat quod litore Magnus,
communem tamen esse dolet; nec rursus aperto                  660

let Boreas drive first into Epirus; thence, across the fields of the Greeks and the Macedonians, acquire new forces while winter grants time to peace.' Thus he speaks, and all carry out the commands and loose the hollow ships from the shore.
but never patient of peace and the long quiet of arms, lest anything be allowed the Fates to change, Caesar follows and presses hard upon the footsteps of his son-in-law.
to others there would have sufficed, at the first onset, so many walls seized, so many citadels overborne with the enemies driven back, Rome herself, the head of the world, the greatest prize of wars, easy to capture; but Caesar, headlong into all things, believing nothing done when anything remained to be done, presses on fierce, and still, although he has possessed all Italy, because Magnus sits on the farthest shore, he grieves that it is nevertheless shared; nor again in the open 650

uult hostes errare freto, sed molibus undas
obstruit et latum deiectis rupibus aequor.
cedit in inmensum cassus labor; omnia pontus
haurit saxa uorax montesque inmiscet harenis,
ut, maris Aeolii medias si celsus in undas                   665
depellatur Eryx, nullae tamen aequore rupes
emineant, uel si conuolso uertice Gaurus
decidat in fundum penitus stagnantis Auerni.
ergo, ubi nulla uado tenuit sua pondera moles,
tunc placuit caesis innectere uincula siluis                  670
roboraque inmensis late religare catenis.
talis fama canit tumidum super aequora Persen
construxisse uias, multum cum pontibus ausis
Europamque Asiae Sestonque admouit Abydo
incessitque fretum rapidi super Hellesponti,                  675

he wants the foes to wander astray in the strait, but with moles the waves
he blocks, and the broad level with crags cast down.
the vain labor yields into the immense; the sea
swallows all the stones, voracious, and mixes mountains with sands,
as, if into the middle waves of the aeolian sea                  665
lofty eryx were driven down, yet no crags would on the sea
stand out, or if gaurus, with its summit convulsed,
should fall to the bottom deep of stagnant avernus.
therefore, when no mole in the shallow held its weights,
then it pleased to interweave bonds in felled forests                  670
and widely to re-ligate the oaks with immense chains.
such fame sings that the puffed-up persian above the waters
constructed roads, having dared much with bridges,
and brought europe to asia and sestos to abydo,
and strode the strait over the rapid hellespont,                  675

non Eurum Zephyrumque timens, cum uela ratisque
in medium deferret Athon. sic ora profundi
artantur casu nemorum; tunc aggere multo
surgit opus longaeque tremunt super aequora turres.
Pompeius tellure noua conpressa profundi 680
ora uidens curis animum mordacibus angit,
ut reseret pelagus spargatque per aequora bellum.

fearing neither Eurus nor Zephyr, when he brought sails and rafts through the midst of Athos. thus the shores of the deep are straitened by the fall of the groves; then with a great embankment the work rises, and long towers tremble above the waters.
Pompey, seeing the shores of the deep compressed by new earth, 680
gnaws his spirit with biting cares, that he may unbar the sea and scatter war across the waters.

saepe Noto plenae tensisque rudentibus actae
ipsa maris per claustra rates fastigia molis
discussere salo spatiumque dedere carinis 685
tortaque per tenebras ualidis ballista lacertis
multifidas iaculata faces. ut tempora tandem
furtiuae placuere fugae, ne litora clamor
nauticus exagitet neu bucina diuidat horas
neu tuba praemonitos perducat ad aequora nautas 690

often, filled by Notus and driven with taut ropes,
the ships themselves, through the sea’s bars, with the surge
shattered the ridge-lines of the mole and gave space to the hulls 685
and, a ballista wound, through the darkness with mighty sinews,
hurled many-forked firebrands. When at last the moments
pleased for a stealthy flight, lest a nautical clamor
agitate the shores, nor the bucina divide the hours,
nor the tuba lead forewarned sailors to the waters 690

praecepit sociis. iam coeperat ultima Virgo
Phoebum laturas ortu praecedere Chelas,
cum tacitas soluere rates. non anchora uoces
mouit, dum spissis auellitur uncus harenis;
dum iuga curuantur mali dumque ardua pinus 695
erigitur, pauidi classis siluere magistri,
strictaque pendentes deducunt carbasa nautae
nec quatiunt ualidos, ne sibilet aura, rudentes.

he gave orders to his comrades. already the last of the Virgin
had begun to precede the Claws, destined at their rising to bring Phoebus,
when they loosed the silent ships. not a voice did the anchor
stir, while the hook is torn from the thick sands;
while the yokes of the masts are bent and while the lofty pine-mast 695
is raised, the fearful masters of the fleet were silent,
and the sailors, hanging, draw down the tightened canvases,
nor do they shake the stout ropes, lest the breeze should whistle.

dux etiam uotis hoc te, Fortuna, precatur,
quam retinere uetas, liceat sibi perdere saltem                  700
Italiam. uix fata sinunt; nam murmure uasto
inpulsum rostris sonuit mare, fluctuat unda,
totque carinarum permixtis aequora sulcis
<Eruta feruescunt litusque frementia pulsant.>                  703a
     ergo hostes portis, quas omnis soluerat urbis
cum fato conuersa fides, murisque recepti
praecipiti cursu flexi per cornua portus
ora petunt pelagusque dolent contingere classi.
heu pudor, exigua est fugiens uictoria Magnus.

the leader also with vows prays this of you, Fortune—whom you forbid to be retained—that it be permitted him at least to lose Italy.                  700
scarcely do the fates allow; for with a vast murmur the sea, driven by prows, resounded, the wave heaves,
and the waters, with the furrows of so many keels intermingled, <Ploughed up they seethe and beat the roaring shore.>                  703a
     therefore the enemies at the gates—which the loyalty of the whole city, turned with its fate, had unbarred—and admitted to the walls,
with headlong course, wheeling through the horns of the harbor, seek the shores and the open sea, and they grieve to touch it with the fleet.
alas, shame, Magnus’s victory as he flees is meager.

angustus puppes mittebat in aequora limes
artior Euboica, qua Chalcida uerberat, unda. 710

a narrow strait was sending the ships into the waters
tighter than the Euboean wave, where it lashes Chalcis. 710

hic haesere rates geminae, classique paratae
excepere manus, tractoque in litora bello
hic primum rubuit ciuili sanguine Nereus,
cetera classis abit summis spoliata carinis:
ut, Pagasaea ratis peteret cum Phasidos undas,                  715
Cyaneas tellus emisit in aequora cautes;
rapta puppe minor subducta est montibus Argo
uanaque percussit pontum Symplegas inanem
et statura redit. iam Phoebum urguere monebat
non idem Eoi color aetheris, albaque nondum                  720
lux rubet et flammas propioribus eripit astris,
et iam Plias hebet, flexi iam plaustra Bootae
in faciem puri redeunt languentia caeli,
maioresque latent stellae, calidumque refugit
Lucifer ipse diem. pelagus iam, Magne, tenebas                  725

here twin ships stuck fast, and hands prepared for the fleet received them, and with the war dragged onto the shores; here for the first time Nereus blushed with civil blood; the rest of the fleet departs, despoiled of their topmost hulls: just as, when the Pagasaean ship sought the waves of Phasis,                  715
the land sent the Cyanean crags into the waters; with her stern snatched, the lesser Argo was drawn away from the mountains, and the Symplegades struck the sea vainly, empty, and return to their standing; already the not-the-same hue of the eastern aether was warning to press Phoebus, and the not-yet white light blushes and snatches the flames from the nearer stars,                  720
and now the Pleiad grows dim, now the bent Wains of Boötes, languishing, return into the aspect of a clear heaven, and the larger stars lie hidden, and Lucifer himself flees the hot day. already, Magnus, you were holding the pelagus.                  725

non ea fata ferens quae cum super aequora toto
praedonem sequerere mari: lassata triumphis
desciuit Fortuna tuis. cum coniuge pulsus
et natis totosque trahens in bella penates
uadis adhuc ingens populis comitantibus exul. 730
quaeritur indignae sedes longinqua ruinae.
non quia te superi patrio priuare sepulchro
maluerint Phariae busto damnantur harenae:
parcitur Hesperiae.

not carrying those fates which you had when, over the whole waters,
you were pursuing the pirate across the sea: Fortune, wearied by your triumphs,
has deserted you. Driven with spouse
and children, and dragging your whole household gods into wars,
you go, still mighty, an exile, with peoples accompanying you. 730
a far seat is sought for an unworthy ruin.
not because the supernal gods preferred to deprive you of a native tomb
are the Pharian sands condemned for your burial-mound:
Hesperia is spared.

procul hoc et in orbe remoto
abscondat Fortuna nefas, Romanaque tellus 735
inmaculata sui seruetur sanguine Magni.

far away, and in a remote orb,
let Fortune hide this nefarious deed, and the Roman earth 735
be preserved immaculate from the blood of her own Magnus.