Lucan: DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA

Propulit ut classem uelis cedentibus Auster
incumbens mediumque rates mouere profundum,
omnis in Ionios spectabat nauita fluctus:
solus ab Hesperia non flexit lumina terra
Magnus, dum patrios portus, dum litora numquam                  5
ad uisus reditura suos tectumque cacumen
nubibus et dubios cernit uanescere montis.
inde soporifero cesserunt languida somno
membra ducis; diri tum plena horroris imago
uisa caput maestum per hiantis Iulia terras                  10
tollere et accenso furialis stare sepulchro.
'sedibus Elysiis campoque expulsa piorum
ad Stygias' inquit 'tenebras manesque nocentis
post bellum ciuile trahor. uidi ipsa tenentis
Eumenidas quaterent quas uestris lampadas armis;                  15

As the South Wind, with sails yielding, drove the fleet
and urged the ships to move the mid-deep,
every sailor looked toward the Ionian waves:
alone from Hesperia Magnus did not turn his eyes
while his native harbors, while shores never to return to his sight                  5
and the roofed summit he sees vanish, veiled in clouds, and the wavering mountains.
Thereupon the leader’s languid limbs yielded to soporific sleep;
then a dread image, full of horror, was seen to lift a sorrowful head
over the gaping Julian lands                  10
and to stand, a furious tomb set ablaze.
“Driven from the Elysian seats and the field of the pious
to Stygian darkness and the harmful shades,” he says, “after the civil war I am dragged. I saw the Eumenides themselves holding
and brandishing the torches which your arms had kindled;                  15

praeparat innumeras puppes Acherontis adusti
portitor; in multas laxantur Tartara poenas;
uix operi cunctae dextra properante sorores
sufficiunt, lassant rumpentis stamina Parcas.
coniuge me laetos duxisti, Magne, triumphos:                  20
fortuna est mutata toris, semperque potentis
detrahere in cladem fato damnata maritos
innupsit tepido paelex Cornelia busto.
haereat illa tuis per bella per aequora signis,
dum non securos liceat mihi rumpere somnos                  25
et nullum uestro uacuum sit tempus amori
sed teneat Caesarque dies et Iulia noctes.
me non Lethaeae, coniunx, obliuia ripae
inmemorem fecere tui, regesque silentum
permisere sequi. ueniam te bella gerente                  30

the ferryman of Acheron, scorched, prepares innumerable sterns;
into many Tartars are unleashed punishments;
scarcely for the task do all the sisters, hasting with the right hand,
suffice, the Parcae wearied of breaking the threads.
You led me, Magne, with spouse to joyful triumphs:                  20
fortune is changed on couches, and the paramour, ever doomed
to drag husbands into disaster by fate,
has lain upon Cornelia's warm bier.
May she cling to your standards through wars, across the seas,
while it is permitted me to break untroubled slumbers                  25
and let no time be empty for your love,
but let Caesar hold the days and Iulia the nights.
The Lethean waters, my spouse, have not made me forgetful of you, nor did the silent kings
permit themselves to follow. I will come to you, bearing wars                  30

in medias acies. numquam tibi, Magne, per umbras
perque meos manes genero non esse licebit;
abscidis frustra ferro tua pignora: bellum
te faciet ciuile meum.' sic fata refugit
umbra per amplexus trepidi dilapsa mariti.                  35
     ille, dei quamuis cladem manesque minentur,
maior in arma ruit certa cum mente malorum,
et 'quid' ait 'uani terremur imagine uisus?
aut nihil est sensus animis a morte relictum
aut mors ipsa nihil.' Titan iam pronus in undas                  40
ibat et igniferi tantum demerserat orbis
quantum desse solet lunae, seu plena futura est
seu iam plena fuit: tunc obtulit hospita tellus
puppibus accessus faciles; legere rudentes
et posito remis petierunt litora malo.                  45

into the midst of the battle. Never will it be permitted to you, Magne, through the shadows
and through my manes to be not a son‑in‑law; you cut off your pledges with steel in vain: my
civil war will make you so.' Thus spoke the shade and fled, slipping from the embraces
of her trembling husband.                  35
     he, although the gods and the manes threaten ruin,
sprang into greater arms with a mind resolved on evils, and says, 'why are we terrified
by a vain apparition of a sight? Either no sense remains in minds left by death,
or death itself is nothing.' The Titan already leaning toward the waves was going down
and had submerged of the fiery orb just as much as the moon is wont to lack,                  40
its disk missing — whether it is to be full or had been full: then the hospitable land
offered easy approaches to the sterns; they gathered the rigging and, laying down the oars,
made for the shores with the mast lowered.                  45

     Caesar, ut emissas uenti rapuere carinas,
absconditque fretum classes, et litore solus
dux stetit Hesperio, non illum gloria pulsi
laetificat Magni: queritur quod tuta per aequor
terga ferant hostes. neque enim iam sufficit ulla                  50
praecipiti fortuna uiro, nec uincere tanti,
ut bellum differret, erat. tum pectore curas
expulit armorum pacique intentus agebat
quoque modo uanos populi conciret amores,
gnarus et irarum causas et summa fauoris                  55
annona momenta trahi.

     Caesar, when the winds had seized the launched keels,
and hid the fleet in the channel, and alone as commander
stood upon the Hesperian shore, the glory of the routed Great One
does not gladden him: he complains that over the safe sea
the enemies bear their backs. For now no fortune suffices                  50
to a headlong man, nor was it worth so much to conquer
that he should defer war. Then he expelled cares from his breast,
and, intent on arms and on peace, he also set about how to gather
the fickle loves of the people, knowing both the causes of wrath and the chief favors’                  55
and the moments in which the grain supply is weighed.

namque adserit urbes
sola fames, emiturque metus, cum segne potentes
uolgus alunt: nescit plebes ieiuna timere.
Curio Sicanias transcendere iussus in urbes,
qua mare tellurem subitis aut obruit undis 60

for he declares that cities are possessed by hunger alone, and fear is bought, when the sluggish populace feeds the potent: the hungry plebs does not know how to fear.
Curio, ordered to cross into the Sicilian cities,
where the sea buries the land with sudden waves 60

aut scidit, et medias fecit sibi litora terras:
uis illic ingens pelagi, semperque laborant
aequora ne rupti repetant confinia montes.
bellaque Sardoas etiam sparguntur in oras.
utraque frugiferis est insula nobilis aruis,                  65
nec prius Hesperiam longinquis messibus ullae
nec Romana magis conplerunt horrea terrae.
ubere uix glaebae superat, cessantibus Austris
cum medium nubes Borea cogente sub axem
effusis magnum Libye tulit imbribus annum.                  70
     haec ubi sunt prouisa duci, tunc agmina uictor
non armata trahens sed pacis habentia uoltum
tecta petit patriae. pro, si remeasset in urbem
Gallorum tantum populis Arctoque subacta,
quam seriem rerum longa praemittere pompa,                  75

or it split, and made for itself lands in the middle of the shores:
there is there a mighty force of the sea, and the waters always strive
lest the mountains, broken, reclaim their confines.
and wars are scattered even to Sardinian coasts.
both islands are noble with fruit-bearing fields,                  65
nor did any long harvests sooner fill Hesperia’s
nor did Roman granaries more fully the land.
the fruitfulness barely surpasses the clod of soil, the South winds ceasing
when the North wind drives the clouds toward the midday axis
and, Libya having poured out great rains, bore a plentiful year.                  70
     when these things were provided for the leader, then the victor’s columns
not drawing armed but wearing the countenance of peace
sought the roofs of the fatherland. But if he had returned to the city
of the Gauls only, peoples and even the Arctic subdued,75

quas potuit belli facies! ut uincula Rheno
Oceanoque daret, celsos ut Gallia currus
nobilis et flauis sequeretur mixta Britannis.
perdidit o qualem uincendo plura triumphum!
non illum laetis uadentem coetibus urbes                   80
sed tacitae uidere metu, nec constitit usquam
obuia turba duci. gaudet tamen esse timori
tam magno populis et se non mallet amari.
     iamque et praecipitis superauerat Anxuris arces,
et qua Pomptinas uia diuidit uda paludes,                  85
qua sublime nemus, Scythicae qua regna Dianae,
quaque iter est Latiis ad summam fascibus Albam;
excelsa de rupe procul iam conspicit urbem
Arctoi toto non uisam tempore belli
miratusque suae sic fatur moenia Romae:                  90

what a visage of war it could show! how he gave chains to the Rhine
and to the Ocean, how noble Gaul followed with lofty chariots
and mingled with the yellow-haired Britons.
He destroyed—O what triumph was that, conquering so much!
not that he went through joyful crowds to the cities                  80
but cities saw him in silent fear, nor did any throng stand
in the way of the general. Yet he rejoices to be feared
so greatly by peoples and would not rather be loved.
     and now he had already surmounted the headlong heights of Anxur,
and where the wet Pomptine marshes divide the road,                  85
where the lofty grove is, where Diana’s Scythian realms lie,
and where the route with bundles leads to Alba for the Latins’ summit;
from the high cliff he now perceives the city afar off
not seen in the whole time of the Arctian war
and marveling at his own Rome’s walls thus he speaks:                  90

'tene, deum sedes, non ullo Marte coacti
deseruere uiri? pro qua pugnabitur urbe?
di melius, quod non Latias Eous in oras
nunc furor incubuit nec iuncto Sarmata uelox
Pannonio Dacisque Getes admixtus: habenti 95
tam pauidum tibi, Roma, ducem fortuna pepercit,
quod bellum ciuile fuit.' sic fatur et urbem
attonitam terrore subit. namque ignibus atris
creditur, ut captae, rapturus moenia Romae
sparsurusque deos.

'Lo—seats of the gods—have men, not driven by any Mars,
deserted you? For which city will there be fought?
May the gods grant better that the East not now have fallen
upon Latin shores, nor that a swift Sarmatian, joined
and mixed with Pannonian and Dacian Getae, — having 95
so fearful a leader, Rome, fortune has spared you,
because it was a civil war.' Thus he speaks, and the city
astonished sinks under terror. For it is believed, by black fires,
that, once captured, he would seize the walls of Rome
and besprinkle the gods.

fuit haec mensura timoris: 100
uelle putant quodcumque potest. non omina festa,
non fictas laeto uoces simulare tumultu,
uix odisse uacat. Phoebea Palatia conplet
turba patrum nullo cogendi iure senatus
e latebris educta suis; non consule sacrae 105

this was the measure of fear: 100
they think he wills whatever he is able. not all omens are taken as propitious,
nor are feigned voices to simulate a glad tumult, scarce is there leisure to hate.
the Phoebean Palatine fills with a throng of fathers the senate,
led out of their lairs by their own, with no lawful right of the senate 105

fulserunt sedes, non, proxima lege potestas,
praetor adest, uacuaeque loco cessere curules.
omnia Caesar erat: priuatae curia uocis
testis adest. sedere patres censere parati,
si regnum, si templa sibi iugulumque senatus 110
exiliumque petat. melius, quod plura iubere
erubuit quam Roma pati.

the seats gleamed—no, there was power by nearest law; the praetor is present, and the vacant curule chairs yielded place.
all was Caesar: the private curia stands witness to his voice.
the fathers sit, ready to decree, if he demand a kingship, or temples, the senate’s throat and exile 110
better that he blushed to command many more things than Rome to suffer.

tamen exit in iram,
uiribus an possint obsistere iura, per unum
Libertas experta uirum; pugnaxque Metellus,
ut uidet ingenti Saturnia templa reuelli 115
mole, rapit gressus et Caesaris agmina rumpens
ante fores nondum reseratae constitit aedis
(usque adeo solus ferrum mortemque timere
auri nescit amor, pereunt discrimine nullo
amissae leges set, pars uilissima rerum, 120

yet she bursts forth into anger,
to test by force whether the laws can withstand one man, Libertas, having tried a single man; and pugnacious Metellus,
when he sees the Saturnian temples to be torn away by a vast 115
mass, hastens his steps and, breaking Caesar’s ranks,
before the doors of the not-yet-opened house stood firm
((so far alone the love of gold does not know to fear
iron and death; with no distinction they perish;
the laws having been lost — but the cheapest part of things, 120

certamen mouistis, opes), prohibensque rapina
uictorem clara testatur uoce tribunus.
'non nisi per nostrum uobis percussa patebunt
templa latus, nullasque feres nisi sanguine sacro
sparsas, raptor, opes. certe uiolata potestas                  125
inuenit ista deos; Crassumque in bella secutae
saeua tribuniciae uouerunt proelia dirae.
detege iam ferrum; neque enim tibi turba uerenda est
spectatrix scelerum: deserta stamus in urbe.
non feret e nostro sceleratus praemia miles:                  130
sunt quos prosternas populi, quae moenia dones.
pacis ad exutae spolium non cogit egestas:
bellum, Caesar, habes.' his magnam uictor in iram
uocibus accensus 'uanam spem mortis honestae
concipis: haud' inquit 'iugulo se polluet isto                  135

you have stirred up contest, resources), and the tribune, forbidding pillage, proclaims the victor with a clear voice.
'Not until our flank has been struck through will temples lie open to you,
and you shall carry off no riches save those scattered with sacred blood, plunderer. Certainly violated authority                  125
found those gods; and the savage tribunician forces, having followed Crassus into wars,
vowed dreadful battles. Draw now the sword; for there is no crowd to be feared
as spectator of crimes for you: we stand deserted in the city.
No wicked soldier will carry rewards from our side:                  130
there are peoples you overthrow, there are walls which you give. Need does not compel the spoils
of peace once stripped away: war, Caesar, you have.' At this the victor, fired to great wrath,
breaking out in cries, 'What vain hope of an honorable death
do you conceive? He will not,' he said, 'defile himself upon that throat.'                  135

nostra, Metelle, manus; dignum te Caesaris ira
nullus honor faciet. te uindice tuta relicta est
libertas? non usque adeo permiscuit imis
longus summa dies ut non, si uoce Metelli
seruantur leges, malint a Caesare tolli.'                  140
     dixerat, et nondum foribus cedente tribuno
acrior ira subit: saeuos circumspicit enses
oblitus simulare togam; cum Cotta Metellum
conpulit audaci nimium desistere coepto.
'libertas' inquit 'populi quem regna coercent                  145
libertate perit; cuius seruaueris umbram,
si quidquid iubeare uelis.

our hand, Metellus; no honor will make you worthy of Caesar’s ire.
Has liberty, left safe with you as vindicator, been preserved?
So long a day has not mingled the lowest with the highest
so thoroughly that, if by the voice of Metellus the laws are kept,
they would rather be taken away by Caesar. 140
he had spoken, and, with the tribune not yet yielding at the doors,
a keener anger arose: he looks about at the savage swords,
forgetting to feign the toga; when Cotta forced Metellus
to desist from a beginning too audacious.
'The people's liberty,' he said, 'which kingdoms repress,
perishes by (excess of) freedom; you will have preserved its shade,
if you are willing to do whatever I order.'

tot rebus iniquis
paruimus uicti; uenia est haec sola pudoris
degenerisque metus, nullam potuisse negari.
ocius auertat diri mala semina belli. 150

by so many unjust things we were brought low, conquered; this alone is pardon for pudor and for degenerate fear, a thing that no one could have been able to deny. May he more swiftly avert the evil seeds of dire war. 150

damna mouent populos siquos sua iura tuentur:
non sibi sed domino grauis est quae seruit egestas.'
protinus abducto patuerunt templa Metello.
tunc rupes Tarpeia sonat magnoque reclusas
testatur stridore fores; tum conditus imo                  155
eruitur templo multis non tactus ab annis
Romani census populi, quem Punica bella,
quem dederat Perses, quem uicti praeda Philippi,
quod tibi, Roma, fuga llus trepidante reliquit,
quo te Fabricius regi non uendidit auro,                  160
quidquid parcorum mores seruastis auorum,
quod dites Asiae populi misere tributum
uictorique dedit Minoia Creta Metello,
quod Cato longinqua uexit super aequora Cypro.
tunc Orientis opes captorumque ultima regum                  165

losses move peoples who their laws defend:
'what is grievous is poverty that serves not itself but a lord.'
straightway, with Metellus led off, the temples stood exposed.
then the Tarpeian cliff rings and with a great creak
the opened doors make witness; then from a temple deep-laid                  155
is hewn out the Roman census of the people, untouched by many years,
which the Punic wars gave, which Perses had given, which the spoils of conquered Philip gave,
which, Rome, a trembling Gaul left you in flight,
by which Fabricius did not sell you to a king for gold,                  160
whatever morals of our frugal ancestors you have kept safe,
what the peoples of rich Asia miserly gave as tribute
and Cretan Minoa gave to victorious Metellus,
what Cato carried over the distant seas to Cyprus.
then the wealth of the East and the last riches of captured kings                  165

quae Pompeianis praelata est gaza triumphis
egeritur; tristi spoliantur templa rapina,
pauperiorque fuit tum primum Caesare Roma.
     interea totum Magni fortuna per orbem
secum casuras in proelia mouerat urbes.                  170
proxima uicino uires dat Graecia bello.
Phocaicas Amphissa manus scopulosaque Cirrha
Parnasosque iugo misit desertus utroque.
Boeoti coiere duces, quos inpiger ambit
fatidica Cephisos aqua Cadmeaque Dirce,                  175
Pisaeaeque manus populisque per aequora mittens
Sicaniis Alpheos aquas. tum Maenala liquit
Arcas et Herculeam miles Trachinius Oeten.
Thesproti Dryopesque ruunt, quercusque silentis
Chaonio ueteres liquerunt uertice Selloe.                  180

the treasure which was prized above Pompeian triumphs
is carried off; temples are despoiled by sad plunder,
and Rome was then for the first time poorer under Caesar.
     meanwhile the fortune of the Great throughout the whole orb
had been moving with it cities destined to fall into battles.                  170
neighbouring Greece lends strength for the adjacent war.
Amphissa of the Phocaeans and rocky Cirrha
and Parnassus he sent deserted on either ridge.
Boeotian leaders assembled, whom the active waters surround—
the prophetic Cephisus and Cadmean Dirce,                  175
and the Pisan band, sending through peoples and seas
the Alpheus' waters to the Sicanians. Then he left Maenalus,
the Arcadians, and the Trachinian warrior left Herculean Oeta.
Thesprotians and Dryopes rush forth, and the ancient oaks
of silent Chaon leave the summit of Selloe.                  180

exhausit totas quamuis dilectus Athenas,
exiguae Phoebea tenent naualia puppes
tresque petunt ueram credi Salamina carinae.
iam dilecta Ioui centenis uenit in arma
Creta uetus populis Cnososque agitare pharetras                  185
docta nec Eois peior Gortyna sagittis;
tunc qui Dardaniam tenet Oricon et uagus altis
dispersus siluis Athaman et nomine prisco
Encheliae uersi testantes funera Cadmi,
Colchis et Hadriaca spumans Apsyrtos in unda;                  190
Penei qui rura colunt, quorumque labore
Thessalus Haemoniam uomer proscindit Iolcon.
inde lacessitum primo mare, cum rudis Argo
miscuit ignotas temerato litore gentes
primaque cum uentis pelagique furentibus undis                  195

he exhausted whole Athens, though beloved,
the small Phoebean sterns hold naval craft                  185
and three keels strive to be counted the true Salamis.
now, beloved of Jove, he came into arms with hundreds;
ancient Crete and Cnossus began to shake their quivers                  190
and learned Gortyna was no worse with eastern arrows; then he who holds Dardania, Oricus, and the roaming Athaman
scattered through lofty woods, and the Enchelians, turned by the ancient name, witnessed the funerals of Cadmus,
Colchis and the Adriatic foamed with Apsyrtos in the wave;                  195
the Peneians who till the fields, and by whose labour the Thessalian plough rends Haemonian Iolcus.
thence the sea was first provoked, when the untried Argo mingled unknown peoples on the violated shore
and first with winds and the raging waves of the sea.

conposuit mortale genus, fatisque per illam
accessit mors una ratem. tum linquitur Haemus
Thracius et populum Pholoe mentita biformem.
deseritur Strymon tepido committere Nilo
Bistonias consuetus aues et barbara Cone,                  200
Sarmaticas ubi perdit aquas sparsamque profundo
multifidi Peucen unum caput adluit Histri,
Mysiaque et gelido tellus perfusa Caico
Idalis et nimium glaebis exilis Arisbe,
quique colunt Pitanen, et quae tua munera, Pallas,                  205
lugent damnatae Phoebo uictore Celaenae,
qua celer et rectis descendens Marsya ripis
errantem Maeandron adit mixtusque refertur,
passaque ab auriferis tellus exire metallis
Pactolon, qua culta secat non uilior Hermus.                  210

he composed the mortal race, and by those fates through her one death came upon the ship.
then Haemus the Thracian is abandoned
and Pholoe, having feigned a two‑formed people, is left behind.
the Strymon is forsaken to mingle with the tepid Nile,
the Bistonian birds and barbarous Cone,                   200
where the many‑cleft Peucen wastes Sarmatic waters and the deep‑scattered seas,
the Histrian stream washes one head alone of that divided mass,
and Mysian land soaked by the cold Caicus,
Idalis and Arisbe, slender and over scant of soil,
and those who till Pitanen, and what gifts of yours, Pallas,                   205
mourn the Celaenae, condemned by Phoebus the victor,
where swift Marsyas, descending the straight banks,approaches the wandering Maeander and is borne back mingled,
and the land, having been passed through by auriferous metals, sends forth Pactolus,
where the cultivated Hermus cuts no meaner course.                  210

Iliacae quoque signa manus perituraque castra
ominibus petiere suis, nec fabula Troiae
continuit Phrygiique ferens se Caesar Iuli.
accedunt Syriae populi; desertus Orontes
et felix, sic fama, Ninos, uentosa Damascos                  215
Gazaque et arbusto palmarum diues Idume
et Tyros in stabilis pretiosaque murice Sidon.
has ad bella rates non flexo limite ponti
certior haud ullis duxit Cynosura carinis.
(Phoenices primi, famae si creditur, ausi                  220
mansuram rudibus uocem signare figuris:
nondum flumineas Memphis contexere biblos
nouerat, et saxis tantum uolucresque feraeque
sculptaque seruabant magicas animalia linguas.)
deseritur Taurique nemus Perseaque Tarsos                  225

Iliac standards too, and hands and camps ready to perish
sought their own omens, nor did the tale of Troy
hold back the Phrygian Caesar sprung from Iulus.
Peoples of Syria join; deserted is the Orontes
and lucky, so the rumor, Ninus, windy Damascus                  215
Gaza and Idumea rich with groves of palms
and Tyre with its fixed harbors and Sidon dear for purple-dye.
These ships to wars, with no bent boundary of the sea,
Cynosura led surer than any keel.
(The Phoenicians first, if fame is trusted, dared                  220
to mark a lasting voice with rude figures of writing:
Memphis had not yet learned to weave riverine papyri,
and with only rocks and birds and beasts and carved figures
they preserved the magical tongues of animals.)
forsaken is the grove of Taurus and Persea’s Tarsus                  225

Coryciumque patens exesis rupibus antrum;
Mallos et extremae resonant naualibus Aegae,
itque Cilix iusta iam non pirata carina.
     mouit et Eoos bellorum fama recessus,
qua colitur Ganges, toto qui solus in orbe                  230
ostia nascenti contraria soluere Phoebo
audet et aduersum fluctus inpellit in Eurum,
hic ubi Pellaeus post Tethyos aequora ductor
constitit et magno uinci se fassus ab orbe est;
quaque ferens rapidum diuiso gurgite fontem                  235
uastis Indus aquis mixtum non sentit Hydaspen;
quique bibunt tenera dulcis ab harundine sucos,
et qui tinguentes croceo medicamine crinem
fluxa coloratis astringunt carbasa gemmis,
quique suas struxere pyras uiuique calentis                  240

and Corycium’s cavern, gaping from excavated cliffs;
Mallos and the remotest Aegae resound with naval noises,
and the Cilician now sails with a lawful keel, no longer a pirate.
     and rumor of wars stirs even the eastern retreats,
where the Ganges is revered, who alone in the whole orb                  230
dares to loosen his mouths opposite the rising Phoebus
and dares also to impel the waves against the Eurus,
where the Pellaean leader, beyond the Tethys, halted after the seas
and confessed himself vanquished by the vast world;
and where the Indus, bearing a swift spring in its divided gulfs,                  235
the Hydaspes, mixed into those vast waters, is not perceived;
and those who drink the sweet juices from the tender reed,
and those who, dyeing their hair with saffron’s medicament,
bind their flowing garments with gems of dyed cloth,
and those who have built their pyres and burn alive                  240

conscendere rogos. pro, quanta est gloria genti
iniecisse manum fatis uitaque repletos
quod superest donasse deis! uenere feroces
Cappadoces, duri populus non cultor Amani,
Armeniusque tenens uoluentem saxa Niphaten.                  245
aethera tangentis siluas liquere Choatrae.
ignotum uobis, Arabes, uenistis in orbem
umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras.
tum furor extremos mouit Romanus Orestas
Carmanosque duces, quorum iam flexus in Austrum                   250
aether non totam mergi tamen aspicit Arcton
lucet et exigua uelox ibi nocte Bootes,
Aethiopumque solum, quod non premeretur ab ulla
signiferi regione poli, nisi poplite lapso
ultima curuati procederet ungula Tauri,                  255

to mount the pyres. behold, what glory for a people
to have thrown their hand into the fates and, lives full,
to have given what remains to the gods! fierce came the
Cappadocians, a hardy people not a worshipper of Amanus,
and the Armenian holding the rolling rocks of Niphates.                  245
the Choatrae left the forests that touch the ether.
Unknown to you, Arabs, you came into the world,
marvelling that the shades of groves do not go leftward.
Then Roman fury moved the farthest Orestes
and the leaders Carmani, whose bend already toward the South                  250
the sky yet does not see the whole plunged beneath the Bear;
and there also shines swift Bootes in the brief night,
and the sole of the Aethiopians, which would not be pressed by any
region of the pole of the sky, unless, with the knee slipping,
the rearmost hoof of the curved Bull were to advance.                  255

quaque caput rapido tollit cum Tigride magnus
Euphrates, quos non diuersis fontibus edit
Persis, et incertum, tellus si misceat amnes,
quod potius sit nomen aquis. sed sparsus in agros
fertilis Euphrates Phariae uice fungitur undae;                  260
at Tigrim subito tellus absorbet hiatu
occultosque tegit cursus rursusque renatum
fonte nouo flumen pelagi non abnegat undis.
inter Caesareas acies diuersaque signa
pugnaces dubium Parthi tenuere fauorem                  265
contenti fecisse duos. tinxere sagittas
errantes Scythiae populi, quos gurgite Bactros
includit gelido uastisque Hyrcania siluis;
hinc Lacedaemonii, moto gens aspera freno,
Heniochi saeuisque adfinis Sarmata Moschis;                  270

and where the great Euphrates lifts its head together with the swift Tigris,
which the Persians do not spring from diverse fountains, and it is uncertain, if the land mixes the rivers,
which name rather belongs to the waters. But, scattered over the fields,
the fertile Euphrates performs the office of the Pharian wave;                  260
yet the earth suddenly swallows the Tigris in a chasm
and covers its hidden courses, and the river, renewed again
from a new spring, refuses not to the sea its waves.
Between the Caesarean battle-lines and the diverse standards
the warlike Parthians held the doubtful favour, content to have made two;                  265
the wandering peoples of Scythia stained their arrows,
whom Bactra encloses with icy gulf and the vast Hyrcanian woods;
thence Lacedaemonians, a people harsh with the bridled rein,
the Heniochi and the Sarmatian Moschi, allied to the fierce.                  270

Colchorum qua rura secat ditissima Phasis,
qua Croeso fatalis Halys, qua uertice lapsus
Riphaeo Tanais diuersi nomina mundi
inposuit ripis Asiaeque et terminus idem
Europae, mediae dirimens confinia terrae,                  275
nunc hunc nunc illum, qua flectitur, ampliat orbem;
quaque, fretum torrens, Maeotidos egerit undas
Pontus, et Herculeis aufertur gloria metis,
Oceanumque negant solas admittere Gadis;
hinc Essedoniae gentes auroque ligatas                  280
substringens Arimaspe comas; hinc fortis Arius
longaque Sarmatici soluens ieiunia belli
Massagetes, quo fugit, equo uolucresque Geloni.
non, cum Memnoniis deducens agmina regnis
Cyrus et effusis numerato milite telis                  285

Where the richest Phasis severs the plains of the Colchians,
where the fateful Halys of Croesus, where the Tanais, slid from the Riphaean summit,
placed diverse names of the world upon its banks, and the same boundary
of Asia and of Europe, cleaving the confines of the middle land, 275
now this, now that, where it bends, enlarges the orb;
and where the rushing strait drives the Maeotian waves,
Pontus, and the glory is borne away from the Herculean markers,
and the Gaditans deny that the Ocean admits only them;
thence the peoples of Essedonia and those bound with gold, 280
tearing away the locks of the Arimaspi; thence brave Arius
and the Massagetae, loosening the long fast of Sarmatian war,
to whom he fled on horse, and the fleet-footed Geloni.
Not when Cyrus, leading forth hosts with Memnonian realms,
and with troops poured out and weapons counted,285

descendit Perses, fraternique ultor amoris
aequora cum tantis percussit classibus, unum
tot reges habuere ducem, coiere nec umquam
tam uariae cultu gentes, tam dissona uolgi
ora. tot inmensae comites missura ruinae                  290
exciuit populos et dignas funere Magni
exequias Fortuna dedit. non corniger Hammon
mittere Marmaricas cessauit in arma cateruas,
quidquid ab occiduis Libye patet arida Mauris
usque Paraetonias Eoa ad litora Syrtis.                  295
acciperet felix ne non semel omnia Caesar,
uincendum pariter Pharsalia praestitit orbem.
     ille ubi deseruit trepidantis moenia Romae
agmine nubiferam rapto super euolat Alpem;
cumque alii famae populi terrore pauerent                  300

Perses descended, and, avenger of fraternal love,
struck the seas with so great fleets; one
so many kings had a single leader, they met and never
were peoples so various in garb, faces so discordant of the crowd.
so many companions, about to send vast ruin,                  290
he roused nations and Fortune gave funeral rites worthy
of the Great. The horned Ammon did not cease
to send Marmaric bands to arms, whatever stretches
from the western dry lands of Libya to the Mauri,
as far as Paraetonium and the eastern shores of Syrtis.                  295
happy Caesar might receive all things at once, nor would Pharsalia
fail to have made the world equally to be conquered.
Whereupon he, when he abandoned the trembling walls of Rome,
with his cloud-bearing column snatched up, flew over the Alps;
and while others, struck by the terror of the people's fame, trembled                  300

Phocais in dubiis ausa est seruare iuuentus
non Graia leuitate fidem signataque iura,
et causas, non fata, sequi. tamen ante furorem
indomitum duramque uiri deflectere mentem
pacifico sermone parant hostemque propinquum                  305
orant Cecropiae praelata fronde Mineruae.
     'semper in externis populo communia uestro
Massiliam bellis testatur fata tulisse
conprensa est Latiis quaecumque annalibus aetas.
et nunc, ignoto siquos petis orbe triumphos,                  310
accipe deuotas externa in proelia dextras.
at, si funestas acies, si dira paratis
proelia discordes, lacrimas ciuilibus armis
secretumque damus. tractentur uolnera nulla
sacra manu.

Phocaean youth in uncertain times dared to keep fidelity
not with Greek levity, and to follow causes, not fate. Yet before the unbridled fury
and the hard heart of war they prepare to turn the man with pacific speech
and beg the neighboring foe, preferring Cecropian-plumed Minerva,                  305
they pray.   'Always, in foreign wars, fate itself testifies
that commonwealths have borne Massilia through wars to you;
whatever the age has recorded in Latin annals has been overwhelmed.
And now, if you seek triumphs in an unknown world,                  310
receive these right hands devoted to external battles.
But if you prepare deadly ranks, if you arm for ruinous conflicts,
discordant, we give tears with civil weapons
and keep no sacred thing untouched by hand.'

si caelicolis furor arma dedisset 315

if to the heavenly ones fury had bestowed arms 315

aut si terrigenae temptarent astra gigantes,
non tamen auderet pietas humana uel armis
uel uotis prodesse Ioui, sortisque deorum
ignarum mortale genus per fulmina tantum
sciret adhuc caelo solum regnare Tonantem.                  320
adde quod innumerae concurrunt undique gentes,
nec sic horret iners scelerum contagia mundus
ut gladiis egeant ciuilia bella coactis.
sit mens ista quidem cunctis, ut uestra recusent
fata, nec haec alius committat proelia miles.                  325
cui non conspecto languebit dextra parente
telaque diuersi prohibebunt spargere fratres?
finis adest elerum, si non committitis ullis
arma quibus fas est. nobis haec summa precandi:
terribilis aquilas infestaque signa relinquas                  330

or if earth‑born giants should try to test the stars,
yet human piety would not dare to avail Jove by arms
or by vows, nor would the mortal kind, ignorant of the gods,
know that Tonantem alone still rules in heaven through bolts.                  320
add that innumerable peoples converge from every side,
and the world, idle, does not so dread the contagion of crimes
that civil wars should be without swords when forced on.
Let this mind be indeed to all, that your people refuse their fates,
nor let any other soldier undertake these battles.                  325
for who, without his father in sight, will his right hand grow languid,
and will the arms of men arrayed against one another forbid the shedding of brothers’ blood?
The end of the swift is near, if you do not join with any
weapons by which it is lawful. This is our highest plea in praying:
that you leave behind the fearful eagles and the hostile standards                  330

urbe procul nostrisque uelis te credere muris
excludique sinas admisso Caesare bellum.
sit locus exceptus sceleri, Magnoque tibique
tutus, ut, inuictae fatum si consulat urbi,
foedera si placeant, sit quo ueniatis inermes.                  335
uel, cum tanta uocent discrimina Martis Hiberi,
quid rapidum deflectis iter? non pondera rerum
nec momenta sumus, numquam felicibus armis
usa manus, patriae primis a sedibus exul,
et post translatas exustae Phocidos arces                  340
moenibus exiguis alieno in litore tuti,
inlustrat quos sola fides. si claudere muros
obsidione paras et ui perfringere portas,
excepisse faces tectis et tela parati,
undarum raptos auersis fontibus haustus                  345

that you commit yourself to a city far from ours and to our walls with sails,
and that you allow war to be admitted with Caesar having been let in.
let there be a place taken for crime, and safe both for Magnus and for you,
so that, if he consults the fate of the unconquered city,
if treaties please, there may be a place to which you come unarmed.                  335
or, when such great crises of Iberian Mars call,
why do you turn your swift course aside? we are not weights of affairs
nor mere moments; never having used our hands in lucky arms,
an exile from the first seats of the fatherland,
and after the transferred citadels of burned Phocis                  340
safe within scant walls on a foreign shore,
whom sole fidelity makes illustrious. If you prepare to close walls
by siege and to break through gates by force,
having received torches on the roofs and weapons ready,
draughts seized from the waves, springs turned away, the water drawn,                  345

quaerere et effossam sitientes lambere terram
et, desit si larga Ceres, tunc horrida cerni
foedaque contingi maculato attingere morsu.
nec pauet hic populus pro libertate subire
obsessum Poeno gessit quae Marte Saguntum.                  350
pectoribus rapti matrum frustraque trahentes
ubera sicca fame medios mittentur in ignis
uxor et a caro poscet sibi fata marito,
uolnera miscebunt fratres bellumque coacti
hoc potius ciuile gerent.' sic Graia iuuentus                  355
finierat, cum turbato iam prodita uoltu
ira ducis tandem testata est uoce dolorem.
     'uana mouet Graios nostri fiducia cursus.
quamuis Hesperium mundi properemus ad axem
Massiliam delere uacat. gaudete, cohortes:                  360

to seek and, thirsting, to lick up the dug earth
and, if generous Ceres fail, then to be seen hideous
and to be foully touched, to touch with stained bite.
nor does this people fear to undergo for liberty
what Saguntum suffered, besieged by the Punic in war.                  350
the breasts of snatched mothers, and dragging them in vain,
milkless udders by famine will be cast into the midst of fires:
a wife will beg her fate from her dear husband,
brothers will mingle wounds and, compelled,
rather will wage this civil war.' Thus the Greek youth                  355
had finished, when with visage now betrayed and troubled
the leader's anger at last testified his grief with a voice.
     'Our confidence in our swift course moves the Greeks in vain.
though we haste to the Hesperian axle of the world,
there is time to destroy Massilia. Rejoice, cohorts:                  360

obuia praebentur fatorum munere bella.
uentus ut amittit uires, nisi robore densae
occurrunt siluae, spatio diffusus inani,
utque perit magnus nullis obstantibus ignis,
sic hostes mihi desse nocet, damnumque putamus 365
armorum, nisi qui uinci potuere rebellant.
sed, si solus eam dimissis degener armis,
tunc mihi tecta patent. iam non excludere tantum,
inclusisse uolunt. at enim contagia belli
dira fugant.

wars are offered to meet us by the gift of the Fates.
as the wind loses its forces, unless dense woods meet it with strength,
spread across an empty space,
and as a great fire perishes with nothing opposing it,
so it harms me that enemies are wanting, and we reckon it the loss 365
of arms, unless those who could be conquered revolt.
but if I alone, having dismissed base arms,
then to me the roofs lie open. now they wish not only to exclude,
but to have shut in. but indeed the dire contagions of war
drive them away.

dabitis poenas pro pace petita, 370
et nihil esse meo discetis tutius aeuo
quam duce me bellum.' sic postquam fatus, ad urbem
haud trepidam conuertit iter; cum moenia clausa
conspicit et densa iuuenum uallata corona.
haut procul a muris tumulus surgentis in altum 375

you will pay penalties for the peace sought, 370
and you will learn that nothing is safer in my age than war with me as leader.' Thus having spoken, he turned his route to the city, not at all fearful; when he behold the walls closed and a rampart encircled by a dense crown of youths.
not far from the walls a mound rises high 375

telluris paruum diffuso uertice campum
explicat: haec patiens longo munimine cingi
uisa duci rupes tutisque aptissima castris.
proxima pars urbis celsam consurgit in arcem
par tumulo, mediisque sedent conuallibus arua.                  380
tunc res inmenso placuit statura labore,
aggere diuersos uasto committere colles.
sed prius, ut totam, qua terra cingitur, urbem
clauderet, a summis perduxit ad aequora castris
longum Caesar opus, fontesque et pabula campi                  385
amplexus fossa densas tollentia pinnas
caespitibus crudaque extruxit bracchia terra.
     iam satis hoc Graiae memorandum contigit urbi
aeternumque decus, quod non inpulsa nec ipso
strata metu tenuit flagrantis in omnia belli                  390

a small field the earth spreads out with a flattened summit
and this rock, enduring, seemed fitted to be girded by a long bulwark
and to be led and most suitable for secure camps. The nearest part of the city rises up into a lofty citadel
equal with the mound, and the fields sit in the surrounding valleys.                  380
then the work pleased because of the immense exertion of stature,
to join distant hills with a vast rampart. But before, so that he might enclose the whole city, the land by which it is girded,
Caesar carried a long work from the heights down to the waters for the camps,
embracing the springs and pastures of the plain with ditches and mounds that raise dense parapets
and he built up with sods and raw earth uplifted arms.     now this befell a memorable thing for the Greek city
and an eternal glory, that not by force nor even by the pavements themselves
did fear hold back the all-consuming flames of war from everything                  390

praecipitem cursum, raptisque a Caesare cunctis
uincitur una mora. quantum est quod fata tenentur
quodque uirum toti properans inponere mundo
hos perdit Fortuna dies! tunc omnia late
procumbunt nemora et spoliantur robore siluae,                  395
ut, cum terra leuis mediam uirgultaque molem
suspendant, structa laterum conpage ligatam
artet humum, pressus ne cedat turribus agger.
     lucus erat longo numquam uiolatus ab aeuo
obscurum cingens conexis aera ramis                  400
et gelidas alte summotis solibus umbras.
hunc non ruricolae Panes nemorumque potentes
Siluani Nymphaeque tenent, sed barbara ritu
sacra deum; structae diris altaribus arae
omnisque humanis lustrata cruoribus arbor.                  405

by a headlong course, and with all things snatched by Caesar,
one delay is overcome. How great a thing by which the Fates are held
and how Fortune wastes these days, hurrying to set a man395
so that, when the light earth and the thickets suspend a central mass,
the built joining of the sides binds the packed ground together a grove there was, never violated in a long age,
girding it dark with branches interwoven like bronze 400
and lifting cool shades high, suns being withdrawn.
This grove is not held by rustic Panes and the mighty sylvans
and Nymphs of the woods, but by a barbarian rite

siqua fidem meruit superos mirata uetustas,
illis et uolucres metuunt insistere ramis
et lustris recubare ferae; nec uentus in illas
incubuit siluas excussaque nubibus atris
fulgura: non ulli frondem praebentibus aurae                  410
arboribus suus horror inest. tum plurima nigris
fontibus unda cadit, simulacraque maesta deorum
arte carent caesisque extant informia truncis.
ipse situs putrique facit iam robore pallor
attonitos; non uolgatis sacrata figuris                  415
numina sic metuunt: tantum terroribus addit,
quos timeant, non nosse, deos. iam fama ferebat
saepe cauas motu terrae mugire cauernas,
et procumbentis iterum consurgere taxos,
et non ardentis fulgere incendia siluae,                  420

if any antiquity, admired, deserved belief from the gods,
even birds fear to alight upon its branches
and beasts to lie down in its groves; nor did wind
fall on those woods, nor did lightnings, shaken from black clouds,
strike them: no terror of their own is in the trees that yield a leaf.                  410
then from black springs many a wave falls, and the sorrowful images of the gods
lack art and stand misshapen with their trunks hewn away.
The very site and the pallor of rot now make them astonished;
they do not thus dread the divine powers in customary forms:                  415
so much does ignorance of the gods add to the terrors of those whom they fear. Already rumor used to say
that often hollow caverns roared with the earth’s motion,
and that yews, once fallen, would again rise up,
and that fires of the wood would flash though not burning,                  420

roboraque amplexos circum fluxisse dracones.
non illum cultu populi propiore frequentant
sed cessere deis. medio cum Phoebus in axe est
aut caelum nox atra tenet, pauet ipse sacerdos
accessus dominumque timet deprendere luci.                  425
     hanc iubet inmisso siluam procumbere ferro;
nam uicina operi belloque intacta priore
inter nudatos stabat densissima montis.
sed fortes tremuere manus, motique uerenda
maiestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent,                  430
in sua credebant redituras membra securis.
inplicitas magno Caesar torpore cohortes
ut uidit, primus raptam librare bipennem
ausus et aeriam ferro proscindere quercum
effatur merso uiolata in robora ferro                  435

and dragons flowed around, embracing the oaks.
they frequent not that tree with the closer cult of the people
but yield to the gods. When Phoebus is midway in the axle
or black night holds the sky, even the priest fears
to make approach and dreads to betray his lord to the light.                  425
     he orders this wood to be felled with iron sent in;
for the neighboring grove, untouched by former war or work,
stood most dense among the stripped ridges of the mountain.
but brave hands trembled, and reverent faces moved
by the majesty of the place, lest striking the consecrated oaks,                  430
believed the limbs would return to the axe in their own cause.
When Caesar saw the cohorts entangled in great numbness,
he first dared to seize the snatched two‑edged axe and to hew
the lofty oak with iron, to rend the aerial trunk with steel
and spoke, the wood wounded with the plunged blade,                  435

'iam nequis uestrum dubitet subuertere siluam
credite me fecisse nefas'. tum paruit omnis
imperiis non sublato secura pauore
turba, sed expensa superorum et Caesaris ira.
procumbunt orni, nodosa inpellitur ilex,                  440
siluaque Dodones et fluctibus aptior alnus
et non plebeios luctus testata cupressus
tum primum posuere comas et fronde carentes
admisere diem, propulsaque robore denso
sustinuit se silua cadens. gemuere uidentes                  445
Gallorum populi, muris sed clausa iuuentus
exultat; quis enim laesos inpune putaret
esse deos? seruat multos fortuna nocentis
et tantum miseris irasci numina possunt.
utque satis caesi nemoris, quaesita per agros                  450

'now that none of you may doubt to overthrow the wood,
believe that I have committed impiety.' Then all obeyed
his commands, not removed from secure fear,
the crowd, but with the wrath of the gods and of Caesar spent above them.
The ash falls forward, the knotted holm-oak is driven on, 440
and the Dodonian grove and the alder fit for the waves
and the cypress, witness to not plebeian lamentations,
then for the first time laid down their hair and, stripped of foliage,445
but the youth, shut within the walls, exulted; for who would think
the gods injured to go unpunished? Fortune spares many evildoers,
and the numina are able to be angry only with the wretched.
And when the grove was sufficiently hewn, its spoils sought across the fields 450

plaustra ferunt, curuoque soli cessantis aratro
agricolae raptis annum fleuere iuuencis.
     dux tamen inpatiens haesuri ad moenia Martis
uersus ad Hispanas acies extremaque mundi
iussit bella geri. stellatis axibus agger                  455
erigitur geminasque aequantis moenia turris
accipit; hae nullo fixerunt robore terram
sed per iter longum causa repsere latenti.
cum tantum nutaret onus, telluris inanis
concussisse sinus quaerentem erumpere uentum                  460
credidit et muros mirata est stare iuuentus.
illinc tela cadunt excelsas urbis in arces.
sed maior Graio Romana in corpora ferro
uis inerat. neque enim solis excussa lacertis
lancea, sed tenso ballistae turbine rapta,                  465

wagons carry them, and with the curved plough of a fallow soil
the farmers bewailed the year for their seized young oxen.
the leader, however, impatient to cling to the walls of Mars,
turned his battle-lines toward the Spaniards and the world’s farthest bounds
and ordered that wars be waged. on starry axles a rampart
is raised and takes twin towers matching the walls;
these fixed the earth by no firmness
but, for a hidden purpose, crept along by a long journey.
when so great a burden began to sway, the empty
bosoms of the earth thought they had been struck and would burst forth seeking a wind to break in,
and the youth wondered that the walls stood firm.
thence spears fall into the high citadels of the city.
but a might in Roman bodies was greater than Greek iron.
for not merely a spear shaken from the arms,
but snatched by the whirl of the stretched ballista, 465

haut unum contenta latus transire quiescit,
sed pandens perque arma uiam perque ossa relicta
morte fugit: superest telo post uolnera cursus.
at saxum quotiens ingenti uerberis actu
excutitur, qualis rupes quam uertice montis                  470
abscidit inpulsu uentorum adiuta uetustas,
frangit cuncta ruens, nec tantum corpora pressa
exanimat, totos cum sanguine dissipat artus.
ut tamen hostiles densa testudine muros
tecta subit uirtus, armisque innexa priores                  475
arma ferunt, galeamque extensus protegit umbo,
quae prius ex longo nocuerunt missa recessu
iam post terga cadunt. nec Grais flectere iactum
aut facilis labor est longinqua ad tela parati
tormenti mutare modum; sed pondere solo                  480

not content with merely crossing a flank it rests not,
but spreading and piercing through arms and through the bones left behind
it flees with death: a course remains after the wounds for the missile.
but how often a rock is shaken by a mighty stroke of force
and, such as a crag which from the summit of a mountain                  470
age aided by the impulse of winds severs, it smashes all things rushing down, and not only crushes bodies laid low
and renders them breathless, it scatters whole limbs with blood.
but when valor, having mounted the hostile walls under a close tortoise,
covered, and bound to the weapons, those before bear arms,                  475
they bear their weapons, and the boss, stretched out, shields the helmet,
which before, hurled from a long recoil, had done harm,
now fall behind the backs. Nor is it an easy task for the Greeks
to bend the hurled shot or to change the mode of engines prepared for distant missiles;
but simply by weight to the ground the burden                  480

contenti nudis euoluunt saxa lacertis.
dum fuit armorum series, ut grandine tecta
innocua percussa sonant, sic omnia tela
respuit; at postquam uirtus incerta uirorum
perpetuam rupit defesso milite cratem                  485
singula continuis cesserunt ictibus arma.
tunc adoperta leui procedit uinea terra,
sub cuius pluteis et tecta fronte latentes
moliri nunc iam parant et uertere ferro
moenia; nunc aries suspenso fortior ictu                  490
incussus densi conpagem soluere muri
temptat et inpositis unum subducere saxis.
sed super et flammis et magnae fragmine molis
et sudibus crebris et adusti roboris ictu
percussae cedunt crates, frustraque labore                  495

content with naked arms they roll forth the stones with bare brawns.
While there was a line of arms, as roofs struck by harmless hail sound, so all the missiles it spurned; but when the uncertain valour of the men broke the continuous wicker with a soldier wearied, the single weapons yielded to the continuous blows.485
Then the lightly covered earth advances like a vineyard, under whose mantlets and roofed front those lurking now prepare to set to work and to overthrow the walls with iron; now the battering‑ram, stronger from a suspended stroke,
having been urged on, attempts to loosen the compact binding of the dense wall and to withdraw one of the stones set upon it.490
But the crates, struck both by flames and by the crushing of a great mass and by frequent piles and by blows of charred timber, give way, and the labour is vainly expended.495

exhausto fessus repetit tentoria miles.
     summa fuit Grais, starent ut moenia, uoti:
ultro acies inferre parant, armisque coruscas
nocturni texere faces, audaxque iuuentus
erupit. non hasta uiris, non letifer arcus,                  500
telum flamma fuit, rapiensque incendia uentus
per Romana tulit celeri munimina cursu.
nec, quamuis uiridi luctetur robore, lentas
ignis agit uires, taeda sed raptus ab omni
consequitur nigri spatiosa uolumina fumi,                  505
nec solum siluas sed saxa ingentia soluit,
et crudae putri fluxerunt puluere cautes.
procubuit maiorque iacens apparuit agger.
     spes uictis telluris abit, placuitque profundo
fortunam temptare maris. non robore picto                  510

the soldier, exhausted and weary, returns to his tents.
the chief wish of the Greeks was that the walls should stand, as their vow:
they willingly prepared to bring on the battle-lines, and by night with flashing torches they clad their arms,
and bold youth burst forth. Not spear for men, nor death-dealing bow,
was now the weapon, but flame; and the wind, seizing the fires,
bore the conflagrations through the Roman bulwarks with swift course.
nor, although it struggles with green vigor, does fire ply slow force; the torch, snatched from every hand,
follows with vast volumes of black smoke,
and it unbinds not only woods but mighty rocks,
and raw, rotten crags flowed away in dust. The mound collapsed and, lying larger, appeared the rampart.
the vanquished' hope of the land departs, and it pleases them to test their fortune on the deep sea. Not by painted oak

ornatas decuit fulgens tutela carinas,
sed rudis et qualis procumbit montibus arbor
conseritur, stabilis naualibus area bellis.
et iam turrigeram Bruti comitata carinam
uenerat in fluctus Rhodani cum gurgite classis                  515
Stoechados arua tenens. nec non et Graia iuuentus
omne suum fatis uoluit committere robur
grandaeuosque senes mixtis armauit ephebis.
accepit non sola uiros, quae stabat in undis,
classis: et emeritas repetunt naualibus alnos.                  520
ut matutinos spargens super aequora Phoebus
fregit aquis radios et liber nubibus aether
et posito Borea pacemque tenentibus Austris
seruatum bello iacuit mare, mouit ab omni
quisque suam statione ratem, paribusque lacertis                  525

the shining protection befitted the adorned keels,
but raw and such as a tree that falls on mountains
is set in place, firm the mustering-ground for naval wars.
and now the fleet, having accompanied Brutus' turreted keel,
had come into the waves of the Rhone with its current                  515
holding the Stoechadian fields. nor indeed did the Greek youth
wish to entrust any of their strength but to the fates,
and they armed aged elders mixed with youthful ephebes.
the fleet received not only the men who stood in the waves:
and the veterans reclaim their alders fit for naval use.                  520
as Phoebus, scattering the morning over the seas,
broke his rays upon the waters and the ether freed of clouds,
and with Boreas laid aside and the South Winds holding peace
the sea, preserved from war, lay, each man moved
his vessel from its station, and with equal arms                  525

Caesaris hinc puppes, hinc Graio remige classis
tollitur: inpulsae tonsis tremuere carinae
crebraque sublimes conuellunt uerbera puppes.
cornua Romanae classis ualidaeque triremes
quasque quater surgens extructi remigis ordo                   530
commouet et plures quae mergunt aequore pinus
multiplices cinxere rates. hoc robur aperto
oppositum pelago: lunata classe recedunt
ordine contentae gemino creuisse Liburnae.
celsior at cunctis Bruti praetoria puppis                  535
uerberibus senis agitur molemque profundo
inuehit et summis longe petit aequora remis.
     ut tantum medii fuerat maris, utraque classis
quod semel excussis posset transcurrere tonsis,
innumerae uasto miscentur in aethere uoces,                  540

From here the keels of Caesar, from there the Graian-oared fleet
is raised: driven on, the shorn hulls trembled
and frequent strokes wrench off the lofty sterns.
the horns of the Roman fleet and the sturdy triremes
and each rank of rowers, rising in fourfold tiers,                  530
stir and many pine-ships that plunge in the deep
encircled the manifold vessels. This force, exposed
against the open sea: the crescent fleets retire
contained in their order, the Liburnae having grown in twin formation.
but higher than all the praetorian stern of Brutus                  535
is driven by the blows of the old man and is borne
into the deep and seeks the far reaches of the sea with high oars.
     since the sea's mid-region alone was such that either fleet
once shaken could sweep across with shorn sails,540

remorumque sonus premitur clamore, nec ullae
audiri potuere tubae. tum caerula uerrunt
atque in transtra cadunt et remis pectora pulsant.
ut primum rostris crepuerunt obuia rostra,
in puppem rediere rates, emissaque tela                  545
aera texerunt uacuumque cadentia pontum.
et iam diductis extendunt cornua proris
diuersaeque rates laxata classe receptae.
ut, quotiens aestus Zephyris Eurisque repugnat,
huc abeunt fluctus, illo mare, sic, ubi puppes                  550
sulcato uarios duxerunt gurgite tractus,
quod tulit illa ratis remis, haec rettulit aequor.
sed Grais habiles pugnamque lacessere pinus
et temptare fugam nec longo frangere gyro
cursum nec tarde flectenti cedere clauo;                  555

the sound of oars is pressed down by shouting, nor could any
trumpets be heard. Then blue waves sweep
and fall upon the thwarts and strike the breasts with oars.
as soon as beak met beak with a crash,
the ships retreated to the sterns, and cast weapons 545
covered the air and, falling, the empty sea.
and now with prows drawn apart they spread their horns
and the diverse ships are received into the loosened fleet.
as often as the tide resists with Zephyrs and Euri,
waves go this way, the sea that way, so, where the sterns 550
drew various furrows across the furrowed deep,
what that ship carried with oars, this sea bore back.
but the Greeks, skillful in pine-built fight and in challenging battle,555

at Romana ratis stabilem praebere carinam
certior et terrae similem bellantibus usum.
tunc in signifera residenti puppe magistro
Brutus ait 'paterisne acies errare profundo
artibus et certas pelagi? iam consere bellum,                  560
Phocaicis medias rostris oppone carinas.'
paruit, obliquas et praebuit hostibus alnos.
tum quaecumque ratis temptauit robora Bruti
ictu uicta suo percussae capta cohaesit;
ast alias manicaeque ligant teretesque catenae,                  565
seque tenent remis: tecto stetit aequore bellum.
     iam non excussis torquentur tela lacertis
nec longinqua cadunt iaculato uolnera ferro,
miscenturque manus. nauali plurima bello
ensis agit.

but the Roman ship showed a keel steadyer, a use more certain and like to the land for those fighting.
then Brutus said to the master sitting in the signal-bearing stern, 'Do you suffer your line to wander in the deep,
to err by arts and the certain bounds of the sea? Now take up war,                  560
oppose the Phocaean keels with your beaks in the midst.'
he obeyed, and presented his oblique prows and offered alders to the enemies.
then whatever timbers Brutus tried in the raft,
overcome by his blow, struck down, taken, stuck fast;
but others and the sleeves bound round with chains and rounded links,                  565
and held themselves with oars: the battle stood on a sheltered sea.
     now no weapons were hurled from thrown arms
nor did wounds fall from distant-thrown iron,
but hands are mingled. In much naval war
swords carry the day.

stat quisque suae de robore puppis 570

each ship stands by its own strength 570

pronus in aduersos ictus, nullique perempti
in ratibus cecidere suis. cruor altus in unda
spumat, et obducti concreto sanguine fluctus.
et, quas inmissi traxerunt uincula ferri,
has prohibent iungi conferta cadauera puppes.                  575
semianimes alii uastum subiere profundum
hauseruntque suo permixtum sanguine pontum;
hi luctantem animam lenta cum morte trahentes
fractarum subita ratium periere ruina.
inrita tela suas peragunt in gurgite caedes,                   580
et quodcumque cadit frustrato pondere ferrum
exceptum mediis inuenit uolnus in undis.
     Phocaicis Romana ratis uallata carinis
robore diducto dextrum laeuumque tuetur
aequo Marte latus; cuius dum pugnat ab alta                  585

prone to opposing blows, and none slain
fell on their own rafts. deep gore foams in the wave,
and the surges are coated with congealed blood.
and those chains of iron which, thrown in, they dragged,
these the packed prows, crowded with corpses, prevent from joining.                  575
some half-alive plunged down into the vast deep
and drank up the sea mingled with their own blood;
these, dragging their struggling life along with slow death,
perished by the sudden ruin of shattered rafts.
vainly their weapons execute slaughter in the whirlpool,                  580
and whatever iron falls with its weight frustrated
finds a received wound caught in the mid waves.
     The Roman raft, its keels fortified with Phocaean timbers,
with the beam drawn out in strength defends both right and left
sides in equal war; while it fights from the deep                  585

puppe Catus Graiumque audax aplustre retentat,
terga simul pariter missis et pectora telis
transigitur: medio concurrit corpore ferrum,
et stetit incertus, flueret quo uolnere, sanguis,
donec utrasque simul largus cruor expulit hastas                  590
diuisitque animam sparsitque in uolnera letum.
derigit huc puppem miseri quoque dextra Telonis,
qua nullam melius pelago turbante carinae
audiuere manum, nec lux est notior ulli
crastina, seu Phoebum uideat seu cornua lunae,                  595
semper uenturis conponere carbasa uentis.
hic Latiae rostro conpagem ruperat alni,
pila sed in medium uenere trementia pectus
auertitque ratem morientis dextra magistri.
dum cupit in sociam Gyareus erepere puppem,                  600

On the stern Catus and the bold Greek held fast the steer-oar,
their backs alike and their breasts were pierced by thrown spears:
a spear struck the middle of the body and stood uncertain where the blood would flow,
until abundant gore expelled both spears together                  590
and separated the soul and strewed death through the wounds.
The wretched right hand of Telon also turned the stern this way,
by which no hand ever better guided the keel when the sea was troubling the hull,
nor is any light more familiar to anyone of the morrow,
whether he sees Phoebus or the horns of the moon,                  595
always to set the canvases for winds about to come.
Here with his prow he burst the joint of the Latian alder,
but shafts came into the trembling middle of the chest
and the dying master's right hand turned aside the ship.
while the Gyarean strove to creep into the allied stern,                  600

excipit inmissum suspensa per ilia ferrum
adfixusque rati telo retinente pependit.
     stant gemini fratres, fecundae gloria matris,
quos eadem uariis genuerunt uiscera fatis:
discreuit mors saeua uiros, unumque relictum                  605
agnorunt miseri sublato errore parentes,
aeternis causam lacrimis; tenet ille dolorem
semper et amissum fratrem lugentibus offert.
quorum alter mixtis obliquo pectine remis
ausus Romanae Graia de puppe carinae                  610
iniectare manum; sed eam grauis insuper ictus
amputat; illa tamen nisu, quo prenderat, haesit
deriguitque tenens strictis inmortua neruis.
creuit in aduersis uirtus: plus nobilis irae
truncus habet fortique instaurat proelia laeua                  615

the thrown iron received his suspended flanks, and fixed in the raft, holding by the weapon, hung suspended.
     stand the twin brothers, glory of a fruitful mother,
whom the same womb bore to varied fates:
cruel death separated the men, and one left behind                  605
the wretched parents knew, their error removed, the cause of eternal tears; he ever holds his sorrow
and offers his lost brother to those mourning.
of whom one, with oars mixed in an oblique row,
dared to fling a Greek hand from the stern of the Roman keel;                  610
but a heavy stroke moreover amputated it; nevertheless that hand, by the effort with which it had clung, stuck fast
and hung down, holding, the sinews unsevered and drawn tight.
valour grew amid adversity: the stump has a more noble wrath
and the strong left hand renews battles for strength.                  615

rapturusque suam procumbit in aequora dextram.
haec quoque cum toto manus est abscisa lacerto.
iam clipeo telisque carens, non conditus ima
puppe sed expositus fraternaque pectore nudo
arma tegens, crebra confixus cuspide perstat                  620
telaque multorum leto casura suorum
emerita iam morte tenet. tum uolnere multo
effugientem animam lassos collegit in artus
membraque contendit toto, quicumque manebat,
sanguine et hostilem defectis robore neruis                   625
insiluit solo nociturus pondere puppem.
strage uirum cumulata ratis multoque cruore
plena per obliquum crebros latus accipit ictus
et, postquam ruptis pelagus conpagibus hausit,
ad summos repleta foros descendit in undas                  630

and snatching his own right hand he falls forward onto the sea.
this hand too is cut away from the whole arm.
now bereft of shield and spears, not stowed within the hull
but exposed and with his fraternal breast laid bare
covering his weapons, he remains oft transfixed by spears 620
and, about to be the death of many of his own men,
holds, now by a deserved death, his weapons. Then with many a wound
he gathers the escaping soul into his weary limbs
and stretches out the members, whoever remained,625
he leapt upon the keel to harm it with his weight.
The raft, heaped with the slaughter of men and full of much gore,630

uicinum inuoluens contorto uertice pontum.
aequora discedunt mersa diducta carina
inque locum puppis cecidit mare. multaque ponto
praebuit ille dies uarii miracula fati.
ferrea dum puppi rapidos manus inserit uncos 635
adfixit Lycidan. mersus foret ille profundo,
sed prohibent socii suspensaque crura retentant.
scinditur auolsus, nec, sicut uolnere, sanguis
emicuit lentus: ruptis cadit undique uenis,
discursusque animae diuersa in membra meantis 640
interceptus aquis.

enveloping the neighboring sea with a twisted crest.
the waters withdraw, the submerged keel torn apart,
and the sea fell into the place of the stern. That day displayed many wonders of a fickle fate.
while an iron hand plunged swift hooks into the stern 635
and fastened Lycidas. He would have been swallowed by the deep,
but his companions prevented it and held back his suspended legs.
he is torn away, rent asunder, nor, as from a wound, did slow blood spurt forth:
with veins burst he falls on every side,
and the separate courses of the soul, dispersed into differing limbs,
are intercepted by the waters.

nullius uita perempti
est tanta dimissa uia. pars ultima trunci
tradidit in letum uacuos uitalibus artus;
at tumidus qua pulmo iacet, qua uiscera feruent,
haeserunt ibi fata diu, luctataque multum 645

So great a path of life of one destroyed was thus forsaken.
The last part of the trunk surrendered to death the limbs emptied of vital power;
but where the swollen lung lies, where the entrails seethe,
645

hac cum parte uiri uix omnia membra tulerunt.
     dum nimium pugnax unius turba carinae
incumbit prono lateri uacuamque relinquit,
qua caret hoste, ratem, congesto pondere puppis
uersa caua texit pelagus nautasque carina,                  650
bracchia nec licuit uasto iactare profundo
sed clauso periere mari. tunc unica diri
conspecta est leti facies, cum forte natantem
diuersae rostris iuuenem fixere carinae.
discessit medium tam uastos pectus ad ictus,                   655
nec prohibere ualent obtritis ossibus artus
quo minus aera sonent; eliso uentre per ora
eiectat saniem permixtus uiscere sanguis.
postquam inhibent remis puppes ac rostra reducunt,
deiectum in pelagus perfosso pectore corpus                  660

with that part of the man scarcely all his limbs endured.
     while the too‑combative throng on one keel
leaned upon the sloping side and left the hull empty,
where it lacked an enemy, the craft, with weight heaped, the hollow stern turned covered the sea and the keel the sailors,                  650
nor was it allowed to fling arms into the vast deep
but, the sea closed, they perished. Then the single face of dread
was seen, when by chance the different prows fixed the swimming youth
with their beaks. He sank through the middle, so many violent blows to his breast,                  655
nor could his limbs, their bones ground away, prevent
the air from sounding; with his belly burst through the mouths
he ejects gore mixed with entrail‑blood. After the sterns check with oars and draw back the beaks,
the body, hurled into the sea with its breast pierced,                  660

uolneribus transmisit aquas. pars maxima turbae
naufraga iactatis morti obluctata lacertis
puppis ad auxilium sociae concurrit; at illis,
robora cum uetitis prensarent altius ulnis
nutaretque ratis populo peritura recepto,                  665
inpia turba super medios ferit ense lacertos.
bracchia linquentes Graia pendentia puppe
a manibus cecidere suis: non amplius undae
sustinuere graues in summo gurgite truncos.
     iamque omni fusis nudato milite telis                  670
inuenit arma furor: remum contorsit in hostem
alter, at hi totum ualidis aplustre lacertis
auolsasque rotant expulso remige sedes.
in pugnam fregere rates. sidentia pessum
corpora caesa tenent spoliantque cadauera ferro.                  675

he passed waters through their wounds. The greater part of the crowd,
shipwrecked, with limbs thrown to death struggling,
ran to the stern of a companion ship for aid; but to those,
when they grasped with forbidden strong forearms higher up
and the wreck rocked with the people taken on board, about to perish,                  665
the impious throng struck their arms in the midst with the sword.
Arms, left hanging from the Grecian stern,bore the heavy trunks on the top of the sea.
     and now, with every man stripped and his weapons scattered,                  670
fury found arms: one turned an oar against the enemy,
but these, with all their powerful arms and thole-pins,They broke the ships in battle. The sinking
bodies, cut down, sit and hold and strip the corpses with steel.                  675

multi inopes teli iaculum letale reuolsum
uolneribus traxere suis et uiscera laeua
oppressere manu, ualidos dum praebeat ictus
sanguis et, hostilem cum torserit, exeat, hastam.
     nulla tamen plures hoc edidit aequore clades                   680
quam pelago diuersa lues. nam pinguibus ignis
adfixus taedis et tecto sulpure uiuax
spargitur; at faciles praebere alimenta carinae
nunc pice, nunc liquida rapuere incendia cera.
nec flammas superant undae, sparsisque per aequor                  685
iam ratibus fragmenta ferus sibi uindicat ignis.
hic recipit fluctus, extinguat ut aequore flammas,
hi, ne mergantur, tabulis ardentibus haerent.
mille modos inter leti mors una timori est
qua coepere mori. nec cessat naufraga uirtus:                  690

many poor men tore away a deadly javelin rolled back from its shaft
and dragged it through their wounds and with the left hand
pressed in their entrails, while blood afforded strong blows
and, when he had turned the hostile spear, might issue forth.
     yet no shipwreck upon this sea brought forth so many calamities                   680
as the diverse plague upon the deep. For fires fastened
to fat torches and sulphur life-giving to the roof are scattered; and the hulls
offered ready fuel: now pitch, now liquid wax the flames seized.
Nor do the waves overcome the flames; and strewn across the sea                  685
already the fierce fire claims the fragments for itself from the rafts. Here the waves receive them, that they may quench the flames with the sea,
there, lest they be drowned, they cling to burning planks. A thousand forms of death are one dread
among the ways in which they began to die. Nor does the virtue of the shipwrecked cease:                  690

tela legunt deiecta mari ratibusque ministrant
incertasque manus ictu languente per undas
exercent; nunc, rara datur si copia ferri,
utuntur pelago: saeuus conplectitur hostem
hostis, et inplicitis gaudent subsidere membris                  695
mergentesque mori. pugna fuit unus in illa
eximius Phoceus animam seruare sub undis
scrutarique fretum, siquid mersisset harenis,
et nimis adfixos unci conuellere morsus,
adductum quotiens non senserat anchora funem.                  700
hic, ubi conprensum penitus deduxerat hostem,
uictor et incolumis summas remeabat in undas;
sed, se per uacuos credit dum surgere fluctus,
puppibus occurrit tandemque sub aequore mansit.
hi super hostiles iecerunt bracchia remos                  705

they gather weapons cast into the sea and hand them up to the boats
and ply uncertain hands through the waves, weakened by the stroke;
now, if a scant store of iron is given, they make use of it for the sea:
a savage enemy clasps an enemy, and with limbs entwined they take delight to sink
and die submerged. In that fight there was one outstanding Phocaean
to save his life beneath the waves and to search the strait, if anything had sunk in the sands,
and with hooked bites to wrench away what was too firmly fixed, how often he had hauled up a rope though the anchor had not noticed it.700
here, when he had led the captured foe down utterly,
victor and unharmed he was returning to the top of the waves;
but, thinking himself to rise through the empty swell, he struck the sterns and at last remained beneath the sea.
they above hurled oars as hostile arms 705

et ratium tenuere fugam. non perdere letum
maxima cura fuit: multus sua uolnera puppi
adfixit moriens et rostris abstulit ictus.
     stantem sublimi Tyrrhenum culmine prorae
Lygdamus excussa Balearis tortor habenae                  710
glande petens solido fregit caua tempora plumbo.
sedibus expulsi, postquam cruor omnia rupit
uincula, procurrunt oculi; stat lumine rapto
attonitus mortisque illas putat esse tenebras.
at postquam membris sensit constare uigorem                  715
'uos', ait 'o socii, sicut tormenta soletis,
me quoque mittendis rectum conponite telis.
egere quod superest animae, Tyrrhene, per omnis
bellorum casus. ingentem militis usum
hoc habet ex magna defunctum parte cadauer:                  720

and they held the rafts' flight. Not to lose death was their greatest care: many, dying, fixed their wounds to the stern and with their beaks snatched away blows.
Lygdamus, from the lofty summit of the Tyrrhenian prow standing,
the Balearic thong shaken off, seeking the glans, broke hollow temples with solid lead.
driven from their seats, after blood burst every bond,
the eyes start forward; with his sight taken he stands
astonished and thinks those things to be the darkness of death.
but after he felt vigor to hold in his limbs
he says, "you, O comrades, as you are wont with your war-engines,
set me aright also by sending your straight weapons.
what remains of life, Tyrrhene, is needed through all
the chances of wars. The great use of a soldier
this corpse has, having perished in large part:"

uiuentis feriere loco.' sic fatus in hostem
caeca tela manu sed non tamen inrita mittit.
excipit haec iuuenis generosi sanguinis Argus
qua iam non medius descendit in ilia uenter,
adiuuitque suo procumbens pondere ferrum.                  725
stabat diuersa uictae iam parte carinae
infelix Argi genitor, non ille iuuentae
tempore Phocaicis ulli cessurus in armis:
uictum aeuo robur cecidit, fessusque senecta
exemplum, non miles erat; qui funere uiso                  730
saepe cadens longae senior per transtra carinae
peruenit ad puppim spirantisque inuenit artus.
non lacrimae cecidere genis, non pectora tundit,
distentis toto riguit sed corpore palmis.
nox subit atque oculos uastae obduxere tenebrae,                  735

'strike him in the place of the living.' Thus having spoken he hurled, with a blind hand, weapons at the enemy, yet not thrown in vain.
These the young man of noble blood, Argus, received,
where now the belly no longer descended midway into the groin,
and, falling, the iron was aided by its own weight.                  725
On another part of the hull already conquered stood
unhappy Argus's father; he who in the prime of youth
would yield to none in Phocaean arms:
his strength, overcome by age, fell, and, wearied by old age,
he was an example, not a soldier; who, seeing the death                  730
oft falling along the long benches of the keel
reached the stern and found the limbs yet breathing.
No tears fell upon his cheeks, nor did he beat his breast;
but with open palms his whole body grew rigid rather than slack.
Night comes, and the darkness of the waste drew over his eyes,                  735

et miserum cernens agnoscere desinit Argum.
ille caput labens et iam languentia colla
uiso patre leuat; uox faucis nulla solutas
prosequitur, tacito tantum petit oscula uoltu
inuitatque patris claudenda ad lumina dextram.                   740
ut torpore senex caruit uiresque cruentus
coepit habere dolor, 'non perdam tempora' dixit
'a saeuis permissa deis, iugulumque senilem
confodiam. ueniam misero concede parenti,
Arge, quod amplexus, extrema quod oscula fugi.                  745
nondum destituit calidus tua uolnera sanguis,
semianimisque iaces et adhuc potes esse superstes.'
sic fatus, quamuis capulum per uiscera missi
polluerit gladii, tamen alta sub aequora tendit
praecipiti saltu: letum praecedere nati                  750

and seeing the wretched man he ceases to recognize Argus.
he, the head slipping and now the languishing necks
raised by the father having been seen; no voice issues from his throat
to accompany, he only seeks kisses with a silent countenance
and invites his father's right hand to be closed to the eyes. 740
as the old man lacked numbness and, bloody, began to have strength
pain seized him, 'I will not waste the time,' he said,
'given to the cruel gods, and I will stab the aged throat.
Grant pardon to a wretched parent, Argus, for the embrace, for the last kisses which I fled.
your wounds have not yet left warm blood,
you lie half-alive and even now can be survivor.'
thus having spoken, although the hilt was stained by the entrails the sword had sent
he nevertheless thrust deep under the waters with a headlong leap:
to precede the death of his son 750

festinantem animam morti non credidit uni.
     inclinant iam fata ducum, nec iam amplius anceps
belli casus erat. Graiae pars maxima classis
mergitur, ast aliae mutato remige puppes
uictores uexere suos; naualia paucae                  755
praecipiti tenuere fuga. quis in urbe parentum
fletus erat, quanti matrum per litora planctus!
coniunx saepe sui confusis uoltibus unda
credidit ora uiri Romanum amplexa cadauer,
accensisque rogis miseri de corpore trunco                  760
certauere patres.

he did not entrust a soul hastening to death to one alone.
     now the fates of the leaders incline, nor was the chance of war any longer doubtful:
the largest part of the Greek fleet is submerged, but other sterns, with oars changed, carried off their victors;
few ships held to headlong flight.                  755
what weeping there was in the city of parents, what mourning of mothers along the shores!
the wife, often with her features confused, mistook the wave for the face of her husband, having embraced the Roman corpse,
and with the pyres kindled the wretched fathers contended over the mangled body.                  760

at Brutus in aequore uictor
primus Caesareis pelagi decus addidit armis.

but Brutus, victor on the sea,
first added to the Caesarean arms the pelagic glory.