Lucan: DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA

Sic alterna duces bellorum uolnera passos
in Macetum terras miscens aduersa secundis
seruauit fortuna pares. iam sparserat Haemo
bruma niues gelidoque cadens Atlantis Olympo,
instabatque dies qui dat noua nomina fastis 5
quique colit primus ducentem tempora Ianum.
dum tamen emeriti remanet pars ultima iuris
consul uterque uagos belli per munia patres
elicit Epirum. peregrina ac sordida sedes
Romanos cepit proceres, secretaque rerum 10
hospes in externis audiuit curia tectis.
nam quis castra uocet tot strictas iure securis,
tot fasces?

Thus fortune kept the commanders, having suffered the alternating wounds of wars,
equal in turn, mixing adverse with favorable to the lands of Macetum. Now winter
had strewn Haemus, and falling snow from the frozen Atlantic Olympus,
and the day pressed on that first honors with new names in the annals 5
and whom Janus first presides over as he leads the seasons.
Meanwhile, a last portion of the retired law remains—each consul,
drawing forth wandering fathers through the duties of war, compels Epirus.
The foreign and sordid seat received the Roman nobles, and the court
heard secrets of affairs under alien roofs 10
of a guest. For who calls camps those many axes bound by law,
those many fasces?

docuit populos uenerabilis ordo
non Magni partes sed Magnum in partibus esse.
ut primum maestum tenuere silentia coetum, 15

the venerable order taught the peoples that greatness is not in great parts, but that a Great man is in parts.
when first silences held the sorrowful assembly, 15

Lentulus e celsa sublimis sede profatur.
'indole si dignum Latia, si sanguine prisco
robur inest animis, non qua tellure coacti
quamque procul tectis captae sedeamus ab urbis
cernite, sed uestrae faciem cognoscite turbae, 20
cunctaque iussuri primum hoc decernite, patres,
quod regnis populisque liquet, nos esse senatum.
nam uel Hyperboreae plaustrum glaciale sub Vrsae
uel plaga qua torrens claususque uaporibus axis
nec patitur noctes nec iniquos crescere soles, 25
si fortuna ferat, rerum nos summa sequetur
imperiumque comes. Tarpeia sede perusta
Gallorum facibus Veiosque habitante Camillo
illic Roma fuit. non umquam perdidit ordo
mutato sua iura solo.

Lentulus, lofty, speaks forth from his high seat.
'If in our nature there is a dignity worthy of Latium, if in our souls the ancient strength of blood abides, not by whatever land compelled, nor though we sit far from our roofs and from a captured city, behold, but know the face of your own throng, 20
and of all things about to command first decide this, fathers, which is clear for kings and peoples alike, that we are the senate.
For whether a frozen wagon beneath the Hyperborean Bear, or the region where a rushing stream and an axle shut in by vapors neither endures nights nor the unequal rising suns,—if fortune bear it, the supreme affairs will follow us and power will be our companion. 25
There Rome was, when the Tarpeian seat was burned by the torches of the Gauls and Veii was held by Camillus.
Order has never wholly lost its rights because the soil was changed.

maerentia tecta 30

mourning roofs 30

Caesar habet uacuasque domos legesque silentis
clausaque iustitio tristi fora; curia solos
illa uidet patres plena quos urbe fugauit:
ordine de tanto quisquis non exulat hic est.
ignaros scelerum longaque in pace quietos                  35
bellorum primus sparsit furor: omnia rursus
membra loco redeunt. en, totis uiribus orbis
Hesperiam pensant superi: iacet hostis in undis
obrutus Illyricis, Libyae squalentibus aruis
Curio Caesarei cecidit pars magna senatus.                  40
tollite signa, duces, fatorum inpellite cursum,
spem uestram praestate deis, fortunaque tantos
det uobis animos quantos fugientibus hostem
causa dabat. nostrum exhausto ius clauditur anno:
uos, quorum finem non est sensura potestas,                  45

Caesar has empty houses and laws of a silent people
and forums closed by a mournful adjournment; that curia sees only fathers, full whom the city has driven away:
by rank of so great a body whoever does not exile himself is here.
First madness of wars scattered the ignorant of crimes and those long quiet in peace:                  35
all the limbs return again to their place. Look, with all their strength the gods of the world weigh upon Hesperia: the enemy lies in the waves overwhelmed in Illyria,
Curio fell on Libya’s squalid fields, a great part of the Caesarean senate has perished.                  40
Raise your standards, commanders, drive forward the course of the fates,
offer your hope to the gods, and may Fortune give you spirits as great
as the cause gave to those fleeing the enemy. Our right is closed when the year is spent:
you, whose power will not suffer an ending,                  45

consulite in medium, patres, Magnumque iubete
esse ducem.' laeto nomen clamore senatus
excipit et Magno fatum patriaeque suumque
inposuit. tunc in reges populosque merentis
sparsus honor, pelagique potens Phoebeia donis                  50
exornata Rhodos gelidique inculta iuuentus
Taygeti, fama ueteres laudantur Athenae,
Massiliaeque suae donatur libera Phocis;
tum Sadalam fortemque Cotyn fidumque per arma
Deiotarum et gelidae dominum Rhascypolin orae                  55
conlaudant, Libyamque iubent auctore senatu
sceptrifero parere Iubae. pro tristia fata!
et tibi, non fidae gentis dignissime regno,
fortunae, Ptolemaee, pudor crimenque deorum,
cingere Pellaeo pressos diademate crinis                  60

consult, fathers, and command that Magnus be made
your general.' With a joyful shout the senate greets the name
and laid upon Magnus both the fate of the fatherland and his own.
Then honour, scattered among deserving kings and peoples,
and Rhodes, decked with Phoebean gifts and potent over the sea, 50
and the untrained youth of cold Taygetus are adorned; famed Athens is praised of old,
and free Phocis is granted to its Massilia;
then they jointly praise Sadala and brave Cotys and Cotyn faithful in arms,
Deiotarus and Rhascypolis, lord of the icy shore, 55
and they command that Libya obey Juba, bearer of the scepter, at the senate’s bidding. O for mournful fates!
and to you, Ptolemy, most worthy by rank though not of a faithful race,60

permissum. saeuum in populos puer accipis ensem,
atque utinam in populos! donata est regia Lagi,
accessit Magni iugulus, regnumque sorori
ereptum est soceroque nefas.

It is permitted. Behold, boy, you take a savage sword against the peoples,
and would that it were against the peoples! the royal power was given to Lagi,
the throat of Magnus was added, and the kingdom was snatched from the sister
and to the father‑in‑law an impious deed was done.

iam turba soluto
arma petit coetu; quae cum populique ducesque                  65
casibus incertis et caeca sorte pararent,
solus in ancipites metuit descendere Martis
Appius euentus, finemque expromere rerum
sollicitat superos multosque obducta per annos
Delphica fatidici reserat penetralia Phoebi.                  70
     Hesperio tantum quantum summotus Eoo
cardine Parnasos gemino petit aethera colle,
mons Phoebo Bromioque sacer, cui numine mixto
Delphica Thebanae referunt trieterica Bacchae.
hoc solum fluctu terras mergente cacumen                  75

now the crowd, their assembly dissolved, seeks arms; and when these things the people and their leaders were preparing with uncertain fortunes and blind lot, Appius alone fears to descend into the doubtful events of Mars, and he urges the gods to disclose an end of things, and, the Delphic inner shrine of the prophetic Phoebus veiled over many years, he opens it. As far toward the West as lifted from the East's hinge, Parnassus seeks the ether with its twin peak, a mountain sacred to Phoebus and Bromius, to which, with divinity mingled, the Theban triennial Bacchae bring their rites. this summit alone, plunging lands beneath the wave,

eminuit pontoque fuit discrimen et astris.
tu quoque uix summam, seductus ab aequore, rupem
extuleras, unoque iugo, Parnase, latebas.
ultor ibi expulsae, premeret cum uiscera partus,
matris adhuc rudibus Paean Pythona sagittis                  80
explicuit, cum regna Themis tripodasque teneret.
ut uidit Paean uastos telluris hiatus
diuinam spirare fidem uentosque loquaces
exhalare solum, sacris se condidit antris,
incubuitque adyto uates ibi factus Apollo.                  85
     quis latet hic superum? quod numen ab aethere pressum
dignatur caecas inclusum habitare cauernas?
quis terram caeli patitur deus, omnia cursus
aeterni secreta tenens mundoque futuri
conscius, ac populis sese proferre paratus                  90

it rose aloft and stood a boundary between the sea and the stars.
you too, scarcely your summit raised, withdrawn from the sea, O Parnassus, had lifted up
and on a single ridge you lay hidden.
There the avenger, when the birth pressed upon the expelled mother's still raw viscera,
Paean loosed his arrows at Python, when Themis held the realms and the tripods.80
when Paean saw the vast chasm of the earth
breathing a divine fidelity and exhaling loquacious winds upon the plain,
he concealed himself in sacred caves,
and there, in the adytum, Apollo lay down made prophet.85
which of the heavenly ones lies hidden here? what numen, pressed down from the ether,
deigns to dwell enclosed in blind caverns?
what god allows the earth of heaven, holding the secrets of the eternal courses
and conscious of the world-to-come, ready to make himself known to the peoples90

contactumque ferens hominis, magnusque potensque,
siue canit fatum seu, quod iubet ille canendo,
fit fatum? forsan, terris inserta regendis
aere libratum uacuo quae sustinet orbem,
totius pars magna Iouis Cirrhaea per antra                  95
exit et aetherio trahitur conexa Tonanti.
hoc ubi uirgineo conceptum est pectore numen,
humanam feriens animam sonat oraque uatis
soluit, ceu Siculus flammis urguentibus Aetnam
undat apex, Campana fremens ceu saxa uaporat                   100
conditus Inarimes aeterna mole Typhoeus.
     hoc tamen expositum cunctis nullique negatum
numen ab humani solum se labe furoris
uindicat. haud illic tacito mala uota susurro
concipiunt, nam fixa canens mutandaque nulli                  105
mortales optare uetat; iustisque benignus
saepe dedit sedem totas mutantibus urbes,
ut Tyriis, dedit ille minas inpellere belli,
ut Salaminiacum meminit mare; sustulit iras
telluris sterilis monstrato fine, resoluit                  110

and bearing the touch of a man, great and powerful,
whether he sings fate, or whether that which he bids by singing
becomes fate? perhaps, implanted for ruling the lands,
balanced on the empty air that sustains the orb,
a large part of all Jove through Cirrhaean caverns                  95
goes forth and is drawn, bound to the ethereal Thunderer.
when this divinity was conceived in a virgin breast,
striking the human soul it sounds and unlooses the prophet’s mouth,
as the Sicilian peak, urged by flames, swells Aetna’s summit,
the Campanian, roaring, as if its rocks give off steam,                   100
buries Typhoeus in the Inarimian mass with eternal weight.
yet this revealed and denied by none
vindicates itself as not merely the stain of human madness.
there wicked vows are not conceived in silent whisper,
for the fixed and the mutable, chanting, forbids mortals to desire either;                  105
and, benign toward the just, often gave a seat to whole cities in change,
as to the Tyrians,—that power gave them threats to drive on war,
as the Salaminian sea remembers; it removed the sterility’s anger of the earth when an end was shown, it unloosed                  110

aera tabificum. non ullo saecula dono
nostra carent maiore deum, quam Delphica sedes
quod siluit, postquam reges timuere futura
et superos uetuere loqui. nec uoce negata
Cirrhaeae maerent uates, templique fruuntur 115
iustitio.

aera tabificum. the bronze of the moneyers. no age lacks a greater gift of the gods than our Delphic seat, which was silent after the kings feared the things to come and forbade the superiors to speak. Nor, with voice denied, do the Cirrhaean seers lament; and the temples enjoy a suspension of public business 115
iustitio.

nam, siqua deus sub pectora uenit,
numinis aut poena est mors inmatura recepti
aut pretium; quippe stimulo fluctuque furoris
conpages humana labat, pulsusque deorum
concutiunt fragiles animas. sic tempore longo 120
inmotos tripodas uastaeque silentia rupis
Appius Hesperii scrutator ad ultima fati
sollicitat. iussus sedes laxare uerendas
antistes pauidamque deis inmittere uatem
Castalios circum latices nemorumque recessus 125

for, if any god comes beneath the breast,
the divinity’s return’s either punishment is untimely death
or a price; for with the goad and the surge of madness
the human fabric totters, and the strokes of the gods
shake fragile souls. Thus, in the long course of time 120
he probes immobile tripods and the silences of a vast cliff
Appius Hesperius to the uttermost bounds of fate.
Commanded to unloose the venerable seats
the presiding priest, and to send in a trembling prophet to the gods,
to pour Castalian waters roundabout and the retreats of the groves 125

Phemonoen errore uagam curisque uacantem
corripuit cogitque fores inrumpere templi.
limine terrifico metuens consistere Phoebas
absterrere ducem noscendi ardore futura
cassa fraude parat. 'quid spes' ait 'inproba ueri                   130
te, Romane, trahit? muto Parnasos hiatu
conticuit pressitque deum, seu spiritus istas
destituit fauces mundique in deuia uersum
duxit iter, seu, barbarica cum lampade Python
arsit, in inmensas cineres abiere cauernas                  135
et Phoebi tenuere uiam, seu sponte deorum
Cirrha silet farique sat est arcana futuri
carmina longaeuae uobis conmissa Sibyllae,
seu Paean solitus templis arcere nocentis,
ora quibus soluat, nostro non inuenit aeuo.'                  140
     uirginei patuere doli, fecitque negatis
numinibus metus ipse fidem.

Phemonoe, roaming in error and free from cares,
seized her and urges that she break into the temple’s doors.
Phoebus, fearing to stand at the terrifying threshold,
prepares by vain deceit to frighten away the leader with the ardor of knowing the future.
'What wicked hope,' she says, '                   130
Roman, draws you to truth? With Parnassus hushed by a mute gape
and the god pressed silent, whether a spirit abandoned those throats
and led the journey into the world’s remote regions,
or, when Python burned with a barbarian torch,
they went away into vast caverns as ashes                  135
and held Phoebus’ path, or by the will of the gods
Cirrha is silent and it suffices that the arcana of the future
— the songs entrusted to you by the long-lived Sibyl — be spoken,
or the Paean, wonted to keep harmful mouths from temples,
whose oracles dissolve the lips, is not found in our age.'                  140
     the maidenly deceptions were laid open, and, the divinities having been denied,
fear itself made belief.

tum torta priores
stringit uitta comas, crinesque in terga solutos
candida Phocaica conplectitur infula lauro.
haerentem dubiamque premens in templa sacerdos 145

then the twisted vitta binds the anterior tresses, and the white Phocaean infula folds about the hair loosened down the back with laurel. The priest, pressing the clinging and wavering one into the temples 145

inpulit. illa pauens adyti penetrale remoti
fatidicum prima templorum in parte resistit
atque deum simulans sub pectore ficta quieto
uerba refert, nullo confusae murmure uocis
instinctam sacro mentem testata furore, 150
haud aeque laesura ducem cui falsa canebat
quam tripodas Phoebique fidem. non rupta trementi
uerba sono nec uox antri conplere capacis
sufficiens spatium nulloque horrore comarum
excussae laurus inmotaque limina templi 155
securumque nemus ueritam se credere Phoebo
prodiderant.

he pushed. She, fearing, halted at the remote inner shrine, the prophetic part of the temples, and, feigning a god beneath a quiet breast, utters contrived words, with no confused murmur of voice, attesting that her mind was inspired by sacred frenzy, 150
no less likely to wound the leader to whom she sang falsehoods than the tripods and the faith of Phoebus. Her words were not broken by a trembling sound, nor was the voice enough to fill the capacious cave; filling the space, and with no dread of her hair, the laurel shaken loose and the unmoved thresholds of the temple 155
and the secure grove had betrayed that they believed she spoke truth to Phoebus.

sensit tripodas cessare furensque
Appius 'et nobis meritas dabis, impia, poenas
et superis, quos fingis,' ait 'nisi mergeris antris
deque orbis trepidi tanto consulta tumultu 160
desinis ipsa loqui'. tandem conterrita uirgo
confugit ad tripodas uastisque adducta cauernis
haesit et insueto concepit pectore numen,
quod non exhaustae per tot iam saecula rupis
spiritus ingessit uati; tandemque potitus 165

sensing the tripods cease, and mad, Appius said, 'and to us you will give deserved penalties, impious one, and to the gods you invent, unless you are plunged into caves, and from the world with such a great tumult of the anxious you desist yourself from speaking.' 160
at last the maiden, terrified, fled to the tripods and, drawn into the vast caverns, clung and took into her unaccustomed breast a divinity,
which not by exhausted breaths had been borne into the prophet through so many ages of the rock; and at length having obtained it 165

pectore Cirrhaeo non umquam plenior artus
Phoebados inrupit Paean mentemque priorem
expulit atque hominem toto sibi cedere iussit
pectore. bacchatur demens aliena per antrum
colla ferens, uittasque dei Phoebeaque serta                  170
erectis discussa comis per inania templi
ancipiti ceruice rotat spargitque uaganti
obstantis tripodas magnoque exaestuat igne
iratum te, Phoebe, ferens. nec uerbere solo
uteris et stimulis flammasque in uiscera mergis:                  175
accipit et frenos, nec tantum prodere uati
quantum scire licet. uenit aetas omnis in unam
congeriem, miserumque premunt tot saecula pectus,
tanta patet rerum series, atque omne futurum
nititur in lucem, uocemque petentia fata                  180

with a Cirrhaean heart, never before fuller of members, Paean burst into her Phoebadic limbs
and expelled her former mind and bade the woman yield wholly to him with her heart.
Mad she raves, bearing strange necks through the cavern,
and the fillets and the god’s and Phoebe’s garlands 170
with hair uplifted, shaken through the voids of the temple;
she wheels her twofold neck and scatters, as she wanders, the tripods that oppose her
and boils with a mighty flame, bearing you, angry one, Phoebe. Nor do you employ only the lash
and goads and plunge flames into her entrails: 175
she takes the reins as well, and reveals not so much to the seer
as is permitted to be known. All age comes together into one heap,
and so many ages press upon the wretched breast;
so vast the sequence of things lies open, and all that is to come180

luctantur; non prima dies, non ultima mundi,
non modus Oceani, numerus non derat harenae.
qualis in Euboico uates Cumana recessu
indignata suum multis seruire furorem
gentibus ex tanta fatorum strage superba                  185
excerpsit Romana manu, sic plena laborat
Phemonoe Phoebo, dum te, consultor operti
Castalia tellure dei, uix inuenit, Appi,
inter fata diu quaerens tam magna latentem.
spumea tum primum rabies uaesana per ora                  190
effluit et gemitus et anhelo clara meatu
murmura, tum maestus uastis ululatus in antris
extremaeque sonant domita iam uirgine uoces:
'effugis ingentes, tanti discriminis expers,
bellorum, Romane, minas, solusque quietem                  195

they struggle; not the first day, not the last of the world,
not the measure of the Ocean, nor was the number of the sand wanting.
Such as, in the Euboic recess of Cumae, a vates, indignant, plucked up her own maddening fury to serve many peoples—proud after so great a carnage of fates—by a Roman hand; so full of labor was Phemonoe for Phoebus, while she, a consulter, buried beneath the Castalian soil of the god, scarce found you, Appi, searching long among the fates for one so great hidden.
Then for the first time the foaming, besotted rage streamed over the mouths, and groans and clear murmurs with labored breathing; then a sorrowful howl resounds through the vast caverns and the voices of the last, now subdued, maiden ring out:
'You flee enormous dangers, O Roman, free from so great a crisis,
the threats of wars, and alone peace

Euboici uasta lateris conualle tenebis'.
cetera suppressit faucesque obstruxit Apollo.
     custodes tripodes fatorum arcanaque mundi
tuque, potens ueri Paean nullumque futuri
a superis celate diem, suprema ruentis                  200
imperii caesosque duces et funera regum
et tot in Hesperio conlapsas sanguine gentis
cur aperire times? an nondum numina tantum
decreuere nefas et adhuc dubitantibus astris
Pompei damnare caput tot fata tenentur?                  205
uindicis an gladii facinus poenasque furorum
regnaque ad ultores iterum redeuntia Brutos,
ut peragat fortuna, taces? tum pectore uatis
inpactae cessere fores, expulsaque templis
prosiluit; perstat rabies, nec cuncta locutae                  210

'You shall hold the vast hollow of the Euboean flank.'
Apollo checked the rest and stopped my jaws.
     the guardians, the tripods of the Fates and the arcana of the world,
and you, mighty Paean of truth, and hide no day of the future
from the gods above; the last acts of a collapsing empire                  200
the slain leaders and the funerals of kings,
and so many peoples fallen in Hesperian blood—why do you fear to reveal?
Or have the powers not yet decreed so great an impiety,
and do the stars, still hesitating, hold Pompey's head bound to so many fates?                  205
The crime of the avenger's sword, or the penalties of madmen,
and kingdoms returning again to Bruti as avengers,in the seer's struck breast gave way, and, expelled from the temples,
she leapt forth; the frenzy persists, nor have all the uttered things                  210

quem non emisit, superest deus. illa feroces
torquet adhuc oculos totoque uagantia caelo
lumina, nunc uoltu pauido, nunc torua minaci;
stat numquam facies; rubor igneus inficit ora
liuentisque genas; nec, qui solet esse timenti, 215
terribilis sed pallor inest; nec fessa quiescunt
corda, sed, ut tumidus Boreae post flamina pontus
rauca gemit, sic muta leuant suspiria uatem.
dumque a luce sacra, qua uidit fata, refertur
ad uolgare iubar mediae uenere tenebrae. 220
inmisit Stygiam Paean in uiscera Lethen,
quae raperet secreta deum. tum pectore uerum
fugit et ad Phoebi tripodas rediere futura,
uixque refecta cadit.

whom the god did not send forth, a deity alone remains. She still twists her ferocious
eyes and their lights wandering through the whole heaven,
now with a fearful countenance, now grim and menacing;
her face never rests; a fiery redness infects her mouth
and livid cheeks; nor, as is wont with one who fears,hearts find repose, but as the swollen sea after the blasts of Boreas
groans hoarsely, so the mute prophetess raises sighs.
and while from the sacred light, by which she saw the fates, she is borne back
to the common radiance, the gloom of mid-day came.
Paean cast Stygian Lethe into her entrails,
to seize away the secrets of the gods. Then the truth
fled from her breast and the futures returned to Phoebus’ tripods,
and scarcely restored she falls.

nec te uicinia leti
territat ambiguis frustratum sortibus, Appi; 225

nor let the proximity of death terrify you,
frustrated by ambiguous lots, Appius; 225

iure sed incerto mundi subsidere regnum
Chalcidos Euboicae uana spe rapte parabas.
heu demens, nullum belli sentire fragorem,
tot mundi caruisse malis, praestare deorum
excepta quis Morte potest? secreta tenebis                   230
litoris Euboici memorando condite busto,
qua maris angustat fauces saxosa Carystos
et, tumidis infesta colit quae numina, Rhamnus,
artatus rapido feruet qua gurgite pontus
Euripusque trahit, cursum mutantibus undis,                  235
Chalcidicas puppes ad iniquam classibus Aulin.
     interea domitis Caesar remeabat Hiberis
uictrices aquilas alium laturus in orbem,
cum prope fatorum tantos per prospera cursus
auertere dei. nullo nam Marte subactus                  240
intra castrorum timuit tentoria ductor
perdere successus scelerum, cum paene fideles
per tot bella manus satiatae sanguine tandem
destituere ducem, seu maesto classica paulum
intermissa sono claususque et frigidus ensis                  245

but by an uncertain right you were preparing to settle the kingdom of the world,
snatched by the vain hope of Chalcis of Euboea.              230
ah, madman, to feel no crash of war,
to suppose the world to have lacked so many evils — who can excel the gods, Death excepted? will you keep secret                  235
the tomb of the Euboean shore, to be buried to be remembered,
where rocky Carystus narrows the mouths of the sea
and Rhamnus, which cultivates powers hostile to the swollen surge,
boils armed where the sea rages with a swift current
and the Euripus drags its channel with changing waves,                  240
the Chalcidian prows toward Aulis with hostile fleets.
     meanwhile Caesar was returning from subdued Iberia
bringing victorious eagles to another orb,
when a god stood near to turn such great courses of fate despite prosperous voyages.
for in no war having been overcome did the commander fear within the tents of the camp                  245
to lose the success of crimes, when almost faithful
hands, at last sated with blood through so many wars,
forsook their leader, whether the trumpets, for a little while sad in sound,
were paused and the sword shut and cold

expulerat belli furias, seu, praemia miles
dum maiora petit, damnat causamque ducemque
et scelere inbutos etiamnunc uenditat enses.
haud magis expertus discrimine Caesar in ullo est
quam non e stabili tremulo sed culmine cuncta                  250
despiceret staretque super titubantia fultus.
tot raptis truncus manibus gladioque relictus
paene suo, qui tot gentis in bella trahebat,
scit non esse ducis strictos sed militis enses.
non pauidum iam murmur erat nec pectore tecto                  255
ira latens; nam quae dubias constringere mentes
causa solet, dum quisque pauet, quibus ipse timori est,
seque putat solum regnorum iniusta grauari,
haud retinet. quippe ipsa metus exsoluerat audax
turba suos: quidquid multis peccatur inultum est.                  260

he had driven out the furies of war, or, while the soldier seeks greater prizes,
he condemns both cause and leader and even now auctions off swords steeped in crime.
no less has Caesar tried in any crisis than that he would from a trembling steady summit
descry all things and stand supported above the tottering.                  250
so many trunks left behind by hands snatched away and by the sword
almost his own, he who drew so many nations into wars,
knows that the swords are not those of a general drawn but of a soldier.
there was no longer a timorous murmur nor a hidden anger in the sheltered breast;                  255
for what a cause is wont to bind wavering minds, while each fears those for whom he himself is fear,
and thinks himself alone to be wronged in the realms, does not hold them back. Indeed bold fear itself had loosened
the crowd to its own: whatever is sinned against many goes unpunished.                  260

effudere minas. 'liceat discedere, Caesar,
a rabie scelerum. quaeris terraque marique
his ferrum iugulis animasque effundere uiles
quolibet hoste paras; partem tibi Gallia nostri
eripuit, partem duris Hispania bellis, 265
pars iacet Hesperia, totoque exercitus orbe
te uincente perit.

they hurled forth threats. "Allow me to depart, Caesar,
from the rabies of crimes. You seek, by land and sea,
with these to pour steel on necks and to shed cheap souls,
to prepare them for any random enemy; part of our Gaul
has been wrested from you, part by harsh wars Spain, 265
part Hesperia lies prostrate, and while you conquer the whole world
the army perishes."

terris fudisse cruorem
quid iuuat Arctois Rhodano Rhenoque subactis?
tot mihi pro bellis bellum ciuile dedisti.
cepimus expulso patriae cum tecta senatu, 270
quos hominum uel quos licuit spoliare deorum?
imus in omne nefas manibus ferroque nocentes,
paupertate pii. finis quis quaeritur armis?
quid satis est, si Roma parum est? iam respice canos
inualidasque manus et inanis cerne lacertos. 275

what profits that you have poured blood on the lands
with the Arctic Rhone and Rhine subdued?
you have given me civil war in return for so many wars.
we seized the homeland's roofs with the senate expelled, 270
whom of men or which of the gods was it lawful to despoil?
we go into every crime, harming with hands and sword,what suffices, if Rome is too little? now behold the hoary275

usus abit uitae, bellis consumpsimus aeuum:
ad mortem dimitte senes. en inproba uota:
non duro liceat morientia caespite membra
ponere, non anima galeam fugiente ferire
atque oculos morti clausuram quaerere dextram, 280
coniugis inlabi lacrimis, unique paratum
scire rogum; liceat morbis finire senectam;
sit praeter gladios aliquod sub Caesare fatum.
quid uelut ignaros ad quae portenta paremur
spe trahis? usque adeo soli ciuilibus armis 285
nescimus cuius sceleris sit maxima merces?
nil actum est bellis, si nondum conperit istas
omnia posse manus.

the practice of life has gone, we have consumed our age in wars:
send the old to death. behold cruel vows:
let it not be permitted to place the dying limbs on hard turf,
nor for the soul, the helmet fleeing, to strike and seek
with the right hand a closing for the eyes in death,280
to slip into a wife's tears, to know only the pyre prepared;
let it be permitted to finish old age by disease;
let there be, besides swords, some fate under Caesar.
why, as if ignorant of what portents we are being led to,
do you draw us on by hope? are we so utterly alone in civil arms 285
that we do not know to whose crime the greatest reward will belong?
war has achieved nothing, if it has not yet been discovered that these hands
are able to do all things.

nec fas nec uincula iuris
hoc audere uetant: Rheni mihi Caesar in undis
dux erat, hic socius; facinus quos inquinat aequat. 290

neither fas nor the bonds of ius forbid daring this:
Caesar was my leader on the Rhine’s waters, this man an ally; the crime that besmirches them makes them equal. 290

adde quod ingrato meritorum iudice uirtus
nostra perit: quidquid gerimus fortuna uocatur.
nos fatum sciat esse suum. licet omne deorum
obsequium speres, irato milite, Caesar,
pax erit.' haec fatus totis discurrere castris                  295
coeperat infestoque ducem deposcere uoltu.
sic eat, o superi: quando pietasque fidesque
destituunt moresque malos sperare relictum est,
finem ciuili faciat discordia bello.
     quem non ille ducem potuit terrere tumultus?                  300
fata sed in praeceps solitus demittere Caesar
fortunamque suam per summa pericula gaudens
exercere uenit; nec dum desaeuiat ira
expectat: medios properat temptare furores.
non illis urbes spoliandaque templa negasset                  305

add that, with an ungrateful judge of merits, our virtue perishes: whatever we accomplish is called fortune.
let fate know that it is his. Though you may hope for every favour of the gods, with the soldier enraged, Caesar,
there will be peace.' Having spoken these words he began to run through the whole camps
and to demand the general with a hostile countenance.                  295
thus be it, O gods above: since piety and good faith abandon us and wicked customs are left to be hoped for,
let discord make an end with civil war.
     what tumult could not terrify that leader?                  300
but Caesar, accustomed to hurl the Fates headlong, came rejoicing to exercise his fortune through the highest dangers;
nor does he wait until wrath rages: he hastens to try the madness in the midst.
he would not have denied them cities and temples to be despoiled                  305

Tarpeiamque Iouis sedem matresque senatus
passurasque infanda nurus. uult omnia certe
a se saeua peti, uult praemia Martis amari;
militis indomiti tantum mens sana timetur.
non pudet, heu, Caesar, soli tibi bella placere 310
iam manibus damnata tuis? hos ante pigebit
sanguinis?

And the Tarpeian seat of Jupiter and the mothers of the senate
and the unspeakable daughters-in-law will suffer. He certainly wills
that all savage deeds be sought from himself, he wills the prizes of Mars to be loved;
only the sound mind of the unconquered soldier is feared.
Is it no shame, alas, Caesar, that wars please you alone 310
already condemned by your hands? Will those men be the first to rue the blood?

his ferri graue ius erit, ipse per omne
fasque nefasque rues? lassare et disce sine armis
posse pati; liceat scelerum tibi ponere finem.
saeue, quid insequeris? quid iam nolentibus instas? 315
bellum te ciuile fugit.

Shall this heavy law of iron be for them, will you yourself rush headlong through every right and wrong?
Learn to be weary and to endure without arms; let it be permitted that you set an end to your crimes.
Cruel one, what do you pursue? why now do you press upon those unwilling? 315
civil war flees from you.

stetit aggere fulti
caespitis intrepidus uoltu meruitque timeri
non metuens, atque haec ira dictante profatur:
'qui modo in absentem uoltu dextraque furebas,
miles, habes nudum promptumque ad uolnera pectus. 320

he stood supported on a rampart of turf,
fearless of visage and worthy to be feared, not fearing; and with anger dictating he utters these words:
'you who just now with face and right hand were stealing against one absent, soldier, you have a bare and ready breast for wounds. 320

hic fuge, si belli finis placet, ense relicto.
detegit inbelles animas nil fortiter ausa
seditio tantumque fugam meditata iuuentus
ac ducis inuicti rebus lassata secundis.
uadite meque meis ad bella relinquite fatis.                  325
inuenient haec arma manus, uobisque repulsis
tot reddet Fortuna uiros quot tela uacabunt.
anne fugam Magni tanta cum classe secuntur
Hesperiae gentes, nobis uictoria turbam
non dabit, inpulsi tantum quae praemia belli                  330
auferat et uestri rapta mercede laboris
lauriferos nullo comitetur uolnere currus?
uos despecta senes exhaustaque sanguine turba
cernetis nostros iam plebs Romana triumphos.
Caesaris an cursus uestrae sentire putatis                  335

Flee here, if the end of war pleases you, the sword left behind.
Revolt has laid bare unknightly souls, daring nothing bravely,
and the youth, thinking only of flight, and weary from the successful affairs
of their invincible leader. Go, and leave me and my men to the wars allotted by the fates. 325
Hands will find these arms, and with you repulsed
Fortune will restore as many men as there are weapons left unused.
Or do the peoples of Hesperia follow Magnus’s flight with so great a fleet?
Victory will not give us a host; it will only snatch away the prizes of war
and carry off, seized as your hire for toil,
laurel-bearing chariots that accompany no wound?
You, old men, despised, and the blood-exhausted crowd,
will behold our Roman people already in triumphs.
Do you think the course of Caesar will heed yours? 335

damnum posse fugae? ueluti, si cuncta minentur
flumina quos miscent pelago subducere fontes,
non magis ablatis umquam descenderit aequor,
quam nunc crescit, aquis. an uos momenta putatis
ulla dedisse mihi?

can there be harm in flight? or, as if all the flumina threaten
to draw their fontes aside and mingle with the pelago,
the aequor would no more descend with them taken away
than now it rises with waters. or do you think that you
have given me any moments at all?

numquam sic cura deorum 340
se premet, ut uestrae morti uestraeque saluti
fata uacent: procerum motus haec cuncta secuntur;
humanum paucis uiuit genus. orbis Hiberi
horror et Arctoi nostro sub nomine miles
Pompeio certe fugeres duce. fortis in armis 345
Caesareis Labienus erat: nunc transfuga uilis
cum duce praelato terras atque aequora lustrat.
nec melior mihi uestra fides, si bella nec hoste
nec duce me geritis.

never does the care of the gods press itself so 340
that the fates lie open to your death and to your safety: the motions of the nobles follow all these things; the human race lives for few. the Iberian world is a terror, and the northern soldier, under our name, would certainly flee with Pompey as leader. brave in Caesar’s arms was Labienus: now a vile deserter, with the chosen leader, he ranges over lands and seas. 345
nor is your fidelity any better to me, if you wage wars neither against an enemy nor under a leader.

quisquis mea signa relinquens
non Pompeianis tradit sua partibus arma, 350

whoever, abandoning my standards,
does not hand over his arms to Pompeian factions, 350

hic numquam uult esse meus. sunt ista profecto
curae castra deis, qui me committere tantis
non nisi mutato uoluerunt milite bellis.
heu, quantum Fortuna umeris iam pondere fessis
amolitur onus! sperantis omnia dextras 355
exarmare datur, quibus hic non sufficit orbis:
iam certe mihi bella geram.

this place never wishes to be mine. These things are indeed camps of care for the gods, who would have willed that I be committed to so great wars only with a soldier changed.
ah, how much Fortune now from shoulders already weary with weight removes the burden! the hands of one hoping for all things are given to be disarmed, 355
to whom this world is not sufficient: now certainly I will wage wars for myself.

discedite castris,
tradite nostra uiris ignaui signa Quirites.
at paucos, quibus haec rabies auctoribus arsit,
non Caesar sed poena tenet. procumbite terra 360
infidumque caput feriendaque tendite colla.
et tu, quo solo stabunt iam robore castra,
tiro rudis, specta poenas et disce ferire,
disce mori.' tremuit saeua sub uoce minantis
uolgus iners, unumque caput tam magna iuuentus 365

Depart the camp,
give up our standards to cowardly men, Quirites.
But a few, in whom this madness blazed with instigators, are held not by Caesar but by punishment. Fall prostrate to the earth 360
and present your treacherous head and neck to be struck.
And you, raw recruit, on whose single strength the camp will now stand, untried soldier, behold the punishments and learn to strike,
learn to die.' The idle crowd trembled beneath the savage voice of the one threatening,
and the youth with that single head so great 365

priuatum factura timet, uelut ensibus ipsis
imperet inuito moturus milite ferrum.
ipse pauet ne tela sibi dextraeque negentur
ad scelus hoc Caesar: uicit patientia saeui
spem ducis, et iugulos, non tantum praestitit ensis.                  370
nil magis adsuetas sceleri quam perdere mentis
atque perire tenet. tam diri foederis ictu
parta quies, poenaque redit placata iuuentus.
     Brundisium decumis iubet hanc attingere castris
et cunctas reuocare rates quas auius Hydrus                  375
antiquosque Taras secretaque litora Leucae,
quas recipit Salpina palus et subdita Sipus
montibus, Ausoniam qua torquens frugifer oram
Delmatico Boreae Calabroque obnoxius Austro
Apulus Hadriacas exit Garganus in undas.                  380

he fears to make it private, as if with the very swords
he would command, against their will, the soldier to move the iron.
he himself dreads that spears and right hands be denied him
for this crime by Caesar: the patience of the savage overcame
the leader’s hope, and furnished throats, not only the sword.                   370
nothing more accustomed to crime than to ruin the mind
and hold to perish. Such rest was born from the blow
of a dread compact, and punishment returns, the youth appeased.
     He commands that the tenth legion touch Brundisium with these camps
and recall all the ships which the pathless Hydrus                  375
ancient Tarentum and the secret shores of Leucas,
which the Salpine marsh receives and Sipus, planted beneath the mountains,
by which, turning, fruit‑bearing Ausonia thrusts its shore
subject to the Dalmatian North Wind and the Calabrian South,
Apulia issues the Hadrian waves into Garganus.                   380

ipse petit trepidam tutus sine milite Romam
iam doctam seruire togae, populoque precanti
scilicet indulgens summo dictator honori
contigit et laetos fecit se consule fastos.
namque omnis uoces, per quas iam tempore tanto                  385
mentimur dominis, haec primum repperit aetas
qua, sibi ne ferri ius ullum, Caesar, abesset,
Ausonias uoluit gladiis miscere secures
addidit et fasces aquilis et nomen inane
imperii rapiens signauit tempora digna                  390
maesta nota; nam quo melius Pharsalicus annus
consule notus erit? fingit sollemnia Campus
et non admissae dirimit suffragia plebis
decantatque tribus et uana uersat in urna.
nec caelum seruare licet: tonat augure surdo,                  395

he himself seeks Rome, trembling yet safe without a soldiery,
now taught to serve the toga, and to the suppliant people
—of course indulgent to the supreme honor, dictator—
it befell and made the annals glad with himself as consul.                  385
for all the voices, by which now in so great a time
we deceive our masters, this age first discovered
that, so that no right to bear arms might be wanting to himself, Caesar,
wished to mingle Ausonian axes with swords,
added also fasces with eagles and, seizing the empty name
of empire, stamped the times with a fitting sad mark                  390
—for how more fitting will the Pharsalian year
be known than by his consulship? The Field devises festivals
and annuls the ballots of the plebs not admitted,
and proclaims to the tribes and turns vain things in the urn.
nor is it lawful to keep the sky: it thunders with a deaf augur,                  395

et laetae iurantur aues bubone sinistro.
inde perit primum quondam ueneranda potestas
iuris inops; tantum careat ne nomine tempus
menstruus in fastos distinguit saecula consul.
nec non Iliacae numen quod praesidet Albae,                  400
haud meritum Latio sollemnia sacra subacto,
uidit flammifera confectas nocte Latinas.
     inde rapit cursus et, quae piger Apulus arua
deseruit rastris et inerti tradidit herbae,
ocior et caeli flammis et tigride feta                  405
transcurrit, curuique tenens Minoia tecta
Brundisii clausas uentis brumalibus undas
inuenit et pauidas hiberno sidere classes.
turpe duci uisum rapiendi tempora belli
in segnes exisse moras, portuque teneri                  410

and the merry birds swear by the left owl.
thence first perishes the once‑venerable power of law, destitute;
provided only that it lack not in name — the monthly consul distinguishes the ages into the fasti.
and likewise the numen of Iliac Alba, not meriting that sacred rites be subdued to Latium,
saw the Latin rites consumed by flame in the night.                  400
     thence it snatches its course and what the sluggish Apulian fields
abandoned with the harrow and delivered to idle grass,
swifter than the fires of heaven and pregnant with a tiger it runs across,                  405
and, holding the curved Minoan roofs, finds Brundisium's waves
shut by wintry winds and the scant fleets under the winter star.
it seemed shameful to the leader to be held, the seasons for seizing war having fallen into slow delays,
and to be kept in port.                  410

dum pateat tutum uel non felicibus aequor.
expertis animos pelagi sic robore conplet:
'fortius hiberni flatus caelumque fretumque,
cum cepere, tenent, quam quos incumbere certos
perfida nubiferi uetat inconstantia ueris.                  415
nec maris anfractus lustrandaque litora nobis,
sed recti fluctus soloque Aquilone secandi.
hic utinam summi curuet carchesia mali
incumbatque furens et Graia ad moenia perflet,
ne Pompeiani Phaeacum e litore toto                  420
languida iactatis conprendant carbasa remis.
rumpite quae retinent felices uincula proras:
iam dudum nubes et saeuas perdimus undas.'
     sidera prima poli Phoebo labente sub undas
exierant et luna suas iam fecerat umbras,                  425

while the sea may lie open, safe or not, to the fortunate.
he thus fills the spirits of those tried by the deep with strength:
'the winter blasts, and the sky and the strait,
once they have seized them, hold more strongly
than the treacherous inconstancy of stormy weather forbids certain men to put their weight upon.                  415
nor are the sea's bays and shores to be ranged by us,
but the waves to be cut straight and the keel to be cleaved by the North Wind alone.
would that here the carchesia of supreme ill might wheel round
and, raging, lean in and blow upon the Greek walls,
lest the Pompeian Phaeacian sails from the whole shore                  420
languid, be furled by oars tossed about.
break the chains that hold our fortunate prows:
long since we have been losing clouds and the savage waves.'
     the first stars of the sky, Phoebus gliding beneath, had gone down under the waves
and the moon had already made her shadows,                  425

cum pariter soluere rates, totosque rudentes
laxauere sinus et flexo nauita cornu
obliquat laeuo pede carbasa summaque pandens
sipara uelorum perituras colligit auras.
uix primum leuior propellere lintea uentus                  430
incipit exiguumque tument, et reddita malo
in mediam cecidere ratem, terraque relicta
non ualet ipsa sequi puppes quae uexerat aura.
aequora lenta iacent, alto torpore ligatae
pigrius inmotis haesere paludibus undae.                  435
sic stat iners Scythicas astringens Bosporos undas,
cum glacie retinente fretum non inpulit Hister,
inmensumque gelu tegitur mare; conprimit unda
deprendit quascumque rates, nec peruia uelis
aequora frangit eques, fluctuque latente sonantem                  440

when together they weighed the ships and unloosed all the ropes
and the sailor, with the stout horn-bitt bent, with his left foot turns aside
and, spreading the top canvases, gathers the winds that are to perish.
Scarcely does a lighter wind begin to drive the sails and swell them a little,                  430
and with the mast restored they fell into the middle of the ship, and the hull left behind
is not able itself to follow the stern which the breeze had urged on.
The smooth seas lie sluggish, bound by a deep torpor;
the waves, more sluggish, stick motionless in the marshes.                  435
Thus inert, binding the Scythian Bosporus waves,
when the Hister with ice retaining the strait did not drive them, and the sea is covered with vast frost; the wave
presses down, seizes whatever ships it finds, nor does a rider accessible to sails
break open the waters, and with the flood lying hidden it sounds                  440

orbita migrantis scindit Maeotida Bessi.
saeua quies pelagi, maestoque ignaua profundo
stagna iacentis aquae; ueluti deserta regente
aequora natura cessant, pontusque uetustas
oblitus seruare uices non commeat aestu, 445
non horrore tremit, non solis imagine uibrat.
casibus innumeris fixae patuere carinae.
illinc infestae classes et inertia tonsis
aequora moturae, grauis hinc languore profundi
obsessis uentura fames. noua uota timori 450
sunt inuenta nouo, fluctus nimiasque precari
uentorum uires, dum se torpentibus unda
excutiat stagnis et sit mare. nubila nusquam
undarumque minae; caelo languente fretoque
naufragii spes omnis abit.

the track of the migrating one cleaves the Maeotian Bessi.
the sea’s savage calm, and the idle waters lying mournful in the deep,
pools of stagnant water; as when nature, withdrawn, leaves
the seas deserted, and the ocean, by the lapse of time
forgetful to keep its turnings, does not circulate with the tide, 445
trembles not from chill, nor quivers at the sun’s image.
by countless misfortunes the keels lay fixed and open.
thence hostile fleets and the inertia of shorn sails
that would have stirred the waters, heavy then from the depth’s languor,
hid the coming hunger. New vows to fear 450
are found framed by novelty, to beg excessive waves
and the strengths of winds, while the wave from the torpid pools
may shake itself off and the sea be lively. Clouds nowhere are seen
nor threats of waves; with both sky and sea languishing
all hope of shipwreck departs.

sed nocte fugata 455

but with night driven away 455

laesum nube dies iubar extulit imaque sensim
concussit pelagi mouitque Ceraunia nautis.
inde rapi coepere rates atque aequora classem
curua sequi, quae iam uento fluctuque secundo
lapsa Palaestinas uncis confixit harenas.                  460
     prima duces iunctis uidit consistere castris
tellus, quam uolucer Genusus, quam mollior Hapsus
circumeunt ripis. Hapso gestare carinas
causa palus, leni quam fallens egerit unda;
at Genusum nunc sole niues nunc imbre solutae                  465
praecipitant. neuter longo se gurgite lassat,
sed minimum terrae uicino litore nouit.
hoc fortuna loco tantae duo nomina famae
conposuit, miserique fuit spes inrita mundi
posse duces parua campi statione diremptos                  470

the sun, hurt by cloud, lifted its light and gently shook the depths
and set the Ceraunian sea astir for the sailors.
then the ships and waters began to be swept away and to follow the curved fleet,
which, having slid with favorable wind and wave,
fixed its anchors in the Palestinian sands.                  460
     first the land saw the leaders halt with their joined camps
—the banks about them the swift Genusus, the softer Hapsus—
the marsh was the reason Hapsus bore keels,
which a gentle, deceitful wave had driven;
but they hurl down Genusus, its snows loosened now by sun, now by rain                  465
neither will either tire itself in the long abyss,
but it knows the least of land, the nearby shore.
by chance fortune set two names of so great a fame in this place,
and the poor world's hope proved vain that the leaders, rescued by a small station of ground,                  470

admotum damnare nefas; nam cernere uoltus
et uoces audire datur, multosque per annos
dilectus tibi, Magne, socer post pignora tanta,
sanguinis infausti subolem mortemque nepotum,
te nisi Niliaca propius non uidit harena.                  475
     Caesaris attonitam miscenda ad proelia mentem
ferre moras scelerum partes iussere relictae.
ductor erat cunctis audax Antonius armis
iam tum ciuili meditatus Leucada bello.
illum saepe minis Caesar precibusque morantem                  480
euocat. 'o mundi tantorum causa laborum,
quid superos et fata tenes? sunt cetera cursu
acta meo, summam rapti per prospera belli
te poscit fortuna manum.

to condemn him brought near is impious; for it is granted to see his face
and to hear his voices, and for many years
a chosen father-in-law to you, Magne, after such pledges,
the ill-omened stock of blood and the death of grandchildren,
he did not see you except near the Nile sands.                  475
     the remaining parts of his crimes, left behind, ordered
that Caesar’s astonished mind be borne to be mixed in battles, to cause delays.
Antonius was a leader bold in all arms,
even then meditating civil war at Leucas.
Caesar often calls him off, detaining him with threats and prayers                  480
he summons him. 'O cause of so great labors of the world,
why do you hold back the gods and fate? the rest by my course
has been accomplished; fortune, having swept me through the prosperities
of war, demands you, seized, as the supreme prize.'

non rupta uadosis
Syrtibus incerto Libye nos diuidit aestu. 485

Libya divides us by an uncertain tide, its shoal-filled Syrtes not breaking it. 485

numquid inexperto tua credimus arma profundo
inque nouos traheris casus? ignaue, uenire
te Caesar, non ire iubet. prior ipse per hostes
percussi medios alieni iuris harenas:
tu mea castra times?

Shall we entrust your untried arms to the deep
and be drawn into fresh misfortunes? Coward, Caesar bids you come,
not to depart. He himself first, struck by the foes,
was hurled into the middle sands of another’s jurisdiction:
and you fear my camp?

pereuntia tempora fati                  490
conqueror, in uentos inpendo uota fretumque.
ne retine dubium cupientis ire per aequor:
si bene nota mihi est, ad Caesaris arma iuuentus
naufragio uenisse uolet. iam uoce doloris
utendum est: non ex aequo diuisimus orbem;                  495
Epirum Caesarque tenet totusque senatus,
Ausoniam tu solus habes.' his terque quaterque
uocibus excitum postquam cessare uidebat,
dum se desse deis ac non sibi numina credit,
sponte per incautas audet temptare tenebras                  500

the perishable times of fate                  490
conqueror, I cast my vows and the strait to the winds.
do not restrain the doubtful one desiring to cross the sea:
if I know rightly, the youth will wish to have come to Caesar’s arms by shipwreck.
now the voice of sorrow must be used: we did not divide the world equally;                  495
Caesar holds Epirus and the whole senate, you alone have Ausonia.' After he saw him, roused by these words three and four times, cease,
while he believes the gods to fail him and that the numina are not for him,
of his own accord he dares to venture into unwary darkness                  500

quod iussi timuere fretum, temeraria prono
expertus cessisse deo, fluctusque uerendos
classibus exigua sperat superare carina.
     soluerat armorum fessas nox languida curas,
parua quies miseris, in quorum pectora somno                  505
dat uires fortuna minor; iam castra silebant,
tertia iam uigiles commouerat hora secundos:
Caesar sollicito per uasta silentia gressu
uix famulis audenda parat, cunctisque relictis
sola placet Fortuna comes. tentoria postquam                  510
egressus uigilum somno cedentia membra
transsiluit questus tacite, quod fallere posset,
litora curua legit, primisque inuenit in undis
rupibus exesis haerentem fune carinam.
rectorem dominumque ratis secura tenebat                  515

that which I bade they feared: the sea, rash from having tested the favoring god, had yielded, and the reverend waves the slender keels hoped to overcome.
     the languid night had loosened the cares wearied by arms,
a small rest for the wretched, into whose breasts sleep                  505
fortune grants diminished strength; now the camps were silent,the third hour had already stirred the second watch:
Caesar, with anxious step through vast silences,scarcely dares, with attendants, to prepare what must be spoken, and, all abandoned,
only Fortune pleases as companion. After he went forth from the tents                  510
and leapt over the limbs of the watch yielding to sleep with a silent complaint, lest it be deceived,
he scanned the curved shores, and first found in the waves
a keel stuck fast on cliffs worn away by erosion.
It held the helmsman and lord of the ship safe and secure.                  515

haud procul inde domus, non ullo robore fulta
sed sterili iunco cannaque intexta palustri
et latus inuersa nudum munita phaselo.
haec Caesar bis terque manu quassantia tectum
limina commouit. molli consurgit Amyclas 520
quem dabat alga toro. 'quisnam mea naufragus' inquit
'tecta petit, aut quem nostrae fortuna coegit
auxilium sperare casae?' sic fatus ab alto
aggere iam tepidae sublato fune fauillae
scintillam tenuem commotos pauit in ignes, 525
securus belli: praedam ciuilibus armis
scit non esse casas.

not far from there a house, supported by no oak
but woven of barren reed and marshy cane,
and with its broad side turned the skiff fenced the naked shore.
this house Caesar twice and thrice with his hand striking the roof
shook the thresholds. Amyclas rises on soft (bed) whom seaweed gave for a couch. 520
'Who then, shipwrecked, seeks my house,' he says,
'or whom has our fortune forced to hope for the help
of my hut?' Thus speaking, from a high
mound now, having lifted up a warm rope of embers,525
careless of war: he knows that plunder with civil arms
is not for houses.

o uitae tuta facultas
pauperis angustique lares! o munera nondum
intellecta deum! quibus hoc contingere templis
aut potuit muris, nullo trepidare tumultu 530

O safe faculty of life of the poor and his narrow lares! O gifts of the gods not yet understood! By which could this thing befall temples or walls, to tremble at no alarm of tumult 530

Caesarea pulsante manu? tum poste recluso
dux ait 'expecta uotis maiora modestis
spesque tuas laxa, iuuenis: si iussa secutus
me uehis Hesperiam, non ultra cuncta carinae
debebis manibusque <inportunamue fereris                  535
pauperiem deflens> inopem duxisse senectam.                  535a
ne cessa praebere deo tua fata uolenti
angustos opibus subitis inplere penates.'
sic fatur, quamquam plebeio tectus amictu,
indocilis priuata loqui. tum pauper Amyclas
'multa quidem prohibent nocturno credere ponto.                  540
nam sol non rutilas deduxit in aequora nubes
concordesque tulit radios: Noton altera Phoebi,
altera pars Borean diducta luce uocabat.
orbe quoque exhaustus medio languensque recessit
spectantis oculos infirmo lumine passus.                  545

With a Caesarean hand striking? then with the door unbarred the leader said, 'await greater things for modest vows
and relax your hopes, young man: if, having followed my commands,
you bear me to Hesperia, you will owe no more to every keel
and by your hands <or will you be borne an inconvenient one, bewailing poverty> to have led a needy old age.                  535
do not be slow to offer your fate to a willing god
and fill the narrow household gods with sudden resources.'
Thus he speaks, although clad in plebeian dress,
untrained to speak of private matters. Then poor Amyclas
'many things indeed forbid me to trust the nocturnal sea.                  540
for the sun did not draw down ruddy clouds upon the waters
and bring concordant rays: one Notus called for Phoebus,
the other part called for Boreas, split by the light.
The circle too, spent in the middle and languishing, withdrew
suffering the eyes of the watcher with a feeble light.                  545

lunaque non gracili surrexit lucida cornu
aut orbis medii puros exesa recessus,
nec duxit recto tenuata cacumina cornu,
uentorumque notam rubuit; tum lurida pallens
ora tulit uoltu sub nubem tristis ituro.                  550
sed mihi nec motus nemorum nec litoris ictus
nec placet incertus qui prouocat aequora delphin,
aut siccum quod mergus amat, quodque ausa uolare
ardea sublimis pinnae confisa natanti,
quodque caput spargens undis, uelut occupet imbrem,                  555
instabili gressu metitur litora cornix.
sed, si magnarum poscunt discrimina rerum,
haud dubitem praebere manus: uel litora tangam
iussa, uel hoc potius pelagus flatusque negabunt.'
haec fatur, soluensque ratem dat carbasa uentis;                  560

and the moon did not rise with a slender shining horn
or the orb eaten away in the middle showing a pure hollow,
nor did she draw her tip diminished into a straight horn,
nor did she redden with the mark of winds; then, lurid and pale,
she bore a face with a sad expression about to go beneath a cloud.                  550
but to me neither the motions of the groves nor the beating of the shore please,
nor the uncertain dolphin that challenges the waves,
nor the dry place which the merganser loves, nor that which the high
heron, trusting her wing, dares to fly above while floating,
nor the one that sprinkles its head with waves, as if to seize the rain,                  555
measures the shores with unstable step, the crow.
but, if they demand crises of great affairs,
I would not hesitate to put forth my hands: either I will touch the shores
as ordered, or rather the sea and the blasts will deny this.'
he says these things, and loosening the boat he spreads the sails to the winds;                  560

ad quorum motus non solum lapsa per altum
aera dispersos traxere cadentia sulcos
sidera, sed summis etiam quae fixa tenentur
astra polis sunt uisa quati. niger inficit horror
terga maris, longo per multa uolumina tractu 565
aestuat unda minax, flatusque incerta futuri
turbida testantur conceptos aequora uentos.
tum rector trepidae fatur ratis 'aspice saeuum
quanta paret pelagus: Zephyros intendat an Austros
incertum est; puppem dubius ferit undique pontus. 570
nubibus et caelo Notus est; si murmura ponti
consulimus, Cori ueniet mare. gurgite tanto
nec ratis Hesperias tanget nec naufragus oras:
desperare uiam et uetitos conuertere cursus
sola salus.

by whose motions not only the falling bodies, having slid across the deep, drew furrows in the air dispersed, but even the stars which are fixed at the highest poles were seen to tremble. Black horror soaks the backs of the sea, the wave boils threatening through many long rollings of swell 565
and uncertain blasts of the future testify that the troubled waters have conceived winds. Then the pilot of the anxious raft says, 'behold how mighty the sea prepares itself: whether it will present Zephyrs or Austers is uncertain; the sea doubtfully strikes the stern on every side. 570
Notus is in the clouds and in the sky; if we consult the murmurs of the deep, the Corus wind will come. With so great a chasm neither will the raft touch Hesperian shores nor will a shipwreck reach the coasts: to abandon hope of a way and to turn back forbidden courses is our only safety.'

liceat uexata litora puppe                   575
prendere, ne longe nimium sit proxima tellus.'
     fisus cuncta sibi cessura pericula Caesar
'sperne minas' inquit 'pelagi uentoque furenti
trade sinum. Italiam si caelo auctore recusas
me pete. sola tibi causa est haec iusta timoris,                  580

let the battered stern be allowed to lay hold upon the shores                   575
to take, lest the nearest land be too far off.'
     trusting that all dangers would yield to him, Caesar
'spurn threats,' he said, 'and entrust the bay to the raging sea and wind.
If, with heaven as patron, you refuse Italy,
seek me. This alone is a just cause of your fear,'                  580

uectorem non nosse tuum, quem numina numquam
destituunt, de quo male tunc fortuna meretur
cum post uota uenit. medias perrumpe procellas
tutela secure mea. caeli iste fretique,
non puppis nostrae labor est: hanc Caesare pressam 585
a fluctu defendet onus.

that your uectorem not know you, whom the numina never abandon,
concerning whom fortune would then ill deserve when he comes after vows.
Break through the midst of the procellas, tutela secure mea. That of caelum and of the fretis,
is not the labour of our puppis: this burden, pressed by Caesare 585
the wave will defend from the flood.

nec longa furori
uentorum saeuo dabitur mora: proderit undis
ista ratis. ne flecte manum, fuge proxima uelis
litora; tum Calabro portu te crede potitum
cum iam non poterit puppi nostraeque saluti 590
altera terra dari. quid tanta strage paretur
ignoras: quaerit pelagi caelique tumultu
quod praestet Fortuna mihi.' non plura locuto
auolsit laceros percussa puppe rudentis
turbo rapax fragilemque super uolitantia malum 595

nor will long delay be granted to the savage fury
of the winds: that raft will be surrendered to the waves.
Do not lower your hand, shun the nearest shores with your sails;
then trust yourself as having gained the Calabrian harbor
when another land can no longer be given to the ship and our safety 590
Do you not know why so great a slaughter is being prepared?
He asks, amid the tumult of sea and sky,
what Fortune will grant him.' No more having spoken,
a rapacious whirlwind tore away the torn sheets of the struck rigging;
and the flying yard, borne aloft, struck and shattered the fragile mast 595

uela tulit; sonuit uictis conpagibus alnus.
     inde ruunt toto concita pericula mundo.
primus ab oceano caput exeris Atlanteo,
Core, mouens aestus. iam te tollente furebat
pontus et in scopulos totas erexerat undas:                  600
occurrit gelidus Boreas pelagusque retundit,
et dubium pendet, uento cui concidat, aequor.
sed Scythici uicit rabies Aquilonis et undas
torsit et abstrusas penitus uada fecit harenas.
nec perfert pontum Boreas ad saxa, suumque                  605
in fluctus Cori frangit mare, motaque possunt
aequora subductis etiam concurrere uentis.
non Euri cessasse minas, non imbribus atrum
Aeolii iacuisse Notum sub carcere saxi
crediderim; cunctos solita de parte ruentis                  610

the sail bore; the alder sounded at its conquered fastenings.
     thence, stirred, dangers rush through the whole world.
first from the Atlantic ocean you bare your head, Atlantean, Cori, moving the tide.
now, with you lifting, the sea raged and had heaved whole waves upon the rocks:                  600
cold Boreas meets and smites the sea and beats it back,
and the sea hangs doubtful, to which wind it will fall.
but the Scythian fury of the North Wind prevailed and twisted the waves
and made shoals hidden deep into sands.
nor does Boreas bear the sea to the rocks, and Cori breaks his own sea                  605
into billows, and the stirred waters can even meet when the winds subside.
I would not have believed that the East’s threats had ceased, nor that the dark
Notus lay shut under Aeolian rock with rains piled up; from the side accustomed to rushing all around                  610

defendisse suas uiolento turbine terras,
sic pelagus mansisse loco. nam priua procellis
aequora rapta ferunt; Aegaeas transit in undas
Tyrrhenum, sonat Ionio uagus Hadria ponto.
a quotiens frustra pulsatos aequore montis 615
obruit ille dies! quam celsa cacumina pessum
tellus uicta dedit!

that it had defended its own lands with a violent whirlwind,
thus the sea remained in its place. For they report waters, wrested away by lone storms, are borne off; the Tyrrhenian crosses into Aegean waves,
the roaming Adriatic resounds on the Ionian main. How often in vain that day overwhelmed mountains lashed by the sea! 615
how many lofty summits the conquered land yielded downwards!

non ullo litore surgunt
tam ualidi fluctus, alioque ex orbe uoluti
a magno uenere mari, mundumque coercens
monstriferos agit unda sinus. sic rector Olympi 620
cuspide fraterna lassatum in saecula fulmen
adiuuit, regnoque accessit terra secundo,
cum mare conuoluit gentes, cum litora Tethys
noluit ulla pati caelo contenta teneri.
tum quoque tanta maris moles creuisset in astra 625

On no shore do waves so valiant arise, and, rolled from another orb by the mighty sea, they came, and restraining the world the wave drives monstriferous bays. Thus the ruler of Olympus with a fraternal spear aided the thunderbolt, wearied into the ages, and land was added to the second reign, when the sea convulsed peoples, when Tethys would not permit any shores, content with the sky, to remain held. Then too so vast a mass of the sea had swelled up toward the stars 625

ni superum rector pressisset nubibus undas.
non caeli nox illa fuit: latet obsitus aer
infernae pallore domus nimbisque grauatus
deprimitur, fluctusque in nubibus accipit imbrem.
lux etiam metuenda perit, nec fulgura currunt                  630
clara, sed obscurum nimbosus dissilit aer.
tum superum conuexa tremunt atque arduus axis
intonuit motaque poli conpage laborant.
extimuit natura chaos; rupisse uidentur
concordes elementa moras rursusque redire                  635
nox manes mixtura deis. spes una salutis,
quod tanta mundi nondum periere ruina.
quantum Leucadio placidus de uertice pontus
despicitur, tantum nautae uidere trementes
fluctibus e summis praeceps mare; cumque tumentes                  640

if the ruler of the gods had not pressed the waves with clouds above.
that was no night of the sky: the air, sown and hidden with an infernal pallor
and weighted with storms, is pressed down, and the waves receive rain into the clouds.
even light worthy of fear perishes, nor do bright flashes run                  630
clear, but the clouded air bursts the darkness apart.
then the vaults of the heavens tremble and the high axis
thunders, and the joints of the sky labor having been set in motion.
nature is terrified at the chaos; the harmonious elements seem to have broken their bonds
and night to return again, the mixture of the dead with the gods                  635
is the one hope of salvation, that so great a ruin has not yet undone the world.
as far as the placid sea is seen from the summit of Leucas,
so far did the sailors see the sea headlong trembling from the peaks with waves; and when the swelled                  640

rursus hiant undae uix eminet aequore malus.
nubila tanguntur uelis et terra carina.
nam pelagus, qua parte sedet, non celat harenas
exhaustum in cumulos, omnisque in fluctibus unda est.
artis opem uicere metus, nescitque magister 645
quam frangat, cui cedat aquae. discordia ponti
succurrit miseris, fluctusque euertere puppem
non ualet in fluctum: uictum latus unda repellens
erigit, atque omni surgit ratis ardua uento.
non humilem Sasona uadis [non litora curuae 650
Thessaliae saxosa pauent] oraeque malignos
Ambraciae portus, scopulosa Ceraunia nautae
summa timent. credit iam digna pericula Caesar
fatis esse suis.

again the waves gape and the mast scarcely rises above the sea.
clouds are touched by the sails and the keel grazes the earth.
for the sea, in whatever place it sits, does not hide the sands
drained into heaps, and everywhere the wave is in waves.
fear conquers the aid of art, and the helmsman knows not 645
which to break, to whom he should yield the waters. The discord of the deck
comes to the wretched, and the waves are not able to overturn the stern
into the flood: the wave, repelling the vanquished side, raises it up, and the whole raft rises lofty on every wind.
they do not dread the shallow Sasonian shoals [they do not fear the curved
shores of rocky Thessaly] nor the treacherous harbors of Ambracia; sailors
fear the craggy summits of the Ceraunian. Caesar already believes the dangers
to be worthy of his own fates.

'quantusne euertere' dixit
'me superis labor est, parua quem puppe sedentem 655

'How great to overturn,' he said
'it is a labour for the supernal ones to overturn me, one little man sitting on the stern 655

tam magno petiere mari! si gloria leti
est pelago donata mei bellisque negamur,
intrepidus quamcumque datis mihi, numina, mortem
accipiam. licet ingentis abruperit actus
festinata dies fatis, sat magna peregi. 660
Arctoas domui gentes, inimica subegi
arma metu, uidit Magnum mihi Roma secundum,
iussa plebe tuli fasces per bella negatos;
nulla meis aberit titulis Romana potestas,
nec sciet hoc quisquam nisi tu, quae sola meorum 665
conscia uotorum es, me, quamuis plenus honorum
et dictator eam Stygias et consul ad umbras,
priuatum, Fortuna, mori.

to so great a sea they have sought me! if the glory of my death
is given to the sea and the wars are denied me,
intrepid, whatever death you gods grant me,
I will accept. Though a hurried day may tear away my mighty course
from the fates, I have completed sufficiently great things. 660
I have brought Arctic peoples under my house, hostile arms I subdued by fear,
Rome has seen great (things) for me, I bore the fasces commanded by the people and denied through wars;
Roman power will not be absent from my titles,
nor will any know this but you, who alone are conscious of my vows, 665
me, although full of honors and even dictator and consul to the Stygian shades,
let me, Fortune, die a private man.

mihi funere nullo
est opus, o superi: lacerum retinete cadauer
fluctibus in mediis, desint mihi busta rogusque, 670

no funeral do I need, O gods: keep my lacerated corpse
in the midst of the waves; let tomb and funeral-pyre be wanting for me, 670

dum metuar semper terraque expecter ab omni.'
haec fatum decumus, dictu mirabile, fluctus
inualida cum puppe leuat, nec rursus ab alto
aggere deiecit pelagi sed pertulit unda
scruposisque angusta uacant ubi litora saxis                  675
inposuit terrae. pariter tot regna, tot urbes
fortunamque suam tacta tellure recepit.
     sed non tam remeans Caesar iam luce propinqua
quam tacita sua castra fuga comitesque fefellit.
circumfusa duci fleuit gemituque suorum                  680
et non ingratis incessit turba querellis.
'quo te, dure, tulit uirtus temeraria, Caesar,
aut quae nos uiles animas in fata relinquens
inuitis spargenda dabas tua membra procellis?
cum tot in hac anima populorum uita salusque                  685

'while I be always feared and awaited by every land.' These words the tenth wave, wonderful to tell, raised with its weak stern, nor again from the deep cast down by a ridge of the sea but carried onward and placed upon the land where narrow shores lie empty with craggy rocks                  675
equally received so many kingdoms, so many cities and their fortune touched to the earth.      but not so much returning Caesar now near to the light as by his silent flight he deceived his camp and companions. Around the leader poured forth they wept and with the groan of their own and the crowd advanced with not ungrateful complaints.                  680
'Whither has rash virtue carried you, hard man, Caesar, or what, abandoning us base souls to fates unwilling, did you command your limbs to be scattered to the unwelcoming storms? When so much in this spirit of peoples was life and safety                  685

pendeat et tantus caput hoc sibi fecerit orbis,
saeuitia est uoluisse mori. nullusne tuorum
emeruit comitum fatis non posse superstes
esse tuis? cum te raperet mare, corpora segnis
nostra sopor tenuit.

let his head hang and that so great orb have made this for himself,
it is cruelty to have wished to die. Did none of your companions
deserve by the fates to be unable to remain alive for you?
when the sea was carrying you off, a sluggish sleep held our bodies.

pudet, heu! tibi causa petendae 690
haec fuit Hesperiae, uisum est quod mittere quemquam
tam saeuo crudele mari. sors ultima rerum
in dubios casus et prona pericula morti
praecipitare solet: mundi iam summa tenentem
permisisse mari tantum!

it shames me, alas! that you should seek a cause 690
this was the reason for Hesperia, that it seemed fit to send anyone
to so savage a cruel sea. the last lot of things
is wont to cast into doubtful chances and forward dangers to death;
that one who already held the world's summit
should have entrusted so much to the sea!

quid numina lassas? 695
sufficit ad fatum belli fauor iste laborque
Fortunae, quod te nostris inpegit harenis?
hine usus placuere deum, non rector ut orbis
nec dominus rerum, sed felix naufragus esses?'
talia iactantis discussa nocte serenus 700

what, are the numina weary? 695
is that favour and labour of Fortune sufficient for the fate of war,
which has driven you upon our sands? has this experience pleased the gods—that you, not ruler of the orb nor master of things, but a fortunate shipwrecked man, should be?'
with such words of one tossing about dispersed, the night serene 700

oppressit cum sole dies, fessumque tumentis
conposuit pelagus uentis patientibus undas.
     nec non Hesperii lassatum fluctibus aequor
ut uidere duces, purumque insurgere caelo
fracturum pelagus Borean, soluere carinas.                  705
quas uentus doctaeque pari moderamine dextrae
permixtas habuere diu, latumque per aequor,
ut terrestre, coit consertis puppibus agmen.
sed nox saeua modum uenti uelique tenorem
eripuit nautis excussitque ordine puppes.                  710
Strymona sic gelidum bruma pellente relinquunt
poturae te, Nile, grues, primoque uolatu
effingunt uarias casu monstrante figuras;
mox, ubi percussit tensas Notus altior alas,
confusos temere inmixtae glomerantur in orbes,                  715

When the day was weighed down by the sun, and he stilled the sea swollen with winds,
     and likewise the western sea, wearied by its waves as the captains saw, and about to rise clear to the sky
the North Wind, to loosen the keels.
which the winds and the right hand, skilled in equal control,
held mingled for a long time, and across the wide sea,
as on land, the column closed with propped-up sterns.
But savage night snatched away the measure of wind and the tension of sail
from the sailors and shook the sterns from their order.
                  705
Thus the Strymon, winter driving off the cold, leaves the cranes to the marshes, Nile,
and in their first flight they form varied figures, chance directing their shapes;
soon, when the deeper South strikes their stretched wings,
confused, rashly they are gathered into mingled orbits.                  715

et turbata perit dispersis littera pinnis.
cum primum redeunte die uiolentior aer
puppibus incubuit Phoebeo concitus ortu,
praetereunt frustra temptati litora Lissi
Nymphaeumque tenent: nudas Aquilonibus undas                  720
succedens Boreae iam portum fecerat Auster.
     undique conlatis in robur Caesaris armis
summa uidens duri Magnus discrimina Martis
iam castris instare suis seponere tutum
coniugii decreuit onus Lesboque remota                  725
te procul a saeui strepitu, Cornelia, belli
occulere. heu, quantum mentes dominatur in aequas
iusta Venus! dubium trepidumque ad proelia, Magne,
te quoque fecit amor; quod nolles stare sub ictu
fortunae quo mundus erat Romanaque fata,                  730

and the litter, scattered, perishes with its dispersed plumes.
as soon as day returned and the air grew more violent
it fell upon the sterns, roused by Phoebus’ rising,
they pass the shores of Lissus in vain, and hold the Nymphaeum: the waves, laid bare to the North Winds,                  720
the South Wind, succeeding Boreas, had already made a harbour.
     with Caesar’s arms from all sides joined into one strength
Magnus, seeing the summit dangers of stern Mars,
judged it now safe to set aside the burden of marriage
and, Lesbos removed, to conceal you, Cornelia, far away                  725
from the savage din of war. Ah, how much just Venus rules minds even in fair affairs!
Love made you, too, Magne, doubtful and fearful of battles;
that you would not wish to stand beneath the stroke of fortune
where the world was Roman and the Roman fates,                  730

coniunx sola fuit. mentem iam uerba paratam
destituunt, blandaeque iuuat uentura trahentem
indulgere morae et tempus subducere fatis.
nocte sub extrema pulso torpore quietis
dum fouet amplexu grauidum Cornelia curis 735
pectus et auersi petit oscula grata mariti,
umentis mirata genas percussaque caeco
uolnere non audet flentem deprendere Magnum.
ille gemens 'non nunc uita mihi dulcior,' inquit
'cum taedet uitae, laeto sed tempore, coniunx, 740
uenit maesta dies et quam nimiumque parumque
distulimus; iam totus adest in proelia Caesar.
cedendum est bellis, quorum tibi tuta latebra
Lesbos erit. desiste preces temptare: negaui
iam mihi.

his wife alone remained. words now forsake a mind already prepared
and it pleases the flattering things about to come, drawing her on,
to indulge delay and to withdraw the hour from the fates.
at night, with the last torpor of rest driven off,
while Cornelia, heavy with cares, cherishes him in her embrace 735
and seeks his breast and, turned away, the dear kisses of her husband,
marvelling at her wet cheeks and struck by a secret wound
she does not dare to catch Magnus weeping. He, groaning, says, 'Life is no sweeter to me now,
since life wearies me—yet at a glad time, wife,
a sorrowful day has come, and how much and how insufficiently
we have put it off; now Caesar is wholly present for battles. 740
we must yield to wars, for whose sake Lesbos will be a safe refuge for you. Cease to urge your prayers: I have already refused (it) to myself.'

non longos a me patiere recessus; 745

departures from me will not endure long; 745

praecipites aderunt casus: properante ruina
summa cadunt. satis est audisse pericula Magni;
meque tuus decepit amor, ciuilia bella
si spectare potes. nam me iam Marte parato
securos cepisse pudet cum coniuge somnos, 750
eque tuo, quatiunt miserum cum classica mundum,
surrexisse sinu.

headlong calamities draw near: with the ruin hurrying
they fall from the summit. it is enough to have heard of the perils of Magnus;
and your love deceived me, if you can behold civil wars.
for now, with Mars ready, I am ashamed to have taken secure
sleep with my wife, 750
and that at the blast of your trumpets, which shake the wretched world,
they have risen within my bosom.

uereor ciuilibus armis
Pompeium nullo tristem committere damno.
tutior interea populis et tutior omni
rege late, positamque procul fortuna mariti 755
non tota te mole premat. si numina nostras
inpulerint acies, maneat pars optima Magni,
sitque mihi, si fata prement uictorque cruentus,
quo fugisse uelim.' uix tantum infirma dolorem
cepit, et attonito cesserunt pectore sensus. 760

I fear to entrust Pompey to civil arms, that no sad damage befall him.
Meanwhile may you be safer among the peoples and safer than every king far and wide,
and may fortune, set far from your husband, not press you with her whole weight 755
If our battle-lines have driven the gods on, let the best part of Magnus remain,
and let it be mine, if the fates press and I, victorious and blood-stained,
to which place I would wish to have fled.' Scarcely did such a weak sorrow seize him,
and his senses departed from his astonished breast. 760

tandem uox maestas potuit proferre querellas.
'nil mihi de fatis thalami superisque relictum est,
Magne, queri: nostros non rumpit funus amores
nec diri fax summa rogi, sed sorte frequenti
plebeiaque nimis careo dimissa marito. 765
hostis ad aduentum rumpamus foedera taedae,
placemus socerum. sic est tibi cognita, Magne,
nostra fides? credisne aliquid mihi tutius esse
quam tibi?

at last a sorrowful voice was able to utter complaints.
'Nothing is left for me to lament concerning the fates of the bridal-chamber and the gods above, Magne: our loves do not break a funeral, nor the torch at the summit of the dread pyre, but by frequent lot and by the populace I am sorely deprived, dismissed by my husband. 765
Shall we, at the enemy's arrival, break the pledges of the wedding-torch, shall we placate the father-in-law? Is our fidelity thus known to you, Magne? Do you believe aught is safer for me than for you?'

non olim casu pendemus ab uno?
fulminibus me, saeue, iubes tantaeque ruinae 770
absentem praestare caput? secura uidetur
sors tibi, cum facias etiamnunc uota, perisse?
ut nolim seruire malis sed morte parata
te sequar ad manes, feriat dum maesta remotas
fama procul terras, uiuam tibi nempe superstes. 775
adde quod adsuescis fatis tantumque dolorem,
crudelis, me ferre doces. ignosce fatenti,
posse pati timeo.

shall we not at some time hang by the chance of one man?
by thunderbolts, cruel one, do you bid me, and by so great a ruin, 770
to present my head for him while absent? does destiny seem secure to you,since even now you make vows that he is dead? for I would not wish to serve evils but, ready for death,
I would follow you to the manes; let sad rumor strike lands far away,
while I live, plainly surviving for you. 775
add that you grow accustomed to fates and, cruel one, teach me to bear so much pain.
forgive one confessing: I fear that I can endure.

quod si sunt uota, deisque
audior, euentus rerum sciet ultima coniunx.
sollicitam rupes iam te uictore tenebunt, 780

but if there are vows, and I am heard by the gods,
the final outcome of things my wife shall know.
the rocks will now hold you, anxious, with you as victor, 780

et puppem quae fata feret tam laeta timebo.
nec soluent audita metus mihi prospera belli,
cum uacuis proiecta locis a Caesare possim
uel fugiente capi. notescent litora clari
nominis exilio, positaque ibi coniuge Magni                  785
quis Mytilenaeas poterit nescire latebras?
hoc precor extremum: si nil tibi uicta relinquent
tutius arma fuga, cum te commiseris undis,
quolibet infaustam potius deflecte carinam:
litoribus quaerere meis.' sic fata relictis                  790
exiluit stratis amens tormentaque nulla
uult differre mora. non maesti pectora Magni
sustinet amplexu dulci, non colla tenere,
extremusque perit tam longi fructus amoris,
praecipitantque suos luctus, neuterque recedens                  795

and shall I fear the stern which the fates will bear so gladly?
nor will prosperous sounds of war dispel the fears I have heard,
when, cast into vacant places by Caesar, I may be captured
or seized while he flees. The shores will be made known by the exile
of a renowned name, and with the wife of Magnus set down there                  785
who will not be able to know the Mytilenaean hiding-places?
This I pray as my last: if conquered arms leave you nothing
safer than flight, when you entrust yourself to the waves,
rather veer your unlucky keel to any harbor:
to seek my shores.' Thus, having left behind his beds                  790
he sprang forth madly and desires no delay of torments.
The sorrowful breast of Magnus cannot endure a sweet embrace,
nor hold his neck, and the last fruit of so long a love perishes,
they hasten their own griefs, and neither, withdrawing                  795

sustinuit dixisse uale, uitamque per omnem
nulla fuit tam maesta dies; nam cetera damna
durata iam mente malis firmaque tulerunt.
     labitur infelix manibusque excepta suorum
fertur ad aequoreas, ac se prosternit, harenas,                  800
litoraque ipsa tenet, tandemque inlata carinaest.
non sic infelix patriam portusque reliquit
Hesperios, saeui premerent cum Caesaris arma.
fida comes Magni uadit duce sola relicto
Pompeiumque fugit. quae nox tibi proxima uenit,                  805
insomnis; uiduo tum primum frigida lecto
atque insueta quies uni, nudumque marito
non haerente latus. somno quam saepe grauata
deceptis uacuum manibus conplexa cubile est
atque oblita fugae quaesiuit nocte maritum!                  810

suffered to have said farewell, and through her whole life no day was so sad; for the other losses, having been endured, they bore with a mind now firm amid evils. the unhappy woman slips and, taken by the hands of her own, is borne to the sea‑shores, and casts herself down upon the sands, 800
and she clings to the very shores, and at last is put aboard the launched keel. Not thus unhappily did she leave her country and the western harbors, when the arms of fierce Caesar pressed upon them. The faithful companion of Magnus goes, her leader left alone, and flees to Pompey. What night next came to you, sleepless; then for the first time a chill rest on the widowed couch and an unaccustomed quiet for one, and a side not clinging to a naked husband. How often, weighted by sleep, deceived, she clasped the empty bed with her hands and, forgetful of flight, sought her husband in the night! 810

nam quamuis flamma tacitas urente medullas
non iuuat in toto corpus iactae cubili:
seruatur pars illa tori. caruisse timebat
Pompeio; sed non superi tam laeta parabant:
instabat miserae, Magnum quae redderet, hora.

for although the flame, burning the secret marrows, does not consume the whole body on the cast couch:
that part of the bed is preserved. she feared to be bereft of Pompey; but the gods above were not preparing so joyful things:
the hour pressed upon the wretched woman which would restore Magnus.