Lucan: DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA

Segnior, Oceano quam lex aeterna uocabat,
luctificus Titan numquam magis aethera contra
egit equos cursumque polo rapiente retorsit,
defectusque pati uoluit raptaeque labores
lucis, et attraxit nubes, non pabula flammis                  5
sed ne Thessalico purus luceret in orbe.
     at nox felicis Magno pars ultima uitae
sollicitos uana decepit imagine somnos.
nam Pompeiani uisus sibi sede theatri
innumeram effigiem Romanae cernere plebis                  10
attollique suum laetis ad sidera nomen
uocibus et plausu cuneos certare sonantes;
qualis erat populi facies clamorque fauentis
olim, cum iuuenis primique aetate triumphi,
post domitas gentes quas torrens ambit Hiberus                  15

Slower than the eternal law was calling him to Ocean,
the grief-bringing Titan never more drove his horses against the aether
nor more twisted back his course with the pole snatching him away,
and he was willing to suffer eclipses and the labors
of stolen light, and he drew clouds, not fodder for the flames                  5
but lest he might shine pure in the Thessalian orb.
     but night, the last part of Magnus’s happy life,
deceived his anxious sleeps with an empty image.
for Pompey seemed to himself, in the seat of the theatre,
to behold an innumerable effigy of the Roman plebs                  10
and that his name was being lifted to the stars by joyful voices,
and the wedges were vying with resounding applause;
such as was the face of the people and the shout of those favoring
once, when, a youth and in the age of his first triumph,
after the tamed nations which the torrential Hiberus girds                  15

et quaecumque fugax Sertorius inpulit arma,
Vespere pacato, pura uenerabilis aeque
quam currus ornante toga, plaudente senatu
sedit adhuc Romanus eques; seu fine bonorum
anxia mens curis ad tempora laeta refugit,                  20
siue per ambages solitas contraria uisis
uaticinata quies magni tulit omina planctus,
seu uetito patrias ultra tibi cernere sedes
sic Romam Fortuna dedit. ne rumpite somnos,
castrorum uigiles, nullas tuba uerberet aures.                  25
crastina dira quies et imagine maesta diurna
undique funestas acies feret, undique bellum.
unde pares somnos populi noctemque beatam?
o felix, si te uel sic tua Roma uideret!
donassent utinam superi patriaeque tibique                  30

and whatever arms the fugitive Sertorius drove, with evening calmed, in the pure toga, as venerable as the toga that adorns the chariot, with the senate applauding, the Roman knight still sat; whether an anxious mind, at the end of blessings, fled back to joyful times,                  20
or sleep, vaticinating through its accustomed circumlocutions, brought omens of great lamentation contrary to the visions, or, since it was forbidden for you ever again to behold your native seats, thus did Fortune grant you Rome. Do not break his sleep, camp watchmen; let the tuba smite no ears.                  25
tomorrow a dire repose and its sad daylight image will bring from every side death-bringing battle-lines, from every side war. Whence for the people equal sleep and a blessed night? O happy, if your Rome might see you even thus! would that the gods above had granted to your fatherland and to you                  30

unum, Magne, diem, quo fati certus uterque
extremum tanti fructum raperetis amoris.
tu uelut Ausonia uadis moriturus in urbe,
illa rati semper de te sibi conscia uoti
hoc scelus haud umquam fatis haerere putauit,                  35
sic se dilecti tumulum quoque perdere Magni.
te mixto flesset luctu iuuenisque senexque
iniussusque puer; lacerasset crine soluto
pectora femineum ceu Bruti funere uolgus.
nunc quoque, tela licet paueant uictoris iniqui,                  40
nuntiet ipse licet Caesar tua funera, flebunt,
sed dum tura ferunt, dum laurea serta Tonanti.
o miseri, quorum gemitus edere dolorem,
qui te non pleno pariter planxere theatro.
     uicerat astra iubar, cum mixto murmure turba                  45

one, Great One, day, on which each, assured of fate,
might snatch the ultimate fruit of so great a love.
you as if you were going to die in an Ausonian city,
she, ever conscious in herself of a vow concerning you,
thought that this crime would never stick to the fates,                  35
that thus she should even lose the tomb of her beloved Magnus.
for you both youth and old man and the boy unbidden would have wept
with mingled mourning; with hair loosened the feminine crowd
would have torn their breasts, as at the funeral of Brutus.
now also, although they fear the weapons of the iniquitous victor,                  40
although Caesar himself announce your obsequies, they will weep,
but while they bring incense, while laurel garlands to the Thunderer.
O wretched they, whose groans may not give forth their grief,
who did not bewail you together in a full theater.
     the radiance had conquered the stars, when with mingled murmur the crowd                  45

castrorum fremuit fatisque trahentibus orbem
signa petit pugnae. miseri pars maxima uolgi
non totum uisura diem tentoria circum
ipsa ducis queritur magnoque accensa tumultu
mortis uicinae properantis admouet horas.                  50
dira subit rabies: sua quisque ac publica fata
praecipitare cupit; segnis pauidusque uocatur
ac nimium patiens soceri Pompeius, et orbis
indulgens regno, qui tot simul undique gentis
iuris habere sui uellet pacemque timeret.                  55
nec non et reges populique queruntur Eoi
bella trahi patriaque procul tellure teneri.
hoc placet, o superi, cum uobis uertere cuncta
propositum, nostris erroribus addere crimen?
cladibus inruimus nocituraque poscimus arma;                  60

the camp roared, and with the Fates dragging the orb
it seeks the signals of battle. the greatest part of the common throng,
not to see the whole day, around the very tents
of the leader laments, and, inflamed with great tumult,
brings near the hastening hours of neighboring death.                  50
dire rabies comes upon them: each longs to precipitate
his own and the public fates; Pompey is called sluggish and timorous,
and too patient toward his father-in-law, and the orb
as indulgent to kingship, which would wish to hold so many peoples
on every side at once under its own law and would fear peace.                  55
and likewise both kings and the Eastern peoples complain
that wars are dragged out and that they are held far from their native soil.
does this please, O gods above, when it is your purpose to turn all things,
to add a charge to our errors?
we rush into disasters and demand arms that will harm us;                  60

in Pompeianis uotum est Pharsalia castris.
cunctorum uoces Romani maximus auctor
Tullius eloquii, cuius sub iure togaque
pacificas saeuos tremuit Catilina securis,
pertulit iratus bellis, cum rostra forumque                  65
optaret passus tam longa silentia miles.
addidit inualidae robur facundia causae.
     'hoc pro tot meritis solum te, Magne, precatur
uti se Fortuna uelis, proceresque tuorum
castrorum regesque tui cum supplice mundo                  70
adfusi uinci socerum patiare rogamus.
humani generis tam longo tempore bellum
Caesar erit? merito Pompeium uincere lente
gentibus indignum est a transcurrente subactis.
quo tibi feruor abit aut quo fiducia fati?                  75

In the Pompeian camps Pharsalia is the vow.
the voices of all, the Roman greatest author
Tullius of eloquence, under whose law and toga
savage Catiline trembled at pacific axes,
he, angered at wars, endured it, when the rostra and the forum                  65
the soldier, having suffered such long silences, desired.
eloquence added stoutness to an invalid cause.
     “This alone, for so many merits, does you, Magnus, beseech:
that you would will Fortune to be yours; and we, the grandees of your
camps and the kings of your world, poured around you as suppliants,                  70
beg that you allow your father-in-law to be conquered.
Shall Caesar be a war to the human race for so long a time?
It is by good right unworthy for the nations, subdued in passing,
to conquer Pompey slowly.
Whither has your fervor gone, or where your confidence in fate?”                  75

de superis, ingrate, times causamque senatus
credere dis dubitas? ipsae tua signa reuellent
prosilientque acies: pudeat uicisse coactum.
si duce te iusso, si nobis bella geruntur,
sit iuris, quocumque uelint, concurrere campo.                  80
quid mundi gladios a sanguine Caesaris arces?
uibrant tela manus, uix signa morantia quisquam
expectat: propera, ne te tua classica linquant.
scire senatus auet, miles te, Magne, sequatur
an comes.' ingemuit rector sensitque deorum                  85
esse dolos et fata suae contraria menti.
'si placet hoc' inquit 'cunctis, si milite Magno,
non duce tempus eget, nil ultra fata morabor:
inuoluat populos una fortuna ruina
sitque hominum magnae lux ista nouissima parti.                  90

do you, ungrateful one, fear concerning the gods above, and do you hesitate to entrust the cause of the senate to the gods? the battle-lines themselves will tear away your standards and leap forth: be ashamed to have conquered under compulsion. if wars are being waged for us with you as leader by command, let it be of right for them to clash on whatever field they wish.                  80
why do you ward off the swords of the world from the blood of Caesar? hands brandish weapons, scarcely does anyone await the delaying standards: make haste, lest your battle-trumpets leave you. the senate longs to know whether, soldier, he follows you, Magnus, or accompanies you as a comrade.' the ruler groaned and perceived that there were deceits of the gods and that the fates were contrary to his intention.                  85
'if this pleases all,' he says, 'if the time requires Magnus as a soldier, not as a leader, i will delay nothing beyond the fates: let one Fortune roll the peoples into ruin, and let that light be the very last day for a great part of mankind.'                  90

testor, Roma, tamen Magnum quo cuncta perirent
accepisse diem. potuit tibi uolnere nullo
stare labor belli; potui sine caede subactum
captiuumque ducem uiolatae tradere paci.
quis furor, o caeci, scelerum? ciuilia bella 95
gesturi metuunt ne non cum sanguine uincant.
abstulimus terras, exclusimus aequore toto,
ad praematuras segetum ieiuna rapinas
agmina conpulimus, uotumque effecimus hosti
ut mallet sterni gladiis mortemque suorum 100
permiscere meis.

I call you to witness, Rome, that nevertheless Magnus accepted the day on which all things would perish.
for you the labor of war could have stood with no wound; I could, without slaughter, have delivered the subdued and captive leader to outraged peace.
what madness, O blind men, of crimes? they, about to wage civil wars, fear lest they not conquer with blood. 95
we have taken away the lands, we have shut him out from the whole sea,
we have driven the ranks to hungry rapines of unripe harvests,
and we have brought it to pass for the enemy, as a vowed boon, that he would prefer to be laid low by swords and to commingle the death of his men with mine. 100

belli pars magna peracta est
his, quibus effectum est ne pugnam tiro paueret,
si modo uirtutis stimulis iraeque calore
signa petunt. multos in summa pericula misit
uenturi timor ipse mali. fortissimus ille est 105

A great part of the war has been completed
by those for whom it has been brought about that the tyro not cower from the fight,
if only, under the goads of virtue and the heat of wrath,
they seek the standards. has sent many into utmost dangers
the very fear of the evil to come. He is the most brave 105

qui, promptus metuenda pati, si comminus instent,
et differre potest. placet haec tam prospera rerum
tradere fortunae, gladio permittere mundi
discrimen; pugnare ducem quam uincere malunt.
res mihi Romanas dederas, Fortuna, regendas: 110
accipe maiores et caeco in Marte tuere.
Pompei nec crimen erit nec gloria bellum.
uincis apud superos uotis me, Caesar, iniquis:
pugnatur. quantum scelerum quantumque malorum
in populos lux ista feret!

he who, ready to endure things to be feared if they press at close quarters, can also defer. it pleases them to hand over these so prosperous affairs to fortune, to commit the world’s decision to the sword; they prefer their leader to fight rather than to conquer. you had given me the roman state to rule, fortune: receive greater charges and protect them in blind mars. 110
for pompey the war will be neither a crime nor a glory. you outdo me among the gods above by unjust vows, caesar: the battle is joined. how many crimes and how many evils will that day bring upon the peoples!

quot regna iacebunt! 115
sanguine Romano quam turbidus ibit Enipeus!
prima uelim caput hoc funesti lancea belli,
si sine momento rerum partisque ruina
casurum est, feriat; neque enim uictoria Magno
laetior. aut populis inuisum hac clade peracta 120

how many realms will lie prostrate! 115
how turbid with Roman blood will the Enipeus flow!
I would wish that the first spear of this funereal war strike this head,
if it is to fall without the momentum of affairs and the ruin of a party;
for no victory would be more gladsome to Magnus.
Or, made invidious to the peoples with this disaster accomplished 120

aut hodie Pompeius erit miserabile nomen:
omne malum uicti, quod sors feret ultima rerum,
omne nefas uictoris erit.' sic fatur et arma
permittit populis frenosque furentibus ira
laxat et ut uictus uiolento nauita Coro 125
dat regimen uentis ignauumque arte relicta
puppis onus trahitur. trepido confusa tumultu
castra fremunt, animique truces sua pectora pulsant
ictibus incertis. multorum pallor in ore
mortis uenturae faciesque simillima fato. 130
aduenisse diem qui fatum rebus in aeuum
conderet humanis, et quaeri, Roma quid esset,
illo Marte, palam est.

or today Pompey will be a pitiable name:
every evil of the conquered, which the ultimate lot of affairs will bring,
every nefariousness of the victor will be.' Thus he speaks and entrusts arms
to the peoples and loosens the reins for those raging with anger,
and as a sailor overcome by the violent Corus wind 125
gives the steering to the winds, and the idle burden of the stern, with art abandoned,
is dragged. The camp, confounded in trembling tumult, roars,
and fierce spirits beat their own chests with uncertain strokes.
Pallor is on the faces of many, the visage of coming death,
and an aspect most similar to doom. 130
That the day had arrived which would found fate for human affairs forever,
and that the question—what Rome would be—was being asked, in that warfare,
was clear.

sua quisque pericula nescit
attonitus maiore metu. quis litora ponto
obruta, quis summis cernens in montibus aequor 135

each one is ignorant of his own perils,
thunderstruck by a greater fear. who, discerning shores overwhelmed by the sea,
who, discerning the level expanse upon the highest mountains 135

aetheraque in terras deiecto sole cadentem,
tot rerum finem, timeat sibi? non uacat ullos
pro se ferre metus: urbi Magnoque timetur.
nec gladiis habuere fidem, nisi cautibus asper
exarsit mucro; tunc omnis lancea saxo                  140
erigitur, tendunt neruis melioribus arcus,
cura fuit lectis pharetras inplere sagittis,
auget eques stimulos frenorumque artat habenas.
si liceat superis hominum conferre labores,
non aliter Phlegra rabidos tollente gigantas                  145
Martius incaluit Siculis incudibus ensis
et rubuit flammis iterum Neptunia cuspis
spiculaque extenso Paean Pythone recoxit,
Pallas Gorgoneos diffudit in aegida crines,
Pallenaea Ioui mutauit fulmina Cyclops.                  150

and the ether, with the sun cast down, falling upon the lands,
the end of so many things—would he fear for himself? there is no leisure
to bear any fears for oneself: fear is felt for the City and for Magnus.
nor did they have trust in swords, unless the point, roughened on rocks,
flashed fire; then every lance is edged on stone,                  140
they stretch bows with better sinews,
care was to fill quivers with chosen arrows,
the horseman increases his spurs and tightens the reins of the bridles.
if it were permitted to the gods to compare the labors of men,
not otherwise, with Phlegra lifting the rabid Giants,                  145
did the martial sword grow hot on Sicilian anvils
and the Neptunian spear redden with flames again,
and Paean, with Python stretched out, retempered his darts,
Pallas poured the Gorgonian hairs into the aegis,
the Pallenean Cyclops changed the thunderbolts for Jove.                  150

     non tamen abstinuit uenturos prodere casus
per uarias Fortuna notas. nam, Thessala rura
cum peterent, totus uenientibus obstitit aether
[inque oculis hominum fregerunt fulmina nubes]
aduersasque faces inmensoque igne columnas                   155
et trabibus mixtis auidos typhonas aquarum
detulit atque oculos ingesto fulgure clausit;
excussit cristas galeis capulosque solutis
perfudit gladiis ereptaque pila liquauit,
aetherioque nocens fumauit sulpure ferrum;                  160
[nec non innumero cooperta examine signa]
uixque reuolsa solo maiori pondere pressum
signiferi mersere caput rorantia fletu
usque ad Thessaliam Romana et publica signa.
admotus superis discussa fugit ab ara                  165
taurus et Emathios praeceps se iecit in agros,
nullaque funestis inuenta est uictima sacris.
(at tu quos scelerum superos, quas rite uocasti
Eumenidas, Caesar? Stygii quae numina regni
infernumque nefas et mersos nocte furores                  170

nevertheless Fortune did not refrain from betraying the events to come
through various notes. For, when they were seeking the Thessalian fields,
the whole aether stood in the way of those coming
[and in the eyes of men the clouds broke forth with lightning],
brought down opposing torches and columns with immense fire, 155
and, with beams mingled in, voracious Typhons of waters,
and she shut their eyes with a thunderbolt driven in;
she shook the crests from helmets and, the hilts loosened,
drenched the swords, and melted the javelins snatched away,
and the iron smoked, noxious with ethereal sulphur;160
[nor were the standards not covered by an innumerable swarm],
and scarcely torn from the soil, pressed by a greater weight,
the standard-bearers plunged their heads, dripping with weeping,
and the Roman and public standards, all the way to Thessaly.
The bull, brought near to the gods, fled from the shaken altar,165
and headlong hurled itself into the Emathian fields,
and no victim was found for the funereal rites.
(But you—what gods of crimes, what Eumenides did you duly call,
Caesar? what numina of the Stygian realm and infernal nefas
and rages plunged in night170

inpia tam saeue gesturus bella litasti?)
iam (dubium, monstrisne deum, nimione pauore
crediderint) multis concurrere uisus Olympo
Pindus et abruptis mergi conuallibus Haemus,
edere nocturnas belli Pharsalia uoces,                  175
ire per Ossaeam rapidus Boebeida sanguis;
inque uicem uoltus tenebris mirantur opertos
et pallere diem galeisque incumbere noctem
defunctosque patres et iuncti sanguinis umbras
ante oculos uolitare suos. sed mentibus unum                  180
hoc solamen erat, quod uoti turba nefandi
conscia, quae patrum iugulos, quae pectora fratrum
sperabat, gaudet monstris, mentisque tumultum
atque omen scelerum subitos putat esse furores.
     quid mirum populos quos lux extrema manebat                  185

did you sacrifice, intending to wage impious wars so savagely?)
now (doubtful whether they believed the gods because of portents, or from too great fear)
to many Pindus seemed to clash with Olympus and Haemus to be plunged with its valleys torn away,
Pharsalia to utter the nocturnal voices of war,                  175
and swift Boebeian blood to go through the Ossaean region;
and in turn they marvel that faces are veiled by darkness
and that the day grows pale and night presses upon the helmets,
and that dead fathers and the shades of kindred blood
flit before their own eyes. But in their minds there was this one                  180
solace: that the crowd conscious of its nefarious vow—
which hoped for the throats of fathers, the breasts of brothers—
rejoices at the prodigies, and deems the turmoil of mind
and the sudden frenzies to be an omen of crimes.
     what wonder that the peoples whom the final light awaited                  185

lymphato trepidasse metu, praesaga malorum
si data mens homini est? Tyriis qui Gadibus hospes
adiacet Armeniumque bibit Romanus Araxen,
sub quocumque die, quocumque est sidere mundi,
maeret et ignorat causas animumque dolentem                  190
corripit, Emathiis quid perdat nescius aruis.
Euganeo, si uera fides memorantibus, augur
colle sedens, Aponus terris ubi fumifer exit
atque Antenorei dispergitur unda Timaui,
'uenit summa dies, geritur res maxima,' dixit                  195
'inpia concurrunt Pompei et Caesaris arma',
seu tonitrus ac tela Iouis praesaga notauit,
aethera seu totum discordi obsistere caelo
perspexitque polos, seu numen in aethere maestum
solis in obscuro pugnam pallore notauit.                  200

to have quailed with crazed (lymphatic) fear, if a mind presaging evils is given to man? He who, a guest, lies beside Tyrian Gades,
and the Roman who drinks the Armenian Araxes—under whatever day, under whatever star of the world he is—
mourns and does not know the causes, and he seizes his grieving spirit, 190
not knowing what he loses in the Emathian fields.
On the Euganean hill, if there is true trust in those who recount it, an augur sitting,
where Aponus steams forth from the lands and the wave of Antenor’s Timavus is scattered,
said, “the final day comes, the greatest affair is being carried on;
impious arms of Pompey and Caesar run together,” 195
whether he marked the presaging thunders and darts of Jove,
or saw the whole aether opposing with a discordant sky
and the poles, or noted a mournful numen in the aether—
the battle in the sun’s pallor in obscurity.200

dissimilem certe cunctis quos explicat egit
Thessalicum natura diem: si cuncta perito
augure mens hominum caeli noua signa notasset,
spectari toto potuit Pharsalia mundo.
o summos hominum, quorum fortuna per orbem                  205
signa dedit, quorum fatis caelum omne uacauit!
haec et apud seras gentes populosque nepotum,
siue sua tantum uenient in saecula fama
siue aliquid magnis nostri quoque cura laboris
nominibus prodesse potest, cum bella legentur,                  210
spesque metusque simul perituraque uota mouebunt,
attonitique omnes ueluti uenientia fata,
non transmissa, legent et adhuc tibi, Magne, fauebunt.
     miles, ut aduerso Phoebi radiatus ab ictu
descendens totos perfudit lumine colles,                  215

dissimilar certainly to all the days which nature unfolds, she conducted the Thessalian day: if the mind of men, with a skilled augur, had noted all the new signs of the sky, Pharsalia could have been beheld by the whole world.
O highest of men, whose fortuna gave signs throughout the orb, at whose fates the whole heaven stood empty! 205
these things also among late nations and the peoples of descendants, whether their fama will come into the ages by itself alone, or whether the care of our great labor can also in some way profit their names, when the wars are read, both hope and fear together and vows doomed to perish will stir,
and all, thunderstruck, as though the fates were coming, not passed, will read, and will still favor you, Magnus.
a soldier, when, irradiated by the opposing stroke of Phoebus, he came down, flooded the whole hills with light, 215

non temere inmissus campis: stetit ordine certo
infelix acies. cornus tibi cura sinistri,
Lentule, cum prima, quae tum fuit optima bello,
et quarta legione datur. tibi, numine pugnax
aduerso Domiti, dextri frons tradita Martis. 220
at medii robur belli fortissima densant
agmina, quae Cilicum terris deducta tenebat
Scipio, miles in hoc, Libyco dux primus in orbe.
at iuxta fluuios et stagna undantis Enipei
Cappadocum montana cohors et largus habenae 225
Ponticus ibat eques.

not rashly sent into the plains: the ill-fated battle-line stood in fixed order. the care of the left wing to you, Lentulus, is given, with the First—then the best in war—and the Fourth legion. to you, Domitius, pugnacious with an adverse numen, the right front of Mars was entrusted. 220
but the strength of the battle’s center the most valiant ranks mass together, which, drawn from the lands of the Cilicians, Scipio held— a soldier in this, the foremost leader in the Libyan world. and next to the rivers and the pools of the surging Enipeus the mountainous cohort of the Cappadocians, and the Pontic horseman lavish of the rein, went. 225

sicci sed plurima campi
tetrarchae regesque tenent magnique tyranni
atque omnis Latio quae seruit purpura ferro.
illuc et Libye Numidas et Creta Cydonas
misit, Ityraeis cursus fuit inde sagittis, 230

but the greater part of the dry plain
tetrarchs and kings and mighty tyrants hold,
and all the purple which serves Latium’s iron.
Thither too Libya sent Numidians, and Crete Cydonians;
from there the onrush was with Ituraean arrows, 230

inde, truces Galli, solitum prodistis in hostem,
illic pugnaces commouit Hiberia caetras.
eripe uictori gentis et sanguine mundi
fuso, Magne, semel totos consume triumphos.
     illo forte die Caesar statione relicta                  235
ad segetum raptus moturus signa repente
conspicit in planos hostem descendere campos,
oblatumque uidet uotis sibi mille petitum
tempus, in extremos quo mitteret omnia casus.
aeger quippe morae flagransque cupidine regni                  240
coeperat exiguo tractu ciuilia bella
ut lentum damnare nefas. discrimina postquam
aduentare ducum supremaque proelia uidit
casuram <et> fatis sensit nutare ruinam,
illa quoque in ferrum rabies promptissima paulum                  245

thence, fierce Gauls, you displayed your wont against the enemy;
there Iberia stirred the pugnacious caetrae-bucklers.
snatch, Magnus, from the victor—when the blood of your race and of the world is poured out—and once for all consume entire triumphs.
     on that day by chance Caesar, his outpost left behind,                  235
hurried to the standing grain, suddenly about to set the standards in motion,
beholds the foe descending into the level plains,
and he sees time offered to him—sought by a thousand vows—
in which he might commit all things to the last hazards.
for, sick at delay and blazing with the cupidity of kingship,                  240
he had begun, at the slight dragging, to damn the civil wars as a slow impiety.
after he saw the critical dangers of the leaders approaching and the ultimate battles,
and perceived that ruin was about to fall and was nodding to the fates,
even that frenzy, most ready for the sword, for a little <et> wavered,                  245

languit, et casus audax spondere secundos
mens stetit in dubio, quam nec sua fata timere
nec Magni sperare sinunt. formidine mersa
prosilit hortando melior fiducia uolgo.
'o domitor mundi, rerum fortuna mearum,                  250
miles, adest totiens optatae copia pugnae.
nil opus est uotis, iam fatum accersite ferro.
in manibus uestris, quantus sit Caesar, habetis.
haec est illa dies mihi quam Rubiconis ad undas
promissam memini, cuius spe mouimus arma,                  255
in quam distulimus uetitos remeare triumphos,
[haec eadem est hodie quae pignora quaeque penates
reddat et emerito faciat uos Marte colonos]
haec, fato quae teste probet, quis iustius arma
sumpserit; haec acies uictum factura nocentem est.                  260

it grew faint, and the mind, bold to pledge favorable outcomes, stood in doubt, which neither its own fates allow to fear nor Magnus’s to hope. Submerged in dread, a better confidence leaps forth by exhorting the crowd. 'O tamer of the world, fortune of my affairs, soldier, the opportunity of battle so often desired is at hand.                  250
There is no need of vows; now summon fate with iron. In your hands you hold how great Caesar is. This is that day which I remember was promised to me at the waves of the Rubicon, on the hope of which we set our arms in motion,                  255
to which we have deferred the triumphs forbidden to be returned. [This is that same today which may restore the pledges and the Penates, and may make you colonists with Mars merited in service.] This, with Fate as witness, will prove who has more justly taken up arms; this battleline is going to make the guilty one conquered.                  260

si pro me patriam ferro flammisque petistis,
nunc pugnate truces gladioque exsoluite culpam:
nulla manus, belli mutato iudice, pura est.
non mihi res agitur, sed, uos ut libera sitis
turba, precor gentes ut ius habeatis in omnes.                  265
ipse ego priuatae cupidus me reddere uitae
plebeiaque toga modicum conponere ciuem,
omnia dum uobis liceant, nihil esse recuso.
inuidia regnate mea. nec sanguine multo
spem mundi petitis: Grais delecta iuuentus                  270
gymnasiis aderit studioque ignaua palaestrae
et uix arma ferens, aut mixtae dissona turbae
barbaries, non illa tubas, non agmine moto
clamorem latura suum. ciuilia paucae
bella manus facient: pugnae pars magna leuabit                  275

if for me you have sought the fatherland with iron and with flames,
now fight, savage ones, and by the sword discharge the blame:
no hand, with the judge of the war changed, is pure.
it is not my affair that is at stake, but, that you may be free
throng, I pray that you, peoples, may have right over all.                  265
I myself, eager to restore myself to a private life
and, with a plebeian toga, to compose a moderate citizen,
so long as all things are permitted to you, refuse to be nothing.
reign—and let the envy be mine. nor with much blood
do you seek the hope of the world: the youth chosen from the Greeks                  270
will come from the gymnasia and the slothful palaestra’s zeal,
and scarcely bearing arms; or the barbarism of a mixed, discordant throng,
not that which will bring trumpets, nor, when the column is set in motion,
its own clamor. a few hands
will make the civil wars: a great part of the fight will lighten                  275

his orbem populis Romanumque obteret hostem.
ite per ignauas gentes famosaque regna
et primo ferri motu prosternite mundum;
sitque palam, quas tot duxit Pompeius in urbem
curribus, unius gentes non esse triumphi. 280
Armeniosne mouet Romana potentia cuius
sit ducis, aut emptum minimo uolt sanguine quisquam
barbarus Hesperiis Magnum praeponere rebus?
Romanos odere omnes, dominosque grauantur,
quos nouere, magis. sed me fortuna meorum 285
commisit manibus, quarum me Gallia testem
tot fecit bellis. cuius non militis ensem
agnoscam?

with these peoples he will crush the orb and the Roman foe.
go through the cowardly nations and the famed realms
and at the first motion of iron lay the world low;
and let it be plain that the peoples whom Pompey led
into the city in so many chariots are not the nations of a single triumph. 280
Does Roman power move the Armenians as to who is the leader of it,
or would any barbarian, his safety bought at the smallest price of blood,
wish to set Magnus before Hesperian affairs?
All hate the Romans, and they are burdened more by masters
whom they have known. But Fortune has entrusted me to the hands of my own men, 285
of whom Gaul has made me, through so many wars, a witness.
Whose soldier’s sword should I not recognize?

caelumque tremens cum lancea transit
dicere non fallar quo sit uibrata lacerto.
quod si, signa ducem numquam fallentia uestrum, 290

and when a lance passes through the trembling sky
I would not be mistaken in saying by which upper arm it was hurled.
but if the standards, never deceiving your leader, 290

conspicio faciesque truces oculosque minaces,
uicistis. uideor fluuios spectare cruoris
calcatosque simul reges sparsumque senatus
corpus et inmensa populos in caede natantis.
sed mea fata moror, qui uos in tela furentis 295
uocibus his teneo. ueniam date bella trahenti:
spe trepido; haud umquam uidi tam magna daturos
tam prope me superos; camporum limite paruo
absumus a uotis.

I behold fierce faces and menacing eyes—you have conquered. I seem to look upon rivers of blood, and kings trampled together, and the body of the senate scattered, and peoples swimming in immeasurable slaughter. But I delay my fates, I who with these words hold you, in your frenzy, from your weapons. 295
Grant pardon to one dragging out war: in hope I tremble; never have I seen the gods above so near to me, about to grant things so great; by the small boundary of the plain we are but a little removed from our vows.

ego sum cui Marte peracto
quae populi regesque tenent donare licebit. 300
quone poli motu, quo caeli sidere uerso
Thessalicae tantum, superi, permittitis orae?
aut merces hodie bellorum aut poena parata.
Caesareas spectate cruces, spectate catenas,
et caput hoc positum rostris effusaque membra 305

I am he to whom, when Mars is accomplished, it will be permitted to bestow what peoples and kings hold. 300
By what motion of the pole, with what star of the sky turned, do you, O gods above, permit so much to the Thessalian shore?
either today the wage of wars or the penalty is prepared.
Behold the Caesarean crosses, behold the chains,
and this head set upon the Rostra and the poured-out limbs 305

Saeptorumque nefas et clausi proelia Campi.
cum duce Sullano gerimus ciuilia bella.
uestri cura mouet; nam me secura manebit
sors quaesita manu: fodientem uiscera cernet
me mea qui nondum uicto respexerit hoste.                  310
di, quorum curas abduxit ab aethere tellus
Romanusque labor, uincat quicumque necesse
non putat in uictos saeuum destringere ferrum
quique suos ciues, quod signa aduersa tulerunt,
non credit fecisse nefas. Pompeius in arto                  315
agmina uestra loco uetita uirtute moueri
cum tenuit, quanto satiauit sanguine ferrum!
uos tamen hoc oro, iuuenes, ne caedere quisquam
hostis terga uelit: ciuis qui fugerit esto.
sed, dum tela micant, non uos pietatis imago                  320

Sins of the voting-fences and battles of the enclosed Field.
with a Sullan leader we wage civil wars.
your welfare moves me; for a secure lot sought by my own hand will await me:
he who looks back upon me with the foe not yet conquered will behold me
digging into my own entrails.                  310
gods, whose cares the earth and Roman labor have drawn down from aether,
let him win who does not think it necessary to draw savage steel against the conquered,
and who does not believe his fellow citizens, because they bore opposing standards,
to have committed a nefarious crime. When Pompey, in a narrow place,
held your ranks from being moved, valor forbidden by the ground,                  315
with how much blood he sated the steel!
yet this I beg you, young men: let no one wish to cut down
the backs of the enemy; let him who has fled be a citizen.
but, while the weapons flash, let not the image of pietas hold you back                  320

ulla nec aduersa conspecti fronte parentes
commoueant; uoltus gladio turbate uerendos.
siue quis infesto cognata in pectora ferro
ibit, seu nullum uiolarit uolnere pignus,
ignoti iugulum tamquam scelus inputet hostis.                  325
sternite iam uallum fossasque inplete ruina,
exeat ut plenis acies non sparsa maniplis.
parcite ne castris: uallo tendetis in illo
unde acies peritura uenit.' uix cuncta locuto
Caesare quemque suum munus trahit, armaque raptim                  330
sumpta Ceresque uiris. capiunt praesagia belli
calcatisque ruunt castris; stant ordine nullo,
arte ducis nulla, permittuntque omnia fatis.
si totidem Magni soceros totidemque petentis
urbis regna suae funesto in Marte locasses,                  335

let not any parents, beheld with an adverse front, move you; with the sword trouble visages that are to be revered.
whether someone goes with hostile steel against kindred breasts, or violates no pledge with a wound,
let him impute as crime the jugular of an unknown enemy.                  325
lay low now the rampart and fill the ditches with ruin,
that the battle-line may go out with full, not scattered, maniples.
spare not the camp: you will pitch your rampart upon that
whence the battle-line, doomed to perish, came.' scarcely had Caesar spoken all,
each man’s own duty draws him, and arms in haste                  330
are taken up, and Ceres for the men. they take up the presages of war
and rush forth with the camp trodden underfoot; they stand in no order,
with no art of a leader, and they commit all things to the fates.
if you had stationed just as many fathers-in-law of Magnus and just as many men seeking
the rule of their own city in deadly Mars (War),                  335

non tam praecipiti ruerent in proelia cursu.
     uidit ut hostiles in rectum exire cateruas
Pompeius nullasque moras permittere bello
sed superis placuisse diem, stat corde gelato
attonitus; tantoque duci sic arma timere                  340
omen erat. premit inde metus, totumque per agmen
sublimi praeuectus equo 'quem flagitat' inquit
'uestra diem uirtus, finis ciuilibus armis,
quem quaesistis, adest. totas effundite uires:
extremum ferri superest opus, unaque gentis                  345
hora trahit.

would not rush into battles with so headlong a course.
     when Pompey saw the hostile squadrons go out straight to the front
and permit no delays to war,
but that the day had pleased the gods above, he stands thunderstruck with a frozen heart,
and that so great a leader should thus fear arms was an omen.                  340
then fear presses on, and, carried forward on a lofty horse through the whole battle-line,
'the day which your virtue demands,' he says, 'the end to civil arms,
which you have sought, is here. pour out all your forces:
the final work of iron remains, and a single hour of the nation                  345
draws it.

quisquis patriam carosque penates,
qui subolem ac thalamos desertaque pignora quaerit,
ense petat: medio posuit deus omnia campo.
causa iubet melior superos sperare secundos:
ipsi tela regent per uiscera Caesaris, ipsi 350

whoever seeks his fatherland and dear Penates,
who seeks his offspring and bridal chambers and the deserted pledges,
let him seek with the sword: the god has placed all things on the middle field.
the better cause bids to hope the supernal ones favorable:
they themselves will guide the missiles through Caesar’s vitals, they themselves 350

Romanas sancire uolent hoc sanguine leges.
si socero dare regna meo mundumque pararent,
praecipitare meam fatis potuere senectam:
non iratorum populis urbique deorum est
Pompeium seruare ducem. quae uincere possent 355
omnia contulimus. subiere pericula clari
sponte uiri sacraque antiquus imagine miles.
si Curios his fata darent reducesque Camillos
temporibus Deciosque caput fatale uouentis,
hinc starent.

They wish to sanction Roman laws with this blood.
if they were giving realms to my father-in-law and preparing the world,
they could have precipitated my old age by the Fates:
it is not for the gods angered at the peoples and the city
to preserve Pompey as leader. What could conquer we have brought together. 355
Illustrious men have of their own accord undergone dangers,
and the soldier of old with the sacred image.
If the Fates would give to these times Curii and Camilli returned,
and the Decii vowing the fatal head,
on this side they would stand.

primo gentes oriente coactae 360
innumeraeque urbes, quantas in proelia numquam,
exciuere manus. toto simul utimur orbe.
quidquid signiferi conprensum limite caeli
sub Noton et Borean hominum sumus, arma mouemus.
nonne superfusis collectum cornibus hostem 365

first the peoples assembled in the Orient 360
and innumerable cities roused hands as many as never for battles;
at once we make use of the whole world.
whatever of mankind is encompassed by the boundary of the sign-bearing sky
under Notus and Boreas, we set arms in motion.
shall we not, with our overflung wings, the enemy massed 365

in medium dabimus? paucas uictoria dextras
exigit, at plures tantum clamore cateruae
bella gerent: Caesar nostris non sufficit armis.
credite pendentes e summis moenibus urbis
crinibus effusis hortari in proelia matres; 370
credite grandaeuum uetitumque aetate senatum
arma sequi sacros pedibus prosternere canos
atque ipsam domini metuentem occurrere Romam;
credite qui nunc est populus populumque futurum
permixtas adferre preces: haec libera nasci, 375
haec uolt turba mori. siquis post pignora tanta
Pompeio locus est, cum prole et coniuge supplex,
imperii salua si maiestate liceret,
uoluerer ante pedes.

shall we drive them into the middle? Victory demands few right hands,
but more, mere crowds, will wage wars only with clamor:
Caesar does not suffice for our arms.
Believe that mothers, hanging from the city’s topmost walls,
with hair disheveled, urge to the battles; 370
believe that the long-aged Senate, forbidden by age
to follow arms, casts down its sacred gray hairs at our feet,
and that Rome herself, fearing her lord, runs to meet us;
believe that the people that now is and the people that will be
bring mingled prayers: this throng wishes to be born free, 375
this throng wishes to die. If, after such pledges,
there is any place for Pompey, a suppliant with offspring and spouse,
if it were permitted with the majesty of the empire safe,
I would roll before your feet.

Magnus, nisi uincitis, exul,
ludibrium soceri, uester pudor, ultima fata 380

Magnus, unless you conquer, an exile,
the laughingstock of his father-in-law, your shame, his ultimate fates 380

deprecor ac turpes extremi cardinis annos,
ne discam seruire senex.' tam maesta locuti
uoce ducis flagrant animi, Romanaque uirtus
erigitur, placuitque mori, si uera timeret.
     ergo utrimque pari procurrunt agmina motu                  385
irarum; metus hos regni, spes excitat illos.
hae facient dextrae, quidquid nona explicat aetas,
[ulla nec humanum reparet genus omnibus annis]
ut uacet a ferro. gentes Mars iste futuras
obruet et populos aeui uenientis in orbem                  390
erepto natale feret. tunc omne Latinum
fabula nomen erit; Gabios Veiosque Coramque
puluere uix tectae poterunt monstrare ruinae
Albanosque lares Laurentinosque penates,
rus uacuum, quod non habitet nisi nocte coacta                  395

I deprecate, and the foul years of the farthest pole, that I not learn to serve as an old man.' After they had spoken, with so mournful a voice of the leader, spirits blaze, and Roman virtus is lifted up, and it pleased them to die, if what he feared was true.
Therefore on both sides the ranks run forward with equal movement of angers; fear of kingship stirs these, hope excites those.
These right hands will accomplish whatever the ninth age unfolds,
[nor will any restore the human race in all the years]
so that it may be free from iron. This Mars will overwhelm the nations-to-be
and will bear the peoples of the coming age into the orb, their birth snatched away.
Then all the Latin name will be a fable; Gabii and Veii and Cora
the ruins, scarcely covered with dust, will be able to show, and the Alban Lares and the Laurentian Penates,
an empty countryside, which none will inhabit save under forced night. 395

inuitus questusque Numam iussisse senator.
non aetas haec carpsit edax monimentaque rerum
putria destituit: crimen ciuile uidemus
tot uacuas urbes. generis quo turba redacta est
humani! toto populi qui nascimur orbe 400
nec muros inplere uiris nec possumus agros:
urbs nos una capit.

unwilling and complaining that Numa had ordered, the senator.
it is not this devouring age that has gnawed and left deserted the monuments of things,
rotten: we see as a civil crime so many vacant cities.
to what a handful the multitude of the human race has been reduced!
we, peoples who are born over the whole orb of the world, 400
can neither fill walls with men nor fields:
one city contains us.

uincto fossore coluntur
Hesperiae segetes, stat tectis putris auitis
in nullos ruitura domus, nulloque frequentem
ciue suo Romam sed mundi faece repletam 405
cladis eo dedimus, ne tanto in corpore bellum
iam possit ciuile geri. Pharsalia tanti
causa mali. cedant feralia nomina Cannae
et damnata diu Romanis Allia fastis.
tempora signauit leuiorum Roma malorum, 410

the Hesperian crops are cultivated by a bound digger,
a rotten house stands with ancestral roofs,
a house destined to collapse upon no one, and Rome, crowded by no citizen of her own but filled with the dregs of the world 405
to this disaster we have been brought, that in so great a body a civil war now cannot be waged.
Pharsalia is the cause of so great an evil. Let the funereal names give way—Cannae
and the Allia, long damned in the Roman Fasti.
Rome has marked the times of lighter evils, 410

hunc uoluit nescire diem. pro tristia fata!
aera pestiferum tractu morbosque fluentis
insanamque famem permissasque ignibus urbes
moeniaque in praeceps laturos plena tremores
hi possunt explere uiri, quos undique traxit                  415
in miseram Fortuna necem, dum munera longi
explicat eripiens aeui populosque ducesque
constituit campis, per quos tibi, Roma, ruenti
ostendat quam magna cadas. quae latius orbem
possedit, citius per prospera fata cucurrit?                  420
omne tibi bellum gentis dedit, omnibus annis
te geminum Titan procedere uidit in axem;
haud multum terrae spatium restabat Eoae.
ut tibi nox, tibi tota dies, tibi curreret aether,
omniaque errantes stellae Romana uiderent.                  425

it willed this day to be unknown. ah, sad fates!
the pestiferous airs in their drift and the diseases of the streams
and insane famine and cities permitted to the fires
and walls, laden with tremors, about to plunge headlong—
these the men can fill to the full, whom from every side Fortune has drawn                  415
into wretched death, while she unfolds, snatching away, the gifts of a long age,
and sets peoples and leaders on the fields, through which, to you, Rome, as you rush to ruin,
she may show how great you fall. what city possessed the orb more widely,
ran more swiftly through prosperous fates?
every war supplied you with a nation; in all years the Titan saw you advance to a twin axis;                  420
not much stretch of Eastern land remained.
so that for you night, for you the whole day, for you the upper air might run,
and all the wandering stars might behold Roman things.                  425

sed retro tua fata tulit par omnibus annis
Emathiae funesta dies. hac luce cruenta
effectum, ut Latios non horreat India fasces,
nec uetitos errare Dahas in moenia ducat
Sarmaticumque premat succinctus consul aratrum,                  430
quod semper saeuas debet tibi Parthia poenas,
quod fugiens ciuile nefas redituraque numquam
libertas ultra Tigrim Rhenumque recessit
ac, totiens nobis iugulo quaesita, uagatur
Germanum Scythicumque bonum, nec respicit ultra                  435
Ausoniam, uellem populis incognita nostris.
uolturis ut primum laeuo fundata uolatu
Romulus infami conpleuit moenia luco,
usque ad Thessalicas seruisses, Roma, ruinas.
de Brutis, Fortuna, queror. quid tempora legum                  440

but the funest day of Emathia bore your fates backward, a match for all your years. By this bloody light it was brought to pass that India does not shudder at Latin fasces, nor that one should lead the Dahae, forbidden to stray, within the walls, and that a consul, girt up, should press the Sarmatic plough, 430
because Parthia forever owes you savage penalties, because, fleeing civil impiety, and freedom never to return withdrew beyond the Tigris and the Rhine, and, so often sought for us at the throat, liberty wanders as a Germanic and Scythic good, nor looks back any more toward Ausonia—I would that she were unknown to our peoples. From when, founded by the vulture’s leftward flight, Romulus filled the walls in the infamous grove, you should have been in servitude, Rome, even to the Thessalian ruins. Of the Brutuses, Fortune, I complain. What are the seasons of laws

egimus aut annos a consule nomen habentis?
felices Arabes Medique Eoaque tellus,
quam sub perpetuis tenuerunt fata tyrannis.
ex populis qui regna ferunt sors ultima nostra est,
quos seruire pudet. sunt nobis nulla profecto 445
numina: cum caeco rapiantur saecula casu,
mentimur regnare Iouem. spectabit ab alto
aethere Thessalicas, teneat cum fulmina, caedes?
scilicet ipse petet Pholoen, petet ignibus Oeten
inmeritaeque nemus Rhodopes pinusque Mimantis, 450
Cassius hoc potius feriet caput?

or have we passed years taking their name from a consul?
happy the Arabs and the Medes and the Eastern land,
which the fates have held under perpetual tyrannies.
of the peoples who bear kingdoms, our lot is the last,
we whom it shames to serve. assuredly there are no divinities for us: 445
when ages are snatched by blind chance,
we lie that Jove reigns. will he look down from high
ether upon the Thessalian slaughters, while he holds the thunderbolts?
surely he himself will seek Pholoe, will seek Oeta with his fires
and the grove of undeserving Rhodope and the pines of Mimas— 450
will he rather smite this head, Cassius?

astra Thyestae
intulit et subitis damnauit noctibus Argos:
tot similis fratrum gladios patrumque gerenti
Thessaliae dabit ille diem? mortalia nulli
sunt curata deo. cladis tamen huius habemus 455

he brought the stars to Thyestes and condemned Argos to sudden nights:
to one bearing so many swords akin to those of brothers and of fathers will he give a Thessalian day? Mortal things are cared for by no god. Yet of this calamity we have 455

uindictam, quantam terris dare numina fas est:
bella pares superis facient ciuilia diuos,
fulminibus manes radiisque ornabit et astris
inque deum templis iurabit Roma per umbras.
     ut rapido cursu fati suprema morantem                  460
consumpsere locum, parua tellure dirempti,
quo sua pila cadant aut quam sibi fata minentur                  463
inde manum, spectant. uultus, quo noscere possent                   462
facturi quae monstra forent, uidere parentum                  464

vengeance, as great as it is lawful for the divinities to give to earth:
civil wars will make gods, peers to the celestials,
it will adorn the Manes with thunderbolts and rays and stars
and in the temples of the gods Rome will swear by the shades.
     as, in fate’s swift course, the ground delaying the last things                  460
they consumed, separated by a little earth,
where their javelins might fall or what fates threaten them                  463
from that, they watch their hand. faces, by which they could know                   462
what monstrosities they were about to commit, they saw—of their parents                  464

frontibus aduersis fraternaque comminus arma,
nec libuit mutare locum. tamen omnia torpor
pectora constrinxit, gelidusque in uiscera sanguis
percussa pietate coit, totaeque cohortes
pila parata diu tensis tenuere lacertis.
di tibi non mortem, quae cunctis poena paratur, 470
sed sensum post fata tuae dent, Crastine, morti,
cuius torta manu commisit lancea bellum
primaque Thessaliam Romano sanguine tinxit.
o praeceps rabies! cum Caesar tela teneret,
inuenta est prior ulla manus?

with fronts opposed and fraternal arms at close quarters,
nor did it please them to change their place. Nonetheless a torpor
constricted all their breasts, and icy blood within the viscera
congeals, their piety smitten, and whole cohorts
held their javelins prepared for a long time with arms stretched taut.
may the gods grant you not death, which punishment is prepared for all, 470
but, after your fate, grant awareness to your death, Crastinus,
whose lance, whirled by his hand, joined the battle
and first dyed Thessaly with Roman blood.
O headlong frenzy! when Caesar was holding back the weapons,
was any hand found before?

tum stridulus aer 475
elisus lituis conceptaque classica cornu,
tunc ausae dare signa tubae, tunc aethera tendit
extremique fragor conuexa inrumpit Olympi,
unde procul nubes, quo nulla tonitrua durant.
excepit resonis clamorem uallibus Haemus 480

then shrill air 475
struck by the lituus-trumpets and the battle-calls caught up by the horn,
then the trumpets dared to give the signals, then the crash stretches the ether
and bursts into the convexities of farthest Olympus,
whence clouds are far away, where no thunders endure.
Haemus received the clamor in its resounding valleys 480

Peliacisque dedit rursus geminare cauernis,
Pindus agit fremitus Pangaeaque saxa resultant
Oetaeaeque gemunt rupes, uocesque furoris
expauere sui tota tellure relatas.
spargitur innumerum diuersis missile uotis: 485
uolnera pars optat, pars terrae figere tela
ac puras seruare manus. rapit omnia casus
atque incerta facit quos uolt fortuna nocentes.
tunc et Ityraei Medique Arabesque soluti, 514
arcu turba minax, nusquam rexere sagittas,
sed petitur solus qui campis inminet aer;
inde cadunt mortes. sceleris sed crimine nullo
externum maculant chalybem: stetit omne coactum
circa pila nefas.

and he made the Pelian caverns redouble the sound again,
Pindus drives the roar and the Pangaean rocks resound,
and the Oetaean crags groan, and the voices of their own frenzy,
re-echoed over the whole earth, they shuddered at.
countless missiles are scattered with diverse wishes: 485
some long for wounds, some to fix their shafts in the earth
and to keep their hands pure. Chance snatches all things,
and Fortune makes guilty, at random, whom she wills.
then too the Ituraeans, and Medes, and unbridled Arabs, 514
a menacing throng with the bow, guided their arrows nowhere,
but the air alone that hangs over the fields is targeted;
from there deaths fall. Yet with no charge of crime
they do not stain the foreign steel: all abomination stood massed
around the pila.

ferro subtexitur aether
noxque super campos telis conserta pependit. 520

the aether is underwoven with iron
and night, over the fields, hung interlaced with missiles. 520

set quota pars cladis iaculis ferroque uolanti                   489
exacta est! odiis solus ciuilibus ensis
sufficit, et dextras Romana in uiscera ducit.
Pompei densis acies stipata cateruis
iunxerat in seriem nexis umbonibus arma,
uixque habitura locum dextras ac tela mouendi
constiterat gladiosque suos conpressa timebat.                  495
praecipiti cursu uaesanum Caesaris agmen
in densos agitur cuneos, perque arma, per hostem
quaerit iter. qua torta graues lorica catenas
opponit tutoque latet sub tegmine pectus,
hac quoque peruentum est ad uiscera, totque per arma                  500
extremum est quod quisque ferit.

but what fraction of the carnage has been exacted by javelins and by flying steel!                   489
for civil hatreds the sword alone suffices, and it leads right hands into Roman viscera.
Pompey’s battle-line, packed with dense cohorts,
had joined arms in a row, the shield-bosses interlinked,
and, scarcely to have room for moving right hands and missiles,
it had halted, and, compressed, feared its own swords.                  495
with headlong course the frenzied column of Caesar
is driven into the dense wedges, and through the arms, through the foe
it seeks a way. Where the corselet opposes heavy twisted chains
and the breast lies hidden beneath a safe covering,
even thus they reached the viscera; and through so much armor                  500
the last thing each man strikes is the man himself.

ciuilia bella
una acies patitur, gerit altera; frigidus inde
stat gladius, calet omne nocens a Caesare ferrum.
nec Fortuna diu rerum tot pondera uertens
abstulit ingentis fato torrente ruinas. 505

civil wars
one battle-line suffers, the other wages; then the sword
stands cold, all the guilty iron from Caesar burns hot.
nor did Fortune, long turning the so many weights of affairs,
avert vast ruins, with fate a torrent. 505

     ut primum toto diduxit cornua campo
Pompeianus eques bellique per ultima fudit,
sparsa per extremos leuis armatura maniplos
insequitur saeuasque manus inmittit in hostem:
illic quaeque suo miscet gens proelia telo,                   510
Romanus cunctis petitur cruor; inde sagittae,
inde faces et saxa uolant spatioque solutae
aeris et calido liquefactae pondere glandes;
cum Caesar, metuens ne frons sibi prima labaret                  521
incursu, tenet obliquas post signa cohortes,
inque latus belli, qua se uagus hostis agebat,
emittit subitum non motis cornibus agmen.
inmemores pugnae nulloque pudore timendi                  525
praecipites fecere palam ciuilia bella
non bene barbaricis umquam commissa cateruis.
ut primum sonipes transfixus pectora ferro
in caput effusi calcauit membra regentis,
omnis eques cessit campis, glomerataque nubes                  530

     as soon as across the whole field the Pompeian cavalry drew out the horns,
and poured along the farthest reaches of the war,
the light-armed, scattered through the outermost maniples,
pursues and lets loose savage bands against the enemy:
there each nation mixes its battles with its own weapon,                   510
Roman blood is sought by all; from there arrows,
from there torches and rocks fly, and bullets loosened
by the expanse of the air and melted by their hot weight;
when Caesar, fearing lest his foremost front should waver                  521
at the charge, holds cohorts slanted behind the standards,
and into the flank of the battle, where the wandering enemy was moving itself,
he sends a sudden column, the wings not moved.
forgetful of battle and with no shame of fearing,                  525
the civil wars made clear, headlong, that they were never well entrusted
to barbaric companies. As soon as the war-steed, his chest transfixed by iron,
trampled beneath his headlong-spilled rider’s limbs,
all the cavalry yielded on the plains, and a massed cloud                  530

in sua conuersis praeceps ruit agmina frenis.
perdidit inde modum caedes, ac nulla secutast
pugna, sed hinc iugulis, hinc ferro bella geruntur;
nec ualet haec acies tantum prosternere quantum
inde perire potest. utinam, Pharsalia, campis                  535
sufficiat cruor iste tuis, quem barbara fundunt
pectora; non alio mutentur sanguine fontes;
hic numerus totos tibi uestiat ossibus agros.
aut, si Romano conpleri sanguine mauis,
istis parce precor; uiuant Galataeque Syrique,                  540
Cappadoces Gallique extremique orbis Hiberi,
Armenii, Cilices; nam post ciuilia bella
hic populus Romanus erit. semel ortus in omnis
it timor, et fatis datus est pro Caesare cursus.
     uentum erat ad robur Magni mediasque cateruas.                  545

with their reins turned toward their own side the squadrons rush headlong.
Then slaughter lost all measure, and no battle followed,
but here at the throats, there with iron the wars are waged;
nor is this battle-line able to throw down as many as can perish
on their side. Would that, Pharsalia, that gore suffice for your fields,                  535
which barbarian breasts pour forth; let the fountains not be changed
with any other blood; let this number clothe for you your whole fields
with bones. Or, if you prefer to be filled with Roman blood,
spare these, I pray; let the Galatians and the Syrians live,                  540
the Cappadocians and the Gauls and the Iberians of the farthest world,
the Armenians, the Cilicians; for after the civil wars
this will be the Roman people. Once risen, fear goes into all,
and by the Fates a course has been given for Caesar.
     It had come to the main strength of Magnus and the middle companies.                  545

quod totos errore uago perfuderat agros
constitit hic bellum, fortunaque Caesaris haesit.
non illic regum auxiliis collecta iuuentus
bella gerit ferrumque manus mouere rogatae:
ille locus fratres habuit, locus ille parentis.                  550
hic furor, hic rabies, hic sunt tua crimina, Caesar.
hanc fuge, mens, partem belli tenebrisque relinque,
nullaque tantorum discat me uate malorum,
quam multum bellis liceat ciuilibus, aetas.
a potius pereant lacrimae pereantque querellae:                  555
quidquid in hac acie gessisti, Roma, tacebo.
hic Caesar, rabies populis stimulusque furorum,
nequa parte sui pereat scelus, agmina circum
it uagus atque ignes animis flagrantibus addit.
inspicit et gladios, qui toti sanguine manent,                  560

which had suffused the whole fields with roving error:
here the war stood still, and Caesar’s Fortune hung fast.
Not there does a youth gathered by the auxiliaries of kings
wage wars, nor hands requested to move the steel:
that place held brothers, that place held parents. 550
here is fury, here rage, here are your crimes, Caesar.
Flee, my mind, this part of the war and leave it to the shadows,
and let no age learn from me, as bard of such great evils,
how much is permissible to civil wars.
Ah, rather let tears perish and let complaints perish:
whatever you did in this battle-line, Rome, I will be silent.
Here Caesar, a madness to peoples and a goad of frenzies,
lest in any part of itself the crime perish, goes wandering
around the ranks and adds fires to spirits that are blazing.
And he inspects the swords, which are all dripping with blood, 560

qui niteant primo tantum mucrone cruenti,
quae presso tremat ense manus, quis languida tela,
quis contenta ferat, quis praestet bella iubenti,
quem pugnare iuuet, quis uoltum ciue perempto
mutet; obit latis proiecta cadauera campis;                  565
uolnera multorum totum fusura cruorem
opposita premit ipse manu. quacumque uagatur,
sanguineum ueluti quatiens Bellona flagellum
Bistonas aut Mauors agitans si uerbere saeuo
Palladia stimulet turbatos aegide currus,                  570
nox ingens scelerum est; caedes oriuntur et instar
inmensae uocis gemitus, et pondere lapsi
pectoris arma sonant confractique ensibus enses.
ipse manu subicit gladios ac tela ministrat
aduersosque iubet ferro confundere uoltus,                   575
promouet ipse acies, inpellit terga suorum,
uerbere conuersae cessantis excitat hastae,
in plebem uetat ire manus monstratque senatum:
scit cruor imperii qui sit, quae uiscera rerum,
unde petat Romam, libertas ultima mundi                  580

who only gleam at the first with a bloody blade-tip,
whose hand trembles with the sword pressed tight, who has slack missiles,
who bears them taut, who renders wars to the one commanding,
whom it delights to fight, who changes his face at a citizen slain;
he goes about the corpses hurled upon the broad fields;                  565
the wounds of many, ready to pour out all their gore,
he himself presses with his opposing hand. Wherever he wanders,
as if Bellona were shaking a sanguineous scourge on the Bistones,
or if Mavors, wielding with a savage lash, should goad the chariots
thrown into turmoil by the Palladian aegis,                   570
a vast night of crimes it is; slaughters arise, and groans, a counterpart
of an immense voice, and with the weight of a collapsing breast
the arms resound, and swords shattered by swords.
He himself supplies swords with his hand and dispenses missiles,
and he orders faces turned toward them to be confounded with steel;                   575
he himself advances the battle-lines, drives the backs of his men,
with the lash of a reversed spear he rouses the loiterer;
he forbids the hand to go against the plebs and points out the Senate:
he knows what blood is of the empire, what the vitals of affairs,
from where he should strike Rome, the world’s final liberty.                  580

quo steterit ferienda loco. permixta secundo
ordine nobilitas uenerandaque corpora ferro
urguentur; caedunt Lepidos caeduntque Metellos
Coruinosque simul Torquataque nomina, rerum
saepe duces summosque hominum te, Magne, remoto.                  585
illic plebeia contectus casside uoltus
ignotusque hosti quod ferrum, Brute, tenebas!
o decus imperii, spes o suprema senatus,
extremum tanti generis per saecula nomen,
ne rue per medios nimium temerarius hostis,                  590
nec tibi fatales admoueris ante Philippos,
Thessalia periture tua. nil proficis istic
Caesaris intentus iugulo: nondum attigit arcem,
iuris et humani columen, quo cuncta premuntur,
egressus meruit fatis tam nobile letum.                  595

where it should stand to be struck. the nobility, mingled with the second rank, and venerable bodies are pressed by iron; they cut down the Lepidi and cut down the Metelli and at the same time the Corvini and the Torquate names, often leaders of affairs and the highest of men, with you, Magnus, removed. 585
there your face, covered with a plebeian helmet, and unknown to the enemy—what steel, Brutus, you were holding!
o glory of the empire, O highest hope of the senate, the last name through the ages of so great a stock,
do not rush too rash through the midst of the enemy,
nor bring near to yourself the fateful Philippi, you who are to perish in your Thessaly.590
you accomplish nothing there, intent upon Caesar’s jugular: he has not yet touched the citadel,
the column of human law, by which all things are pressed; once he has overstepped it, he will have deserved from the Fates so noble a death. 595

uiuat et, ut Bruti procumbat uictima, regnet.
     hic patriae perit omne decus: iacet aggere magno
patricium campis non mixta plebe cadauer.
mors tamen eminuit clarorum in strage uirorum
pugnacis Domiti, quem clades fata per omnis                  600
ducebant: nusquam Magni fortuna sine illo
succubuit. uictus totiens a Caesare salua
libertate perit: tunc mille in uolnera laetus
labitur ac uenia gaudet caruisse secunda.
uiderat in crasso uersantem sanguine membra                  605
Caesar, et increpitans 'iam Magni deseris arma,
successor Domiti; sine te iam bella geruntur'
dixerat. ast illi suffecit pectora pulsans
spiritus in uocem morientiaque ora resoluit.
'non te funesta scelerum mercede potitum                  610

let him live and, in order that he may fall as Brutus’s victim, let him reign.
     here perishes all the honor of the fatherland: on a great embankment lies a patrician corpse on the plains, not mingled with the plebs.
yet amid the slaughter of renowned men the death stood out of pugnacious Domitius, whom disasters through every fate were leading:                  600
never did the fortune of Magnus succumb without him. conquered so often by Caesar, with liberty safe he perishes: then, glad into a thousand wounds, he slips and rejoices to have lacked a second pardon.
Caesar had seen him turning his limbs in thick blood, and chiding said, ‘now you abandon the arms of Magnus, successor of Domitius; without you now wars are being waged.’
but for him, beating his breast, breath sufficed for speech and he loosened his dying lips.
‘not you, having gained by the deadly wage of crimes                  610

sed dubium fati, Caesar, generoque minorem
aspiciens Stygias Magno duce liber ad umbras
et securus eo: te, saeuo Marte subactum,
Pompeioque grauis poenas nobisque daturum,
cum moriar, sperare licet.' non plura locutum                  615
uita fugit, densaeque oculos uertere tenebrae.
     inpendisse pudet lacrimas in funere mundi
mortibus innumeris, ac singula fata sequentem
quaerere letiferum per cuius uiscera uolnus
exierit, quis fusa solo uitalia calcet,                  620
ore quis aduerso demissum faucibus ensem
expulerit moriens anima, quis corruat ictus,
quis steterit dum membra cadunt, qui pectore tela
transmittant aut quos campis adfixerit hasta,
quis cruor emissis perruperit aera uenis                   625
inque hostis cadat arma sui, quis pectora fratris
caedat et, ut notum possit spoliare cadauer,
abscisum longe mittat caput, ora parentis
quis laceret nimiaque probet spectantibus ira
quem iugulat non esse patrem. mors nulla querella                  630

but, with fate doubtful, Caesar, and, as one lesser than a son-in-law, looking free toward the Stygian shades with Magnus as my leader and secure because of him: that you, subdued by savage Mars, will pay grievous penalties to Pompey and to us—when I die, it is permitted to hope.' He, having spoken no more,                  615
life fled, and thick darknesses turned his eyes.
     it shames me to have expended tears at the funeral of the world with deaths without number, and, following out individual dooms, to ask through whose viscera the death-bringing wound went out, who tramples the vital fluids poured on the ground, who, with face set against it, expelled from his gullet the sword let down as his soul was dying, who falls when struck, who stood while his limbs are falling, who send missiles through the breast, or whom a spear has fixed to the plains, whose gore, the veins let out, burst through the air,                   625
and falls upon his enemy’s his own weapons; who hacks at a brother’s breast and, so that he may be able to despoil a well-known cadaver, sends the severed head far away; who lacerates a parent’s features and, by excessive ire, proves to the onlookers that the one he jugulates is not his father. No death has complaint                  630

digna sua est, nullosque hominum lugere uacamus.
non istas habuit pugnae Pharsalia partes
quas aliae clades: illic per fata uirorum,
per populos hic Roma perit; quod militis illic,
mors hic gentis erat: sanguis ibi fluxit Achaeus, 635
Ponticus, Assyrius; cunctos haerere cruores
Romanus campisque uetat consistere torrens.
maius ab hac acie quam quod sua saecula ferrent
uolnus habent populi; plus est quam uita salusque
quod perit: in totum mundi prosternimur aeuum. 640
uincitur his gladiis omnis quae seruiet aetas.
proxima quid suboles aut quid meruere nepotes
in regnum nasci? pauide num gessimus arma
teximus aut iugulos? alieni poena timoris
in nostra ceruice sedet.

it is worthy of itself, and we lack the leisure to mourn any men.
Pharsalia did not have those parts of battle which other disasters had:
there it was through the dooms of men; here Rome perishes through peoples; what there was a soldier’s, here was the death of a nation: Achaean blood there flowed, Pontic, Assyrian; 635
the Roman torrent forbids all the bloods to cling and to settle on the fields. The peoples have from this battle-line a wound greater than what their own ages could bear; what perishes is more than life and safety: we are prostrated for the whole age of the world. 640
by these swords every age that will serve is conquered. What has the next offspring, or what have the grandsons deserved, to be born into a kingdom? Did we in panic bear arms or cover our throats? The penalty of another’s fear sits on our neck.

post proelia natis 645

for those born after the battles 645

si dominum, Fortuna, dabas, et bella dedisses.
     iam Magnus transisse deos Romanaque fata
senserat infelix, tota uix clade coactus
fortunam damnare suam. stetit aggere campi,
eminus unde omnis sparsas per Thessala rura                  650
aspiceret clades, quae bello obstante latebant.
tot telis sua fata peti, tot corpora fusa
ac se tam multo pereuntem sanguine uidit.
nec, sicut mos est miseris, trahere omnia secum
mersa iuuat gentesque suae miscere ruinae:                  655
ut Latiae post se uiuat pars maxima turbae,
sustinuit dignos etiamnunc credere uotis
caelicolas, uouitque, sui solacia casus.
'parcite,' ait 'superi, cunctas prosternere gentes.
stante potest mundo Romaque superstite Magnus                  660

if you were giving a lord, fortune, and had given wars.
     already magnus, ill-fated, had perceived that the gods and the roman fates had crossed over, hardly forced by the whole disaster to condemn his own fortune. he stood on the embankment of the plain,
whence from afar he might behold all the slaughters scattered through the thessalian fields,                  650
which, with the war standing in the way, lay hidden. he saw with so many missiles his fates sought, so many bodies strewn, and himself perishing in so much blood. nor, as is the custom for the wretched, does it please him to drag everything, sunk, with himself and to mingle the peoples of his nation in ruin:                  655
so that after him the greatest part of the latin crowd may live, he endured to believe the heaven-dwellers even now worthy of vows, and he vowed—consolations for his own fall. ‘spare,’ he says, ‘o supernals, from prostrating all nations. with the world standing and rome surviving, magnus                  660

esse miser. si plura iuuant mea uolnera, coniunx
est mihi, sunt nati: dedimus tot pignora fatis.
ciuiline parum est bello, si meque meosque
obruit? exiguae clades sumus orbe remoto?
omnia quid laceras?

let me be wretched. if my wounds please you more, a wife
is mine, there are children: we have given so many pledges to the fates.
is it too little for a civil war, if it overwhelms me and mine?
are we a slight disaster in a world far removed?
why do you tear everything?

quid perdere cuncta laboras?                  665
iam nihil est, Fortuna, meum.' sic fatur et arma
signaque et adflictas omni iam parte cateruas
circumit et reuocat matura in fata ruentis
seque negat tanti. nec derat robur in enses
ire duci iuguloque pati uel pectore letum.                  670
sed timuit, strato miles ne corpore Magni
non fugeret, supraque ducem procumberet orbis;
Caesaris aut oculis uoluit subducere mortem.
nequiquam, infelix: socero spectare uolenti
praestandum est ubicumque caput. sed tu quoque, coniunx,                  675

why do you labor to destroy all things?                  665
'now nothing, Fortune, is mine.' Thus he speaks and goes around the arms and the standards and the cohorts now afflicted on every side, and calls back those rushing into fates now ripe, and denies himself to be worth so much. Nor was strength lacking for the leader to go into the swords and to suffer death at the throat or chest.                  670
But he feared, lest, with Magnus’s body laid low, the soldier would not flee, and the world would sink down upon the leader; or he wished to withdraw his death from Caesar’s eyes. In vain, unlucky one: to a father-in-law willing to behold, the head must be presented wherever it is. But you also, wife,                  675

causa fugae uoltusque tui fatisque negatum
parte apsente mori. tum Magnum concitus aufert
a bello sonipes non tergo tela pauentem
ingentisque animos extrema in fata ferentem.
non gemitus, non fletus erat, saluaque uerendus 680
maiestate dolor, qualem te, Magne, decebat
Romanis praestare malis. non inpare uoltu
aspicis Emathiam: nec te uidere superbum
prospera bellorum nec fractum aduersa uidebunt;
quamque fuit laeto per tres infida triumphos 685
tam misero Fortuna minor.

the cause of flight was you and your face, and it was denied by the fates
to die with a part absent. Then the swift steed carries Magnus off
from the war, not fearing the missiles on his back,
and bearing his mighty spirit into ultimate fates.
There was no groan, no weeping, and, with majesty intact, a grief to be revered, 680
such as it became you, Magnus, to present before Roman evils.
With no unequal countenance you look upon Emathia:
nor will the prosperities of wars see you proud,
nor will adversities see you broken; and as Fortune was unfaithful
through three glad triumphs, so to the wretched Fortune is lesser. 685

iam pondere fati
deposito securus abis; nunc tempora laeta
respexisse uacat, spes numquam inplenda recessit;
quid fueris nunc scire licet. fuge proelia dira
ac testare deos nullum, qui perstet in armis, 690

now, with the weight of fate laid down, you go off secure; now it is free to look back upon glad times, the hope never to be fulfilled has withdrawn; what you have been it is now permitted to know. flee the dire battles and attest to the gods that no one, who persists in arms, 690

iam tibi, Magne, mori. ceu flebilis Africa damnis
et ceu Munda nocens Pharioque a gurgite clades,
sic et Thessalicae post te pars maxima pugnae
non iam Pompei nomen populare per orbem
nec studium belli, sed par quod semper habemus,                  695
libertas et Caesar, erit; teque inde fugato
ostendit moriens sibi se pugnasse senatus.
     nonne iuuat pulsum bellis cessisse nec istud
perspectasse nefas? spumantes caede cateruas
respice, turbatos incursu sanguinis amnes,                  700
et soceri miserere tui.

now, Magnus, for you to die. Just as Africa is to be wept for in her losses,
and just as guilty Munda, and the disaster from the Pharian whirlpool,
so too the greatest part of the Thessalian battle after you
will be no longer the popular name of Pompey through the world
nor a zeal for war, but the pair which we always have,                  695
Liberty and Caesar; and with you driven thence in flight,
the dying Senate shows that it fought for itself.
     Does it not please you, beaten in wars, to have yielded, and not to have
looked upon that impiety? Look back at the cohorts foaming with slaughter,
the rivers disturbed by the incursion of blood,                  700
and take pity on your father-in-law.

quo pectore Romam
intrabit factus campis felicior istis?
quidquid in ignotis solus regionibus exul,
quidquid sub Phario positus patiere tyranno,
crede deis, longo fatorum crede fauori, 705

With what heart will he enter Rome,
made more felicitous by these fields?
Whatever, as an exile alone, in unknown regions,
whatever you will suffer, placed under the Pharian tyrant,
trust the gods; trust in the long favor of the Fates, 705

uincere peius erat. prohibe lamenta sonare,
flere ueta populos, lacrimas luctusque remitte.
tam mala Pompei quam prospera mundus adoret.
aspice securus uoltu non supplice reges,
aspice possessas urbes donataque regna,                  710
Aegypton Libyamque, et terras elige morti.
     uidit prima tuae testis Larisa ruinae
nobile nec uictum fatis caput. omnibus illa
ciuibus effudit totas per moenia uires
obuia ceu laeto: promittunt munera flentes,                  715
pandunt templa, domos, socios se cladibus optant.
scilicet inmenso superest ex nomine multum,
teque minor solo cunctas inpellere gentes
rursus in arma potes rursusque in fata redire.
sed 'quid opus uicto populis aut urbibus?' inquit                  720

to conquer would have been worse. forbid laments to sound, forbid the peoples to weep, remit tears and mourning. let the world adore Pompey’s misfortunes as well as his prosperities. look upon kings with a secure countenance, not a suppliant one; look upon possessed cities and kingdoms bestowed,                  710
Egypt and Libya, and choose lands for death.
     Larissa, first witness of your ruin, saw a noble head not conquered by the Fates. that city poured out, with all its citizens, its whole forces through the walls to meet you as one joyful: weeping they promise gifts, they throw open temples and homes, they desire to be partners in your disasters.                  715
surely from the immense name much remains, and you, merely made lesser, can impel all nations again into arms and return again into fate. but “what need has the conquered of peoples or cities?” he says                  720

'uictori praestate fidem'. tu, Caesar, in alto
caedis adhuc cumulo patriae per uiscera uadis,
at tibi iam populos donat gener. auehit inde
Pompeium sonipes; gemitus lacrimaeque secuntur
plurimaque in saeuos populi conuicia diuos.                  725
nunc tibi uera fides quaesiti, Magne, fauoris
contigit ac fructus: felix se nescit amari.
     Caesar, ut Hesperio uidit satis arua natare
sanguine, parcendum ferro manibusque suorum
iam ratus ut uiles animas perituraque frustra                  730
agmina permisit uitae. sed, castra fugatos
ne reuocent pellatque quies nocturna pauorem,
protinus hostili statuit succedere uallo,
dum fortuna calet, dum conficit omnia terror,
non ueritus graue ne fessis aut Marte subactis                  735

'Render faith to the victor.' you, Caesar, with the heap of slaughter still high,
go through the entrails of your fatherland, yet already your son-in-law grants you peoples;
from there the steed bears Pompey away; groans and tears follow,
and very many revilings of the people against the cruel gods.                  725
now to you, Magnus, the true faith of the favor sought
has come, and its fruit: the fortunate man does not know himself to be loved.
     Caesar, when he saw the Western fields swim enough
with blood, thinking now that the sword and the hands of his own must be spared,
granted life to cheap souls and to ranks doomed to perish in vain;                  730
but, lest the camps recall the routed and night’s rest drive fear away,
at once he resolved to move up to the enemy rampart,
while Fortune is hot, while terror accomplishes everything,
not having feared that it would be burdensome to the weary or to those subdued by Mars.                  735

hoc foret imperium. non magno hortamine miles
in praedam ducendus erat. 'uictoria nobis
plena, uiri:' dixit 'superest pro sanguine merces,
quam monstrare meum est; neque enim donare uocabo
quod sibi quisque dabit.

This would be the command. With no great exhortation the soldier was to be led into plunder. 'Victory for us is full, men,' he said; 'there remains, in return for blood, the meed, which it is mine to point out; nor indeed will I call it a donative what each man will give to himself.

cunctis, en, plena metallis                  740
castra patent; raptum Hesperiis e gentibus aurum
hic iacet Eoasque premunt tentoria gazas.
tot regum fortuna simul Magnique coacta
expectat dominos: propera praecedere, miles,
quos sequeris; quascumque tuas Pharsalia fecit                  745
a uictis rapiuntur opes.' [nec plura locutus
inpulit amentes aurique cupidine caecos
ire super gladios supraque cadauera patrum
et caesos calcare duces.] quae fossa, quis agger
sustineat pretium belli scelerumque petentis?                  750

'for all, look, the camp lies open, full of metals;                  740
the gold snatched from Hesperian peoples lies here, and the tents weigh upon Eoan treasures.
the fortune of so many kings together, and of Magnus, gathered up,
awaits masters: hurry to go before, soldier,
those whom you follow; whatever wealth Pharsalia has made yours                  745
is being seized from the conquered.' [and, having spoken no more,
he drove the mad, and blind with desire for gold,
to go over swords and over the corpses of their fathers
and to trample their slaughtered leaders.] what ditch, what rampart
could sustain the price of a war that seeks crimes?                  750

scire ruunt, quanta fuerint mercede nocentes.
inuenere quidem spoliato plurima mundo
bellorum in sumptus congestae pondera massae,
sed non inpleuit cupientis omnia mentes.
quidquid fodit Hiber, quidquid Tagus expulit auri,                  755
quod legit diues summis Arimaspus harenis,
ut rapiant, paruo scelus hoc uenisse putabunt.
cum sibi Tarpeias uictor desponderit arces,
cum spe Romanae promiserit omnia praedae,
decipitur quod castra rapit. capit inpia plebes                  760
caespite patricio somnos, stratumque cubile
regibus infandus miles premit, inque parentum
inque toris fratrum posuerunt membra nocentes.
quos agitat uaesana quies, somnique furentes
Thessalicam miseris uersant in pectore pugnam.                  765

they rush to know for how great a wage the nocent were.
they did indeed find, the world despoiled, very many weights of massed bullion piled up for the expenses of wars,
but it did not fill wholly the minds of the desiring.
whatever the Hiber dug, whatever of gold the Tagus drove out,                  755
what the wealthy Arimaspus gathered from the farthest sands—
that they might snatch it, they will think this crime has come at a small price.
when the victor has pledged to himself the Tarpeian citadels,
when with the hope of Roman prey he has promised everything,
he is deceived in that he plunders the camp. the impious plebs                  760
takes sleep on patrician turf, and the unspeakable soldier presses a couch spread
for kings, and the guilty have laid their limbs both on the parents’
and on the brothers’ beds. whom mad rest shakes, and, raging in sleep,
they turn the Thessalian battle in their wretched breast.                  765

inuigilat cunctis saeuum scelus, armaque tota
mente agitant, capuloque manus absente mouentur.
ingemuisse putem campos, terramque nocentem
inspirasse animas, infectumque aera totum
manibus et superam Stygia formidine noctem.                  770
exigit a meritis tristes uictoria poenas,
sibilaque et flammas infert sopor. umbra perempti
ciuis adest; sua quemque premit terroris imago:
ille senum uoltus, iuuenum uidet ille figuras,
hunc agitant totis fraterna cadauera somnis,                  775
pectore in hoc pater est, omnes in Caesare manes.
haud alios nondum Scythica purgatus in ara
Eumenidum uidit uoltus Pelopeus Orestes,
nec magis attonitos animi sensere tumultus,
cum fureret, Pentheus aut, cum desisset, Agaue.                  780

grim crime keeps vigil over all, and they brandish arms with their whole mind, and their hands are moved though the hilt is absent.
I could think the fields had groaned, and that the guilty earth had breathed in spirits, and that the whole air was stained with hands and the upper night with Stygian dread.                  770
Victory exacts mournful penalties from their deserts, and sleep brings hisses and flames. The shade of a slain citizen is at hand; his own image of terror presses each:
this one sees the faces of old men, that one the figures of youths, this man is harried throughout all his sleep by brothers’ corpses,                  775
in this breast is a father; in Caesar are all the shades.
Not other faces of the Eumenides did Pelopid Orestes, not yet purified on the Scythian altar, behold,
nor did they feel more thunderstruck tumults of soul—Pentheus when he raved, or Agave when she had ceased.                  780

hunc omnes gladii, quos aut Pharsalia uidit
aut ultrix uisura dies stringente senatu,
illa nocte premunt, hunc infera monstra flagellant.
et quantum poenae misero mens conscia donat,
quod Styga, quod manes ingestaque Tartara somnis 785
Pompeio uiuente uidet! tamen omnia passo,
postquam clara dies Pharsalica damna retexit,
nulla loci facies reuocat feralibus aruis
haerentis oculos. cernit propulsa cruore
flumina et excelsos cumulis aequantia colles 790
corpora, sidentis in tabem spectat aceruos
et Magni numerat populos, epulisque patur
ille locus, uoltus ex quo faciesque iacentum
agnoscat.

against him all the swords, which either Pharsalia saw
or the avenging day is to see, with the Senate drawing them,
press that night; him the nether monsters scourge.
And as much punishment as a conscience-aware mind grants the wretch—
how much the Styx, how much the Shades, and Tartarus poured into dreams 785
he beholds, while Pompey lives! Yet, after suffering all,
once bright day un-wove the Pharsalian losses,
no aspect of the place calls back his eyes, clinging to the deathly fields.
He sees rivers driven back by gore,
and bodies with their heaps equaling the lofty hills; 790
he looks at piles sinking into putrescence,
and he numbers the peoples of Magnus, and the place lies open for banquets,
from which he may recognize the faces and visages of the fallen.
he may recognize.

iuuat Emathiam non cernere terram
et lustrare oculis campos sub clade latentes. 795

it pleases not to behold the Emathian land
and to survey with the eyes the fields lying hidden beneath the carnage. 795

fortunam superosque suos in sanguine cernit.
ac, ne laeta furens scelerum spectacula perdat,
inuidet igne rogi miseris, caeloque nocenti
ingerit Emathiam. non illum Poenus humator
consulis et Libyca succensae lampade Cannae                  800
conpellunt hominum ritus ut seruet in hoste,
sed meminit nondum satiata caedibus ira
ciues esse suos. petimus non singula busta
discretosque rogos: unum da gentibus ignem,
non interpositis urantur corpora flammis;                  805
aut, generi si poena iuuat, nemus extrue Pindi,
erige congestas Oetaeo robore siluas,
Thessalicam uideat Pompeius ab aequore flammam.
nil agis hac ira: tabesne cadauera soluat
an rogus, haud refert; placido natura receptat                  810

he sees his fortune and his own supernal gods in blood.
And, raging, lest he lose the gladsome spectacles of his crimes,
he begrudges the fire of the pyre to the wretched, and heaps Emathia upon the guilty sky.
Not the Punic burier of the consul and Cannae kindled with a Libyan torch
compel him to observe the rites of men toward a foe,                  800
but his wrath, not yet sated with slaughters, remembers that they are his fellow citizens.
We do not seek single tombs and separate pyres: give one fire to the peoples,
let the bodies be burned with no flames interposed;                  805
or, if a penalty for the stock delights, build up a grove of Pindus,
raise piled forests with Oetaean timber; let Pompey see from the sea the Thessalian flame.
You achieve nothing by this wrath: whether decay dissolves the corpses
or a pyre, it matters not; nature in placidity receives                  810

cuncta sinu, finemque sui sibi corpora debent.
hos, Caesar, populos si nunc non usserit ignis,
uret cum terris, uret cum gurgite ponti.
communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra
mixturus. quocumque tuam fortuna uocabit,                  815
hae quoque sunt animae: non altius ibis in auras,
non meliore loco Stygia sub nocte iacebis.
libera fortunae mors est; capit omnia tellus
quae genuit; caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam.
tu, cui dant poenas inhumato funere gentes,                  820
quid fugis hanc cladem? quid olentis deseris agros?
has trahe, Caesar, aquas, hoc, si potes, utere caelo.
sed tibi tabentes populi Pharsalica rura
eripiunt camposque tenent uictore fugato.
     non solum Haemonii funesta ad pabula belli                  825

Nature receives all things in her placid bosom, and bodies owe to themselves their own end.
If fire does not now burn these peoples, Caesar, it will burn them with the lands, it will burn them with the surge of the sea.
A common pyre remains for the world, to mingle bones with the stars.
Wherever Fortune calls you, these too are souls: you will not go higher into the breezes, nor will you lie in a better place beneath Stygian night.
Death is free from Fortune; the earth takes in all that it begot; he who has no urn is covered by the sky.
You, for whom the nations pay the penalty with an unburied funeral, why do you flee this ruin? why do you abandon the reeking fields?
Draw these waters, Caesar; use this sky, if you can.
But the rotting peoples snatch from you the Pharsalian fields and hold the plains, the victor put to flight.
not only to the baneful pastures of war do the Haemonian... 825

Bistonii uenere lupi tabemque cruentae
caedis odorati Pholoen liquere leones.
tunc ursae latebras, obscaeni tecta domosque
deseruere canes, et quidquid nare sagaci
aera non sanum motumque cadauere sentit.                  830
iamque diu uolucres ciuilia castra secutae
conueniunt. uos, quae Nilo mutare soletis
Threicias hiemes, ad mollem serius Austrum
istis, aues. numquam tanto se uolture caelum
induit aut plures presserunt aera pinnae.                  835
omne nemus misit uolucres omnisque cruenta
alite sanguineis stillauit roribus arbor.
saepe super uoltus uictoris et inpia signa
aut cruor aut alto defluxit ab aethere tabes
membraque deiecit iam lassis unguibus ales.                  840

Bistonian wolves came, and the lions, having scented the taint of bloody
slaughter, left Pholoe. Then the bears their lairs, the foul dogs their roofs and homes
deserted, and whatever with a sagacious nostril senses the air unsound and movement
from a cadaver. And now the birds, long having followed the civil camps,
gather. You, who are accustomed on the Nile to exchange Thracian winters,
to the gentle South-wind are later than to these, birds. Never with so great a vulture did the sky
clothe itself, nor have more pinions pressed the air. 835
Every grove sent forth birds, and every tree, by a blood-stained
fowl, dripped with sanguine dews. Often upon the face of the victor and the impious standards
either gore or putrescence flowed down from the high aether,
and a bird dropped limbs, its talons already weary. 840

sic quoque non omnis populus peruenit ad ossa
inque feras discerptus abit; non intima curant
uiscera nec totas auidae sorbere medullas:
degustant artus. Latiae pars maxima turbae
fastidita iacet; quam sol nimbique diesque                  845
longior Emathiis resolutam miscuit aruis.
     Thessalia, infelix, quo tantum crimine, tellus,
laesisti superos, ut te tot mortibus unam,
tot scelerum fatis premerent? quod sufficit aeuum
inmemor ut donet belli tibi damna uetustas?                  850
quae seges infecta surget non decolor herba?
quo non Romanos uiolabis uomere manes?
ante nouae uenient acies, scelerique secundo
praestabis nondum siccos hoc sanguine campos.
omnia maiorum uertamus busta licebit,                  855

thus even so not all the populace comes down to the bones,
and torn to pieces it passes into wild beasts; they do not care for
the inmost viscera, nor, greedy, to suck out the marrows entire:
they merely taste the limbs. The greater part of the Latin throng
lies loathed; which the sun and the clouds and the lengthened day                  845
dissolved and mingled with the Emathian fields.
     Thessaly, unhappy land, by what crime so great
did you injure the gods above, that so many deaths, the dooms
of so many crimes, should press you alone? What span of age suffices,
that forgetful old age may grant you oblivion of war’s damages?                  850
What harvest, tainted, will rise not as discolored grass?
Where will you not violate with your ploughshare the Roman shades?
Sooner will new battle-lines come, and for a second crime
you will furnish fields not yet dry from this blood.
We may upturn all the burial-mounds of our ancestors,                  855

et stantis tumulos et qui radice uetusta
effudere suas uictis conpagibus urnas,
plus cinerum Haemoniae sulcis telluris aratur
pluraque ruricolis feriuntur dentibus ossa.
nullus ab Emathio religasset litore funem                  860
nauita, nec terram quisquam mouisset arator,
Romani bustum populi, fugerentque coloni
umbrarum campos, gregibus dumeta carerent,
nullusque auderet pecori permittere pastor
uellere surgentem de nostris ossibus herbam,                  865
ac, uelut inpatiens hominum uel solis iniqui
limite uel glacie, nuda atque ignota iaceres,
si non prima nefas belli sed sola tulisses.
o superi, liceat terras odisse nocentis.
quid totum premitis, quid totum absoluitis orbem?                  870

and both the mounds that stand and those which, at an ancient root,
with their joinings broken, have poured out their own urns;
more of the ashes of Haemonian earth is ploughed in furrows,
and more bones are struck by the teeth of the rural-dwellers.
no sailor would have re-tied a rope from the Emathian shore,                  860
nor would any ploughman have moved the soil—
the burial-place of the Roman people—and the coloni would flee
the fields of shades, the thickets would lack herds,
and no pastor would dare to allow the flock
to pluck the grass rising from our bones,                  865
and, as if impatient of men or of the unequal sun’s track
or of frost, you would lie bare and unknown,
if you had borne not the first crime of war but the only one.
o powers above, let it be permitted to hate guilty lands.
why do you press the whole orb, why do you absolve the whole orb?                  870

Hesperiae clades et flebilis unda Pachyni
et Mutina et Leucas puros fecere Philippos.

The calamity of Hesperia and the lamentable wave of Pachynus
and Mutina and Leucas made Philippi pure.