Lucan: DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA

Iam super Herculeas fauces nemorosaque Tempe
Haemoniae deserta petens dispendia siluae
cornipedem exhaustum cursu stimulisque negantem
Magnus agens incerta fugae uestigia turbat
inplicitasque errore uias. pauet ille fragorem 5
motorum uentis nemorum, comitumque suorum
qui post terga redit trepidum laterique timentem
exanimat. quamuis summo de culmine lapsus
nondum uile sui pretium scit sanguinis esse,
seque, memor fati, tantae mercedis habere 10
credit adhuc iugulum, quantam pro Caesaris ipse
auolsa ceruice daret.

Already beyond the Heraclean Narrows and the wooded Tempe
of Haemonia, seeking the deserted wastes of the forest,
his hoof-footed steed, exhausted by running and refusing the goads,
Magnus, driving, confounds the uncertain tracks of flight
and the paths entangled by wandering. He dreads the crash 5
of groves moved by the winds, and one of his own companions,
who comes back behind his back, unnerves him—skittish
and fearing for his flank. Although fallen from the topmost pinnacle,
he does not yet know the price of his blood to be cheap,
and, mindful of fate, he believes he still has a throat worth so great a reward 10
as he himself would pay for Caesar, with neck torn away.

deserta sequentem
non patitur tutis fatum celare latebris
clara uiri facies. multi, Pharsalica castra
cum peterent nondum fama prodente ruinas, 15

as he followed the deserts,
the man's conspicuous face does not allow him to hide his fate in safe hideouts;
many, as they were making for the Pharsalic camp,
with rumor not yet betraying the ruins, 15

occursu stupuere ducis uertigine rerum
attoniti, cladisque suae uix ipse fidelis
auctor erat. grauis est Magno quicumque malorum
testis adest. cunctis ignotus gentibus esse
mallet et obscuro tutus transire per urbes 20
nomine; sed poenas longi Fortuna fauoris
exigit a misero, quae tanto pondere famae
res premit aduersas fatisque prioribus urguet.
nunc festinatos nimium sibi sentit honores
actaque lauriferae damnat Sullana iuuentae, 25
nunc et Corycias classes et Pontica signa
deiectum meminisse piget.

at their meeting they were astonished at the leader, thunderstruck by the vertigo of affairs, and he himself was scarcely a trustworthy reporter of his own disaster. heavy to Magnus is whoever is present as a witness of misfortunes. he would prefer to be unknown to all peoples and to pass safely through cities with an obscure name; but Fortune exacts penalties for her long favor from the wretch, who with so great a weight of fame presses his adverse affairs and urges them on by his former fates. now he feels honors too hastily accelerated for himself and condemns the deeds of his laurel‑bearing Sullan youth, now too it irks him, cast down, to remember the Corycian fleets and the Pontic standards. 20

sic longius aeuum
destruit ingentis animos et uita superstes
imperio. nisi summa dies cum fine bonorum
adfuit et celeri praeuertit tristia leto, 30

thus a longer age
destroys mighty spirits, and a life surviving
one’s rule. unless the supreme day, with the end of good things,
has come and with swift death forestalled the sad things, 30

dedecori est fortuna prior. quisquamne secundis
tradere se fatis audet nisi morte parata?
     litora contigerat per quae Peneius amnis
Emathia iam clade rubens exibat in aequor.
inde ratis trepidum uentis ac fluctibus inpar,                  35
flumineis uix tuta uadis, euexit in altum.
cuius adhuc remis quatitur Corcyra sinusque
Leucadii, Cilicum dominus terraeque Liburnae
exiguam uector pauidus correpsit in alnum.
conscia curarum secretae in litora Lesbi                  40
flectere uela iubet, qua tunc tellure latebas
maestior, in mediis quam si, Cornelia, campis
Emathiae stares. tristis praesagia curas
exagitant, trepida quatitur formidine somnus,
Thessaliam nox omnis habet; tenebrisque remotis                  45

Former fortune is a disgrace. Does anyone dare to hand himself over to favorable fates unless death is prepared?
     He had touched the shores by which the Peneius river, now reddened with the Emathian slaughter, was going out into the sea.
Thence the raft, the fearful man unequal to winds and waves, scarcely safe from the river shoals, bore him out into the deep.                  35
Corcyra and the bays of Leucadia are still shaken by its oars, when he, lord of the Cilicians and of the Liburnian land, as a passenger, fearful, crept into a tiny skiff.
He orders the sails to turn toward the secret shores of Lesbos, privy to his cares, where then upon that land you were hiding, more mournful than if, Cornelia, you stood in the midst of the Emathian fields.
Sad presages agitate your worries, sleep is shaken with trembling fear, all night is Thessaly; and with the darkness removed                  45

rupis in abruptae scopulos extremaque curris
litora; prospiciens fluctus nutantia longe
semper prima uides uenientis uela carinae,
quaerere nec quicquam de fato coniugis audes.
en ratis, ad uestros quae tendit carbasa portus!                  50
quid ferat ignoras, et nunc tibi summa pauoris
nuntius armorum tristis rumorque sinister.
uictus adest coniunx. quid perdis tempora luctus?
cum possis iam flere times. tum puppe propinqua
prosiluit crimenque deum crudele notauit,                  55
deformem pallore ducem uoltusque prementem
canitiem atque atro squalentis puluere uestes.
obuia nox miserae caelum lucemque tenebris
abstulit atque animam clausit dolor; omnia neruis
membra relicta labant, riguerunt corda, diuque                  60

you run to the crags of the precipitous cliff and the farthest shores;
looking out, far away at the waves nodding,
you, always first, see the sails of the coming keel,
nor do you dare to ask anything about your husband’s fate.
lo, the ship whose canvases are straining toward your harbors!                  50
what it brings you do not know, and now for you the height of fear
is the messenger of arms and a sad, sinister rumor.
your spouse, conquered, is at hand. why do you waste time for mourning?
when you could now weep, you are afraid. then, as the stern drew near,
he leapt forth and denounced the cruel crime of the gods,                   55
a leader disfigured by pallor and a face weighed down
with grayness, and garments foul with black dust.
encountering her, night took away from the wretched woman sky and light in darkness,
and grief shut in her soul; all her limbs, their sinews abandoned,
give way, her heart grew rigid, and for a long time                  60

spe mortis decepta iacet. iam fune ligato
litoribus lustrat uacuas Pompeius harenas.
quem postquam propius famulae uidere fideles,
non ultra gemitus tacitos incessere fatum
permisere sibi, frustraque attollere terra                  65
semianimem conantur eram; quam pectore Magnus
ambit et astrictos refouet conplexibus artus.
coeperat in summum reuocato sanguine corpus
Pompei sentire manus maestamque mariti
posse pati faciem: prohibet succumbere fatis                  70
Magnus et inmodicos castigat uoce dolores.
'nobile cur robur fortunae uolnere primo
femina tantorum titulis insignis auorum
frangis? habes aditum mansurae in saecula famae.
laudis in hoc sexu non legum iura nec arma,                  75

deceived in the hope of death, she lies. now, with the rope made fast, Pompey traverses the empty sands of the shores. when the faithful maidservants saw him nearer, they no longer allowed themselves to assail fate with silent groans, and in vain they try to lift from the ground their half-alive mistress;                  65
whom Magnus encircles at his breast and with embraces rewarms her constricted limbs. the body, with the blood called back to the surface, had begun to feel Pompey’s hands and to be able to endure the mournful face of her husband: Magnus forbids her to succumb to the fates and with his voice chastises the immoderate pains.                  70
“why do you, a woman distinguished by the titles of such great ancestors, break your noble strength at fortune’s first wound? you have access to fame that will endure through the ages. for praise in this sex there are not the rights of laws nor arms,                  75

unica materia est coniunx miser. erige mentem,
et tua cum fatis pietas decertet, et ipsum
quod sum uictus ama. nunc sum tibi gloria maior,
a me quod fasces et quod pia turba senatus
tantaque discessit regum manus.

the only subject is your wretched consort. Raise your mind,
and let your piety contend with the fates, and love even
this very thing, that I am conquered. Now I am to you a greater glory,
in that from me the fasces and the pious throng of the Senate
and so great a band of kings has departed.

incipe Magnum 80
sola sequi. deformis adhuc uiuente marito
summus et augeri uetitus dolor: ultima debet
esse fides lugere uirum. tu nulla tulisti
bello damna meo: uiuit post proelia Magnus
sed fortuna perit.

begin to follow Magnus 80
alone. while your husband still lives, a supreme grief is unseemly and forbidden to be augmented: the ultimate fidelity is to mourn a husband. you have borne no damages in my war: Magnus lives after the battles,
but fortune perishes.

quod defles, illud amasti.'                  85
     uocibus his correpta uiri uix aegra leuauit
membra solo talis gemitu rumpente querellas:
'o utinam in thalamos inuisi Caesaris issem
infelix coniunx et nulli laeta marito.
bis nocui mundo: me pronuba ducit Erinys                  90

what you weep for, that you have loved.'                  85
     by these words, seized by her husband, scarcely did the ailing woman lift
her limbs from the ground, with such a groan breaking her complaints:
'o would that into the bedchambers of hated Caesar I had gone,
an unlucky spouse and happy to no husband.
twice I have harmed the world: as brideswoman a Fury leads me                  90

Crassorumque umbrae, deuotaque manibus illis
Assyrios in castra tuli ciuilia casus,
praecipitesque dedi populos cunctosque fugaui
a causa meliore deos. o maxime coniunx,
o thalamis indigne meis, hoc iuris habebat 95
in tantum fortuna caput? cur inpia nupsi,
si miserum factura fui?

And the shades of the Crassi, and devoted to those Manes,
I brought Assyrian disasters into the civil camps,
and I hurled peoples headlong and put to flight
from the better cause all the gods. O greatest husband,
O unworthy of my marriage-bed, did Fortune have this right 95
over so great a head? Why did I marry impiously,
if I was going to make you wretched?

nunc accipe poenas,
sed quas sponte luam: quo sit tibi mollius aequor,
certa fides regum totusque paratior orbis,
sparge mari comitem. mallem felicibus armis 100
dependisse caput: nunc clades denique lustra,
Magne, tuas. ubicumque iaces ciuilibus armis
nostros ulta toros, ades huc atque exige poenas,
Iulia crudelis, placataque paelice caesa
Magno parce tuo.' sic fata iterumque refusa 105

now receive the penalties,
but such as I shall pay of my own accord: so that the sea may be gentler to you,
the faith of kings sure and the whole orb readier,
strew upon the sea your companion. I would have preferred with fortunate arms 100
to have paid with my head: now at last lustrate,
Magnus, your disasters. wherever you lie, with civil arms
having avenged our marriage-bed, be present here and exact penalties,
cruel Julia; and, appeased with the paramour cut down,
spare your Magnus.' thus having spoken, and again sunk back, 105

coniugis in gremium cunctorum lumina soluit
in lacrimas. duri flectuntur pectora Magni,
siccaque Thessalia confudit lumina Lesbos.
     tunc Mytilenaeum pleno iam litore uolgus
adfatur Magnum. 'si maxima gloria nobis                  110
semper erit tanti pignus seruasse mariti,
tu quoque deuotos sacro tibi foedere muros
oramus sociosque lares dignere uel una
nocte tua: fac, Magne, locum, quem cuncta reuisant
saecula, quem ueniens hospes Romanus adoret.                  115
nulla tibi subeunda magis sunt moenia uicto:
omnia uictoris possunt sperare fauorem,
haec iam crimen habent.

she loosed the eyes of all into tears upon her spouse’s lap. The hard heart of Magnus is bent, and Lesbos confounded the dry Thessalian eyes.
then the Mytilenean crowd, with the shore now full, addresses Magnus: 'if the greatest glory will ever be ours to have kept as pledge a husband of such worth, you too we beg to deem worthy the walls devoted to you by a sacred foedus and our allied hearths for even a single night as yours: make, Magnus, a place which all ages shall revisit, which the arriving Roman guest shall adore. 110
no walls are more to be entered by you, conquered: all can hope for the favor of the conqueror, these already have a crime.'

quid, quod iacet insula ponto,
Caesar eget ratibus? procerum pars magna coibit
certa loci; noto reparandum est litore fatum. 120

What then, that the island lies in the sea—does Caesar need ships?
A great part of the nobles will gather at a certain place; on a known shore fate is to be repaired. 120

accipe templorum cultus aurumque deorum;
accipe, si terris, si puppibus ista iuuentus
aptior est; tota, quantum ualet, utere Lesbo.
hoc solum crimen meritae bene detrahe terrae,                  125
ne nostram uideare fidem felixque secutus
et damnasse miser.' tali pietate uirorum
laetus in aduersis et mundi nomine gaudens
esse fidem 'nullum toto mihi' dixit 'in orbe
gratius esse solum non paruo pignore uobis                  130
ostendi: tenuit nostros hac obside Lesbos
adfectus; hic sacra domus carique penates,
hic mihi Roma fuit. non ulla in litora puppem
ante dedi fugiens, saeui cum Caesaris iram
iam scirem meritam seruata coniuge Lesbon,                  135

receive the cults of the temples and the gold of the gods;
receive, if this youth is more apt for lands, if for ships;
make use of all Lesbos, as far as it avails. Take away this one charge from a land that has well deserved,                  125
lest you seem to have followed our loyalty when fortunate
and to have condemned it when wretched.' At such piety of the men,
happy in adversities and rejoicing that there is loyalty in the world,
he said, 'In no whole orb is there to me any soil
more pleasing; I have shown this to you by no small pledge:                  130
by this hostage Lesbos has held my affections;
here the sacred house and the dear Penates,
here was Rome for me. To no shores did I first give my ship,
fleeing, when I already knew that the wrath of savage Caesar
had been deserved, with my spouse kept safe at Lesbos,'                  135

non ueritus tantam ueniae committere uobis
materiam. sed iam satis est fecisse nocentis:
fata mihi totum mea sunt agitanda per orbem.
heu nimium felix aeterno nomine Lesbos,
siue doces populos regesque admittere Magnum, 140
seu praestas mihi sola fidem. nam quaerere certum est,
fas quibus in terris, ubi sit scelus.

not afraid to commit to you so great a material for pardon;
but now it is enough to have acted the guilty one:
my fates must be driven by me throughout the whole orb.
alas, too happy with an eternal name, Lesbos,
whether you teach peoples and kings to admit the Great, 140
or you alone provide faith to me. for it must be sought,
by what right in what lands, where the crime lies.

accipe, numen
siquod adhuc mecum es, uotorum extrema meorum:
da similis Lesbo populos, qui Marte subactum
non intrare suos infesto Caesare portus,                  145
non exire uetent.' dixit, maestamque carinae
inposuit comitem. cunctos mutare putares
tellurem patriaeque solum: sic litore toto
plangitur, infestae tenduntur in aethera dextrae.
Pompeiumque minus, cuius fortuna dolorem                  150
mouerat, ast illam, quam toto tempore belli
ut ciuem uidere suam, discedere cernens
ingemuit populus; quam uix, si castra mariti
uictoris peteret, siccis dimittere matres
iam poterant oculis: tanto deuinxit amore                  155

accept, O numen—if any still art with me—the last of my vows:
grant peoples like Lesbos, who would not forbid one subdued by Mars
to enter their harbors, when Caesar is hostile, nor forbid him to go out.'                  145
he said, and he set the sorrowful companion aboard the keel.
you would think that all were changing their earth and the soil of their fatherland:
so along the whole shore there is beating of grief, hostile right hands
are stretched into the aether. And less for Pompey, whose fortune had moved
their dolor, but for her, whom through the whole time of the war they had seen                  150
as their own citizen, seeing her depart, the people groaned; whom scarcely,
if she were seeking the camp of her victorious husband, could the mothers
now send away with dry eyes: by so great a love she bound them.                  155

hos pudor, hos probitas castique modestia uoltus,
quod summissa <a>nimis, nulli grauis hospita turbae,
stantis adhuc fati uixit quasi coniuge uicto.
     iam pelago medios Titan demissus ad ignes
nec quibus abscondit nec siquibus exerit orbem                  160
totus erat. uigiles Pompei pectore curae
nunc socias adeunt Romani foederis urbes
et uarias regum mentes, nunc inuia mundi
arua super nimios soles Austrumque iacentis.
saepe labor maestus curarum odiumque futuri                  165
proiecit fessos incerti pectoris aestus,
rectoremque ratis de cunctis consulit astris,
unde notet terras, quae sit mensura secandi
aequoris in caelo, Syriam quo sidere seruet
aut quotus in Plaustro Libyam bene derigat ignis.                  170

these things—her pudor, her probity, and the chaste modesty of her countenance—because she was too submissive, a hostess grievous to no throng, she lived, while his fate still stood, as if with a conquered husband.
now the Titan, let down to his fires upon mid-sea, was wholly neither with those for whom he hides nor with those for whom he brings forth the orb. 160
the wakeful cares in Pompey’s breast now approach the allied cities of the Roman foedus and the varied minds of kings, now the pathless fields of the world lying beneath excessive suns and the South.
often sad toil and a loathing of the future cast down the weary surges of his uncertain heart,
and he consults the helmsman of the ship about all the stars—whence to mark the lands, what is the measure of cutting the plain of the sea in the sky, by what star to keep Syria, or which fire in the Wain rightly steers Libya. 170

doctus ad haec fatur taciti seruator Olympi
'signifero quaecumque fluunt labentia caelo,
numquam stante polo miseros fallentia nautas,
sidera non sequimur, sed, qui non mergitur undis
axis inocciduus gemina clarissimus Arcto, 175
ille regit puppes. hic cum mihi semper in altum
surget et instabit summis minor Vrsa ceruchis,
Bosporon et Scythiae curuantem litora Pontum
spectamus. quidquid descendet ab arbore summa
Arctophylax propiorque mari Cynosura feretur, 180
in Syriae portus tendit ratis.

learned in these matters speaks the keeper of silent Olympus
'whatever stars glide, slipping in the sign-bearing sky,
never, with the pole standing fixed, deceiving wretched sailors,
the stars we do not follow, but the axis unfalling, which is not submerged by the waves,
most bright with the twin Arctos, 175
that one governs the sterns. When this for me shall always rise on high
and the Lesser Bear will press upon the topmost yardarms,
we look toward the Bosporus and the Pontus bending the shores of Scythia.
whatever from the top of the mast descends—
Arctophylax and the Cynosure borne nearer to the sea— 180
the ship makes for the harbors of Syria.

inde Canopos
excipit, Australi caelo contenta uagari
stella, timens Borean: illa quoque perge sinistra
trans Pharon, in medio tanget ratis aequore Syrtim.
sed quo uela dari, quo nunc pede carbasa tendi 185

then Canopus takes them up,
a star content to wander in the Austral sky,
fearing Boreas: keep that too on the left,
sail past Pharos; in mid-sea the ship will touch the Syrtis.
but to what quarter are the sails to be given, with what measure are the canvases now to be stretched? 185

nostra iubes?' dubio contra cui pectore Magnus
'hoc solum toto' respondit 'in aequore serua,
ut sit ab Emathiis semper tua longius oris
puppis et Hesperiam pelago caeloque relinquas:
cetera da uentis. comitem pignusque recepi                  190
depositum: tum certus eram quae litora uellem,
nunc portum fortuna dabit'. sic fatur; at ille
iusto uela modo pendentia cornibus aequis
torsit et in laeuum puppim dedit, utque secaret
quas Asinae cautes et quas Chios asperat undas                  195
hos dedit in proram, tenet hos in puppe rudentes.
aequora senserunt motus aliterque secante
iam pelagus rostro nec idem spectante carina
mutauere sonum. non sic moderator equorum,
dexteriore rota laeuum cum circumit axem,                  200

'do you order our [course]?' to whom Magnus, with a wavering breast, in reply said
'keep this alone on the whole sea:
that your stern be always farther from the Emathian shores,
and that you leave Hesperia by sea and sky;
give the rest to the winds. a companion and pledge I have taken back,the deposit: then I was certain what shores I would wish,
now Fortune will grant a harbor.' thus he speaks; but the helmsman
twisted the sails, hanging in proper trim on equal yards,
and he put the stern to port, and so that he might cut
the waves which the Asinae rocks and which Chios makes rough, 195
he gave these ropes to the prow, he holds those at the stern.
the seas felt the motions, and with the beak now cutting
the deep in another way and the keel not facing the same quarter,
they changed their sound. not thus the driver of horses,
when with the right wheel he rounds the left axle, 200

cogit inoffensae currus accedere metae.
     ostendit terras Titan et sidera texit.
sparsus ab Emathia fugit quicumque procella,
adsequitur Magnum; primusque a litore Lesbi
occurrit gnatus, procerum mox turba fidelis.                  205
nam neque deiecto fatis acieque fugato
abstulerat Magno reges fortuna ministros:
terrarum dominos et sceptra Eoa tenentis
exul habet comites. iubet ire in deuia mundi
Deiotarum, qui sparsa ducis uestigia legit.                  210
'quando' ait 'Emathiis amissus cladibus orbis,
qua Romanus erat, superest, fidissime regum,
Eoam temptare fidem populosque bibentis
Euphraten et adhuc securum a Caesare Tigrim.
ne pigeat Magno quaerentem fata remotas                  215

he compels the chariot to draw near to the unhindered turning-post.
     Titan shows the lands and veils the stars.
whoever, scattered, flees from the Emathian tempest, overtakes Magnus; and first from the shore of Lesbos his son meets him, soon the loyal crowd of nobles.                  205
for neither, with the line cast down by the fates and the battle routed, had Fortune taken from Magnus the kings as attendants:
the lords of lands and the holders of Eastern scepters the exile has as companions. He bids Deiotarus go into the byways of the world, he who gathers the scattered footprints of the leader.                  210
‘since,’ he says, ‘the world that was Roman has been lost by Emathian disasters, what remains is, most faithful of kings, to try Eastern good faith and the peoples drinking the Euphrates and the Tigris as yet untroubled by Caesar.
let it not irk Magnus, seeking destinies remote                  215

Medorum penetrare domos Scythicosque recessus
et totum mutare diem, uocesque superbo
Arsacidae perferre meas: "si foedera nobis
prisca manent mihi per Latium iurata Tonantem,
per uestros astricta magos, inplete pharetras                  220
Armeniosque arcus Geticis intendite neruis,
si uos, o Parthi, peterem cum Caspia claustra
et sequerer duros aeterni Martis Alanos,
passus Achaemeniis late decurrere campis
in tutam trepidos numquam Babylona coegi.                  225
arua super Cyri Chaldaeique ultima regni,
qua rapidus Ganges et qua Nysaeus Hydaspes
accedunt pelago, Phoebi surgentis ab igne
iam propior quam Persis eram: tamen omnia uincens
sustinui nostris uos tantum desse triumphis,                  230

to penetrate the homes of the Medes and the Scythic recesses,
and to change the whole day, and to carry my voices to the proud
Arsacid: "if the ancient pacts remain for us,
sworn through Latium by the Thunderer, and bound by your magi,
fill the quivers and string the Armenian bows with Getic sinews, 220
if I, O Parthians, should seek the Caspian barriers with you
and follow the hardy Alans of eternal Mars,
having allowed you to run far and wide over the Achaemenian plains
I never drove the alarmed into safe Babylon.
beyond the fields of Cyrus and the farthest of the Chaldaean realm,
where the swift Ganges and where the Nysaean Hydaspes
approach the ocean, from the fire of rising Phoebus
I was already nearer than the Persians were: yet, conquering all,
I endured that you alone were lacking to our triumphs, 230

solusque e numero regum telluris Eoae
ex aequo me Parthus adit. nec munere Magni
stant semel Arsacidae; quis enim post uolnera cladis
Assyriae iustas Latii conpescuit iras?
tot meritis obstricta meis nunc Parthia ruptis 235
excedat claustris uetitam per saecula ripam
Zeugmaque Pellaeum. Pompeio uincite, Parthi,
uinci Roma uolet."' regem parere iubenti
ardua non piguit, positisque insignibus aulae
egreditur famulo raptos indutus amictus. 240
in dubiis tutum est inopem simulare tyranno;
quanto igitur mundi dominis securius aeuum
uerus pauper agit!

and alone from the number of the kings of the Eastern earth
the Parthian approaches me on equal terms. Nor do the Arsacids stand by the favor of Magnus alone;
for who, after the wounds of Assyrian disaster, has checked the just wraths of Latium?
Parthia, bound by so many merits of mine, let her now, treaties broken, 235
go beyond her barriers, the bank forbidden through ages,
and the Pellaean Zeugma. Conquer for Pompey, Parthians—Rome will wish to be conquered."' The king did not shrink to obey one bidding
arduous things, and laying aside the emblems of the court
he goes forth, clad in garments snatched from a servant. 240
In doubtful times it is safe to feign poverty before a tyrant;
how much more securely, then, does a true poor man lead his life than the lords of the world!

dimisso in litore rege
ipse per Icariae scopulos, Ephesonque relinquens
et placidi Colophona maris, spumantia paruae 245

with the king dismissed on the shore
he himself through the Icarian crags, and leaving Ephesus
and Colophon of the placid sea, the foaming of the little 245

radit saxa Sami; spirat de litore Coo
aura fluens; Cnidon inde fugit claramque relinquit
sole Rhodon magnosque sinus Telmessidos undae
conpensat medio pelagi. Pamphylia puppi
occurrit tellus, nec se committere muris                  250
ausus adhuc ullis te primum, parua Phaseli,
Magnus adit; nam te metui uetat incola rarus
exhaustaeque domus populis, maiorque carinae
quam tua turba fuit. tendens hinc carbasa rursus
iam Taurum Tauroque uidet Dipsunta cadentem.                  255
     crederet hoc Magnus, pacem cum praestitit undis,
et sibi consultum?

he razes the rocks of Samos; from the shore of Cos a flowing breeze breathes; thence he flees Cnidus and leaves behind Rhodes bright with the sun, and he compensates the great bays of Telmessian waters by the midmost of the deep. The land of Pamphylia meets the stern, and, not yet daring to commit himself to any walls, you first, little Phaselis, does Magnus approach; for in you fear is forbidden by the sparse inhabitant and houses drained of peoples, and greater was the company of the keel than your populace. Stretching the canvases (sails) again from here, now he sees Taurus and, with Taurus, sees Dipsunta sinking. would Magnus believe this, when he bestowed peace upon the waves,
and that care had been taken for himself?

Cilicum per litora tutus
parua puppe fugit. sequitur pars magna senatus
ad profugum collecta ducem; paruisque Syhedris,
quo portu mittitque rates recipitque Selinus, 260

Safe along the Cilician shores
he flees with a small stern-ship. A great part of the Senate follows,
gathered to the fugitive leader; and at little Syedra,
at whose port Selinus both sends and receives ships, 260

in procerum coetu tandem maesta ora resoluit
uocibus his Magnus: 'comites bellique fugaeque
atque instar patriae, quamuis in litore nudo,
in Cilicum terra, nullis circumdatus armis
consultem rebusque nouis exordia quaeram, 265
ingentis praestate animos. non omnis in aruis
Emathiis cecidi, nec sic mea fata premuntur
ut nequeam releuare caput cladesque receptas
excutere. an Libycae Marium potuere ruinae
erigere in fasces et plenis reddere fastis, 270
me pulsum leuiore manu fortuna tenebit?
mille meae Graio uoluuntur in aequore puppes,
mille duces; sparsit potius Pharsalia nostras
quam subuertit opes.

at last in the assembly of the nobles he unloosed his sad features; with these words spoke Magnus: 'companions of war and of flight, and the equivalent of a fatherland, although on a bare shore, in the land of the Cilicians, surrounded by no arms, I take counsel and seek beginnings for new affairs, 265
provide vast spirits. Not all of me fell on the Emathian fields, nor are my fates so pressed that I cannot lift my head and shake off the disasters I have incurred. Or could the Libyan ruinings raise Marius to the fasces and restore him to full fasti, 270
will Fortune hold me, driven out, with a lighter hand? A thousand of my ships roll on the Graian sea, a thousand leaders; Pharsalia has rather scattered our resources than subverted them.'

sed me uel sola tueri
fama potest rerum toto quas gessimus orbe 275
et nomen quod mundus amat. uos pendite regna
uiribus atque fide, Libyam Parthosque Pharonque,
quemnam Romanis deceat succurrere rebus.
ast ego curarum uobis arcana mearum
expromam mentisque meae quo pondera uergant. 280

but even alone may guard me, fame
of the deeds which we have carried out in the whole orb, 275
and the name which the world loves. you weigh the realms
by strengths and by faith, libya, the parthians, and pharos,
which of them it befits to succor roman affairs.
but i will disclose to you the arcana of my cares
and to what side the weights of my mind incline. 280

aetas Niliaci nobis suspecta tyranni est,
ardua quippe fides robustos exigit annos.
hinc anceps dubii terret sollertia Mauri;
namque memor generis Carthaginis inpia proles
inminet Hesperiae, multusque in pectore uano est                  285
Hannibal, obliquo maculat qui sanguine regnum
et Numidas contingit auos. iam supplice Varo
intumuit uiditque loco Romana secundo.
quare agite Eoum, comites, properemus in orbem.
diuidit Euphrates ingentem gurgite mundum                  290
Caspiaque inmensos seducunt claustra recessus,
et polus Assyrias alter noctesque diesque
uertit, et abruptum est nostro mare discolor unda
Oceanusque suus. regnandi sola uoluptas.
celsior in campo sonipes et fortior arcus,                  295

the age of the Nile-ian tyrant is suspect to us;
for arduous faith requires robust years.
hence the double-edged craft of the wavering Moor terrifies;
for, mindful of the stock of Carthage, the impious offspring
threatens Hesperia, and Hannibal is much within his vain breast,                  285
he who with oblique blood stains the kingdom and touches Numidian grandsires.
already, with Varus a suppliant, he has swelled and has seen himself in a second place at Rome.
wherefore come, comrades, let us hasten into the Eastern world.
the Euphrates divides the vast world with its flood,
and the Caspian barriers draw apart immense recesses,                  290
and another pole turns Assyrian nights and days,
and the sea, broken off from us by a differing wave, has its own Ocean.
the sole delight is of ruling.
the courser is loftier on the plain and the bow stronger,                  295

nec puer aut senior letalis tendere neruos
segnis, et a nulla mors est incerta sagitta.
primi Pellaeas arcu fregere sarisas
Bactraque Medorum sedem murisque superbam
Assyrias Babylona domos. nec pila timentur                  300
nostra nimis Parthis, audentque in bella uenire
experti Scythicas Crasso pereunte pharetras.
spicula nec solo spargunt fidentia ferro,
stridula sed multo saturantur tela ueneno;
uolnera parua nocent fatumque in sanguine summo est.                  305
o utinam non tanta mihi fiducia saeuis
esset in Arsacidis! fatis nimis aemula nostris
fata mouent Medos, multumque in gente deorum est.
effundam populos alia tellure reuolsos
excitosque suis inmittam sedibus ortus.                  310

nor is either boy or elder sluggish to stretch the death-dealing strings,
and from no arrow is death uncertain.
they were the first to shatter with the bow the Pellaean sarissas
and Bactra, the seat of the Medes, and Babylon, proud in her walls,
the Assyrian home. nor are our javelins too much feared by the Parthians,                  300
and they dare to come into wars,
having experienced the Scythian quivers with Crassus perishing.
nor do they scatter darts trusting in iron alone,
but the whirring missiles are drenched with much venom;
small wounds do harm, and doom lies in the very surface blood.                  305
O would that I did not have such confidence in the savage Arsacids!
fates too rivaling our own set the Medes in motion, and there is much of the gods in that race.
I will pour forth peoples torn from another soil
and will send in upon their own seats their roused origins.                  310

quod si nos Eoa fides et barbara fallent
foedera, uolgati supra commercia mundi
naufragium fortuna ferat: non regna precabor
quae feci. sat magna feram solacia mortis
orbe iacens alio, nihil haec in membra cruente, 315
nil socerum fecisse pie. sed, cuncta reuoluens
uitae fata meae, semper uenerabilis illa
orbis parte fui, quantus Maeotida supra,
quantus apud Tanain toto conspectus in ortu!
quas magis in terras nostrum felicibus actis 320
nomen abit, aut unde redi maiore triumpho?
Roma, faue coeptis; quid enim tibi laetius umquam
praestiterint superi, quam, si ciuilia Partho
milite bella geras, tantam consumere gentem
et nostris miscere malis?

But if Eastern good faith and barbarian treaties should deceive us, if Fortune should bear a shipwreck beyond the commerce of the well-known world, I will not pray for the realms I have made. Great enough solaces of death shall I bear, lying in another region of the world—O blood-stained one—that these things have not bloodied my limbs, that my father-in-law has had no pious deed to perform. 315
But, revolving all the fates of my life, in that part of the world I have ever been venerable—how great above the Maeotis, how great at the Tanais, seen throughout the whole East! Into what lands does our name go forth more by fortunate acts, or whence do I return with a greater triumph?
Rome, favor my undertakings; for what more gladsome have the gods ever bestowed on you than this: if you wage civil wars with Parthian soldiery, to consume so great a nation and to mingle them with our evils?

cum Caesaris arma 325

when Caesar’s arms 325

concurrent Medis, aut me fortuna necesse est
uindicet aut Crassos.' sic fatus murmure sensit
consilium damnasse uiros; quos Lentulus omnis
uirtutis stimulis et nobilitate dolendi
praecessit dignasque tulit modo consule uoces. 330
'sicine Thessalicae mentem fregere ruinae?
una dies mundi damnauit fata? secundum
Emathiam lis tanta datur? iacet omne cruenti
uolneris auxilium?

they will run together to the Medes, or Fortune must avenge either me or the Crassi.' Thus having spoken, he sensed by a murmur that the men had condemned the plan; and Lentulus, with the goads of every virtue and with the nobility of suffering, took the lead and bore words worthy of one lately consul. 330
'Is it thus that the Thessalian ruins have broken your mind? has one day condemned the fates of the world? after Emathia is so great a contest granted? does every aid for the bloody wound lie prostrate?

solos tibi, Magne, reliquit
Parthorum fortuna pedes? quid transfuga mundi, 335
terrarum totos tractus caelumque perosus,
auersosque polos alienaque sidera quaeris,
Chaldaeos culture focos et barbara sacra
Parthorum famulus? quid causa obtenditur armis
libertatis amor?

Has Fortune of the Parthians left to you, Magnus, only your feet?
Why, a deserter of the world, 335
hating the whole tracts of the lands and even the sky,
do you seek reversed poles and alien constellations,
to worship Chaldaean hearths and the barbarian rites,
a servant of the Parthians? What cause is put forward for arms—
love of liberty?

miserum quid decipis orbem, 340

why do you deceive the wretched world, 340

si seruire potes? te, quem Romana regentem
horruit auditu, quem captos ducere reges
uidit ab Hyrcanis, Indoque a litore, siluis,
deiectum fatis, humilem fractumque uidebit
<r>ex tolletque animos Latium uaesanus in orbem 345
se simul et Romam Pompeio supplice mensus?
nil animis fatisque tuis effabere dignum:
exiget ignorans Latiae commercia linguae
ut lacrimis se, Magne, roges. patimurne pudoris
hoc uolnus, clades ut Parthia uindicet ante 350
Hesperias, quam Roma suas?

if you can serve? You, whom, ruling Rome,
the world shuddered at the hearing, whom it saw lead captured kings
from the Hyrcanians, and from the Indian shore, from the forests,
cast down by the fates, low and broken, will it behold;
will a king, mad, lift his spirits and, into the Latin orb measured, himself and Rome alike, with Pompey a suppliant? 345
you will utter nothing worthy of your spirits and destinies:
ignorant of the commerce of the Latin tongue,
he will require that, with tears, Magnus, you beg him. Shall we endure of modesty
this wound, that Parthia avenge the Hesperian disasters before 350
Rome avenges her own?

ciuilibus armis
elegit te nempe ducem: quid uolnera nostra
in Scythicos spargis populos cladesque latentis?
quid Parthos transire doces? solacia tanti
perdit Roma mali, nullos admittere reges 355
sed ciui seruire suo? iuuat ire per orbem
ducentem saeuas Romana in moenia gentes
signaque ab Euphrate cum Crassis capta sequentem?
qui solus regum fato celante fauorem
defuit Emathiae, nunc tantas ille lacesset 360

with civil arms
he indeed chose you as leader: why do you scatter our wounds
among Scythian peoples and our lurking disasters?
why do you teach the Parthians to cross? Rome loses the consolations
for so great an evil—to admit no kings, but to serve her own citizen? 355
does it delight you to go through the orb,
leading savage nations against the Roman walls
and following the standards captured from the Euphrates along with the Crassi?
he who alone of the kings—his favor hidden by fate—
was lacking to Emathia, will he now provoke so great 360

auditi uictoris opes aut iungere fata
tecum, Magne, uolet? non haec fiducia genti est.
omnis, in Arctois populus quicumque pruinis
nascitur, indomitus bellis et mortis amator:
quidquid ad Eoos tractus mundique teporem                  365
ibitur, emollit gentes clementia caeli.
illic et laxas uestes et fluxa uirorum
uelamenta uides. Parthus per Medica rura,
Sarmaticos inter campos effusaque plano
Tigridis arua solo, nulli superabilis hosti est                  370
libertate fugae; sed non, ubi terra tumebit,
aspera conscendet montis iuga, nec per opacas
bella geret tenebras incerto debilis arcu,
nec franget nando uiolenti uerticis amnem,
nec tota in pugna perfusus sanguine membra                  375

will he, on hearing the resources of a victor, wish to join his fates
with you, Magnus? this confidence is not in that nation.
every people, whoever is born in Arctic frosts,
is indomitable in wars and a lover of death:
wherever one goes toward the Eoan tracts and the warmth of the world,                  365
the clemency of the sky softens the peoples.
there too you see loose garments and the flowing
veils of men. the Parthian, across Median fields,
amid Sarmatian plains and the fields of the Tigris poured out on the level
ground, is overcome by no enemy in the liberty of flight;                  370
but not, when the earth swells, will he climb the rough ridges of the mountain,
nor will he wage wars through shadowy darkness, weak with an uncertain
bow, nor will he break by swimming the stream of a violent whirlpool,
nor, in an entire fight, will he have his limbs drenched with blood.                  375

exiget aestiuum calido sub puluere solem.
non aries illis, non ulla est machina belli
aut fossas inplere ualent, Parthoque sequenti
murus erit quodcumque potest opstare sagittae.
pugna leuis bellumque fugax turmaeque uagantes,                  380
et melior cessisse loco quam pellere miles;
inlita tela dolis, nec Martem comminus usquam
ausa pati uirtus, sed longe tendere neruos
et quo ferre uelint permittere uolnera uentis.
ensis habet uires, et gens quaecumque uirorum est                  385
bella gerit gladiis. nam Medos proelia prima
exarmant uacuaque iubent remeare pharetra.
nulla manus illis, fiducia tota ueneni est.
credis, Magne, uiros, quos in discrimina belli
cum ferro misisse parum est? temptare pudendum                  390

he will draw out the summer sun beneath the hot dust.
no battering-ram for them, no engine of war,
nor are they strong to fill trenches; and for a Parthian pursuing,
whatever can stand in the way of an arrow will be a wall.
a light skirmish, a fugitive war, wandering squadrons,                  380
and a soldier better to have yielded the ground than to drive the foe;
weapons smeared with treachery, and a valor that nowhere
dares to endure Mars at close quarters, but to stretch the nerves (bowstrings)
from afar and to entrust wounds to the winds to carry whither they wish.
the sword has strength, and whatever nation is a nation of men                  385
wages wars with swords. for the first battles disarm the Medes
and bid them return with an empty quiver.
no hand-to-hand for them; their whole confidence is in poison.
do you trust, Magnus, men for whom to have sent them with steel
into the crises of war is too little? to attempt it were shameful.                  390

auxilium tanti est, toto diuisus ut orbe
a terra moriare tua, tibi barbara tellus
incumbat, te parua tegant ac uilia busta,
inuidiosa tamen Crasso quaerente sepulchrum?
sed tua sors leuior, quoniam mors ultima poena est 395
nec metuenda uiris. at non Cornelia letum
infando sub rege timet. num barbara nobis
est ignota Venus, quae ritu caeca ferarum
polluit innumeris leges et foedera taedae
coniugibus thalamique patent secreta nefandi 400
inter mille nurus?

Is help worth so much, that, separated from the whole world,
you should die away from your own land, that a barbarian earth
press upon you, that small and cheap tombs cover you—
yet enviable, with Crassus seeking a sepulcher? But your lot is lighter, since death is the ultimate penalty 395
and not to be feared by men. But Cornelia does not fear death
beneath an unspeakable king. Is barbarian Venus unknown to us,
who, blind in the rite of beasts, defiles with innumerable husbands
the laws and pacts of the wedding torch, and the secrets of a nefarious
bridal-chamber stand open among a thousand brides? 400

epulis uaesana meroque
regia non ullis exceptos legibus audet
concubitus: tot femineis conplexibus unum
non lassat nox tota marem. iacuere sorores
in regum thalamis sacrataque pignora matres. 405

mad with feasts and with pure wine,
the palace dares couplings exempt from any laws:
with so many feminine embraces, the whole night does not weary
a single male. Sisters have lain in kings’ bridal-chambers,
and mothers—the consecrated pledges—. 405

damnat apud gentes sceleris non sponte peracti
Oedipodionias infelix fabula Thebas:
Parthorum dominus quotiens sic sanguine mixto
nascitur Arsacides! cui fas inplere parentem,
quid rear esse nefas? proles tam clara Metelli                  410
stabit barbarico coniunx millesima lecto.
quamquam non ulli plus regia, Magne, uacabit
saeuitia stimulata Venus titulisque uirorum;
nam, quo plura iuuent Parthum portenta, fuisse
hanc sciet et Crassi: ceu pridem debita fatis                  415
Assyriis trahitur cladis captiua uetustae.
haereat Eoae uolnus miserabile sortis,
non solum auxilium funesto ab rege petisse
sed gessisse prius bellum ciuile pudebit.
nam quod apud populos crimen socerique tuumque                  420

the unhappy tale condemns among the nations the Oedipodean Thebes for a crime not done of free will:
how often is the Arsacid, lord of the Parthians, thus born of mingled blood! For him to whom it is lawful to fill a parent, what should I deem to be nefarious? The progeny so illustrious of Metellus will stand as the thousandth spouse in a barbarian bed.                  410
although, Magnus, to none will the palace be more free for savagery—a Venus goaded on and by the titles of men; for, the more monstrosities delight the Parthian, he will know that this woman was also Crassus’s: as though long owed to the fates of Assyria, she is dragged a captive of an ancient ruin.                  415
let the pitiable wound of an Eastern lot cling fast; she will be ashamed not only to have sought aid from a death-bringing king, but to have waged civil war before. For that which among the peoples is a crime both of your father-in-law and of your own                  420

maius erit, quam quod uobis miscentibus arma
Crassorum uindicta perit? incurrere cuncti
debuerant in Bactra duces et, nequa uacarent
arma, uel Arctoum Dacis Rhenique cateruis
imperii nudare latus, dum perfida Susa 425
in tumulos prolapsa ducum Babylonque iaceret.
Assyriae paci finem, Fortuna, precamur;
et, si Thessalia bellum ciuile peractum est,
ad Parthos qui uicit eat. gens unica mundi est
de qua Caesareis possim gaudere triumphis. 430
non tibi, cum primum gelidum transibis Araxen,
umbra senis maesti Scythicis confixa sagittis
ingeret has uoces?

will it be greater than that, that, with you commingling arms, the vengeance for the Crassi perishes? all the leaders ought to have rushed upon Bactra, and, so that arms might nowhere be idle, even to the Arctic, with Dacian and Rhine cohorts, to lay bare the flank of the empire, until treacherous Susa 425
lay collapsed into the burial-mounds of the leaders, and Babylon lay prostrate. we pray, fortuna, for an end to the peace of assyria; and, if in thessaly the civil war has been completed, let him who has conquered go to the parthians. it is the single nation of the world at whose caesarean triumphs i could rejoice. 430
will not, for you, when first you cross the icy araxes, the shade of the sorrowful old man, transfixed by scythian arrows, thrust these words?

"tu, quem post funera nostra
ultorem cinerum nudae sperauimus umbrae,
ad foedus pacemque uenis?" tum plurima cladis 435

"you, whom after our funerals
we, naked shades, hoped for as an avenger of the cinders,
do you come to a pact and peace?" then the very many things of the disaster 435

occurrent monimenta tibi: quae moenia trunci
lustrarunt ceruice duces, ubi nomina tanta
obruit Euphrates et nostra cadauera Tigris
detulit in terras ac reddidit. ire per ista
si potes, in media socerum quoque, Magne, sedentem 440
Thessalia placare potes. quin respicis orbem
Romanum?

monuments will meet you: what walls did leaders, with severed necks, lustrate; where the Euphrates overwhelmed such great names, and the Tigris carried our cadavers into lands and returned them. if you can go through those places, you can placate even your father-in-law too, Magne, sitting in the midst of Thessaly. 440
do you not look back upon the Roman world?

si regna times proiecta sub Austro
infidumque Iubam, petimus Pharon aruaque Lagi.
Syrtibus hinc Libycis tuta est Aegyptos, at inde
gurgite septeno rapidus mare summouet amnis. 445
terra suis contenta bonis, non indiga mercis
aut Iouis: in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo.
sceptra puer Ptolemaeus habet tibi debita, Magne,
tutelae commissa tuae. quis nominis umbram
horreat? innocua est aetas.

if you fear kingdoms lying under the South Wind
and treacherous Juba, we seek Pharos and the fields of Lagus.
On this side Egypt is safe from the Libyan Syrtes, and on that side
by its sevenfold surge the swift river drives the sea back. 445
a land content with its own goods, not needy of merchandise
or of Jove: in Nile alone is so great a confidence.
the boy Ptolemy holds the scepters owed to you, Magnus,
committed to your tutelage. Who would shudder at the shadow
of the name? Harmless is his age.

ne iura fidemque 450

lest rights and fidelity 450

respectumque deum ueteri speraueris aula;
nil pudet adsuetos sceptris: mitissima sors est
regnorum sub rege nouo.' non plura locutus
inpulit huc animos. quantum, spes ultima rerum,
libertatis habes! uicta est sententia Magni.                  455
     tum Cilicum liquere solum Cyproque citatas
inmisere rates, nullas cui praetulit aras
undae diua memor Paphiae, si numina nasci
credimus aut quemquam fas est coepisse deorum.
haec ubi deseruit Pompeius litora, totos                  460
emensus Cypri scopulos quibus exit in Austrum
inde maris uasti transuerso uertitur aestu;
nec tenuit gratum nocturno lumine montem,
infimaque Aegypti pugnaci litora uelo
uix tetigit, qua diuidui pars maxima Nili                  465

and you will have hoped for the regard of the deity in an ancient hall;
nothing shames those accustomed to scepters: the mildest lot
of kingdoms is under a new king.' Having spoken no more
he drove their minds hither. How much, last hope of our affairs,
of liberty you have! the counsel of Magnus is conquered.                  455
     then they left the soil of the Cilicians and to Cyprus they sent
swiftly-summoned ships, to whose waves the goddess mindful of Paphos preferred no altars—
if we believe divinities are born or it is lawful that any of the gods began.
When Pompey left these shores, having traversed all
the crags of Cyprus by which it projects into the South,                  460
thence he is turned by the crosswise tide of the vast sea;
nor did he hold the hill pleasing with nocturnal light,
and with warlike sail he scarcely touched the low-lying shores of Egypt,
where the greatest part of the divided Nile                  465

in uada decurrit Pelusia septimus amnis.
tempus erat quo Libra pares examinat horas,
non uno plus aequa die, noctique rependit
lux minor hibernae uerni solacia damni.
conperit ut regem Casio se monte tenere,                  470
flectit iter; nec Phoebus adhuc nec carbasa languent.
     iam rapido speculator eques per litora cursu
hospitis aduentu pauidam conpleuerat aulam.
consilii uix tempus erat; tamen omnia monstra
Pellaeae coiere domus, quos inter Acoreus                  475
iam placidus senio fractisque modestior annis
(hunc genuit custos Nili crescentis in arua
Memphis uana sacris; illo cultore deorum
lustra suae Phoebes non unus uixerat Apis)
consilii uox prima fuit, meritumque fidemque                  480

into the shallows at Pelusium runs down the seventh river-mouth.
It was the time when Libra examines equal hours,
the equal day is not greater even by one, and to the night the lesser light repays
a solace for the vernal loss that winter suffered.
As soon as he learned that the king was holding himself on Mount Casius,                  470
he bends his course; nor as yet do Phoebus nor the canvas languish.
     Already a scout horseman, by rapid course along the shores,
had filled the palace, fearful at the guest’s arrival, with the news.
There was scarcely time for counsel; yet all the monsters
of the Pellaean house gathered, among whom Acoreus,                  475
now placid in old age and more modest with years broken,
(Memphis, guardian of the Nile swelling into the fields,
bore this man, vain in rites; under that worshiper of the gods
more than one Apis had lived through the lustra of his own Phoebe)
was the first voice of counsel, and for merit and for good faith                  480

sacraque defuncti iactauit pignora patris.
sed melior suadere malis et nosse tyrannos
ausus Pompeium leto damnare Pothinus
'ius et fas multos faciunt, Ptolemaee, nocentes;
dat poenas laudata fides, cum sustinet' inquit 485
'quos fortuna premit. fatis accede deisque,
et cole felices, miseros fuge. sidera terra
ut distant et flamma mari, sic utile recto.
sceptrorum uis tota perit, si pendere iusta
incipit, euertitque arces respectus honesti. 490
libertas scelerum est quae regna inuisa tuetur
sublatusque modus gladiis.

and he brandished the sacred pledges of his departed father.
but Pothinus, better at advising evils and at knowing tyrants,
dared to condemn Pompey to death: ‘law and divine right make many, Ptolemy, guilty;
praised loyalty pays penalties, when it supports,’ he says, 485
‘those whom Fortune presses. Side with the fates and the gods,
and cultivate the fortunate, flee the wretched. As the stars from earth
and fire from the sea are distant, so the expedient from the upright.
the whole force of scepters perishes, if it begins to weigh the just,
and regard for the honorable overturns citadels. 490
freedom for crimes is what protects hated kingdoms,
and the check has been lifted from swords.’

facere omnia saeue
non inpune licet, nisi cum facis. exeat aula
qui uolt esse pius. uirtus et summa potestas
non coeunt; semper metuet quem saeua pudebunt. 495
non inpune tuos Magnus contempserit annos,
qui te nec uictos arcere a litore nostro
posse putat.

to do everything savagely is not permitted with impunity, except while you are doing it. let him depart the court who wishes to be pious. virtue and highest power do not cohere; he will always fear whom savage deeds will shame. 495
not with impunity will Magnus have despised your years, who thinks you are not able to ward off even the conquered from our shore.

neu nos sceptris priuauerit hospes
pignora sunt propiora tibi: Nilumque Pharonque,
si regnare piget, damnatae redde sorori. 500

and let not a guest deprive us of our scepters;
the pledges are nearer to you: the Nile and Pharos,
if it wearies you to reign, give back to your condemned sister. 500

Aegypton certe Latiis tueamur ab armis.
quidquid non fuerit Magni dum bella geruntur,
nec uictoris erit. toto iam pulsus ab orbe,
postquam nulla manet rerum fiducia, quaerit
cum qua gente cadat. rapitur ciuilibus umbris. 505
nec soceri tantum arma fugit: fugit ora senatus,
cuius Thessalicas saturat pars magna uolucres,
et metuit gentes quas uno in sanguine mixtas
deseruit, regesque timet quorum omnia mersit,
Thessaliaeque reus nulla tellure receptus 510
sollicitat nostrum, quem nondum perdidit, orbem.
iustior in Magnum nobis, Ptolemaee, querellae
causa data est.

Let us surely protect Egypt from Latin arms.
whatever shall not have been Magnus’s while wars are being waged
will not be the victor’s either. Now driven from the whole world,
after no confidence in affairs remains, he seeks
with what nation he may fall. He is swept into the shades of civil war. 505
nor does he flee only his father-in-law’s arms: he flees the faces of the senate,
a great part of which he has sated for the Thessalian birds,
and he fears the nations which, mingled in one blood,
he deserted, and he fears the kings whose everything he has submerged,
and, guilty to Thessaly, received by no land, 510
he importunes our world, which he has not yet lost.
A more just cause of complaint against Magnus has been given to us, Ptolemy.

quid sepositam semperque quietam
crimine bellorum maculas Pharon, aruaque nostra
uictori suspecta facis? cur sola cadenti 515

why do you make Pharos, sequestered and ever quiet,
stained with the crime of wars, and our fields suspect to the victor?
why, to the one falling, alone 515

haec placuit tellus, in quam Pharsalica fata
conferres poenasque tuas? iam crimen habemus
purgandum gladio. quod nobis sceptra senatus
te suadente dedit, uotis tua fouimus arma.
hoc ferrum, quod fata iubent proferre, paraui 520
non tibi, sed uicto; feriam tua uiscera, Magne,
malueram soceri: rapimur quo cuncta feruntur.
tene mihi dubitas an sit uiolare necesse,
cum liceat?

has this land pleased you, to which you would carry the Pharsalic fates and your penalties?
now we have a crime to be purged by the sword. in that the senate, with you advising, gave the scepters to us, we have fostered your arms with vows.
this iron, which the fates order to bring forth, I prepared not for you, but for the vanquished; 520
I shall strike your entrails, Magnus; I had preferred the father-in-law’s: we are swept along whither all things are borne.
do you hesitate whether it is necessary to violate you, since it is permitted?

quae te nostri fiducia regni
huc agit, infelix? populum non cernis inermem 525
aruaque uix refugo fodientem mollia Nilo?
metiri sua regna decet uiresque fateri.
tu, Ptolemaee, potes Magni fulcire ruinam,
sub qua Roma iacet? bustum cineresque mouere
Thessalicos audes bellumque in regna uocare? 530

What confidence in our kingdom drives you here, ill-fated one?
Do you not discern a people unarmed and scarcely digging the soft fields with the Nile in ebb? 525
It befits one to measure his own realms and to confess his strengths.
You, Ptolemy, can you buttress the ruin of Magnus,
under which Rome lies? Do you dare to disturb the Thessalian tomb and ashes
and to call war into the kingdoms? 530

ante aciem Emathiam nullis accessimus armis:
Pompei nunc castra placent, quae deserit orbis?
nunc uictoris opes et cognita fata lacessis?
aduersis non desse decet, sed laeta secutos:
nulla fides umquam miseros elegit amicos.'                  535
     adsensere omnes sceleri. laetatur honore
rex puer insueto, quod iam sibi tanta iubere
permittant famuli. sceleri delectus Achillas,
perfida qua tellus Casiis excurrit harenis
et uada testantur iunctas Aegyptia Syrtes,                  540
exiguam sociis monstri gladiisque carinam
instruit.

Before the Emathian battle-line we approached with no arms:
do Pompey’s camps now please, those which the world deserts?
do you now provoke the resources of the victor and the fates now known?
it befits not to be lacking to men in adversity, but to have followed the prosperous:
no good faith ever chose the wretched as friends.' 535
all assented to the crime. The boy king rejoices in the unwonted honor,
that now his servants permit him to command such great things for himself. Achillas, chosen for the crime,
where the perfidious land runs out with the Casian sands
and the Egyptian shallows attest that the Syrtes are joined,
fits out a meager keel for the accomplices of the monstrosity and for swords.

o superi, Nilusne et barbara Memphis
et Pelusiaci tam mollis turba Canopi
hos animos? sic fata premunt ciuilia mundum?
sic Romana iacent? ullusne in cladibus istis 545

O gods above, is it the Nile and barbarian Memphis
and the so soft throng of Pelusiac Canopus
that produce these spirits? do civil fates thus press the world?
do Roman things lie thus? is there anyone in those disasters 545

est locus Aegypto Phariusque admittitur ensis?
hanc certe seruate fidem, ciuilia bella:
cognatas praestate manus externaque monstra
pellite, si meruit tam claro nomine Magnus
Caesaris esse nefas. tanti, Ptolemaee, ruinam 550
nominis haut metuis, caeloque tonante profanas
inseruisse manus, inpure ac semiuir, audes?
non domitor mundi nec ter Capitolia curru
inuectus regumque potens uindexque senatus
uictorisque gener, Phario satis esse tyranno 555
quod poterat, Romanus erat: quid uiscera nostra
scrutaris gladio? nescis, puer inprobe, nescis
quo tua sit fortuna loco: iam iure sine ullo
Nili sceptra tenes; cecidit ciuilibus armis
qui tibi regna dedit.

is there room in Egypt, and is the Pharian sword admitted?
at least keep this fidelity, O civil wars:
offer kindred hands and drive out foreign monsters,
if Magnus, with so bright a name, has deserved to be an impiety against Caesar.
do you not fear, Ptolemy, the ruin of so great a name, 550
and, while heaven thunders, do you, impure and half-man, dare to thrust in profane hands?
not the tamer of the world nor borne thrice in a chariot to the Capitolia,
powerful over kings and avenger of the senate and son-in-law of the victor,
was enough for the Pharian tyrant: what could suffice was this—he was a Roman.
why do you probe our vitals with the sword? you do not know, shameless boy, you do not know
in what place your fortune stands: already without any right you hold the scepters of the Nile;
he who gave you your realms has fallen by civil arms.

iam uento uela negarat 560

already he had denied sails to the wind 560

Magnus et auxilio remorum infanda petebat
litora; quem contra non longa uecta biremi
appulerat scelerata manus, Magnoque patere
fingens regna Phari celsae de puppe carinae
in paruam iubet ire ratem, litusque malignum                  565
incusat bimaremque uadis frangentibus aestum,
qui uetet externas terris adpellere classes.
quod nisi fatorum leges intentaque iussu
ordinis aeterni miserae uicinia mortis
damnatum leto traherent ad litora Magnum,                  570
non ulli comitum sceleris praesagia derant:
quippe, fides si pura foret, si regia Magno
sceptrorum auctori uera pietate pateret,
uenturum tota Pharium cum classe tyrannum.
sed cedit fatis classemque relinquere iussus                   575
obsequitur, letumque iuuat praeferre timori.
ibat in hostilem praeceps Cornelia puppem,
hoc magis inpatiens egresso desse marito
quod metuit clades. 'remane, temeraria coniunx,
et tu, nate, precor, longeque a litore casus                  580

Magnus too, with the help of oars, was seeking the unspeakable shores; against him a wicked band, borne in a short bireme, had brought to land, and, feigning that the realms of Pharos lay open to Magnus, from the stern of a lofty ship he bids him go into a small skiff, and he blames the malicious shore and the two-sea surge broken by shallows, which forbids foreign fleets to make landfall upon the land. If the laws of the fates and, urged by the command of the eternal order, the nearness of wretched death were not dragging Magnus, condemned to death, to the shores, 565
no forebodings of the crime were lacking to any of the companions: indeed, if good faith were pure, if the royal palace lay open to Magnus, the author of scepters, with true piety, the tyrant of Pharos would have come with his whole fleet. But he yields to the fates and, ordered to leave the fleet, obeys, and it pleases him to prefer death to fear. Cornelia was rushing headlong into the hostile stern, the more unable, because she feared disasters, to be lacking to her husband as he disembarked. “Remain, reckless spouse, and you too, son, I pray, and far from the shore the mishaps—” 570

expectate meos et in hac ceruice tyranni
explorate fidem' dixit. sed surda uetanti
tendebat geminas amens Cornelia palmas.
'quo sine me crudelis abis? iterumne relinquor,
Thessalicis summota malis?

wait for me, and upon this neck explore the fealty of the tyrant, she said. but, deaf to him forbidding, frenzied Cornelia was stretching out her twin palms. 'where are you going, cruel one, without me? am I left again, kept away from Thessalian evils?

numquam omine laeto 585
distrahimur miseri. poteras non flectere puppem,
cum fugeres alto, latebrisque relinquere Lesbi,
omnibus a terris si nos arcere parabas.
an tantum in fluctus placeo comes?' haec ubi frustra
effudit, prima pendet tamen anxia puppe, 590
attonitoque metu nec quoquam auertere uisus
nec Magnum spectare potest. stetit anxia classis
ad ducis euentum, metuens non arma nefasque
sed ne summissis precibus Pompeius adoret
sceptra sua donata manu.

never with a happy omen are we wretches torn apart. 585
you could have not turned the stern, when you were fleeing on the deep, and have left me in the hiding-places of Lesbos, if you were preparing to shut us out from all lands. or do I please you only as a companion into the waves?' when she poured these things out in vain, nevertheless she hangs anxious on the ship’s stern, 590
and, thunderstruck with fear, she can neither turn her gaze anywhere nor look upon Magnus. the anxious fleet stood for the outcome of the leader, fearing not arms and impiety, but lest Pompey with lowered prayers should adore scepters granted by his own hand.

transire parantem 595

preparing to cross 595

Romanus Pharia miles de puppe salutat
Septimius, qui, pro superum pudor, arma satelles
regia gestabat posito deformia pilo,
inmanis uiolentus atrox nullaque ferarum
mitior in caedes. quis non, Fortuna, putasset 600
parcere te populis, quod bello haec dextra uacaret
Thessaliaque procul tam noxia tela fugasses?
disponis gladios, nequo non fiat in orbe,
heu, facinus ciuile tibi. uictoribus ipsis
dedecus et numquam superum caritura pudore 605
fabula, Romanus regi sic paruit ensis,
Pellaeusque puer gladio tibi colla recidit,
Magne, tuo.

Septimius, a Roman Pharian soldier, hails from the stern;
who, O shame of the supernal ones, as a satelles bore royal arms, made unsightly with the pilum laid aside,
monstrous, violent, atrocious, and in slaughter no beast milder.
Who would not, Fortune, have thought that you spared peoples, because this right hand was idle from war,
and that you had driven far from Thessaly such baneful weapons? 600
You dispose swords, so that there may not be anywhere in the orb,
alas, a civil crime not yours. To the victors themselves
a disgrace and a tale that will never lack the shame of the gods above—thus a Roman sword obeyed a king,
and a Pellaean boy cut your neck with your own sword,
Great One, Magnus.

qua posteritas in saecula mittet
Septimium fama? scelus hoc quo nomine dicent
qui Bruti dixere nefas? iam uenerat horae 610

By what fame will posterity send down Septimius to the ages?
By what name will they speak this crime, who have called Brutus’s deed nefas?
now had the hour come 610

terminus extremae, Phariamque ablatus in alnum
perdiderat iam iura sui. tum stringere ferrum
regia monstra parant. ut uidit comminus ensis,
inuoluit uoltus atque, indignatus apertum
fortunae praebere, caput; tum lumina pressit                  615
continuitque animam, nequas effundere uoces
uellet et aeternam fletu corrumpere famam.
sed, postquam mucrone latus funestus Achillas
perfodit, nullo gemitu consensit ad ictum
respexitque nefas, seruatque inmobile corpus,                  620
seque probat moriens atque haec in pectore uoluit:
'saecula Romanos numquam tacitura labores
attendunt, aeuumque sequens speculatur ab omni
orbe ratem Phariamque fidem: nunc consule famae.
fata tibi longae fluxerunt prospera uitae:                  625

the boundary of his last hour, and, carried off into a Pharian alder-boat, he had already lost the rights over himself. Then the royal monsters prepare to draw the iron. When he saw the sword at close quarters, he veiled his features and, indignant to offer his head laid open to Fortune; then he pressed down his eyes and held in his breath, lest he should wish to pour out any utterance and mar his eternal fame with weeping. But after deadly Achillas with his point pierced his side, with no groan he consented to the stroke and looked upon the crime, and keeps his body immobile, and, dying, approves himself and revolved these things in his breast: 'Ages that will never be silent about Roman labors are attending, and the following age from the whole orb is watching the ship and Pharian “faith”: now consult your fame. The fates have flowed prosperous for your long life: 615

ignorant populi, si non in morte probaris,
an scieris aduersa pati. ne cede pudori
auctoremque dole fati: quacumque feriris,
crede manum soceri. spargant lacerentque licebit,
sum tamen, o superi, felix, nullique potestas 630
hoc auferre deo.

the peoples are ignorant, if you are not proved in death,
whether you have known to endure adversities. do not yield to shame
and grieve the author of your fate: by whatever you are struck,
believe the hand of your father-in-law. let them scatter and lacerate—it will be permitted,
i am, however, O gods above, fortunate, and to no god the power 630
to take this away.

mutantur prospera uita,
non fit morte miser. uidet hanc Cornelia caedem
Pompeiusque meus: tanto patientius, oro,
claude, dolor, gemitus: gnatus coniunxque peremptum,
si mirantur, amant.' talis custodia Magno                  635
mentis erat, ius hoc animi morientis habebat.
     at non tam patiens Cornelia cernere saeuum,
quam perferre, nefas miserandis aethera conplet
uocibus. 'o coniunx, ego te scelerata peremi:
letiferae tibi causa morae fuit auia Lesbos,                  640

Prosperous life is changed, one does not become miserable by death. Cornelia sees this slaughter, and my Pompey as well: so much the more patiently, I beg, close, O grief, the groans: a son and a consort, if they marvel at me slain, they love.' Such was the guardianship of mind for Magnus; this right over his spirit as he died he possessed.
But not so patient was Cornelia to behold the cruel wrong as to endure it; the pitiable woman fills the aether with lamentable voices. 'O spouse, I, a criminal woman, have destroyed you: out-of-the-way Lesbos was the cause to you of lethal delay, 640

et prior in Nili peruenit litora Caesar.
nam cui ius alii sceleris? sed, quisquis, in istud
a superis inmisse caput, uel Caesaris irae
uel tibi prospiciens, nescis, crudelis, ubi ipsa
uiscera sint Magni: properas atque ingeris ictus 645
qua uotum est uicto. poenas non morte minores
pendat et ante meum uideat caput.

and Caesar arrived first at the shores of the Nile.
for who has the right to another’s crime? but, whoever you are, with your head sent into this by the gods, either foreseeing Caesar’s wrath or your own advantage, you do not know, cruel one, where the very viscera of Magnus are: you hasten and thrust in blows where it is the wish of the vanquished. 645
let him pay penalties no less than death and let him see the head before my own.

haud ego culpa
libera bellorum, quae matrum sola per undas
et per castra comes nullis absterrita fatis
uictum, quod reges etiam timuere, recepi. 650
hoc merui, coniunx, in tuta puppe relinqui?
perfide, parcebas? te fata extrema petente
uita digna fui? moriar, nec munere regis.
aut mihi praecipitem, nautae, permittite saltum,
aut laqueum collo tortosque aptare rudentes, 655

Not I free from blame of the wars, I—who alone of mothers over the waves
and through the camps as companion, by no fates frightened off—
received back as conquered the man whom even kings feared. 650
Did I deserve this, husband, to be left on a safe ship?
Perfidious one, did you spare me? while you were seeking your last fates,
was I worthy of life? Let me die, and not by a king’s bounty.
Either, sailors, allow me the headlong leap,
or to fit a noose to my neck and the twisted ropes, 655

aut aliquis Magno dignus comes exigat ensem.
Pompeio praestare potest quod Caesaris armis
inputet. o saeui, properantem in fata tenetis?
uiuis adhuc, coniunx, et iam Cornelia non est
iuris, Magne, sui: prohibent accersere mortem;                  660
seruor uictori.' sic fata interque suorum
lapsa manus rapitur trepida fugiente carina.
     at, Magni cum terga sonent et pectora ferro,
permansisse decus sacrae uenerabile formae
iratamque deis faciem, nil ultima mortis                  665
ex habitu uoltuque uiri mutasse fatentur
qui lacerum uidere caput. nam saeuus in ipso
Septimius sceleris maius scelus inuenit actu,
ac retegit sacros scisso uelamine uoltus
semianimis Magni spirantiaque occupat ora                  670

or let some companion worthy of Magnus exact the sword.
He can render to Pompey a service which he may impute to Caesar’s arms.
O savage men, do you hold one hastening to her doom?
You live still, husband, and already Cornelia is not, Magnus, of her own right:
they forbid me to summon death; I am reserved for the victor.                  660
Thus she spoke, and, slipping from among the hands of her own, she is snatched away in trembling as the keel flees.
     But, when Magnus’s back and breast resounded with iron,
they who saw the mangled head confess that the grace of the sacred, venerable form remained,
and a face angered against the gods; that the utmost end of death had changed nothing
from the habit and visage of the man. For ruthless Septimius in the very act
found a crime greater than the crime, and he uncovers the sacred countenance with the veil torn,
and of half-alive Magnus he seizes the lips still breathing.                  670

collaque in obliquo ponit languentia transtro.
tunc neruos uenasque secat nodosaque frangit
ossa diu: nondum artis erat caput ense rotare.
at, postquam trunco ceruix abscisa recessit,
uindicat hoc Pharius, dextra gestare, satelles.                  675
degener atque operae miles Romane secundae,
Pompei diro sacrum caput ense recidis,
ut non ipse feras? o summi fata pudoris!
inpius ut Magnum nosset puer, illa uerenda
regibus hirta coma et generosa fronte decora                   680
caesaries conprensa manu est, Pharioque ueruto,
dum uiuunt uoltus atque os in murmura pulsant
singultus animae, dum lumina nuda rigescunt,
suffixum caput est, quo numquam bella iubente
pax fuit; hoc leges Campumque et rostra mouebat,                  685
hac facie, Fortuna, tibi, Romana, placebas.
nec satis infando fuit hoc uidisse tyranno:
uolt sceleris superesse fidem. tunc arte nefanda
summota est capiti tabes, raptoque cerebro
adsiccata cutis, putrisque effluxit ab alto                  690

and he places the languishing neck upon the slanting thwart.
then he cuts the nerves and veins and long breaks the knotted
bones: as yet it was not a skill to whirl the head off with a sword.
but, after the neck, cut off, withdrew from the trunk,
the Egyptian henchman claims this—to bear it in his right hand.                  675
degenerate, a hireling of a second service, Roman soldier,
you hack off with a dire sword Pompey’s head, sacred, so that you yourself
may not carry it? O fates of utmost shame!
that an impious boy might know the Great, that hair to be revered
by kings—the shaggy hair and the locks gracing the noble brow—                   680
were seized with a hand, and on an Egyptian spit,
while the features still live and sobs of the breath beat the mouth into murmurs,
while the bare lights stiffen, the head was impaled—at whose bidding
never was there peace when wars were commanded; this moved the laws
and the Campus and the rostra; by this face, Fortune, Roman, you pleased yourself.685
nor was it enough for the unspeakable tyrant to have seen this:
he wants proof of the crime to survive. then by a wicked art
the rot was removed from the head, and with the brain snatched out
the skin was dried, and the putrid matter flowed out from deep within                  690

umor, et infuso facies solidata ueneno est.
     ultima Lageae stirpis perituraque proles,
degener incestae sceptris cessure sorori,
cum tibi sacrato Macedon seruetur in antro
et regum cineres extructo monte quiescant,                  695
cum Ptolemaeorum manes seriemque pudendam
pyramides claudant indignaque Mausolea,
litora Pompeium feriunt, truncusque uadosis
huc illuc iactatur aquis. adeone molesta
totum cura fuit socero seruare cadauer?                  700
hac Fortuna fide Magni tam prospera fata
pertulit, hac illum summo de culmine rerum
morte petit cladesque omnis exegit in uno
saeua die quibus inmunes tot praestitit annos,
Pompeiusque fuit qui numquam mixta uideret                   705
laeta malis, felix nullo turbante deorum
et nullo parcente miser; semel inpulit illum
dilata Fortuna manu. pulsatur harenis,
carpitur in scopulis hausto per uolnera fluctu,
ludibrium pelagi, nullaque manente figura                  710

the moisture [flowed], and the face was solidified by the infused poison.
     the last of the Lagid stock and the doomed offspring,
degenerate, fated to yield the scepters to his incestuous sister,
when for you the Macedonian is kept in a consecrated cavern
and the ashes of kings rest in a mound heaped up,                  695
when the manes of the Ptolemies and their shameful succession
the pyramids and unworthy Mausolea enclose,
the shores strike Pompey, and his trunk in the shallow
waves is tossed here and there. Was the care so burdensome
to preserve the whole corpse for the father-in-law?                  700
With such good faith did Fortune carry Magnus’s so prosperous fates,
with such she sought him with death from the highest summit of affairs
and exacted every disaster in a single savage day,
from which she had kept him immune for so many years,
and Pompey was one who would never see joys mingled with evils,                   705
happy with none of the gods disturbing, and wretched with none sparing; once did Fortune,
with a deferred hand, strike him. He is buffeted on the sands,
he is torn on the rocks, as the wave, drawn through his wounds, drinks,
a sport of the sea, and with no shape remaining.                  710

una nota est Magno capitis iactura reuolsi.
     ante tamen Pharias uictor quam tangat harenas
Pompeio raptim tumulum fortuna parauit,
ne iaceat nullo uel ne meliore sepulchro.
e latebris pauidus decurrit ad aequora Cordus.                  715
quaestor ab Icario Cinyreae litore Cypri
infaustus Magni fuerat comes. ille per umbras
ausus ferre gradum uictum pietate timorem
conpulit ut mediis quaesitum corpus in undis
duceret ad terram traheretque in litora Magnum.                  720
lucis maesta parum per densas Cynthia nubes
praebebat, cano sed discolor aequore truncus
conspicitur. tenet ille ducem conplexibus artis
eripiente mari; tunc uictus pondere tanto
expectat fluctus pelagoque iuuante cadauer                  725

One mark against Magnus is the casting away of the torn‑off head.
     Yet before the victor touches the Pharian sands,
Fortune swiftly prepared a tomb for Pompey,
lest he lie with none, or lest with a better sepulcher.
From his hiding‑places, fearful Cordus runs down to the waters;                  715
a quaestor from the Icarian, from the Cinyran shore of Cyprus,
had been an ill‑omened companion of Magnus. He, daring
to carry his step through the shades, with fear overcome by piety,
forced himself to lead to land the body sought in the midst of the waves,
and to drag Magnus onto the shores.                  720
Of light the Moon (Cynthia), mournful, provided too little through the dense clouds,
but on the hoary, variegated sea the trunk
is seen. He holds the leader with skillful embraces,
as the sea tries to snatch him away; then, conquered by so great a weight,
he awaits the waves, and with the sea helping, the cadaver                  725

inpellit. postquam sicco iam litore sedit,
incubuit Magno lacrimasque effudit in omne
uolnus, et ad superos obscuraque sidera fatur
'non pretiosa petit cumulato ture sepulchra
Pompeius, Fortuna, tuus, non pinguis ad astra                  730
ut ferat e membris Eoos fumus odores,
ut Romana suum gestent pia colla parentem,
praeferat ut ueteres feralis pompa triumphos,
ut resonent tristi cantu fora, totus ut ignes
proiectis maerens exercitus ambiat armis.                  735
da uilem Magno plebei funeris arcam
quae lacerum corpus siccos effundat in ignes;
robora non desint misero nec sordidus ustor.
sit satis, o superi, quod non Cornelia fuso
crine iacet subicique facem conplexa maritum                  740

he drives it. After it had settled now on the dry shore,
he bent over Magnus and poured tears upon every
wound, and to the gods above and the obscure stars he speaks:
'Pompey, Fortune, your own, seeks not precious tombs heaped
with incense, not that rich smoke may to the stars carry Eastern                  730
odors from his limbs; not that pious Roman necks may bear their father,
that a funereal pomp may display old triumphs before it,
that the forums may resound with sad song, that the whole mourning army
may surround the pyres with their arms cast down.
Grant to Magnus a cheap bier for a plebeian funeral,                  735
which may pour the torn body onto dry fires;
let there be no lack for the wretch of oaken timbers nor of a squalid cremator.
Let it be enough, O gods above, that Cornelia does not lie with hair let down
and, embracing her husband, set the torch beneath.'                   740

imperat, extremo sed abest a munere busti
infelix coniunx nec adhuc a litore longe est.'
sic fatus paruos iuuenis procul aspicit ignes
corpus uile suis nullo custode cremantis.
inde rapit flammas semustaque robora membris                  745
subducit. 'quaecumque es,' ait 'neclecta nec ulli
cara tuo sed Pompeio felicior umbra,
quod iam conpositum uiolat manus hospita bustum,
da ueniam: siquid sensus post fata relictumst,
cedis et ipsa rogo paterisque haec damna sepulchri,                  750
teque pudet sparsis Pompei manibus uri.'
sic fatus plenusque sinus ardente fauilla
peruolat ad truncum, qui fluctu paene relatus
litore pendebat. summas dimouit harenas
et collecta procul lacerae fragmenta carinae                  755

she gives orders, but the unhappy spouse is away from the final office of the pyre, nor yet is she far from the shore.'
thus having spoken, the youth spies from afar small fires, his own men, with no guard, cremating a cheap body.
thence he snatches flames and withdraws half-burnt timbers for the limbs.                  745
‘whoever you are,’ he says, ‘neglected and dear to none of your own, but to Pompey a happier shade, since now a stranger hand violates the set-up pyre, grant pardon: if any sense is left after death, you too yield to the pyre and allow these harms to the tomb, and you are ashamed to be burned while the Manes of Pompey are scattered.’                  750
thus having spoken, his bosom full of burning cinders, he darts to the trunk, which, almost borne back by the billow, was hanging on the shore.
he cleared away the topmost sands and, gathered from afar, the torn fragments of the keel                  755

exigua trepidus posuit scrobe. nobile corpus
robora nulla premunt, nulla strue membra recumbunt:
admotus Magnum, non subditus, accipit ignis.
ille sedens iuxta flammas 'o maxime' dixit
'ductor et Hesperii maiestas nominis una,                  760
si tibi iactatu pelagi, si funere nullo
tristior iste rogus, manes animamque potentem
officiis auerte meis: iniuria fati
hoc fas esse iubet; ne ponti belua quicquam,
ne fera, ne uolucres, ne saeui Caesaris ira                  765
audeat, exiguam, quantum potes, accipe flammam
Romana succense manu. fortuna recursus
si det in Hesperiam, non hac in sede quiescent
tam sacri cineres, sed te Cornelia, Magne,
accipiet nostraque manu transfundet in urnam.                  770

trembling, he placed them in a small trench. No timbers press the noble body, on no pile do the limbs recline: brought near, not laid beneath, the fire receives the Great. He, sitting next to the flames, said, 'O greatest leader and the sole majesty of the Hesperian name,                  760
if by the tossing of the sea, if by no funeral, this pyre is sadder to you, O shades and powerful soul, turn away from my offices: the injury of fate bids this to be right; let not any monster of the deep, nor beast, nor birds, nor the wrath of savage Caesar dare anything; accept, as much as you can, this scant flame, kindled by a Roman hand. Fortune of return,
if she grant it into Hesperia, not in this seat shall so sacred ashes rest, but you, O Magnus, Cornelia will receive, and with our hand she will transfer you into an urn.'                  765
                  770

interea paruo signemus litora saxo,
ut nota sit busti; siquis placare peremptum
forte uolet plenos et reddere mortis honores,
inueniat trunci cineres et norit harenas
ad quas, Magne, tuum referat caput.' haec ubi fatus,                  775
excitat inualidas admoto fomite flammas.
carpitur et lentum Magnus destillat in ignem
tabe fouens bustum. sed iam percusserat astra
aurorae praemissa dies: ille ordine rupto
funeris attonitus latebras in litore quaerit.                  780
quam metuis, demens, isto pro crimine poenam
quo te fama loquax omnis accepit in annos?
condita laudabit Magni socer inpius ossa:
i modo securus ueniae fassusque sepulchrum
posce caput. cogit pietas inponere finem                  785

meanwhile let us mark the shores with a small stone,
so that the bustum be known; if anyone should by chance wish to placate the slain
and render the full honors of death,
let him find the ashes of the trunk and know the sands
to which, Magnus, he may carry back your head.' When he had said these things,                  775
he rouses the feeble flames by bringing kindling near.
And Magnus is consumed, and slowly he drips into the fire
with decay, fostering the pyre. But now the day sent ahead of Aurora
had struck the stars: he, thunderstruck, with the order
of the funeral broken, seeks hiding places on the shore.                  780
what penalty do you fear, madman, for that crime
by which all loquacious Fame has received you into the years?
the impious father-in-law will praise the buried bones of Magnus:
go now, secure of pardon, and confessing the sepulcher
ask for the head. piety compels you to impose an end                  785

officio. semusta rapit resolutaque nondum
ossa satis neruis et inustis plena medullis
aequorea restinguit aqua congestaque in unum
parua clausit humo. tunc, ne leuis aura retectos
auferret cineres, saxo conpressit harenam, 790
nautaque ne bustum religato fune moueret
inscripsit sacrum semusto stipite nomen:
'hic situs est Magnus'. placet hoc, Fortuna, sepulchrum
dicere Pompei, quo condi maluit illum
quam terra caruisse socer?

of his duty. He snatches the half-burnt bones, not yet sufficiently loosened from the sinews and full of singed marrows, quenches them with sea-water, and, gathered into one, shut them up with a little earth. Then, lest a light breeze carry off the uncovered ashes, he pressed the sand with a stone, 790
and, lest a sailor move the burial-mound with a moored rope, he inscribed the sacred name on a half-burnt stake: “Here lies Magnus.” Does it please you, Fortune, to call this the sepulcher of Pompey, in which his father-in-law preferred him to be laid rather than to have lacked earth?

temeraria dextra, 795
cur obicis Magno tumulum manesque uagantis
includis? situs est qua terra extrema refuso
pendet in Oceano; Romanum nomen et omne
imperium Magno tumuli est modus: obrue saxa
crimine plena deum. si tota est Herculis Oete 800

temerarious right hand, 795
why do you set up a tomb for Magnus and shut in his wandering shades?
he is laid where the farthest land hangs over the refluent Ocean; the Roman name and the whole imperium have, for Magnus, a tomb as their measure: overwhelm with stones, replete with guilt before the gods. if the whole Oeta of Hercules is 800

et iuga tota uacant Bromio Nyseia, quare
unus in Aegypto Magni lapis? omnia Lagi
arua tenere potest, si nullo caespite nomen
haeserit. erremus populi cinerumque tuorum,
Magne, metu nullas Nili calcemus harenas. 805
quod si tam sacro dignaris nomine saxum
adde actus tantos monimentaque maxuma rerum,
adde trucis Lepidi motus Alpinaque bella
armaque Sertori reuocato consule uicta
et currus quos egit eques, commercia tuta 810
gentibus et pauidos Cilicas maris, adde subactam
barbariem gentesque uagas et quidquid in Euro
regnorum Boreaque iacet.

and the whole Nysaean ridges lie vacant for Bromius; why
is there a single stone in Egypt for Magnus? All the fields of Lagus
can hold him, if upon no sod his name has fastened.
let us wander, the peoples and your ashes,
Magnus, and from fear let us tread no sands of the Nile. 805
but if you deem a stone worthy of so sacred a name,
add deeds so great and the very greatest monuments of affairs,
add the agitations of grim Lepidus and the Alpine wars,
and the arms of Sertorius, conquered with the consul called back,
and the chariots which, as a knight, he drove, commerce made safe 810
for the nations and the sea-Cilicians cowed; add barbarism subdued
and roaming peoples, and whatever of kingdoms lies
in the East and in the North.

dic semper ab armis
ciuilem repetisse togam, ter curribus actis
contentum multos patriae donasse triumphos. 815

say that he always, from arms, sought again the civil toga,
thrice, with chariots driven,
content to have bestowed many triumphs upon his fatherland. 815

quis capit haec tumulus? surgit miserabile bustum
non ullis plenum titulis, non ordine tanto
fastorum; solitumque legi super alta deorum
culmina et extructos spoliis hostilibus arcus
haud procul est ima Pompei nomen harena                  820
depressum tumulo, quod non legat aduena rectus,
quod nisi monstratum Romanus transeat hospes.
     noxia ciuili tellus Aegyptia fato,
haud equidem inmerito Cumanae carmine uatis
cautum, ne Nili Pelusia tangeret ora                  825
Hesperius miles ripasque aestate tumentis.
quid tibi, saeua, precer pro tanto crimine, tellus?
uertat aquas Nilus quo nascitur orbe retentus,
et steriles egeant hibernis imbribus agri,
totaque in Aethiopum putres soluaris harenas.                  830

what tomb contains these? a miserable pyre rises,
filled with no titles, not with so great an order
of the fasti; and that which was wont to be read above the high
summits of the gods and the arches built up with hostile spoils—
not far off, in the lowest sand, the name of Pompey is                  820
pressed down by a mound, which a stranger, standing straight on, does not read,
which a Roman guest would pass by unless it were pointed out.
     the Egyptian land, noxious with a civil fate—
not, indeed, undeservedly was it stipulated by the song of the Cumaean
prophetess that the Hesperian soldier should not touch the Pelusian shores of the Nile                  825
and the banks swelling in summer. what should I pray upon you, cruel land, for so great a crime?
let the Nile turn back its waters, detained in the sphere where it is born,
and let the barren fields lack the wintry rains,
and may you, putrid, be dissolved wholly into the sands of the Ethiopians.                  830

nos in templa tuam Romana accepimus Isim
semideosque canes et sistra iubentia luctus
et quem tu plangens hominem testaris Osirim;
tu nostros, Aegypte, tenes in puluere manes.
tu quoque, cum saeuo dederis iam templa tyranno,                  835
nondum Pompei cineres, o Roma, petisti;
exul adhuc iacet umbra ducis. si saecula prima
uictoris timuere minas, nunc excipe saltem
ossa tui Magni, si nondum subruta fluctu
inuisa tellure sedent. quis busta timebit?                  840
quis sacris dignam mouisse uerebitur umbram?
imperet hoc nobis utinam scelus et uelit uti
nostro Roma sinu: satis o nimiumque beatus,
si mihi contingat manes transferre reuolsos
Ausoniam, si tale ducis uiolare sepulchrum.                  845

we have received your Isis into Roman temples,
and the semi-divine dogs and the sistrums commanding laments,
and Osiris, whom you, lamenting, attest to have been a man;
you, Egypt, hold our shades in the dust.
you too, though you have already given temples to the savage tyrant,                  835
not yet have you sought Pompey’s ashes, O Rome;
the shadow of the leader still lies an exile. If the first ages
feared the menaces of the victor, now at least receive
the bones of your Magnus, if they do not yet, undermined by the wave,
rest in the detested earth. Who will fear the pyres?                  840
who will stand in awe of having moved a shade worthy of sacred rites?
would that Rome command this crime to us and be willing to use
our bosom: happy enough, O too happy,
if it should befall me to transfer the torn-up Manes
to Ausonia, to violate such a tomb of the leader.                  845

forsitan, aut sulco sterili cum poscere finem
a superis aut Roma uolet feralibus Austris
ignibus aut nimiis aut terrae tecta mouenti,
consilio iussuque deum transibis in urbem,
Magne, tuam, summusque feret tua busta sacerdos.                  850
nam quis ad exustam Cancro torrente Syenen
ibit et imbrifera siccas sub Pliade Thebas
spectator Nili, quis rubri stagna profundi
aut Arabum portus mercis mutator Eoae,
Magne, petet, quem non tumuli uenerabile saxum                  855
et cinis in summis forsan turbatus harenis
auertet manesque tuos placare iubebit
et Casio praeferre Ioui? nil ista nocebunt
famae busta tuae: templis auroque sepultus
uilior umbra fores. nunc est pro numine summo                  860

Perhaps, either when Rome will wish to demand an end from the supernal powers for a barren furrow, beneath death-bearing South winds—to fires either excessive, or to the earth that moves the roofs—by counsel and by command of the gods you will pass into your city, Magnus, and the highest priest will bear your remains. 850
for who will go to sun-scorched Syene, as Cancer burns, and to Thebes dry beneath the rain-bearing Pleiad, a spectator of the Nile; who will seek the pools of the Red deep or the ports of the Arabs, a changer of Eastern wares, Magnus, whom the venerable stone of your tumulus would not turn away, and the ash perhaps stirred on the topmost sands, and bid him placate your shades and prefer you to Cassian Jove? none of those things will harm the fame of your tomb: entombed in temples and in gold you would be a more paltry shade. now you are in place of the highest numen. 860

hoc tumulo Fortuna iacens; augustius aris
uictoris Libyco pulsatur in aequore saxum.
Tarpeis qui saepe deis sua tura negarunt
inclusum Tusco uenerantur caespite fulmen.
proderit hoc olim, quod non mansura futuris 865
ardua marmoreo surrexit pondere moles.
pulueris exigui sparget non longa uetustas
congeriem, bustumque cadet, mortisque peribunt
argumenta tuae. ueniet felicior aetas
qua sit nulla fides saxum monstrantibus illud; 870
atque erit Aegyptus populis fortasse nepotum
tam mendax Magni tumulo quam Creta Tonantis.

Fortune lying in this tomb; more august than the altars
of the victor, a rock is buffeted in the Libyan sea.
They who often denied their incense to the Tarpeian gods
venerate the thunderbolt enclosed with Tuscan turf.
This will be of use one day, that, not destined to endure for those to come, 865
the steep mass has risen with marble weight.
No long antiquity will scatter the heap into scant dust,
and the burial-mound will fall, and the proofs of your death will perish.
A more felicitous age will come
in which there will be no credence for those pointing out that stone; 870
and Egypt will be for the peoples of our descendants, perhaps,
as mendacious about Magnus’s tomb as Crete about the Thunderer.