Prudentius: LIBER PERISTEPHANON

'Plus solito coeunt ad gaudia; dic, amice, quid sit!
Romam per omnem cursitant ouantque'.
'Festus apostolici nobis redit hic dies triumfi,
Pauli atque Petri nobilis cruore.
Vnus utrumque dies, pieno tamen innouatus anno,
uidit superba morte laureatum.

'More than usual they come together for rejoicings; say, friend, what is it!
Through all Rome they run about and exult.'
'A festal day of apostolic triumph returns to us,
noble with the blood of Paul and Peter.
One day saw them both, yet renewed with the year full,
laureate with a proud death.

Scit Tiberina palus, quae flumine lambitur propinquo,
binis dicatum caespitem tropeis,
et crucis et gladii testis, quibus inrigans easdem
bis fluxit imber sanguinis per herbas.
Prima Petrum rapuit sententia legibus Neronis,
pendere iussum praeminente ligno.
Ille tamen ueritus celsae decus aemulando mortis
ambire tanti gloriam magistri
exigit, ut pedibus mersum caput inprimant supinis,
quo spectet imum stipitem cerebro.

The Tiberine marsh knows, which is lapped by the nearby river,
the turf dedicated to two trophies,
and witness of both the cross and the sword, by which, irrigating those same,
twice a shower of blood flowed through the grasses.
The first sentence, under Nero’s laws, seized Peter,
ordered to hang from the jutting wood.
He, however, fearing to court by emulation the honor of the lofty death
of so great a Master,
demands that they press his head plunged, with the feet upturned,
so that with his brain he may face the lowest part of the stake.

Figitur ergo manus subter, sola uersus in cacumen,
hoc mente maior, quo minor figura.
Nouerat ex humili caelum citius solere adiri,
deiecit ora spiritum daturus.
Vt teres orbis iter flexi rota percucurrit anni
diemque eundem sol reduxit ortus,
euomit in iugulum Pauli Nero feruidum furorem,
iubet feriri gentium magistrum.

Therefore the hand is fixed beneath, the sole turned toward the summit,
greater in mind by this, inasmuch as the figure is lesser.
He had known that from humility heaven is accustomed to be approached more swiftly,
he cast down his face, about to give up the spirit.
When the rounded orb’s wheel ran through the course of the bent year
and the sun, at its rising, brought back the same day,
Nero vomits forth fervid fury into Paul’s jugular,
he orders the teacher of the nations to be struck.

Ipse prius sibimet finem cito dixerat futurum:
'ad Christum eundum est, iam resoluor', inquit.
Nec mora, protrahitur, poenae datur, inmolatur ense,
non hora uatem, non dies fefellit.
Diuidit ossa duum Tybris sacer ex utraque ripa,
inter sacrata dum fluit sepulcra.

He himself had earlier said to himself that an end would quickly be coming:
"to Christ one must go; now I am being loosed," he says.
No delay: he is dragged forth, given to punishment, immolated by the sword;
neither the hour nor the day deceived the prophet.
The sacred Tiber divides the bones of the two from either bank,
while it flows between the consecrated tombs.

Dextra Petrum regio tectis tenet aureis receptum
canens oliua, murmurans fluento;
namque supercilio saxi liquor ortus excitauit
fontem perennem chrismatis feracem,
nunc pretiosa ruit per marmora lubricatque cliuum,
donec uirenti fluctuet colymbo.
Interior tumuli pars est, ubi lapsibus sonoris
stagnum niuali uoluitur profundo.
Omnicolor uitreas pictura superne tingnit undas,
musci relucent et uirescit aurum
cyaneusque latex umbram trahit inminentis ostri:
credas moueri fluctibus lacunar.

On the right, the region with golden roofs holds Peter received,
an olive singing, murmuring with the fluent stream;
for from the brow of the rock the liquor, having arisen, awakened
a perennial fountain, fertile in chrism,
now the precious liquid rushes through marbles and slickens the slope,
until it heaves in a green-blooming pool.
The inner part of the tomb is there, where with sonorous slidings
a pool is rolled in a snowy deep.
An all-colored painting from above tinges the vitreous waves,
the mosses shine back and the gold grows green,
and the dark-blue water draws the shadow of the overhanging purple:
you would think the coffered ceiling to be moved by the waves.

Pastor ones alit ipse illic gelidi rigore fontis,
uidet sitire quas fluenta Christi.
Parte alia titulum Pauli uia seruat Ostiensis,
qua stringit amnis caespitem sinistrum.
Regia pompa loci est, princeps bonus has sacrauit arces
lusitque magnis ambitum talentis.

The shepherd himself there nourishes the sheep by the chill rigor of the spring,
he sees them thirst for the streams of Christ.
In another part the Ostian Way preserves the title of Paul,
where the river grazes the left sod.
The place has a royal pomp; a good prince has consecrated these citadels
and has embellished the ambit with great talents.

Bratteolas trabibus subleuit, ut omnis aurulenta
lux esset intus, ceu iubar sub ortu.
subdidit et Parias fuluis laquearibus columnas,
distinguit illic quas quaternus ordo.
Turn camiros hyalo insigni uarie cucurrit arcus:
sic prata uernis floribus renident.

He set up gold leaf on the beams, so that all the light within
might be aurulent, like a radiance at the rising.
He also placed Parian columns beneath the fulvous lacunars,
which a fourfold order there sets off.
Then the bowed arch ran variegated with distinguished glass:
thus meadows shine back with vernal flowers.

Ecce duas fidei summo patre conferente dotes,
urbi colendas quas dedit togatae.
Aspice, per bifidas plebs Romula funditur plateas,
lux in duobus feruet una festis.
Nos ad utrumque tamen gressu properemus incitato,
et his et illis perfruamur hymnis.

Behold, two dowries of faith, as the highest Father bestows,
which he gave to the toga-clad city to be cherished.
Look, through the bifid streets the Romulean plebs pours forth,
one light seethes in two feasts.
Yet let us hasten to each with incited step,
and let us enjoy the hymns of these and of those.

Ibimus ulterius, qua fert uia pontis Hadriani,
laeuam deinde fluminis petemus.
Transtiberina prius soluit sacra peruigil sacerdos,
mox huc recurrit duplicatque uota.
Haec didicisse sat est Romae tibi: tu domum reuersus
diem bifestum sic colas memento.'

We shall go further, where the way of Hadrian’s Bridge leads,
then we shall make for the river’s left bank.
First the ever-vigilant priest discharges the Trans-Tiberine rites,
soon he runs back here and doubles the vows.
It is enough for you to have learned these things at Rome: you, having returned home,
remember to keep the bifestal day thus.'