Prudentius: LIBER PERISTEPHANON

Punica terra tulit, quo splendeat omne, quidquid usquam est,
inde domo Cyprianum, sed decus orbis et magistrum.
Est proprius patriae martyr, sed amore et ore noster,
incubat in Libya sanguis, sed ubique lingua pollet,
sola superstes agit de corpore, sola obire nescit,
dum genus esse hominum Christus sinet et uigere mundum.
Dum liber ullus erit, dum scrinia sacra litterarum,
te leget omnis amans Christum, tua, Cypriane, discet.

The Punic land has brought forth one by whom all, whatever exists anywhere, may shine,
and from there, as from his home, Cyprian—yet the ornament of the world and its master.
He is more particularly his fatherland’s martyr, but by love and by speech he is ours,
his blood rests in Libya, but his tongue prevails everywhere,
it alone, surviving, acts apart from the body; alone it does not know how to die,
so long as Christ permits the race of men to exist and the world to thrive.
As long as any book shall be, as long as the sacred archives of letters,
everyone who loves Christ will read you; what is yours, Cyprian, he will learn.

Spiritus ille dei, qui fluxerat auctor in profetas,
fontibus eloquii te caelitus actus inrigauit.
O niue candidius linguae genus, o nouum saporem!
ut liquor ambrosius cor mitigat, inbuit palatum,
sedem animae penetrat, mentem fouet et pererrat artus,
sic deus interius sentitur et inditur medullis.

That spirit of God, who had flowed as author into the prophets,
driven from heaven irrigated you with the fountains of eloquence.
O style of tongue whiter than snow, O new savor!
as ambrosial liquor softens the heart, imbues the palate,
penetrates the seat of the soul, fosters the mind and roves through the limbs,
thus God is felt within and is put into the marrow.

Vnde bonum subitum terris dederis, pater, reuela!
Derat apostolicis sriptis opulentus executor,
eligitur locuples facundia, quae doceret orbem
quaeque uoluminibus Pauli famulata disputaret,
quo mage cruda hominum praecordia perpolita nossent
siue timoris opus seu mystica uel profunda Christi.
Vnus erat iuuenum doctissimus artibus sinistris:
fraude pudicitiam perfringere, nil sacrum putare,
saepe etiam magicum cantamen inire per sepulcra,
quo geniale tori ius solueret aestuante nupta.

Whence you have given sudden good to the lands, father, reveal!
There was lacking to the apostolic writings an opulent executor,
one rich in eloquence is chosen, who might teach the world
and who, having served the volumes of Paul, might dispute,
so that the raw hearts of men, polished, might the more come to know
whether the work of fear or the mystical or profound things of Christ.
There was one among the youths most learned in sinister arts:
to shatter chastity by fraud, to think nothing sacred,
often even to enter upon a magic canticle among sepulchres,
by which he would dissolve the genial right of the marriage-bed with the bride burning.

Luxuriae rabiem tantae cohibet repente Christus,
discutit et tenebras de pectore, pellit et furorem,
inplet amore sui, dat credere, dat pudere facti.
Iamque figura alia est, quam quae fuit, oris et nitoris:
exuitur tenui uultus cute, transit in seueram,
deflua caesaries conpescitur ad breues capillos.
ipse modesta 1oqui, spem quaerere, regulam tenere,
uiuere iustitia Christi, penetrare dogma nostrum.

Christ suddenly restrains the rabid frenzy of such luxury,
and he scatters the darkness from the breast, and drives out the madness,
he fills with love of himself, he grants to believe, he grants to be ashamed of the deed.
And now the figure is other than what it was, of face and of brightness:
the visage is stripped of its delicate skin, it passes into the severe,
the flowing hair is curbed to short locks.
he himself to speak modestly, to seek hope, to hold the rule,
to live by the justice of Christ, to penetrate our dogma.

His igitur meritis dignissimus usque episcopale
prouehitur solium doctor, capit et sedile summum.
Valerianus opum princeps erat atque Gallienus:
constituere simul poenam capitis deum fatenti.
Milia terrigenum spurcissima iusserant sacrari;
contra animos populi doctor Cyprianus incitabat,
ne quis ab egregiae uirtutis honore discreparet
neu fidei pretium quis sumere degener timeret.

Thus by these merits the most worthy teacher is promoted all the way to the episcopal
throne, and he also takes the highest seat.
Valerian, a princeps of resources, was ruling, and likewise Gallienus:
together they established the capital penalty for one confessing God.
The most filthy thousands of earth-born men they had ordered to be consecrated in sacrifice;
against this the teacher Cyprian was inciting the spirits of the people,
lest anyone deviate from the honor of distinguished virtue
nor a degenerate fear to take up the price of faith.

Esse leuem cruciatum, si modo conferas futura,
quae deus ipse uiris intermina fortibus spopondit,
merce doloris emi spem luminis et diem perennem,
omne malum uolucri cum tempore transuolare cursim,
nil graue, quod peragi finis facit et quiete donat.
Se fore principium pulchrae necis et ducem cruoris
seque caput gladio submittere, sanguinem dicare;
qui sociare animam Christo uelit, ut comes sequatur.
His ubi corda uirum Christo caleraeta praeparauit,
ducitur ante alios proconsule perfurente uinctus.

That the torment is light, if only you compare the things to come,
which God himself has promised, interminable, to brave men;
that with the price of pain the hope of light and the perennial day are bought;
that every evil with winged time flies swiftly past;
nothing is grave which an end brings to completion and bestows with rest.
That he himself would be the beginning of a fair death and the leader of the gore,
and that he would submit his head to the sword, dedicate his blood;
whoever should wish to associate his soul with Christ, that he might follow as a companion.
When by these things he had prepared the hearts of the men, warmed for Christ,
he is led, bound, before the others, while the proconsul raves.

Antra latent Tyriae Carthaginis abditis reposta,
conscia tartareae caliginis, abdicata soli.
Clausus in his specubus sanctus Cyprianus et catena
nexus utramque manum nomen patris inuocat supremi:
'omnipotens genitor Christi deus et creator orbis,
Christe, parens hominis, quem diligis et uetas perire!
Ille ego, uipereis quem tu bonus oblitum uenenis,
criminibus uariis tinctum miseratus abluisti
iamque tuum fieri mandas, fio Cyprianus alter
et nouus ex ueteri nec iam reus aut nocens, ut ante.

Caves lie hidden, set back in the secret places of Tyrian Carthage,
conscious of Tartarean caliginous gloom, disowned by the sun.
Shut in these caverns the holy Cyprian, and with a chain
bound on both hands, invokes the name of the supreme Father:
"almighty begetter of Christ, God and creator of the orb,
Christ, parent of humankind, whom you love and forbid to perish!
I am he whom you, the good, when smeared with viperine venoms,
stained with various crimes, pitied and washed clean—
and now you command to become yours: I become another Cyprian,
and new from the old, nor now accused or guilty, as before.

Si luteum facili charismate pectus expiasti,
uise libens tenebris ergastula caeca dissipatis,
eripe corporeo de carcere uinculisque mundi
hanc animam, liceat fuso tibi sanguine inmolari,
ne qua ferum reprimat clementia iudicem, tyranni
neu sciat inuidia mitescere, gloriam negare.
Da quoque, ne quis iners sit de grege, quem tuum regebam,
ne cadat inpatiens poenae titubetue quis tuorum,
incolumem ut numerum reddam tibi debitumque soluam'
Vocibus his dominum permouerat, influebat inde
spiritus in populum Carthaginis, auctor acrioris
ingenii stimulis ut pectora subditis calerent
ad decus egregium discrimine sanguinis petendum,
non trepidare docens nec cedere nec dolore uinci,
laudis amore rapi, Christum sapere et fidem tueri.
Fama refert foueam campi in medio patere iussam,
calce uaporifera summos prope margines refertam;
saxa recocta uomunt ignem niueusque puluis ardet,
urere tacta potens et mortifer ex odore flatus.

If you have expiated the mud-stained breast with easy charisma,
come gladly to visit, with the darkness dispelled, the blind dungeons,
snatch from the corporeal prison and the chains of the world
this soul; let it be permitted to be immolated for you with blood poured out,
lest any clemency restrain the tyrant’s savage judge,
nor let envy grow mild and deny glory.
Grant also, that no one be inert from the flock which I was ruling as yours,
lest anyone of yours fall, impatient of punishment, or any of yours totter,
so that I may render the number unharmed to you and pay what is owed'
With these words he had moved the Lord; then there was flowing
the Spirit into the people of Carthage, as the author of a keener spirit,
so that the hearts, with goads applied, might glow hot
to seek the distinguished glory by the ordeal of blood,
teaching not to tremble nor to yield nor to be conquered by pain,
to be snatched by love of praise, to savor Christ and to guard the faith.
Report relates that a pit was ordered to lie open in the middle of the field,
filled near the top edges with vapor-bearing lime;
the re-cooked stones spew fire and the snowy powder burns,
powerful to burn what it touches, and death-bringing is the exhalation from its odor.

Adpositam memorant aram fouea stetisse summa
lege sub hac: salis aut micam iecur aut suis litarent
christicolae aut mediae sponte inruerent in ima fossae.
Prosiluere alacres cursu rapido simul trecenti,
gurgite puluereo mersos liquor aridus uorauit
praecipitemque globum fundo tenus inplicauit imo.
Corpora candor habet, candor uehit ad superna mentes,
'candida massa' dehinc dici meruit per omne saeclum.

They recount that an altar set beside stood at the rim of the pit
under this law: that the Christ-worshippers should propitiate either with a grain of salt or with the liver of a pig, or of their own accord should rush into the lowest depths of the ditch.
Eager they leapt forth, three hundred at once at a rapid run,
the arid liquid devoured those plunged in the powdery gulf
and ensnared the headlong mass down to the very bottom deep.
Whiteness holds their bodies; whiteness carries their minds to the supernal,
and thereafter it deserved to be called through every age “the white mass.”

Laetior interea iam Thascius ob diem suorum
sistitur indomiti proconsulis eminus furori.
Edere iussus erat, quid uiueret: 'unicultor', inquit,
'trado salutiferi mysteria consecrata Christi.'
Ille sub haec: 'satis est iam criminis, ipse confitetur
Thascius, ipse Iouis fulmen negat, expedite ferrum,
carnifices, gladio poenam luat hostis idolorum.'
Ille deo meritas grates agit et canit triumfans.
Fleuit abire uirum maesta Africa, quo docente facta est
cultior, eloquio cuius sibi docta gloriatur:
mox tumulum lacrimans struxit cineresque consecrauit.

Meanwhile, now happier, Thascius, on account of the day of his own, is set before, from a distance, the fury of the unbridled proconsul.
Ordered to declare what he lived by, he says: 'a sole-worshipper; I hand on the consecrated mysteries of salutary Christ.'
He under this: 'there is crime enough now; Thascius himself confesses, he himself denies the thunderbolt of Jove: make ready the steel, executioners; let the enemy of the idols pay the penalty by the sword.'
He renders to God the deserved thanks and sings triumphing.
Mournful Africa wept that the man departed, by whose teaching she was made more cultivated, in whose eloquence, instructed, she glories for herself:
soon, weeping, she built a tomb and consecrated his ashes.

Desine flere bonum tantum, tenet ille regna caeli
nec minus inuolitat terris nec ab hoc recedit orbe:
disserit, eloquitur, tractat, docet, instruit, profetat.
Nec Libyae populos tantum regit, exit usque in ortum
solis et usque obitum, Gallos fouet, inbuit Britannos,
praesidet Hesperiae, Christum serit ultimis Hiberis,
denique doctor humi est, idem quoque martyr in supernis,
instruit hic homines, illinc pia dona dat patronus.

Cease to weep so great a good; he holds the kingdoms of heaven
nor does he hover over the lands any less, nor does he withdraw from this orb:
he discourses, he speaks forth, he treats, he teaches, he instructs, he prophesies.
Nor does he rule only the peoples of Libya, he goes out even to the rising
of the sun and even to its setting; he fosters the Gauls, he imbues the Britons,
he presides over Hesperia, he sows Christ among the farthest Iberians,
finally he is a doctor on the earth, likewise also a martyr in the heights,
here he instructs men, from there as patron he gives pious gifts.