Prudentius: LIBER PERISTEPHANON

Agnes sepulcrum est Romulea in domo,
fortis puellae, martyris inclytae.
Conspectu in ipso condita turrium
seruat salutem uirgo Quiritium
nec non et ipsos protegit aduenas
puro ac fideli pectore supplices.
Duplex corona est praestita martyri:
intactum ab omni crimine uirginal,
mortis deinde gloria liberae.

Agnes’s sepulcher is in the Romulean house,
of the brave girl, the renowned martyr.
Interred in the very sight of the towers,
the virgin preserves the safety of the Quirites,
and likewise protects the strangers themselves,
suppliants with a pure and faithful heart.
A double crown has been bestowed upon the martyr:
virginal, untouched by every crime,
then the glory of a free death.

Aiunt iugali uix habilem toro
primis in annis forte puellulam
Christo calentem fortiter inpiis
iussis renisam, quo minus idolis
addicta sacram desereret fidem.
Temptata multis nam prius artibus,
nunc ore blandi iudicis inlice,
nunc saeuientis carnificis minis
stabat feroci robure pertinax
corpusque duris excruciatibus
ultro offerebat non renuens mori.
Tum trux tyrannus: `si facile est', ait,
`poenam subactis ferre doloribus
et uita uilis spernitur, at pudor
carus dicatae uirginitatis est.

They say that a little girl, scarcely fit for the conjugal bed
in her earliest years, burning for Christ,
bravely resisted impious commands,
so that, given over to idols,
she would not desert the sacred faith.
For first, having been tempted by many arts,
now by the allurement of a coaxing judge’s mouth,
now by the threats of a raging executioner,
she stood pertinacious with ferocious strength,
and her body she of her own accord offered to harsh excruciations,
not refusing to die.
Then the savage tyrant: `if it is easy', he says,
`to bear the penalty with the pains subdued,
and life, as cheap, is spurned, yet pudor—
the modesty of dedicated virginity—is dear.'

Hanc in lupanar trudere publicum
certum est, ad aram ni caput applicat
ac de Minerua iam ueniam rogat,
quam uirgo pergit temnere uirginem:
omnis iuuentus inruet et nouum
ludibriorum mancipium petet.'
`Haud', inquit Agnes, `inmemor est ita
Christus suorum, perdat ut aureum
nobis pudorem, nos quoque deserat;
praesto est pudicis nec patitur sacrae
integritatis munera pollui.
Ferrum inpiabis sanguine, si uoles,
non inquinabis membra libidine.'
Sic elocutam publicitus iubet
flexu in plateae sistere uirginem.
Stantem refugit maesta frequentia,
auersa uultus, ne petulantius
quisquam uerendum conspiceret locum.

'To shove this one into the public brothel
is resolved, unless she lays her head to the altar
and now begs pardon from Minerva,
whom the virgin goes on scorning—the Virgin:
all the youth will rush in and will seek a new
chattel of mockeries.'
`Not', says Agnes, `is Christ thus unmindful
of his own, that he should lose for us the golden
modesty, and even desert us;
he is at hand for the chaste, nor does he allow the gifts of sacred
integrity to be polluted.
You will profane the iron with blood, if you wish,
you will not stain the limbs with lust.'
Thus, having spoken out, he publicly orders
the virgin to be set at a bend of the street.
The sad crowd shrinks from her standing,
with faces turned away, lest more petulantly
anyone should behold the modest place.

Intendit unus forte procaciter
os in puellam nec trepidat sacram
spectare formam lumine lubrico.
En ales ignis fulminis in modum
uibratur ardens atque oculos ferit,
caecus corusco lumine corruit
atque in plateae puluere palpitat.
Tollunt sodales seminecem solo
uerbisque deflent exequialibus.

One man by chance impudently directs his mouth toward the girl, nor does he hesitate to behold the sacred form with a lubricious light of eye.
Lo, a winged fire, in the manner of a thunderbolt, is brandished burning and strikes his eyes;
blind by the coruscant light he collapses
and palpitates in the dust of the street.
His comrades lift the half-dead man from the ground
and bewail him with funereal words.

Ibat triumfans uirgo deum patrem
Christumque sacro carmine concinens,
quod sub profani labe periculi
castum lupanar nec uiolabile
experta uictrix uirginitas foret.
Sunt, qui rogatam rettulerint preces
fudisse Christo, redderet ut reo
lucem iacenti: tunc iuueni halitum
uitae innouatum uisibus integris.
Primum sed Agnes hunc habuit gradum
caelestis aulae, mox alius datur
ascensus; iram nam furor incitat
hostis cruenti: `uincor', ait gemens,
`i, stringe ferrum, miles, et exere
praecepta summi regis principis!'
Vt uidit Agnes stare trucem uirum
mucrone nudo, laetior haec ait:
`exulto, talis quod potius uenit,
uaesanus, atrox, turbidus, armiger,
quam si ueniret languidus ac tener
mollisque efybus tinctus aromate,
qui me pudoris funere perderet.

She went, triumphing, the virgin, singing in concert to God the Father
and to Christ with sacred song, that under the stain of profane peril
even the brothel proved chaste and not violable,
as victorious virginity had experienced.
There are those who have reported that, when asked, she poured out prayers
to Christ, that he would restore to the guilty man lying there
the light: then to the youth the breath of life
was renewed, with eyesight made whole.
But Agnes had this as the first step of the heavenly hall,
soon another ascent is given; for fury incites the wrath
of the bloody enemy: 'I am conquered,' he says, groaning,
'go, draw the steel, soldier, and execute
the precepts of the supreme king, the princeps!'
When Agnes saw a grim man standing
with bared point, more joyful she said this:
'I exult that rather such a one has come—
insane, atrocious, turbulent, an arms-bearer—
than if a languid and tender
and soft ephebe, tinged with perfume, had come,
who would destroy me by the funeral of modesty.'

Hic, hic amator iam, fateor, placet;
ibo inruentis gressibus obuiam
nec demorabor uota calentia:
ferrum in papillas omne recepero
pectusque ad imum uim gladii traham.
Sic nupta Christo transiliam poli
omnes tenebras aethere celsior.
Aeterne rector, diuide ianuas
caeli obseratas terrigenis prius
ae te sequentem, Christe, animam uoca,
cum uirginalem, tum patris hostiam!'
Sic fata Christum uertice cernuo
supplex adorat, uulnus ut inminens
ceruix subiret prona paratius.

This, this lover now, I confess, pleases;
I will go to meet with rushing steps
nor will I delay the burning vows:
I will receive all the iron into my breasts
and I will draw the force of the blade down to the bottom of my chest.
Thus, wedded to Christ, I shall overleap the sky’s
every darkness, loftier in the ether.
Eternal ruler, part asunder the gates
of heaven, barred to earthborn men first,
and call the soul that follows you, Christ,
both a virginal host and the Father’s host!'
Thus having spoken, she as a suppliant adores Christ with bowed head,
so that her neck, leaning forward, might more readily submit
to the impending wound.

Ast ille tantam spem peragit manu,
uno sub ictu nam caput amputat,
sensum doloris mors cita praeuenit.
Exutus inde spiritus emicat
liberque in auras exilit, angeli
saepsere euntem tramite candido
Miratur orbem sub pedibus situm,
spectat tenebras ardua subditas
ridetque, solis quod rota circuit,
quod mundus omnis uoluit et inplicat,
rerum quod atro turbine uiuitur,
quod uana saecli mobilitas rapit:
reges, tyrannos, imperia et gradus
pompasque honorum stulta tumentium,
argenti et auri uim rabida siti
cunctis petitam per uarium nefas,
splendore multo structa habitacula,
inlusa pictae uestis inania,
iram, timorem, uota, pericula,
nune triste longum, nunc breue gaudium,
liuoris atri fumificas faces,
nigrescit unde spes hominum et decus,
et, quod malorum taetrius omnium est,
gentilitatis sordida nubila.
Haec calcat Agnes ac pede proterit
stans et draconis calce premens caput,
terrena mundi qui ferus omnia
spargit uenenis mergit et inferis,
nunc uirginali perdomitus solo
cristas cerebri deprimit ignei
nee uictus audet tollere uerticem.

But he completes so great a hope with his hand,
for with one stroke he cuts off the head;
swift death forestalls the sense of pain.
Then the spirit, stripped out, flashes forth
and, free, leaps into the airs; the angels
hedged her going with a shining-white pathway.
She marvels at the orb set beneath her feet,
lofty she beholds the darkness laid below,
and she laughs at the wheel that the sun circuits,
at what the whole world rolls and entangles,
at what is lived in the black whirlwind of things,
at what the vain mobility of the age snatches away:
kings, tyrants, empires and ranks,
the pomps of honors of the foolishly swelling,
the force of silver and gold sought by rabid thirst
from all through various wickedness,
dwellings piled up with much splendor,
the delusive inanities of pictured garment,
wrath, fear, vows, dangers,
now long sadness, now brief joy,
the smoke-bearing torches of black envy,
whence the hope and honor of men grow black,
and, what is more foul than all evils,
the sordid clouds of paganism.
These Agnes tramples and crushes underfoot,
standing and pressing the dragon’s head with her heel—
he who, fierce, strews all the earthly things of the world
with poisons and plunges them into the lower regions—
now, subdued by a virginal sole,
he presses down the crests of his fiery brain,
nor, conquered, does he dare to lift his head.

Cingit coronis interea dens
frontem duabus martyris innubae;
unam decemplex edita sexies
merces perenni lumine conficit,
centenus extat fructus in altera.
O uirgo felix, o noua gloria,
caelestis arcis nobilis incola,
intende nostris conluuionibus
uultum gemello cum diademate,
cui posse soli cunctiparens dedit
castum uel ipsum reddere fornicem!
Purgabor oris propitiabilis
fulgore, nostrum si iecur inpleas.

Meanwhile God encircles with crowns the brow
of the unwedded martyr with two;
one he perfects as the sixtyfold wage
with perennial light brought forth,
the hundredfold fruit stands forth in the other.
O happy virgin, O new glory,
noble inhabitant of the heavenly citadel,
turn toward our defilements
your face with the twin diadem,
to whom alone the All‑begetter granted the power
even to render chaste the fornix itself!
I shall be purged by the splendor of your propitiating mouth,
if you fill our inmost heart.

Nil non pudicum est, quod pia uisere
dignaris almo uel pede tangere.

Nothing is unchaste which you, pious one, deign to visit
or to touch with your kindly foot.