Prudentius: LIBER PERISTEPHANON

Felix Tarraco, Fructuose, uestris
attollit caput ignibus coruscum
leuuitis geminis procul relucens. Hispanos deus aspicit benignus,
arcem quandoquidem potens Hiberam
trino martyre trinitas coronat. Ardens Augurius capessit aetram
nec non Eulogius simul supermum
Christi lucidus ad sedile tendit.

Happy Tarraco, O Fructuosus, lifts its head flashing with your fires,
resplendent from afar with the twin levites.
God benignly looks upon the Spaniards, since the potent Trinity crowns the Iberian citadel with a triple martyr.
Burning, Augurius seizes the aether,
and Eulogius likewise at the same time, shining, strives toward the supreme
seat of Christ.

Dux et praeuius et magister illis
ad tantum decus ex episcopali
clarus nomine Fructuosus ibat, accitus quia praesidis repente
iussu uenerat ad forum sacerdos
leuuitis comitantibus duobus. Inde ad carceream uiros catenam
pastus sanguine carnifex trahebat,
gaudet currere Fructuosus ultro.

Leader and guide and master for them
to so great an honor, from his episcopal rank
renowned in name, Fructuosus was going, summoned because at the governor’s sudden
order the priest had come to the forum,
with two deacons accompanying. Thence to the prison-chain the men
the executioner, fed on blood, was dragging;
Fructuosus rejoices to run of his own accord.

Ac, ne quis socios timor feriret,
praeceptor uehemens eundo firmat
incenditque fidem calore Christi: 'Mecum state, uiri, uocat cruentus
ad poenam coluber dei ministros;
ne mors terreat! est parata palma. Carcer christicolis gradus coronae est,
carcer prouehit ad superna caeli,
carcer conciliat deum beatis.'

And, lest any fear strike his comrades,
the vehement preceptor, as he goes, strengthens
and enkindles faith with the heat of Christ: 'Stand with me, men; the bloody
serpent calls the ministers of God to punishment;
let not death terrify! the palm is prepared. The prison is for Christ-worshipers a step of the crown,
the prison conveys to the supernal things of heaven,
the prison conciliates God to the blessed.'

His dictis adeunt specum reorum,
exercent ibi mysticum lauacrum
et purgamen aquae stupent tenebrae. Sex hic continuis latent diebus,
tandem stant trucis ad tribunal hostis,
fratres tergeminos tremunt catastae. Iudex Aemilianus inminebat,
atrox, turbidus, insolens, profanus,
aras daemonicas eoli iubebat.

With these words they approach the cavern of the accused,
there they perform the mystic laver,
and at the water’s purgation the darkness stands astonished. Here for six continuous days they lie hidden,
at last they stand before the tribunal of the cruel enemy,
the scaffolds tremble at the triplet brothers. Judge Aemilianus was looming,
atrocious, turbulent, insolent, profane,
he was ordering that demonic altars be worshiped.

'Tu, qui doctor', ait, 'seris nouellum
commenti genus, ut leues puellae
lucos destituant, Iouem relinquant, damnes, si sapias, anile dogma;
iussum est Caesaris ore Gallieni,
quod princeps colit, ut colamus omnes. Haec fanti placidus refert sacerdos:
'aeternum colo principem dierum,
factorem dominumque Gallieni,

'You, who are a doctor', he says, 'you sow a novel
kind of contrivance, so that light girls
desert the groves, leave Jove; condemn, if you are wise, the old-womanish dogma;
it has been ordered by the mouth of Caesar Gallienus,
that what the princeps worships we all should worship. To him saying these things the calm priest replies:
'I worship the eternal prince of days,
the maker and lord of Gallienus,

et Christum patre prosatum perenni,
cuius sum famulus gregisque pastor.'
subridens ait ille: 'iam fuisti.' Nec differt furor aut refrenat iram,
saeuis destinat ignibus cremandos,
exultant prohibentque flere uulgum. Quosdam de populo uidet sacerdos
libandum sibi poculum offerentes.
'ieiunamus', ait, 'recuso potum:

and Christ begotten from the perennial Father,
of whom I am a famulus and the pastor of the flock.'
smiling he says: 'you have already been.' Nor does his fury defer or bridle his anger,
he destinates them to be burned by savage fires,
they exult and forbid the crowd to weep. The priest sees certain ones from the people
offering to him a cup to be sipped for libation.
'we are fasting,' he says, 'I refuse drink:

nondum nona diem resignat hora,
numquam conuiolabo ius dicatum
nec mors ipsa meum sacrum resoluet. Sic Christus sitiens crucis sub hora
oblatum sibi poculum recusans
nee libare uolens sitim peregit. Intrant interea locum rutunda
conclusum cauea, madens ferarum
multo sanguine quem furor frequentat,

not yet does the ninth hour close the day,
never will I violate the consecrated law,
nor will death itself dissolve my sacred pledge. Thus Christ, thirsting at the hour of the cross,
refusing the cup offered to him,
and not willing to taste, he endured his thirst to the end. Meanwhile they enter the place, a round
space enclosed by a cage, dripping with the
much blood of wild beasts, which fury frequents,

cum spectacula perstrepunt cruenta
ac uilis gladiator ense duro
percussus cadit et fremit uoluptas. Hic flammante pyra niger minister
ardens supplicium parare iussus
construxit facibus rogum supremis, qui, dum corpora concremanda soluit,
feruentes animas amore lucis
fracto carceris expediret antro.

when the bloody spectacles resound
and a cheap gladiator, struck by a hard sword,
falls, and pleasure roars. Here, with the pyre blazing, the dusky minister,
burning, ordered to prepare the punishment,
constructed with final torches the funeral pile, who, while he unbinds the bodies to be incinerated,
might extricate the fervent souls by love of light,
with the cavern of the prison broken.

Certant officiis pii sodales:
plantis calciamenta dissolutis
pronus detrahere studebat uuus, sed sanctus uetat ora Fructuosus
inclinata premi: 'facessite', inquit,
'nec nostram grauet obsequella mortem; atquin ipse meos pedes resoluam,
ne uestigia praepedita uinclis
tardis gressibus inruant in ignem.

They vie in offices, the pious comrades:
with the sandals loosened from the soles,
one, leaning forward, was eager to pull them off,
but holy Fructuosus forbids that bowed faces
be pressed down: 'Begone,' he says,
'and let not your little obsequy burden our death;
nay rather I myself will unfasten my feet,
lest footsteps hampered by fetters
with slow steps rush into the fire.

Cur lamenta rigant genas madentes,
cur uestri memor ut fiam rogatis?
cunctis pro populis rogabo Christum.' Vix haec ediderat, relaxat ipse
indumenta pedum, uelut Moyses
quondam fecerat ad rubum propinquans. Non calcare sacram cremationem
aut adstare deo prius licebat,
quam uestigia pura figerentur.

Why do laments irrigate the moist cheeks,
why do you ask that I become mindful of you?
I will ask Christ on behalf of all peoples.' Scarcely had he uttered these things, he himself relaxes
the garments of the feet, as Moses
once had done when approaching the bush. It was not permitted to tread upon the sacred cremation
or to stand by God beforehand,
before pure footprints were fixed.

Stabat calce mera, resultat ecce
caelo spiritus et serit loquellam,
quae cunctos tremefecit audientes: 'non est, credite, poena: quam uidetis,
quae puncto tenui citata transit,
nec uitam rapit illa, sed reformat. Felices animae, quibus per ignem
celsa scandere contigit Tonantis,
quas olim fugiet perennis ignis!'

He stood barefoot, behold, his spirit resounds to heaven and he sows a little utterance,
which made all the hearers tremble: 'it is not, believe it, punishment: that which you see,
which, roused in a slight instant, passes,
nor does that snatch life, but reforms it. Happy souls, to whom through fire it has befallen
to scale the lofty heights of the Thunderer,
whom one day the perennial fire will flee!'

Haec inter rapidis focos crepantes
intrant passibus et minantur ipsis
flammarum trepidantibus caminis. Nexus denique, qui manus retrorsus
in tergum reuocauerant reuinctas,
intacta cute decidunt adusti. Non ausa est cohibere poena palmas
in morem crucis ad patrem leuandas,
soluit bracchia, quae deum precentur.

Meanwhile, amid these things, they enter the crepitating hearths
with rapid steps and menace the very
trembling furnaces of the flames. At last the bonds, which had drawn the hands backward
bound behind upon the back,
fall off, singed, with the skin untouched. The punishment did not dare to restrain the palms
to be lifted to the Father in the manner of the Cross,
it loosed the arms, that they might entreat God.

Priscorum specimen trium putares,
quos olim Babylonicum per ignem
cantantes stupuit tremens tyrannus. Illis sed pia flamma tunc pepercit
nondum tempore passionis apto
nec mortis decus inchoante Christo. Hos cum defugeret uaporus ardor,
orant, ut celer ignis aduolaret
et finem daret anxiis periclis.

You would think them a specimen of the three of the ancients,
whom once, singing through the Babylonian fire,
the trembling tyrant stood stupefied. But to those the pious flame then spared,
the time of the passion not yet apt,
nor Christ initiating the honor of death. As from these the vaporous ardor fled,
they pray that swift fire might fly to them
and give an end to anxious perils.

Exorata suos obire tandem
maiestas famulos iubet caducis
missos corporibus sibique reddi. Vidit praesidis ex domo satelles
caelum martyribus patere apertum
insignesque uiros per astra ferri. Quin et filiolae monens erili
ostendit sceleris notam paterni,
caelo uiuere, quos forum peremit.

Entreated, Majesty at last bids her own to depart
and commands her servants, from their perishable bodies,
dismissed, to be given back to herself. A guard from the governor’s house saw
the sky lie open to the martyrs
and distinguished men borne through the stars. Nay even, warning the master’s little daughter,
he showed the mark of paternal crime,
that those whom the forum slew live in heaven.

Haec tum uirginitas palam uidere
per sudum meruit parente caeco,
ut crimen domini domus timeret. Tum de corporibus sacris fauillae
et perfusa mero leguntur ossa,
quae raptim sibi quisque uindicabat. Fratrum tantus amor domum referre
sanctorum cinerum dicata dona
aut gestare sinu fidele pignus.

Then this virginity deserved to see openly
through a clear sky, with the parent blind,
so that the house might fear the crime of its lord. Then from the sacred bodies the cinders
and the bones drenched with unmixed wine are gathered,
which each one was vindicating for himself in haste. So great the love of the brethren to carry home
the dedicated gifts of the holy ashes,
or to bear in the bosom the faithful pledge.

Sed ne reliquias resuscitandas
et mox cum domino simul futuras
discretis loca diuidant sepulcris, cernuntur niueis stolis amicti:
mandant restitui cauoque claudi
mixtim marmore puluerem sacrandum. O triplex hdnor, o triforme culmen,
quo nostrae caput excitatur urbis,
cunctis urbibus eminens Hiberis!

But lest the relics, destined to be raised again and soon to be together with the Lord, be divided among separate tombs, there are seen, clothed in snow-white stoles: they command that the dust to be hallowed be restored and enclosed in a hollow of variegated marble. O triple honor, O three-formed summit, by which the head of our city is lifted up, eminent above all Iberian cities!

Exultare tribus libet patronis,
quorum praesidio fouemur omnes
terrarum populi Pyrenearum. Circumstet chorus ex utroque sexu
heros, uirgo, puer, senex, anulla,
uestrum psallite rite Fructuosum! Laudans Augurium resultet hymnus
mixtis Eulogium modis coaequans,
reddamus paribus pares camenas.

It pleases us to exult in the three patrons,
by whose protection we all are fostered, the peoples of the Pyrenean lands.
Let a chorus of both sexes stand around—
hero, maiden, boy, old man, old woman—
duly chant psalms to your Fructuosus! Let the hymn, praising Augurius, resound,
matching Eulogius with mingled modes,
let us render equal Muses to equals.

Hinc aurata sonent in arce tecta,
blandum litoris extet inde murmur
et carmen freta feriata pangant. Olim tempus erit ruente mundo,
cum te, Tarraco, Fructuosus acri
soluet supplicio tegens ab igni. Fors dignabitur et meis medellam
tormentis dare prosperante Christo
dulces hencecasyllabos reuoluens.

From here let the gilded roofs on the citadel resound,
and from there let the gentle murmur of the shore stand forth,
and let the seas, on holiday, compose a song. One day there will be a time, with the world collapsing,
when you, Tarraco, Fructuosus will free by sharp punishment,
shielding you from the fire. Perchance will even deign to grant a remedy
to my torments, with Christ prospering,
turning over sweet hendecasyllables.