Silius Italicus: PUNICA

At noua Romuleum carpebat cura senatum,
quis trepidas gentes Martemque subiret Hiberum
attritis rebus. geminus iacet hoste superbo
Scipio, belligeri, Mauortia pectora, fratres.
hinc metus, in Tyrias ne iam Tartessia leges
concedat tellus propioraque bella pauescat.

But a new care was seizing the Romulean senate,
who should face the trembling nations and the Iberian Mars
with fortunes worn down. The twin Scipios lie beneath the haughty foe—
the brothers, men of war, martial hearts.
hence the fear, lest now the Tartessian land
yield to Tyrian laws and grow aghast at wars nearer at hand.

anxia turba patrum quasso medicamina maesti
imperio circumspectant diuosque precantur
qui laceris ausit ductor succedere castris.
Absterret iuuenem patrios patruique piare
optantem manes tristi conterrita luctu
et reputans annos cognato sanguine turba.
si gentem petat infaustam, inter busta suorum
decertandum hosti, qui fregerit arma duorum,
qui consulta, ducum ac flagret meliore Gradiuo.

the anxious crowd of the fathers, mournful at the shaken imperium, look around for remedies and pray to the gods for a leader who would dare to step into the torn camps.
The crowd, terrified by sad mourning and, reckoning his years and kindred blood, deters the youth who longs to propitiate the manes of his father and his uncle.
if he should seek the ill-omened nation, it must be fought out with the enemy among the burial-mounds of his own, an enemy who has shattered the arms of two, who in the counsels of commanders excels and blazes with a better Gradivus.

nec promptum teneris immania bella lacertis
moliri regimenque rudi deposcere in aeuo.
Has lauri residens iuuenis uiridante sub umbra
aedibus extremis uoluebat pectore curas,
cum subito adsistunt dextra laeuaque per auras
allapsae, haud paulum mortali maior imago,
hinc Virtus, illinc uirtuti inimica Voluptas.
altera Achaemenium spirabat uertice odorem
ambrosias diffusa comas et ueste refulgens
ostrum qua fuluo Tyrium suffuderat auro;
fronte decor quaesitus acu, lasciuaque crebras
ancipiti motu iaciebant lumina flammas.

nor was it easy with tender biceps to undertake enormous wars
and to demand the command in an unripe age.
Seated beneath the green-shadowing of these laurels the youth,
at the outmost buildings, was rolling cares in his breast,
when suddenly there stand beside him, on the right and on the left, through the air
having glided, an apparition not a little greater than mortal—
on this side Virtue, on that side Pleasure inimical to Virtue.
The latter breathed Achaemenian fragrance from her crown,
her ambrosial locks let loose, and with a robe she was gleaming,
purple where she had suffused Tyrian with tawny gold;
on her brow beauty contrived by the needle, and her lascivious
eyes with a wavering motion were casting frequent flames.

alterius dispar habitus: frons hirta nec umquam
composita mutata coma, stans uultus, et ore
incessuque uiro propior laetique pudoris
celsa umeros niueae fulgebat stamine pallae.
Occupat inde prior promissis fisa Voluptas:
"quis furor hic, non digne puer, consumere bello
florem aeui? Cannaene tibi grauiorque palude
Maeonius Stygia lacus excessere Padusque?

the other’s aspect was disparate: a hirsute brow, and hair never arranged nor altered, a steadfast countenance, and in face and gait nearer to a man; and, of gladsome modesty, a lofty mantle of snowy thread was gleaming across her shoulders.
Then Pleasure, trusting in promises, first takes the initiative: “what madness is this, boy—no fitting course—to consume in war the flower of your age? Have Cannae, and the Maeonian lake, graver than the Stygian marsh, and the Po, passed from your mind?”

quem tandem ad finem bellando fata lacesses?
tune etiam temptare paras Atlantica regna
Sidoniasque domos? moneo, certare periclis
desine et armisonae caput obiectare procellae.

To what end at last will you, by warring, provoke the Fates?
Do you then even intend to attempt the Atlantic realms
and the Sidonian houses? I warn you: cease contending with perils
and from exposing your head to the arms-resounding tempest.

ni fugis hos ritus, Virtus te saeua iubebit
per medias uolitare acies mediosque per ignes.
haec patrem patruumque tuos, haec prodiga Paulum,
haec Decios Stygias Erebi detrusit ad undas
dum cineri titulum memorandaque nomina bustis
praetendit nec sensurae, quod gesserit, umbrae.
at si me comitere, puer, non limite duro
iam tibi decurrat concessi temporis aetas.

unless you flee these rites, savage Virtue will order you
to flit through the midst of battle-lines and through the midst of fires.
this drove your father and your uncle, this—lavish—Paulus,
this thrust the Decii down to the Stygian waves of Erebus,
while it holds forth to the ash an inscription and to the tombs memorable names,
and to a shade that will not feel what it has accomplished.
but if you accompany me, boy, not along a harsh track
shall the age of your allotted time now run its course for you.

haud umquam trepidos abrumpet bucina somnos,
non glaciem Arctoam, non experiere furentis
ardorem Cancri nec mensas saepe cruento
gramine compositas. aberunt sitis aspera et haustus
sub galea puluis plenique timore labores.
sed current albusque dies horaeque serenae,
et molli dabitur uictu sperare senectam.

never will the bugle break anxious sleep,
you will not experience arctic ice, nor the ardor of raging cancer, nor tables often set upon blood-stained grass.
harsh thirst will be away, and the draught of dust beneath the helmet, and labors full of fear.
but bright day and serene hours will run, and with gentle living it will be granted to hope for old age.

quantas ipse deus laetos generauit in usus
res homini plenaque dedit bona gaudia dextra!
atque idem, exemplar lenis mortalibus aeui,
imperturbata placidus tenet otia mente.
illa ego sum, Anchisae Venerem Simoentis ad undas
quae iunxi, generis uobis unde editus auctor.

how many joyous uses the god himself has generated,
and to man he has given things and good joys with a full right hand!
and the same, a gentle exemplar of age for mortals,
placid he holds leisure with an unperturbed mind.
I am she who joined Venus to Anchises at the waves of the Simois,
whence for you the author of your lineage was brought forth.

illa ego sum, uerti superum quae saepe parentem
nunc auis in formam, nunc torui in cornua tauri.
huc aduerte aures. currit mortalibus aeuum,
nec nasci bis posse datur.

I am she who often turned the father of the gods
now into the form of a bird, now into the horns of a grim bull.
Turn your ears hither. Time runs for mortals,
and it is not granted to be able to be born twice.

fugit hora, rapitque
Tartareus torrens ac secum ferre sub umbras,
si qua animo placuere, negat. quis luce suprema
dimisisse meas sero non ingemit horas?"
Postquam conticuit finisque est addita dictis,
tum Virtus "quasnam iuuenem florentibus" inquit
"pellicis in fraudes annis uitaeque tenebras,
cui ratio et magnae caelestia semina mentis
munere sunt concessa deum? mortalibus alti
quantum caelicolae, tantundem animalibus isti
praecellunt cunctis.

the hour flees, and the Tartarean torrent snatches away
and refuses to carry with it beneath the shades
whatever things have pleased the soul. who at the last light
does not groan too late to have dismissed my hours?"
After she fell silent and an end was added to her words,
then Virtue said, "what young man in his flourishing"
"years do you lure into the seductress’s deceits and the shadows of life,
to whom reason and the celestial seeds of a great mind
have by the gift of the gods been granted? as much as the heaven-dwellers
are higher than mortals, by that much do these surpass all animals."

tribuit namque ipsa minores
hos terris Natura deos; sed foedere certo
degeneres tenebris animas damnauit Auernis.
at quis aetherii seruatur seminis ortus,
caeli porta patet. referam quid cuncta domantem
Amphitryoniaden?

for Nature herself has assigned to the lands these lesser gods; but by a fixed covenant she has condemned degenerate souls to the Avernian darkness.
but for him whose origin of aetherial seed is preserved, the gate of heaven stands open. Shall I recount the Amphitryoniad who subdues all things?

quid, cui, post Seras et Indos
captiuo Liber cum signa referret ab Euro
Caucaseae currum duxere per oppida tigres?
quid suspiratos magno in discrimine nautis
Ledaeos referam fratres uestrumque Quirinum?
nonne uides, hominum ut celsos ad sidera uultus
sustulerit deus ac sublimia finxerit ora
cum pecudes uolucrumque genus formasque ferarum
segnem atque obscenam passim strauisset in aluum?

what of him, for whom, after the Seres and the Indians,
when Liber was bringing back his standards from the captive East,
Caucasian tigers drew the chariot through the towns?
what shall I recount of the Ledaean brothers, sighed-for by sailors in great peril,
and your Quirinus?
do you not see how the god has lifted the lofty faces of men to the stars
and has fashioned exalted visages,
whereas, when he had everywhere strewn cattle and the race of birds and the shapes of wild beasts
down toward the belly in a sluggish and indecent posture?

ad laudes genitum, capiat si munera diuum
felix ad laudes hominum genus. huc, age, paulum
aspice (nec longe repetam), modo Roma minanti
impar Fidenae contentaque crescere asylo
quo sese extulerit dextris; idem aspice, late
florentes quondam luxus quas uerterit urbes.
quippe nec ira deum tantum nec tela nec hostes,
quantum sola noces animis illapsa, Voluptas.

born for praises, if it may take the gifts of the gods
happy for praises, the race of men. come, now, look here a little
look (nor shall I go back far), just now Rome, unequal to menacing Fidenae
and content to grow by an asylum, by what right hands it has lifted itself; likewise look, far and wide
what cities, once flourishing, luxury has overturned.
for neither the ire of the gods so much nor weapons nor enemies,
as you alone, Pleasure, slipping into minds, do harm.

Ebrietas tibi foeda comes, tibi Luxus et atris
circa te semper uolitans Infamia pennis;
mecum Honor ac Laudes et laeto Gloria uultu
et Decus ac niueis Victoria concolor alis.
me cinctus lauro producit ad astra Triumphus.
casta mihi domus et celso stant colle penates;
ardua saxoso perducit semita cliuo.

A foul companion for you is Drunkenness, for you Luxury and Infamy
ever flitting around you with black wings; with me Honor and Lauds and Glory
with a glad countenance, and Decorum and Victory of one hue with snowy wings.
me, wreathed with laurel, Triumph leads forth to the stars.
chaste is my house, and on a lofty hill stand my Penates;
a steep footpath conducts through a rocky slope.

asper principio (neque enim mihi fallere mos est)
prosequitur labor. annitendum intrare uolenti,
nec bona censendum, quae Fors infida dedisse
atque eadem rapuisse ualet. mox celsus ab alto
infra te cernes hominum genus.

Harsh at the beginning (for indeed it is not my custom to deceive)
the labor proceeds. One who wishes to enter must strive,
nor are those things to be reckoned as goods which faithless Fortune is able
to have given and likewise to snatch away. Soon, lofty from on high,
you will behold the race of men beneath you.

omnia contra
experienda manent, quam spondet blanda Voluptas.
stramine proiectus duro patiere sub astris
insomnes noctes frigusque famemque domabis.
idem iustitiae cultor, quaecumque capesses,
testes factorum stare arbitrabere diuos.

all things contrary
remain to be experienced, to what coaxing Pleasure promises.
cast down on hard straw you will endure beneath the stars
sleepless nights, and you will master cold and hunger.
likewise, a cultivator of justice, whatever you undertake,
you will deem the gods to stand as witnesses of your deeds.

tunc, quotiens patriae rerumque pericula poscent,
arma feres primus, primus te in moenia tolles
hostica nec ferro mentem uincere nec auro.
hinc tibi non Tyrio uitiatas murice uestes
nec donum deforme uiro fragrantis amomi,
sed dabo, qui uestrum saeuo nunc Marte fatigat
imperium, superare manu laurumque superbam
in gremio Iouis excisis deponere Poenis."
Quae postquam cecinit sacrato pectore Virtus,
exemplis laetum uultuque audita probantem
conuertit iuuenem. sed enim indignata Voluptas
non tenuit uoces.

then, as often as the perils of the fatherland and of affairs shall demand,
you will bear arms first, first you will raise yourself onto the walls,
nor will you let the hostile mind be conquered by iron or by gold.
from this I will give you not garments adulterated with Tyrian purple
nor a gift, deformed for a man, of fragrant amomum,
but I will grant you to overcome by hand him who now wearies
your imperium with savage Mars, and to lay down the proud laurel
in the bosom of Jove, the Punic foe cut down."
Which things, after Virtue sang with a consecrated breast,
she turned the youth, joyful at the examples and with face approving what he heard.
But indeed Pleasure, indignant,
did not hold back her voice.

"nil uos iam demoror ultra"
exclamat; "uenient, uenient mea tempora quondam,
cum docilis nostris magno certamine Roma
seruiet imperiis et honos mihi habebitur uni."
sic quassans caput in nubes se sustulit atras.
At iuuenis plenus monitis ingentia corde
molitur iussaeque calet uirtutis amore.
ardua rostra petit nullo fera bella uolente
et grauia ancipitis deposcit munera Martis.

"I now delay you no further,"
she exclaims; "there will come, there will come my times one day,
when Rome, docile to our commands, in great contest
will serve our imperiums, and honor will be held for me alone."
Thus shaking her head, she lifted herself into the black clouds.
But the youth, full of monitions, in his heart undertakes vast things
and burns with love of the enjoined Virtue.
he seeks the steep rostra, while no one wills savage wars,
and he demands the weighty duties of two‑edged Mars.

arrecti cunctorum animi. pars lumina patris,
pars credunt toruos patrui reuirescere uultus.
sed quamquam instinctis tacitus tamen aegra pericli
pectora subrepit terror, molemque pauentes
expendunt belli, et numerat fauor anxius annos.

the minds of all are aroused.
some see the father’s eyes,
some believe the grim features of the uncle revive.
but although, their instincts stirred, yet silent, a terror steals upon their breasts, sick at the peril,
and, afraid, they weigh the mass of war,
and anxious favor counts the years.

Dumque ea confuso percenset murmure uulgus,
ecce per obliquum caeli squalentibus auro
effulgens maculis ferri inter nubila uisus
anguis et ardenti radiare per aera sulco
quaque ad caeliferi tendit plaga litus Atlantis,
perlabi resonante polo. bis terque coruscum
addidit augurio fulmen pater, et uaga late
per subitum moto strepuere tonitrua mundo.
tum uero capere arma iubent genibusque salutant
summissi augurium: hac iret, qua ducere diuos
perspicuum et patrio monstraret semita signo.

And while the crowd reviews these things with a confused murmur,
behold, obliquely across the sky, amidst the clouds a serpent was seen,
gleaming, scaly with gold and with spots of iron, and to radiate through the air
with a burning furrow, and wherever the region stretches toward the shore of
heaven-bearing Atlas, to glide along with the pole resounding. Twice and thrice the Father
added a flashing thunderbolt to the augury, and far and wide the wandering thunders
rattled, the world suddenly set in motion. Then indeed they bid him take up arms and,
bowed at the knees, salute the augury: that he should go this way, where it is plain that the gods
lead and the path points out by a paternal sign.

Certatim comites rerum bellique ministros
agglomerant sese atque acres sociare labores
exposcunt, laudumque loco est isdem esse sub armis.
tum noua caeruleum descendit classis in aequor.
it comes Ausonia atque in terras transit Hiberas,
ut, cum saeua fretis immisit proelia, Corus
Isthmon curuata sublime superiacit unda
et spumante ruens per saxa gementia fluctu
Ionium Aegaeo miscet mare.

Eagerly, as comrades and as ministers of affairs and of war,
they mass themselves together and demand to associate with the keen labors,
and in place of praises it is to be under the same arms.
then a new fleet descends upon the cerulean level.
it goes as a companion to Ausonia and crosses into the Iberian lands,
so that, when the Corus has unleashed savage battles on the straits,
the wave, arched at the Isthmus, overtops on high,
and, rushing with a foaming surge through the groaning rocks,
it mingles the Ionian sea with the Aegean.

celsus in arma
emicat ac prima stans Scipio puppe profatur:
"diue tridentipotens, cuius maria ire per alta
ordimur, si iusta paro, decurrere classi
da, pater, ac nostros ne sperne iuuare labores.
per pontum pia bella ueho." leuis inde secunda
aspirans aura propellit carbasa flatus.
iamque agiles, Tyrrhena sonant qua caerula, puppes
Ausonium euasere latus Ligurumque citatis
litora tramittunt proris.

lofty he springs into arms, and Scipio, standing upon the foremost stern, speaks forth:
"O god trident-powerful, whose seas to go through the deep we begin, if I prepare just things, grant, Father, for the fleet to run its course, and do not disdain to help our labors. through the sea I bear pious wars." Then a light, favoring breeze, breathing, drives the canvases with its blast.
and now the nimble ships, where the Tyrrhene cerulean resounds, have cleared the Ausonian side, and with quickened prows they cross the shores of the Ligurians.

hinc gurgite ab alto
tellurem procul irrumpentem in sidera cernunt,
aerias Alpes. occurrunt moenia Grais
condita Massiliae. populis haec cincta superbis,
barbarus immani cum territet accola ritu,
antiquae morem patriae cultumque habitumque
Phocais armiferas inter tenet hospita gentes.

From here from the deep surge
they discern far off a land bursting into the stars,
the aerial Alps. There meet them the walls of Massilia
founded by Greeks. This city, girdled by haughty peoples,
while the barbarian dweller with monstrous rite strikes terror,
the Phocaean, as a guest among arms-bearing nations, maintains
the custom, cult, and habit of the ancient fatherland.

hinc legit Ausonius sinuatos gurgite ductor
anfractus pelagi. nemoroso uertice celsus
apparet collis, fugiuntque in nubila siluae
Pyrenes, tunc Emporiae ueteresque per ortus
Graiorum uulgus, tunc hospita Tarraco Baccho.
considunt portu.

from here the Ausonian leader skirts the pelagic windings, sinuated by the surge.
a hill, lofty with a forest-crowned summit, appears,
and the forests of the Pyrenees flee into the clouds;
then Emporiae, and the Graian populace of ancient origin,
then Tarraco, hospitable to Bacchus.
they settle in the harbor.

securae gurgite clauso
stant puppes, positusque labor terrorque profundi.
Nox similes morti dederat placidissima somnos.
uisa uiro stare effigies ante ora parentis
atque hac aspectu turbatum uoce monere:
"nate, salus quondam genitoris, nate, parentis
et post fata decus, bellorum dira creatrix
euastanda tibi tellus, et caede superbi
ductores Libyae cauta uirtute domandi,
qui sua nunc trinis diducunt agmina castris.

with the gulf enclosed
the ships stand secure, and the toil and the terror of the deep set aside.
The most placid Night had given sleep similar to death.
there appeared to the man the effigy of his parent standing before his face
and with this voice to admonish him, disturbed at the sight:
"son, once the salvation of your begetter, son, of your parent
and, after death, the glory, the land, dread creatress of wars,
must be laid waste by you, and by slaughter the haughty
leaders of Libya must be subdued with cautious virtue,
who now draw apart their battle-lines into three camps."

si conferre manum libeat coeantque uocatae
hinc atque hinc acies, ualeat quis ferre ruentes
tergemina cum mole uiros? absiste labore
ancipiti, sed nec segnis potiora capesse.
urbs colitur Teucro quondam fundata uetusto,
nomine Carthago.

if it should be pleasing to join battle and the summoned battle-lines from here and from there should come together,
who would be strong to bear the men rushing on with a threefold mass? Desist from the two-edged labor
of uncertainty, but, not sluggish, seize better things.
a city is inhabited, once founded by ancient Teucer, by name Carthage.

Tyrius tenet incola muros.
ut Libyae sua, sic terris memorabile Hiberis
haec caput est. non ulla opibus certauerit auri,
non portu celsoue situ, non dotibus arui
uberis aut agili fabricanda ad tela uigore.

A Tyrian inhabitant holds the walls.
as Libya has its own, so to the Iberian lands memorable
this is the head. None would have vied in the resources of gold,
not in harbor or in lofty site, nor in the endowments of a fertile field
or in agile vigor for fabricating weapons.

inuade auersis, nate, hanc ductoribus urbem.
nulla acies famae tantum praedaeue pararit."
Talia monstrabat genitor propiusque monebat,
cum iuuenem sopor et dilapsa reliquit imago.
surgit et infernis habitantia numina lucis
ac supplex patrios compellat nomine manes:
"este duces bello et monstratam ducite ad urbem!

Invade, my son, this city with its leaders turned away, from the rear.
no battle-line has prepared so much for fame or for prey."
Such things the father was demonstrating and was admonishing him more closely,
when sleep left the youth, and the image, having slipped away, left him.
he rises and addresses the divinities inhabiting the infernal groves,
and as a suppliant he addresses the ancestral Manes by name:
"be leaders in war and lead me to the city that was shown!

uobis ultor ego et Sarrano murice fulgens
inferias mittam fusis insignis Hiberis
et tumulis addam sacros certamine ludos."
praegreditur celeratque uias et corripit agmen
pernici rapidum cursu camposque fatigat.
sic, ubi prosiluit Pisaeo carcere praeceps,
non solum ante alios, sed enim, mirabile dictu,
ante suos it uictor equus, currumque per auras
haud ulli durant uisus aequare uolantem.
Iamque Hyperionia lux septima lampade surgens
sensim attollebat propius subeuntibus arces
urbis et admoto crescebant culmina gressu.

"for you I am an avenger, and gleaming with Tyrian purple,
I will send inferiae, distinguished with Iberians routed,
and to the tombs I will add sacred games in contest."
He goes on ahead and hastens the ways and hurries the column,
with nimble, rapid course he wearies the fields.
thus, when he has leapt headlong from the Pisaean starting-gate,
not only before others, but indeed, wondrous to say,
he goes even before his own, the victor horse; and no one’s eyes
endure to match the chariot flying through the air.
And now the Hyperionian light, rising with the seventh lamp,
was slowly lifting up the citadels as they drew nearer,
of the city, and the rooftops were growing with the step brought close.

at pelago uectus seruata Laelius hora,
quam dederat ductor subigendae ad moenia classi,
a tergo affusis cingebat tecta carinis.
Carthago impenso naturae adiuta fauore
excelsos tollit pelago circumflua muros.
artatas ponti fauces modica insula claudit,
qua Titan ortu terras aspergit Eoo.

but Laelius, borne over the deep, with the appointed hour kept,
which the leader had assigned to the fleet for subduing the ramparts,
from the rear was girding the roofs with ships poured in.
Carthage, aided by the lavish favor of nature,
surrounded by the sea, lifts up her lofty walls.
a modest island closes the narrowed jaws of the sea,
where Titan, at his Eoan rising, sprinkles the lands.

at qua prospectat Phoebi iuga sera cadentis,
pigram in planitiem stagnantes egerit undas,
quas auget ueniens refluusque reciprocat aestus.
sed gelidas a fronte sedet sublimis ad Arctos
urbs imposta iugo pronumque excurrit in aequor
et tuta alterno defendit moenia fluctu.
Audax, ceu plano gradiens uictricia campo
ferret signa, iugum certabat scandere miles.

but where it looks out toward the ridges of late-sinking Phoebus,
it has driven the sluggish, stagnating waves into a flat plain,
which the incoming tide augments and the ebbing tide reciprocates.
but, fronting the icy Bears, it sits sublime toward the North—
a city set upon a ridge—and it runs out, sloping, into the level sea,
and, safe, it defends its walls by the alternate flood.
Bold, as if, advancing on a level field, he were bearing victorious standards,
the soldier strove to climb the ridge.

Aris, ductor erat qui contra, amplexus in artis
auxilium atque excelsa loci, praesaepserat arcem.
pugnabat natura soli, paruoque superne
bellantum nisu passim per prona uoluti
truncato instabiles fundebant corpore uitam.
uerum ubi concessit pelagi reuolubilis unda
et fluctus rapido fugiebat in aequora lapsu,
quaque modo excelsae sulcarant caerula puppes,
hac impune dabat Nereus transcurrere planta,
hinc tacite nitens informidatus adire
ductor Dardanius subitam trahit aequore pubem
perque undas muris pedes aduolat.

Aris, there was a leader who stood against them, who, having embraced the aid of the narrows and the heights of the place, had fenced in the citadel.
the very nature of the ground was fighting, and with only a small exertion from above by the warriors, those rolled down the slopes here and there, with their body maimed, unstable, were pouring out life.
but when the revolving wave of the sea gave way and the flood was fleeing to the open waters with a rapid slide,
and where just now the lofty ships had furrowed the blue,
along this Nereus granted to run across with the sole with impunity,
hence, pressing on quietly, fearless to approach,
the Dardanian leader draws a sudden band across the sea,
and through the waves on foot he speeds to the walls.

inde citati
a tergo accelerant, qua fisus fluctibus Aris
incustoditam sine milite liquerat urbem.
tum prostratus humi, miserandum, uicta catenis
Poenus colla dedit populumque addixit inermem.
hanc oriens uidit Titan, cum surgeret, urbem
uallari castris captamque aspexit eandem
ocius Hesperio quam gurgite tingeret axem.

thence, sped,
from the rear they accelerate, to where Aris, trusting in the billows,
had left the city unguarded, without soldiery.
then prostrate on the ground—pitiable—the Punic man,
conquered, gave his neck to chains and consigned the unarmed people.
this city the rising Titan, when he rose, saw
being walled with camps, and the same he beheld captured
sooner than he could dip his axle in the Hesperian surge.

Aurora ingrediens terris exegerat umbras
principio statuunt aras. cadit ardua taurus
uictima Neptuno pariter pariterque Tonanti.
tum merita aequantur donis, ac praemia uirtus
sanguine parta capit.

Aurora, entering the lands, had driven out the shadows
at the beginning they set up altars. the lofty bull falls
a victim to Neptune equally and equally to the Thunderer.
then merits are matched with gifts, and virtue
takes the rewards won with blood.

phaleris hic pectora fulget,
hic torque aurato circumdat bellica colla,
ille nitet celsus muralis honore coronae.
Laelius ante omnes, cui dextera clara domusque,
ter dena boue et aequorei certaminis alto
donatur titulo Poenique recentibus armis
rectoris. tunc hasta uiris, tunc Martia cuique
uexilla, ut meritum, et praedae libamina dantur.

here one shines at the breast with phalerae,
here a warlike man girds the necks with a gilded torc,
that one, lofty, glistens with the honor of the mural crown.
Laelius before all, whose right hand and house are illustrious,
is endowed with thirty oxen and with the lofty title of the sea-battle,
and with the freshly-won arms of the Punic
commander. then a spear to the men, then to each martial
vexilla, as deserved, and first-fruits of the booty are given.

Postquam perfectae laudes hominumque deumque,
captiuae spectantur opes digestaque praeda:
hoc aurum patribus, bello haec Martique talenta,
hoc regum donis, diuum hoc ante omnia templis,
cetera bellantum dextrae pulchroque labori.
quin etiam accitus populi regnator Hiberi,
cui sponsa et sponsae defixus in ossibus ardor.
hanc notam formae concessit laetus ouansque
indelibata gaudenti uirgine donum.

After the praises of men and of gods were perfected,
the captive riches are beheld and the booty arranged:
this gold for the Fathers, and these talents for War and for Mars,
this for the gifts of kings, and this, before all, for the temples of the gods,
the rest for the right hands of the warriors and for their fair toil.
Nay even the ruler of the Iberian people, having been summoned,
who had a betrothed and a passion for the betrothed fixed in his bones.
this one, noted for beauty, he granted, glad and exultant,
as a gift to the rejoicing man, the maiden inviolate.

tum uacui curis uicino litore mensas
instituunt festoque agitant conuiuia ludo.
Laelius effatur: "macte, o uenerande, pudici,
ductor, macte animi. cedat tibi gloria lausque
magnorum heroum celebrataque carmine uirtus.

then, free from cares, on the neighboring shore they set up the tables
and with festal play they keep up convivial banquets.
Laelius speaks forth: "well done, O venerable leader of the chaste,
well done in spirit. Let glory and praise of great heroes,
and the virtue celebrated in song, yield to you.

mille Mycenaeas qui traxit in aequora proras
rector, et Inachiis qui Thessala miscuit arma,
femineo socium uiolarunt foedus amore,
nullaque tum Phrygio steterunt tentoria campo,
captiuis non plena toris; tibi barbara soli
sanctius Iliaca seruata est Phoebade uirgo."
haec atque his paria alterno sermone serebant,
donec Nox atro circumdata corpus amictu
nigrantes inuexit equos suasitque quietem.
Emathio interea tellus Aetola tumultu
feruebat Macetum subitis perculsa carinis.
proximus hinc hosti dextras iungebat Acarnan.

the ruler who drew a thousand Mycenaean prows into the waters,
and he who mingled Thessalian arms with the Inachian,
violated the allied foedus by feminine love,
and no tents then stood on the Phrygian plain
not filled with captives’ couches; for you alone a barbarian
maiden was kept more sacredly—the Iliac Phoebad virgin."
These things and their equals they were weaving in antiphonal discourse,
until Night, her body wrapped in a black amictus,
brought in her black horses and urged repose.
Meanwhile the Emathian land was seething with Aetolian tumult,
struck by the sudden keels of the Macedons.
Next to this, the Acarnanian, neighbor to the enemy, was joining right hands.

causa noui motus Poenis regique Philippo
in bellum Ausonium sociatae foedere uires.
hic gente egregius ueterisque ab origine regni
Aeacidum sceptris proauoque tumebat Achille.
ille et nocturnis conterruit Oricon armis
quaque per Illyricum Taulantius incola litus
exiguos habitat non ullo nomine muros,
turbidus incessit telis, ille aequore uectus
nunc et Phaeacum Thesprotiaque arua lacessens
Epirum cassis lustrabat futilis ausis,
nunc et Anactoria signa ostentauit in ora
Ambraciosque sinus Olpaeaque litora bello
perfudit rapido.

the cause of the new commotion was that the Carthaginians and King Philip,
their forces allied by a treaty, moved into the Ausonian war.
this man, outstanding in race and from the origin of an ancient kingdom,
swelled with the scepters of the Aeacids and with his great‑grandfather Achilles.
he even terrified Oricum with nocturnal arms,
and wherever along the Illyrian shore the Taulantian inhabitant
dwells within exiguous walls of no name,
turbulent he advanced with weapons; he, borne on the sea,
now too, provoking the fields of the Phaeacians and of the Thesprotians,
was traversing Epirus with helms, in futile ventures,
and now he displayed his standards on the Anactorian shore
and flooded the Ambracian bays and the Olpaean coasts with swift war.

pepulit uada feruida remis
Leucatae et Phoebi uidit citus Actia templa.
nec portus Ithacae, Laertia regna, Samenque
liquit inaccessam fluctuque sonantia cano
saxa Cephallenum et scopulosis Neriton aruis.
ille etiam Pelopis sedes et Achaica adire
moenia praegaudens tristem Calydona Dianae
Oeneasque domos, Curetica tecta, subibat
promittens contra Hesperiam sua proelia Grais
tum lustrata Ephyre Patraeque et regia Pleuron
Parnasusque biceps Phoeboque loquentia saxa.

he drove the boiling shallows with oars
of Leucate and swift he saw the Actian temples of Phoebus.
nor the harbors of Ithaca, the Laertian realms, and Same
did he leave, inaccessible, and the Cephallenian rocks resounding with the wave
hoary, and Neritos on its scopulous fields.
he too, fore-rejoicing to approach Pelops’s seats and the Achaic
walls, sad Calydon of Diana, and the houses of Oeneus,
the Curetic roofs, he was entering,
promising, in counterpoise, to the Greeks his own battles against Hesperia;
then Ephyre surveyed, and Patrae and royal Pleuron,
and two-peaked Parnassus and the rocks speaking for Phoebus.

ac saepe ad patrios bello reuocante penates,
cum modo Sarmaticus regna infestaret Orestis,
aspera nunc Dolopum uis exundasset in agros,
incepto tamen haud facilis desistere uano
belli per Graias umbram circumtulit oras,
donec nunc pelago, nunc terra exutus omisit
spem positam in Tyriis et supplex foedera sanxi.
Dardana nec legem regno accepisse refugit.
Tunc et Tyndarei Latias fortuna Tarenti
auxit opes laudemque simul.

and often, with war calling him back to his ancestral Penates,
when now a Sarmatian would infest the realms of Orestis,
now the rough force of the Dolopes had overflowed into the fields,
nevertheless not easy to desist from his vain undertaking,
he carried the shadow of war around the Graian shores,
until, stripped now by sea, now by land, he abandoned
the hope placed in the Tyrians, and as a suppliant sanctioned the treaties.
nor did he shrink from having received the Dardan law for his kingdom.
Then too the fortune of Tyndarean Tarentum
increased the Latian resources and the praise at the same time.

nam perfida tandem
urbs Fabio deuicta seni, postremus in armis
ductoris titulus cauti. sollertia tutum
tum quoque adepta decus captis sine sanguine muris.
namque ut compertum, qui Punica signa regebat
feminea exuri flamma, tacitusque quietae
exin uirtuti placuit dolus, ire sorori
(nam castris erat in Rutulis) germanus amatae
cogitur et magnis muliebria uincere corda
pollicitis, si reclusas tramittere portas
concedat Libycus rector, uotique potitus
euicto Fabius Poeno circumdata telis
incustodita penetrauit moenia nocte.

for at last the perfidious
city was overcome by old Fabius, the last in arms
title of the cautious leader. Sollertness too then obtained safe
renown, with the walls captured without bloodshed. For when it was ascertained that he who
ruled the Punic standards was being consumed by a feminine flame, and then a silent
stratagem pleased the quiet virtue, the brother of the beloved was compelled to go
to his sister (for she was in the Rutulian camp) and to conquer a woman’s
heart with great promises, if the Libyan ruler should consent to let pass the
opened gates; and, his wish obtained, with the Punic foe overcome, Fabius
penetrated the walls, ringed with weapons, unguarded, by night.

Sed quisnam auersos Phoebum tunc iungere ab urbe
Romulea dubitaret equos, qui tempore eodem
Marcellum acciperet letum oppetiisse sub armis?
moles illa uiri calidoque habitata Gradiuo
pectora et haud ullis umquam tremefacta periclis,
heu quantum Hannibalem clara factura ruina,
procubuere. iacet campis Carthaginis horror
forsan Scipiadae confecti nomina belli
rapturus, si quis paulum deus adderet aeuo.

But who would then hesitate to yoke Phoebus’s horses, turned away from the Romulean city,
on hearing at that same time that Marcellus had met death under arms?
that mass of a man, and the breast inhabited by hot Gradivus,
and never shaken by any dangers—alas, how greatly a renowned ruin, destined to make Hannibal illustrious—
have toppled. He lies, the horror of Carthage, on the plains,
perhaps about to snatch from the Scipiad the naming of the finished war,
if some god had added a little to his lifespan.

Collis Agenoreum dirimebat ab aggere uallum
Ausonio (Dauni Mauors consederat aruis).
curarum comes et summi Crispinus honoris
Marcello socius communia bella ciebat.
ad quem Marcellus: "gestit lustrare propinquas
mens siluas medioque uiros imponere monti,
ne Libys occultis tumulum prior occupet ausis.
si cordi est, te participem, Crispine, laboris
esse uelim.

A hill was dividing the Agenorean rampart from the Ausonian embankment
(Daunian Mavors had settled on the fields).
Crispinus, companion of cares and of the highest honor,
a comrade to Marcellus, was stirring the common wars.
to whom Marcellus: "my mind longs to survey the nearby woods
and to set men upon the middle of the mount,
lest the Libyan seize the mound first by hidden ventures.
if it is to your heart, I would wish you, Crispinus, to be a participant in the labor.

numquam desunt consulta duobus."
haec ubi sedere, ardentes attollere sese
iam dudum certant in equos. Marcellus, ut arma
aptantem natum aspexit laetumque tumultu
"uincis" ait "nostros mirando ardore uigores.
sit praematurus felix labor.

"Counsels are never lacking to two."
When these things had been settled, ardent they have for some time now been vying to lift themselves
upon their horses. Marcellus, when he saw his son
fitting on his arms and glad at the tumult,
said, "You surpass our vigor with wondrous ardor.
May the early labor be fortunate.

urbe Sicana
qualem te uidi, nondum permitteret aetas
cum tibi bella, meo tractantem proelia uultu!
huc, decus, huc, nostrum, lateri te iunge paterno
et me disce nouum Martem temptare magistro."
tum pueri colla amplectens sic pauca precatur:
"summe deum, Libyco faxis de praeside nunc his,
his umeris tibi opima feram." nec plura, sereno
sanguineos fudit cum Iuppiter aethere rores
atque atris arma aspersit non prospera guttis.
uixdum finitis intrarant uocibus artas
letiferi collis fauces, cum turba uolucris
inuadunt Nomades iaculis nimboque feruntur
aetherio similes caeca fundente latebra
armatos in bella globos.

such as I saw you in the Sicilian city,
when age did not yet permit you,
you handling wars, battles with my countenance!
hither, our glory, hither, join yourself to your father’s side,
and learn from me, as your new master, to try Mars."
then, embracing the boy’s neck, he thus prays a few words:
"Highest of the gods, do you bring it about that from the Libyan praeses now upon these,
these shoulders I may bear to you opima spoils." No more, when Jupiter from the serene
aether poured bloody dews and sprinkled the arms with dark drops not auspicious.
scarcely, the words scarcely finished, they had entered the narrow
throats of the death-bringing hill, when the Nomads, a winged throng,
assail with javelins and are borne like an aetherial storm-cloud,
as the blind hiding-place pours forth armed masses into war.

circumdata postquam
nil restare uidet uirtus, quod debeat ultra
iam superis, magnum secum portare sub umbras
nomen mortis auet. tortae nunc eminus hastae
altius insurgit, nunc saeuit comminus ense.
forsan et enasset rapidi freta saeua pericli,
ni telum aduersos nati uenisset in artus.

after, surrounded, when her valor sees that nothing remains which she owes further
now to the supernal gods, she longs to carry with her beneath the shades
a great name in death. Now, with the twisted spear at long range,
she rears higher; now she rages hand-to-hand with the sword.
perhaps too she would have swum out the savage straits of the swift peril,
had not a weapon come into the opposing limbs of her son.

tum patriae tremuere manus, laxataque luctu
fluxerunt rigidis arma infelicia palmis.
obuia nudatum tramittit lancea pectus,
labensque impresso signauit gramina mento.
At postquam Tyrius saeua inter proelia ductor
infixum aduerso uidit sub pectore telum,
immane exclamat: "Latias, Carthago, timere
desine iam leges.

then the fatherland’s hands trembled, and, loosened by grief,
the ill-fated arms slipped from rigid palms.
A lance, meeting him, sends through the bared breast,
and, sinking, he imprinted the grasses with his pressed-in chin.
But after the Tyrian leader amid savage battles
saw the weapon fixed beneath the front of the chest,
he cries out dreadfully: "Carthage, cease now to fear
Latian laws.

iacet exitiabile nomen,
Ausonii columen regni. sed dextera nostrae
tam similis non obscuras mittatur ad umbras.
magnanima inuidia uirtus caret." alta sepulcri
protinus exstruitur caeloque educitur ara.

There lies the baneful name,
the column of the Ausonian realm. But a right hand so similar to ours
let it not be sent to the dusky shades.
Magnanimous virtue is free from envy." a lofty tomb
is built forthwith, and an altar is raised to the sky.

conuectant siluis ingentia robora. credas
Sidonium cecidisse ducem. tum tura dapesque
et fasces clipeusque uiri, pompa ultima, fertur.

they carry together from the woods enormous oaken timbers. you would believe
the Sidonian leader had fallen. then incense and banquet-offerings
and the fasces and the man's shield, the final pomp, is borne.

ipse facem subdens "laus" inquit "parta perennis.
Marcellum abstulimus Latio. deponere forsan
gens Italum tandem arma uelit.

he himself, setting the torch, says, "glory won, perennial.
We have taken Marcellus from Latium. Perhaps to lay down
arms the race of the Italians will at last be willing."

uos ite superbae
exsequias animae et cinerem donate supremi
muneris officio; numquam hoc tibi, Roma, negabo."
alterius par atque eadem fortuna laborum
consulis: exanimum sonipes ad signa reuexit.
Talia in Ausonia. sed non et talis Hiberis
armorum euentus campis.

go, you proud ones,
perform the obsequies of the soul and bestow the ash by the office of the last gift;
never this to you, Rome, will I deny."
For the other consul, an equal and the same fortune of labors: his steed brought back the lifeless man to the standards.
Such things in Ausonia. But not such was the outcome of arms on the Iberian fields.

Carthaginis omnes
per subitum raptae pernix uictoria late
terruerat gentes. ducibus spes una salutis,
si socias iungant uires. ingentibus orsum
auspiciis iuuenem, ceu patria gestet in armis
fulmina, sublimi uallatam uertice montis
et scopulis urbem, cumulatam strage uirorum
non toto rapuisse die, qua Martius ille
Hannibal in terra consumpto uerterit anno
nec pube aequandam nec opum ubertate Saguntum.

The nimble victory over Carthage, snatched in a sudden stroke, had far and wide terrified all peoples. For the leaders there was one hope of safety, if they should join allied forces. The youth, begun under vast auspices, as though his fatherland bore thunderbolts in its arms, to have carried off a city fenced by the towering crest of a mountain and by crags, heaped with the slaughter of men, in less than a full day—whereas in that land that Martial Hannibal overturned Saguntum with a year consumed, Saguntum to be equaled neither in manpower nor in the opulence of its resources.

Proximus applicito saxosis aggere siluis
tendebat fratris spirans ingentia facta
Hasdrubal. hic robur mixtusque rebellibus Afris
Cantaber, hic uolucri Mauro pernicior Astur;
tantaque maiestas terra rectoris Hibera,
Hannibalis quantus Laurenti terror in ora.
forte dies priscum Tyriis sollemnis honorem
rettulerat, quo primum orsi Carthaginis altae
fundamenta nouam coepere mapalibus urbem,
et laetus repetens gentis primordia ductor
festa coronatis agitabat gaudia signis
pacificans diuos.

Next, along an embankment set close to the rocky woods,
Hasdrubal was advancing, breathing the mighty deeds of his brother.
Here the Cantabrian was the strength, and, mingled with rebellious Africans;
here the Astur, swifter than the winged Moor;
and so great the majesty of the Iberian land’s ruler,
as great as Hannibal’s terror on the Laurentine shores.
By chance a day had restored to the Tyrians their ancient solemn honor,
on which, having first begun the foundations of lofty Carthage,
they set about a new city with huts; and the leader, glad as he recalled
the beginnings of the nation, was celebrating festal joys with garlanded standards,
making peace with the gods.

fraternum laena nitebat
demissa ex umeris donum, quam foederis arti
Trinacrius Libyco rex inter munera pignus
miserat, Aeoliis gestatum insigne tyrannis.
aurata puerum rapiebat ad aethera penna
per nubes aquila intexto librata uolatu.
antrum ingens iuxta, quod acus simulauit in ostro,
Cyclopum domus.

a fraternal cloak was shining,
let down from his shoulders, a gift, which for the art of the foederal pact
the Trinacrian king had sent to the Libyan among the gifts as a pledge,
an insignia worn by the Aeolian tyrants.
aurate plumage was snatching a boy to the aether
through the clouds, an eagle, poised in inwoven flight.
a huge cavern nearby, which the needle simulated on purple,
the home of the Cyclopes.

hic recubans manantia tabo
corpora letifero sorbet Polyphemus hiatu.
circa fracta iacent excussaque morsibus ossa.
ipse manu extenta Laertia pocula poscit
permiscetque mero ructatos ore cruores.

here, reclining, Polyphemus gulps bodies dripping with gore with a death‑dealing gape.
around lie bones, broken and shaken out by his bites.
he himself, with hand outstretched, calls for Laertian cups,
and mixes with pure wine the gore eructated from his mouth.

Conspicuus Siculi Tyrius subteminis arte
gramineas pacem superum poscebat ad aras.
ecce inter medios hostilia nuntius arma
quadrupedante inuectus equo aduentare ferebat.
turbatae mentes, imperfectusque deorum
cessit honos.

Conspicuous in Tyrian dye by the craft of Sicilian weft,
he was at the grassy altars beseeching peace of the supernal ones.
lo, into their midst a messenger, borne in on a quadrupedant horse,
was reporting that hostile arms were approaching.
minds were disturbed, and the honor of the gods yielded unfinished.

ruptis linquunt altaria sacris.
clauduntur uallo, tenuemque ut roscida misit
lucem Aurora polo, rapiunt certamina Martis.
audax Scipiadae stridentem Sabbura cornum
excepit, geminaeque acies uelut omine motae.

with the sacred rites broken, they leave the altars.
they are shut in by a rampart, and as dewy Aurora sent
a slender light into the sky, they seize the contests of Mars.
bold Sabbura caught the hissing cornel-spear of the Scipiades,
and the twin battle-lines, as if by an omen, were moved.

exclamat Latius ductor: "prima hostia uobis,
sacrati manes, campo iacet. en age, miles,
in pugnam et caedes, qualis spirantibus ire
adsueras ducibus, talis rue." dumque ea fatur,
incumbunt. Myconum Laenas Cirtamque Latinus
et Thysdrum Maro et incestum Catilina Nealcen
germanae thalamo obtruncat.

the Latin leader exclaims: "the first victim for you, consecrated Manes, lies on the field. Lo, come, soldier,
into battle and slaughters; such as you are wont to go with breathing leaders,
so rush." and while he speaks these things,
they bear down. Laenas hews down Myconus, and Latinus Cirta,
and Maro Thysdrus, and Catiline the incestuous Nealcus in his sister’s bridal-chamber
hews down.

cadit obuius acri
Cartalo Nasidio, Libycae regnator harenae.
te quoque Pyrenes uidit conterrita tellus
permixtum Poenis et uix credenda furentem,
magnum Dardaniae, Laeli, decus, omnia felix
cui natura dedit nullo renuente deorum.
ille foro auditus, cum dulcia soluerat ora,
aequabat Pyliae Neleia mella senectae,
ille, ubi suspensi patres et curia uocem
posceret, ut cantu ducebat corda senatus;
idem, cum subitum campo perstrinxerat aures
murmur triste tubae, tanto feruore ruebat
in pugnam atque acies, ut natum ad sola liqueret
bella.

Cartalus falls, meeting the fierce Nasidius, ruler of the Libyan sand.
You too the land of the Pyrenees, terrified, beheld, amid the Punics and raging scarce to be believed, great glory of Dardania, Laelius, happy in all things, to whom Nature gave everything with none of the gods refusing.
He, heard in the forum when he had opened his sweet lips, matched the Neleian honeys of Pylian old age; he, whenever the Fathers and the curia, in suspense, demanded a voice, how with song he led the hearts of the senate;
the same man, when the sudden sad murmur of the trumpet had grazed ears on the field, rushed with such fervor into battle and the battle-lines that he seemed born for wars alone.

nihil uitae peragi sine laude placebat.
tunc effurtiua tractantem proelia luce
deiecit Galam. sacris Carthaginis illum
supposito mater partu subduxerat olim;
sed stant nulla diu deceptis gaudia diuis.

Nothing to be carried through in life without praise was pleasing.
Then, while he was conducting battles by furtive light,
he cast down Gala. His mother had once, with a substituted birth,
withdrawn him from the sacred rites of Carthage;
but no joys stand long for gods who have been deceived.

tunc Alabim Maurumque Dracen demisit ad umbras,
femineo clamore Dracen extrema rogantem.
huius ceruicem gladio inter uerba precesque
amputat. absciso durabant murmura collo.

then he sent Alabis and Draces the Moor down to the shades,
Draces, with a feminine outcry, begging for final things.
he cuts off this one’s neck with the sword amid words and prayers.
the murmurs endured from the severed neck.

At non ductori Libyco par ardor in armis.
frondosi collis latebras ac saxa capessit
auia, nec caedes extremaue damna mouebant
agminis. Italiam profugus spectabat et Alpes,
praemia magna fugae.

But not for the Libyan commander was there an equal ardor in arms.
he takes up the hiding-places of a leafy hill and the pathless rocks,
nor did slaughters or the uttermost losses of the column move him.
a fugitive, he was gazing toward Italy and the Alps,
the great rewards of flight.

tacitum dat tessera signum
dimissa in colles pugna siluasque ferantur
dispersi et summam, quicumque euaserit, arcem
Pyrenes culmenque petat. tum primus honore
armorum exuto et parma celatus Hibera
in montes abit atque uolens palantia linquit
agmina. desertis Latius uictricia signa
immittit miles castris (non urbe recepta
plus ulla partum praedae) tenuitque moratas
a caede, ut Libycus ductor prouiderat, iras,
fluminei ueluti deprensus gurgitis undis
auulsa parte inguinibus causaque pericli
enatat intento praedae fiber auius hoste.

the tessera gives a tacit signal
that the fight be dismissed into the hills, and that they, scattered, betake themselves to the woods,
and let whoever has escaped seek the topmost citadel
and the Pyrenees’ summit and ridge. Then he first, with the honor
of arms doffed and hidden by an Iberian parma,
goes off into the mountains and willingly leaves the straggling
ranks. With the camps deserted the Latin soldier sends in the victorious standards
(not, with a city taken, would any more of booty have been gotten), and he held in check the angers
delayed from slaughter, as the Libyan leader had foreseen,
just as a beaver, caught by the waves of a river’s whirlpool,
with a part torn from his groins, the cause of danger,
swims out, the enemy, intent on the prey, astray.

Impiger occultis Poenus postquam abditur umbris
saxosae fidens siluae, maiora petuntur
rursus bella retro et superari certior hostis.
Pyrenes tumulo clipeum cum carmine figunt:
HASDRVBALIS SPOLIVM GRADIVO SCIPIO VICTOR.
Terrore interea posito trans ardua montis
Bebrycia populos armabat Poenus in aula
mercandi dextras largus belloque parata
prodigere in bellum facilis.

After the Carthaginian, untiring, hides himself in the hidden shades,
trusting in the rocky woodland, greater wars are sought
back again and a foe more certain to be overcome. On the mound of the Pyrenees
they fasten a shield with an inscription:
HASDRUBAL’S SPOIL TO GRADIVUS, SCIPIO VICTOR.
Meanwhile, with terror set aside, across the steep heights of the mountain
the Carthaginian in the Bebrycian hall was arming the peoples,
lavish in buying right hands, and ready to squander what had been prepared for war
into war.

praemissa feroces
augebant animos argenti pondera et auri
parta metalliferis longo discrimine terris.
hinc noua complerunt haud tardo milite castra
uenales animae, Rhodani qui gurgite gaudent,
quorum serpit Arar per rura pigerrimus undae.
iamque hieme affecta mitescere coeperat annus.

the advance-sent weights of silver and of gold
won in metalliferous lands at long hazard were augmenting fierce spirits.
hence the new camp they filled with no tardy soldiery
souls for sale, who rejoice in the surge of the Rhone,
whose Arar creeps through the fields, most sluggish in its wave.
and now, winter being spent, the year had begun to soften.

inde iter ingrediens rapidum per Celtica rura
miratur domitas Alpes ac peruia montis
ardua et Herculeae quaerit uestigia plantae
germanique uias diuinis comparat ausis.
Vt uero uentum in culmen castrisque resedit
Hannibalis, "quos Roma," inquit "quos altius, oro,
attollit muros, qui post haec moenia fratri
uicta meo stent incolumes? sit gloria dextrae
felix tanta precor, neue usque ad sidera adisse
inuideat laeuus nobis deus." agmine celso
inde alacer, qua munitum decliuis ab alto
agger monstrat iter, properatis deuolat armis.

thence, entering on a rapid march through the Celtic fields,
he marvels at the Alps subdued and the pervious heights
of the mountain, and seeks the footprints of the Herculean sole,
and compares his brother’s routes to divine daring.
But when indeed they had come to the summit and Hannibal set down
his camp, “what walls does Rome,” he says, “what walls, higher, I pray,
does she raise, which, after these ramparts have been won for my brother,
will stand unharmed? May the glory of my right hand be so fortunate,
I pray, and let not a left-hand god begrudge us to have approached
even to the stars.” Then, with his column lofty, eager, where a sloping
embankment, fortified from on high, shows the way, he swoops down with arms sped.

non tanto strepuere metu primordia belli.
nunc geminum Hannibalem, nunc iactant bina coire
hinc atque hinc castra et pastos per prospera bella
sanguine ductores Italo coniungere Martem
et duplicare acies. uenturum ad moenia cursu
hostem praecipiti et uisurum haerentia porta
spicula Elissaeis nuper contorta lacertis.

not with so great a fear did the beginnings of the war resound.
now they vaunt a twin Hannibal, now that two camps are coming together
from this side and that, and that the leaders, fattened through prosperous wars
on Italian blood, are conjoining Mars and doubling the battle-lines.
that the enemy will come at a headlong run to the walls
and will see, at the gate, darts sticking there,
recently hurled by Elissan arms.

His super infrendens sic secum Oenotria Tellus:
"tantone (heu superi!) spernor contempta furore
Sidoniae gentis, quae quondam sceptra timentem
nati Saturnum nostris considere in oris
et regnare dedi? decima haec iam uertitur aestas,
ex quo proterimur. iuuenis, cui sola supersunt
in superos bella, extremo de litore rapta
intulit arma mihi temeratisque Alpibus ardens
in nostros descendit agros.

Gnashing her teeth over these things, thus with herself the Oenotrian Earth:
“Is it to such a degree (alas, you gods above!) that I am spurned, contemned by the frenzy
of the Sidonian race—I who once allowed Saturn, fearing his son,
to settle on our shores and to reign with scepters? Now the tenth summer turns
since we are overborne. A youth, to whom only wars against the gods remain,
has brought against me arms snatched from the farthest shore,
and, the Alps profaned, burning he has descended into our fields.”

quot corpora texi
caesorum stratis totiens deformis alumnis!
nulla mihi floret bacis felicibus arbor
immatura seges rapido succiditur ense
culmina uillarum nostrum delapsa feruntur
in gremium foedantque suis mea regna ruinis.
hunc etiam, uastis qui nunc sese intulit oris,
perpetiar miseras quaerentem exurere belli
reliquias?

how many bodies of the slain have i covered, so often deformed with my nurslings laid low!
no tree blooms for me with felicitous berries;
the unripe harvest is hewn down by the rapid sword;
the rooftops of our villas, having slipped down, are borne into my bosom
and with their own ruins they befoul my realms.
shall i even endure this man too, who now has thrust himself upon my vast shores,
seeking to burn up the wretched relics of war?

tum me scindat uagus Afer aratro,
et Libys Ausoniis commendet semina sulcis
ni cuncta, exsultant quae latis agmina campis,
uno condiderim tumulo." dum talia uersat
et thalamos claudit Nox atra deumque hominumque,
tendit Amyclaei praeceps ad castra nepotis.
is tum Lucanis cohibentem finibus arma
Poenum uicini seruabat caespite ualli.
hic iuuenem aggreditur Latiae telluris imago:
"Clausorum decus atque erepto maxima Romae
spes Nero Marcello, rumpe atque expelle quietem.

then let the roving African cleave me with the plow,
and let a Libyan commit seeds to Ausonian furrows,
unless I should bury in a single tomb all the hosts that exult
upon the broad plains." While she turns such things over,
and black Night closes the chambers of gods and men,
she rushes headlong to the camp of the Amyclaean grandson.
is then was keeping the Carthaginian—who was keeping his warfare confined
within the Lucanian borders—by the sod of a neighboring rampart.
here the image of the Latin soil accosts the youth:
"Ornament of the Clausians and, with Rome snatched away, the greatest hope
of Rome, Nero Marcellus, break and drive out repose.

magnum aliquid tibi, si patriae uis addere fatis,
audendum est, quod depulso quoque moenibus hoste
uictores fecisse tremant. fulgentibus armis
Poenus inundauit campos, qua Sena relictum
Gallorum a populis seruat per saecula nomen.
ni propere alipedes rapis ad certamina turmas,
serus deletae post auxiliabere Romae.

something great for you, if you wish to add to your fatherland’s fates,
must be dared, a thing which, even with the enemy driven from the walls,
victors would tremble to have done. With gleaming arms
the Punic has inundated the fields, where Sena preserves through the ages
the name left by the peoples of the Gauls. Unless quickly you seize the wing‑footed
squadrons to the combats, too late you will bring aid thereafter
to obliterated Rome.

surge, age, fer gressus. patulos regione Matauri
damnaui tumulis Poenorum atque ossibus agros."
his dictis abit atque abscedens uisa pauentem
attrahere et fractis turmas propellere portis.
Rumpit flammato turbatus corde soporem
ac supplex geminas tendens ad sidera palmas
Tellurem Noctemque et caelo sparsa precatur
astra ducemque uiae tacito sub lumine Phoeben.

rise, come, carry your steps. the spreading fields in the region of the Metaurus
i have doomed to the barrows and bones of the Punics."
with these words she departs, and as she withdraws she seemed to draw the frightened one
and to drive the squadrons forward with the gates broken.
He breaks slumber, disturbed, with his heart inflamed,
and, a suppliant, stretching twin palms to the stars,
he prays to Earth and Night and to the stars scattered in the sky,
and to Phoebe, guide of the way, beneath her silent light.

inde legit dignas tanta ad conamina dextras,
quaque iacet superi Larinas accola ponti,
qua duri bello gens Marrucina fidemque
exuere indocilis sociis Frentanus in armis,
tum qua uitiferos domitat Praetutia pubes
laeta laboris agros, et penna et fulmine et undis
hibernis et Achaemenio uelocior arcu
euolat. hortator sibi quisque "age, perge, salutem
Ausoniae ancipites superi et, stet Roma cadatne,
in pedibus posuere tuis" clamantque ruuntque.
hortandi genus acer habet praecedere ductor.

thence he chose right hands worthy for such great endeavors,
and from where there lies the Larinian neighbor of the upper sea,
where the Marrucinian tribe, tough in war, and the Frentanian,
unteachable in arms to cast off faith toward allies,
then where the Praetutian youth, glad of labor,
tames the vine-bearing fields, he flies forth—swifter than wing,
and than lightning, and than the winter seas, and than the Achaemenian bow.
Each, as his own exhorter, cries, “Come, press on: the wavering gods above
have set the safety of Ausonia—and whether Rome will stand or fall—
upon your feet,” and they shout and rush forward.
the keen leader has, as his kind of urging, to go before.

illum augent cursus annisi aequare sequendo
atque indefessi noctemque diemque feruntur.
At Roma aduersi tantum et mala gliscere belli
accipiens trepidare metu nimiumque Neronem
sperauisse queri atque uno sibi uulnere posse
auferri restantem animam. non arma nec aurum
nec pubem nec, quem fundat, superesse cruorem.

they augment him by their courses, striving to equal by following,
and, indefatigable, they are borne night and day.
But Rome, receiving that the adverse and the evils of war are swelling so greatly,
to tremble with fear, and to complain that Nero had hoped too much,
and that with one wound he could take away from himself his remaining spirit:
that there remain neither arms nor gold nor youth nor the blood
which he might pour forth.

scilicet Hasdrubalem inuadat, qui ad proelia soli
Hannibali satis esse nequit? iam rursus, ubi arma
auertisse suo cognorit deuia uallo,
haesurum portis Poenum. uenisse, superbo
qui fratri certet, cui maxima gloria cedat
urbis deletae.

of course, let him invade Hasdrubal, he who for battles
cannot be sufficient to Hannibal alone?
now again, when he
has learned that by his own rampart he has turned his arms aside from the track,
that the Punic will stick at the gates.
that there has come one,
who may contend with his proud brother, to whom the greatest glory yields
of a destroyed city.

fremit amens corde sub imo
ordo patrum ac magno interea meditatur amore
seruandi decoris, quonam se fine minanti
seruitio eripiat diuosque euadat iniquos.
hos inter gemitus obscuro noctis opacae
succedit castris Nero, quae coniuncta feroci
Liuius Hasdrubali uallo custode tenebat.
belliger is quondam scitusque accendere Martem
floruerat primo clarus pugnator in aeuo.

he rages, mad, from the bottom of his heart
and meanwhile the order of the fathers ponders with great love
of preserving its decorum, by what end it may snatch itself
from menacing servitude and escape the iniquitous gods.
among these groans, under the obscurity of shadowy night,
Nero advances to the camp, which, joined to fierce
Hasdrubal, Livius was holding, the rampart as guardian.
warlike he once, and skilled to kindle Mars,
had flourished, a famous fighter in his first age.

mox falso laesus non aequi crimine uulgi
secretis ruris tristes absconderat annos.
sed postquam grauior moles terrorque periclo
poscebat propiore uirum, reuocatus ad arma
tot caesis ducibus patriae donauerat iram.
At non Hasdrubalem fraudes latuere recentum
armorum, quamquam tenebris nox texerat astus.

soon, harmed by the false charge of the unjust mob,
he had hidden sad years in the secret countryside.
but after a heavier burden and terror, as danger drew nearer,
demanded a man, recalled to arms
with so many leaders cut down, he had remitted his wrath toward his fatherland.
But the frauds of the recent arms did not escape Hasdrubal,
although night had woven the stratagems with darkness.

pulueris in clipeis uestigia uisa mouebant
et, propen signum accursus, sonipesque uirique
substricti corpus. bis clarum, bucina, signum
praeterea gemino prodebat iuncta magistro
castra regi. uerum fratri si uita supersit,
qui tandem licitum socias coniungere uires
consulibus?

the traces of dust seen on the shields were setting things in motion
and, almost a signal of a charge, both the hoof-footed steeds and the men,
their bodies cinched tight. Twice-clear, trumpet, the signal
moreover betrayed to the king that the camp was joined to a twin master,
if indeed life remains to the brother—
what consuls, then, is it lawful to unite allied forces to?

sed enim solum, dum uera patescant,
cunctandi restare dolum Martemque trahendi.
nec consulta fugae segni formidine differt.
Nox, somni genetrix, mortalia pectora curis
purgarat, tenebraeque horrenda silentia alebant.

but indeed only the stratagem of delaying, until the truth might be laid open,
and of dragging out Mars, remained. nor does he defer the counsels of flight with sluggish dread.
Night, mother of sleep, had purged mortal breasts of cares, and the darknesses were fostering dreadful silences.

erepit suspensa ferens uestigia castris
et muta elabi tacito iubet agmina passu.
illunem nacti per rura tacentia noctem
accelerant uitantque sonos; sed percita falli
sub tanto motu Tellus nequit. implicat actas
caeco errore uias umbrisque fauentibus arto
circumagit spatio sua per uestigia ductos.

she creeps out from the camp, bearing suspended steps,
and bids the columns to slip away mute with a tacit pace.
having found a moonless night through the silent fields
they hasten and avoid sounds; but Earth, stirred, under so great a movement
cannot be deceived. she entangles the pursued ways
in blind error and, with the shadows favoring, in a tight space
she wheels them around, led along their own footprints.

nam qua curuatas sinuosis flexibus amnis
obliquat ripas refluoque per aspera lapsu
in sese redit, hac casso ducente labore
exiguum inuoluunt frustratis gressibus orbem,
inque errore uiae tenebrarum munus ademptum.
Lux surgit panditque fugam. ruit acer apertis
turbo equitum portis, atque omnes ferrea late
tempestas operit campos.

for where the river with sinuous bends
slants its banks and with a refluent glide through rough places
returns into itself, by this leader with vain toil
they wind a small orb with frustrated steps,
and in the error of the way the gift of the darkness is taken away.
Light rises and lays bare their flight. A keen whirlwind
of horsemen rushes from the open gates, and a wide iron
tempest covers all the fields.

nondum arma manusque
permixtae, iam tela bibunt praemissa cruorem.
hinc iussae Poenum fugientem sistere pennae
Dictaeae uolitant, hinc lancea turbine nigro
fert letum cuicumque uiro, quem prenderit ictus.
deponunt abitus curam trepidique coactas
constituunt acies et spes ad proelia uertunt.

not yet are arms and hands
mingled, already the missiles sent ahead drink blood.
here the Dictaean feathers, ordered to halt the fleeing Punic, flutter,
there a lance, in a black whirl, bears death to whatever man the blow may have caught.
they lay aside concern for departure, and, trembling, they constitute compelled
battle-lines and turn their hopes to battles.

Ipse inter medios (nam rerum dura uidebat)
Sidonius ductor tergo sublimis ab alto
quadrupedantis equi tendens uocemque manusque:
"per decora extremo uobis quaesita sub axe,
per fratris laudes oro, uenisse probemus
germanum Hannibalis. Latio Fortuna laborat
aduersis documenta dare atque ostendere, quantus
uerterit in Rutulos domitor telluris Hiberae
suetus ad Herculeas miles bellare columnas.
forsitan et pugnas ueniat germanus in ipsas.

He himself among the midst (for he saw the hardness of the situation)
the Sidonian leader, on high upon the lofty back
of his four-footed horse, stretching forth both voice and hands:
“by the glories sought for you beneath the farthest pole,
by my brother’s praises I beg, let us prove
that the brother of Hannibal has come. For Latium Fortune labors
to give proofs by adversities and to show how great
a tamer of the Iberian earth has turned against the Rutulians—
a soldier accustomed to wage war to the Herculean Columns.
perhaps the brother may even come into the battles themselves.

digna uiro, digna, obtestor, spectacula pleno
corporibus properate solo. quicumque timeri
dux bello poterat, fratri iacet. unica nunc spes,
e poena ac latebris infracto Liuius aeuo,
damnatum, offertur uobis, caput.

Worthy of a man—worthy ones, I adjure you—make haste to spectacles upon a ground packed with bodies.
Whoever as a leader could be feared in war lies low to his brother.
The single hope now,
Livius, with his age unbroken, out from penalty and hiding-places,
a condemned head, is offered to you.

ite agite, oro,
sternite ductorem, cum quo concurrere fratri
sit pudor, et turpi finem donate senectae."
At contra Nero: "quid cessas clusisse labores
ingentis belli? pedibus tibi gloria, miles,
parta ingens. nunc accumula coepta ardua dextra.

go, come on, I beg,
strike down the leader, with whom it would be a shame for his brother
to clash, and grant an end to his disgraceful old age."
But in reply Nero: "why do you delay to close the labors
of a mighty war? by your feet, soldier, a mighty glory
has been won for you. now accumulate the arduous things begun with your right hand.

heu temere abducto liquisti robore castra,
ni factum absoluit uictoria. praecipe laudem.
aduentu cecidisse tuo memorabitur hostis."
Parte alia insignis nudatis casside canis
Liuius: "huc, iuuenes, huc me spectate ruentem
in pugnas, quantumque meus patefecerit ensis,
tantum intrate loci et tandem praecludite ferro
iam nimium patulas Poenis grassantibus Alpes.

alas, by rashly drawing off your strength you left the camp,
unless victory absolves the fact. Seize the praise.
the enemy will be remembered to have fallen at your advent."
In another part, Livius, distinguished, his gray hairs laid bare by the helmet:
"here, youths, here look at me rushing
into battles, and as far as my sword shall have laid open,
so far enter the space, and at last preclude with iron
the Alps now too wide-gaping as the Punics go marauding.

quod ni ueloci prosternimus agmina Marte
et fulmen subitum Carthaginis Hannibal adsit,
qui deus infernis quemquam nostrum eximat umbris?"
hinc galea capite accepta dicta horrida ferro
sancit et obtectus senium fera proelia miscet.
illum per cuneos et per densissima campi
corpora tot dantem leto, quot spicula torsit,
turbati fugere Macae, fugere feroces
Autololes Rhodanique comas intonsa iuuentus.
Fatidicis Nabis ueniens Hammonis harenis
improba miscebat securus proelia fati
ceu tutante deo ac patriis spolia Itala templis
fixurum uano tumidus promiserat ore.

but unless we lay low the battle-lines with swift Mars,
and Hannibal, the sudden thunderbolt of Carthage, be at hand,
what god would snatch any of us from the infernal shades?"
Then, his helmet taken onto his head, he sanctions his words, grim with iron,
and, his senility covered, he mingles in savage battles.
him, through the wedges and through the most crowded bodies of the field,
slaying as many as he hurled missiles,
the confounded Macae fled, the fierce Autololes fled,
and the Rhone’s youth with unshorn locks.
Coming from the fatidic sands of Ammon,
the impudent one was mixing battles, secure of fate,
as though a god were protecting, and, puffed up, he had promised with a vain mouth
that he would fasten Italian spoils in his ancestral temples.

ardebat gemma Garamantide caerula uestis,
ut cum sparsa micant stellarum lumina caelo,
et gemmis galeam clipeumque accenderat auro.
casside cornigera dependens infula sacros
prae se terrores diuumque ferebat honorem.
arcus erat pharetraeque uiro atque incocta cerastis
spicula et armatus peragebat bella ueneno.

the cerulean garment blazed with a Garamantian gem,
as when the scattered lights of the stars sparkle in the sky,
and with gems and with gold he had kindled the helmet and the shield.
from a horn-bearing helmet the hanging fillet bore before him sacred
terrors and the honor of the gods.
there were a bow and quivers for the man, and shafts steeped with horned serpents,
and, armed, he prosecuted wars with venom.

necnon cornipedis tergo de more repostus
sustentata genu per campum pondera conti
Sarmatici prona aduersos urgebat in hostes.
tum quoque transfixum telo per membra, per arma
consulis ante oculos magno clamore Sabellum
asportabat ouans et ouans Hammona canebat.
non tulit hanc iram tantosque in corde tumores
barbarico senior telumque intorsit et una
praedam animamque simul uictori uictor ademit.

and also, according to custom set upon the back of his hoof-footed steed,
with the weight of the Sarmatic kontos supported on his knee, across the field
he was pressing, bent forward, upon the opposing enemies.
then too, a Sabellian transfixed with the weapon through limbs, through armor,
before the consul’s eyes, with great shouting he
was carrying off in triumph, and exulting he was singing Ammon.
the elder barbarian did not endure this wrath and such swellings in his heart,
and he hurled his missile, and at one stroke
as victor he took away from the victor both the booty and the life.

Adsilit audito tristis clamore ruinae
Hasdrubal et coeptantem Arabum raptare perempto
gemmiferi spolium cultus auroque rigentes
exuuias iaculum a tergo perlibrat ad ossa.
Iam correpta miser geminis uelamina palmis
carpebat propere et trepidos nudauerat artus:
concidit ac sacras uestes atque aurea fila
reddidit exanimo spoliatum lapsus in hostem.
at Canthus Rutilum, Canthus possessor harenae,
qua celebre inuicti nomen posuere Philaeni,
ditem ouium Rutilum obtruncat, cui mille sub altis
lanigerae balant stabulis.

Hasdrubal, sad, springs up at the clamor of ruin heard,
and at the Arab who was beginning to snatch from the slain
the spoil of gem-bearing attire and the exuviae stiff with gold
he poises a javelin from the rear and lets it fly to the bones.
Already the wretch, the veils seized with twin palms,
was hastily tearing and had laid bare the trembling limbs:
he fell, and the sacred garments and the golden threads
he returned, despoiling no more, as he slipped upon the lifeless enemy.
But Canthus cuts down Rutilus—Canthus, possessor of the sand—
where the Philaeni set the celebrated name of the Unconquered,
Rutilus rich in sheep, for whom a thousand wool-bearers bleat
beneath lofty stalls.

ipse otia molli
exercens cura gelido nunc flumine soles
frangebat nimios pecori, nunc laetus in herba
tondebat niueae splendentia uellera lanae
aut, pecus e pastu cum sese ad tecta referret,
noscentes matres spectabat ouilibus agnos.
occubuit clipei transfixo proditus aere
et sero ingemuit stabulis exisse paternis.
Acrius hoc Italum pubes incurrit et urget,
ut torrens, ut tempestas, ut flamma corusci
fulminis, ut Borean pontus fugit, ut caua currunt
nubila, cum pelago caelum permiscuit Eurus.

he himself, practicing leisure with gentle care,
now in the cold river would break the too-great suns for the flock, now, glad upon the grass,
would clip the gleaming fleeces of snow-white wool,
or, when the herd from pasture was carrying itself back to the roofs,
would watch in the sheepfolds the lambs recognizing their mothers.
He fell, betrayed by the bronze of his shield, pierced through,
and too late he groaned that he had gone out from his paternal stalls.
More keenly at this the Italian youth rush and press on,
like a torrent, like a tempest, like the flame of a coruscant
thunderbolt, as the sea flees Boreas, as the hollow clouds run,
when Eurus has commingled sky with sea.

« procerae stabant, Celtarum signa, cohortes,
prima acies. hos impulsu cuneoque feroci
laxat uis subita, et fessos errore uiarum
nec soli faciles longique laboris anhelos
auertit patrius genti pauor. addere tergo
hastas Ausonius teloque instare sequaci
nec donare fugam.

« tall stood the cohorts, the standards of the Celts, the foremost battle-line.
them a sudden force, by a charge and a ferocious wedge, loosens; and, weary with the wandering
of the roads, not facile with the soil, and panting from long labor,
their ancestral terror for the nation turns aside. the Ausonian
adds spears to their back and presses with a pursuing missile,
nor grants flight.

cadit uno uulnere Thyrmis,
non uno Rhodanus, profligatumque sagittae
lancea deturbat Morinum et iam iamque cadentem.
cedentes urget totas largitus habenas
Liuius acer equo et turmis abeuntibus infert
cornipedem. tunc auersi surgentia colla
disicit ense Mosae.

Thyrmis falls with a single wound,
Rhodanus not with a single one, and a lance throws down Morinus,
prostrated by an arrow and just now about to fall.
pressing the retreating, having lavished the whole reins,
keen Livius on his horse drives the hoof-footed one against the withdrawing squadrons.
then, as they turn away, he hews with the sword the rising necks
of the Mosae.

percussit pondere terram
cum galea ex alto lapsum caput; at residentem
turbatus rapuit sonipes in proelia truncum.
hic Cato (nam medio uibrabat et ipse tumultu)
"si, primas" inquit "bello cum amisimus Alpes,
hic iuueni oppositus Tyrio foret! ei mihi quanta
cessauit Latio dextra, et quot funera Poenis
donarunt praui suffragia tristia campi!"
Iamque inclinabant acies, cunctisque pauorem
Gallorum induerat pauor, et Fortuna ruebat
Sidonia: ad Rutulos Victoria uerterat alas.

He struck the earth with weight, the head, with helmet, having slipped from on high; but the agitated hoof-foot snatched the torso, as it was settling, into the frays.
here Cato (for he too was himself in the midst of the tumult) said: "If only, when we lost the foremost Alps in war, this man had been set against the Tyrian youth! Alas, how great a right hand has been lacking to Latium, and how many funerals to the Poeni the perverse votes of the gloomy Field bestowed!"
And now the battle-lines were inclining, and fear had clothed all with the fear of the Gauls, and Sidonian Fortune was rushing headlong: toward the Rutulians Victory had turned her wings.

celsus ceu prima reflorescente iuuenta
ibat consul ouans, maior maiorque uideri.
ecce trahens secum canentem puluere turmam
ductor Agenoreus subit intorquensque lacertis
tela sonat: "cohibete fugam. cui cedimus hosti?

Lofty, as if first youth were blooming anew,
the consul went exultant, seeming greater and ever greater.
Look—drawing with him a troop hoary with dust,
the Agenorean leader approaches, and, whirling missiles with his arms,
he makes them resound: "Restrain the flight. To what enemy are we yielding?"

nonne pudet? conuersa senex marcentibus annis
agmina agit. nunc, quaeso, mihi nunc dextera in armis
degenerat, nostrique piget?

Is it not a shame? An old man, with withering years, drives the turned-back ranks.
Now, I pray, does my right hand in arms now degenerate, and are you sickened of me?

mihi Belus auorum
principium, mihi cognatum Sidonia Dido
nomen et ante omnes bello numerandus Hamilcar
est genitor, mihi, cui cedunt montesque lacusque
et campi atque amnes, frater. me magna secundum
Carthago putat Hannibali, me Baetis in oris
aequant germano passae mea proelia gentes."
talia dum memorat medios ablatus in hostes,
ut noua conspecti fulserunt consulis arma,
hastam praepropero nisu iacit. illa per oras
aerati clipei et loricae tegmina summo
incidit haud felix umero parceque petitum
perstrinxit corpus nec multo tincta cruore,
uana sed optanti promisit gaudia Poeno.

for me Belus is the beginning of my forefathers,
for me Sidonian Dido is a kindred name,
and Hamilcar, to be reckoned before all in war,
is my begetter; my brother, to whom mountains and lakes
and plains and rivers yield. Me, next after great
Hannibal, Carthage deems; me, on the shores of Baetis,
the peoples who have endured my battles equal to my own brother."
While he utters such things, carried into the midst of the foes,
when the newly seen consul’s arms flashed into view,
he hurls a spear with over-hasty strain. That, along the rims
of the brazen shield and the coverings of the cuirass,
fell on the top of the shoulder, not happy, and it merely grazed
the body, little struck, not dyed with much blood;
but it promised vain joys to the Carthaginian who hoped.

Turbati Rutuli, confusaque pectora uisu
terrifico. tunc increpitans conamina consul:
"femineis laesum uana inter proelia corpus
unguibus aut palmis credas puerilibus ictum.
ite, docete, uiri, Romanae uulnera suerint
quanta afferre manus." tum uero effunditur ingens
telorum uis, et densa sol uincitur umbra.

The Rutulians were disturbed, and their hearts confounded by the terrifying sight.
then the consul, rebuking their attempts:
"you would suppose a body injured amid vain skirmishes
to have been clawed by feminine nails or struck by puerile palms.
go, teach, men, how great wounds Roman hands have been wont
to bring." then indeed a huge force of missiles is poured forth,
and the sun is vanquished by a dense shadow.

iamque per extentos alterna strage uirorum
corpora fusa iacent campos demersaque in undam
iunxerunt cumulo crescente cadauera ripas,
ut, cum uenatu saltus exercet opacos
Dictynna et laetae praebet spectacula matri
aut Pindi nemora excutiens aut Maenala lustrans
(omnis Naiadum plenis comitata pharetris
turba ruit, striduntque sagittiferi coryti),
tum per saxa ferae perque ipsa cubilia fusae,
per ualles fluuiosque atque antra uirentia musco
multa strage iacent; exsultat uertice montis
gratam perlustrans oculis Latonia praedam.
Audito ante alios senioris uulnere rumpit
per medios Nero saeuus iter uisaque uirorum
aequali pugna "quid enim, quid deinde relictumst
Italiae fatis? hunc si non uincitis hostem,
Hannibalem uincetis?" ait.

And now, over the outstretched fields, bodies lie poured out in alternating slaughter of men,
and the cadavers, plunged into the wave, with the heap growing, have joined the banks;—
as, when with the hunt Dictynna exercises the shadowy glades
and offers joyous spectacles to her mother, either shaking the groves of Pindus or traversing Maenalus
(all the throng of the Naiads, with full quivers, rushes, and the arrow-bearing quivers shriek),
then the beasts, over the rocks and even through their very lairs strewn,
through valleys and rivers and caves green with moss,
lie in great slaughter; the Latonian exults on the mountain’s summit,
scanning with her eyes the welcome prey. Audito ante alios senioris wound, he breaks
a path through the midst, the cruel Nero, and, the men’s combat seen to be equal,
“for what, what then is left to Italy’s fates? If you do not conquer this enemy,
will you conquer Hannibal?” he says.

ruit ocius amens
in medios, Tyriumque ducem inter prima frementem
agmina ut aspexit, rabidi ceu belua ponti
per longum sterili ad pastus iactata profundo,
cum procul in fluctu piscem male saucia uidit,
aestuat et lustrans nantem sub gurgite praedam
absorbet late permixtum piscibus aequor,
non telo mora, non dictis. "haud amplius" inquit
"elabere mihi. non hic nemora auia fallent
Pyrenes, nec promissis frustrabere uanis,
ut quondam terra fallax deprensus Hibera
euasti nostram mentito foedere dextram."
Haec Nero et intorquet iaculum, nec futilis ictus.

he rushes too swiftly, out of his mind,
into the midst; and when he caught sight of the Tyrian leader raging among the foremost
ranks, like a beast of the rabid sea
tossed for long through the barren deep in quest of feeding,
when from afar upon the wave it has seen a fish badly wounded,
it boils and, scanning the prey swimming beneath the whirlpool,
gulps down the expanse far and wide, mixed with fishes—
no delay for the weapon, none for words. "No longer," he says,
"slip away from me. Not here will the trackless woods
of the Pyrenees deceive, nor will you cheat with empty promises,
as once, caught in the treacherous Iberian land,
you escaped our right hand by a feigned pact."
So says Nero and he hurls the javelin—and the blow is not futile.

nam latere extremo cuspis librata resedit.
inuadit stricto super haec interritus ense
collapsique premens umbone trementia membra
"si qua sub extremo casu mandata referri
germano uis forte tuo, portabimus" inquit.
contra Sidonius: "leto non terreor ullo.

for the poised spear-point settled in the extreme flank.
he attacks upon this, undaunted, with drawn sword,
and, pressing with his shield-boss the trembling limbs of the collapsed man,
"if at this last doom you perchance wish any mandates to be carried back
to your brother, we will bear them," he says.
in reply the Sidonian: "by no death am I terrified."

utere Marte tuo, dum nostris manibus adsit
actutum uindex. mea si suprema referre
fratri uerba paras, mando Capitolia uictor
exurat cinerique Iouis permisceat ossa
et cineres nostros." cupientem annectere plura
feruentemque ira mortis transuerberat ense
et rapit infidum uictor caput. agmina fuso
sternuntur duce non ultra fidentia Marti.

"Use your Mars, while a swift avenger is at hand for us
forthwith. If you are preparing to carry my last words
to my brother, I charge that, as victor, he burn the Capitol
and mingle the bones and our ashes with the ash of Jove."
As he was eager to append more and seething with the wrath of death,
he pierces him through with the sword and, as victor, snatches the faithless head.
The ranks, their leader routed, are laid low, no longer trusting in Mars.

Iamque diem solisque uices nox abstulit atra,
cum uires parco uictu somnoque reducunt,
ac nondum remeante die uictricia signa,
qua uentum, referunt clausis formidine castris.
tum Nero procera sublimia cuspide portans
ora ducis caesi "Cannas pensauimus," inquit
"Hannibal, et Trebiam et Thrasymenni litora tecum
fraterno capite. i, duplica nunc perfida bella
et geminas accerse acies.

And now black night has taken away the day and the cycles of the sun,
when our strengths are brought back by sparing victual and by sleep,
and with day not yet returning the victorious standards,
to where they had come, they carry back to the camp shut in by fear.
then Nero, carrying on a tall, uplifted spear the features of the slain leader,
said, "We have weighed out Cannae,
Hannibal, and the Trebia and the shores of Thrasymenus with you, by a brother’s head.
Go, now double your perfidious wars
and call up twin battle-lines."

haec praemia restant,
qui tua tramissis optarint Alpibus arma."
compressit lacrimas Poenus minuitque ferendo
constanter mala et inferias in tempore dignas
missurum fratri clauso commurmurat ore.
tum castris procul amotis aduersa quiete
dissimulans dubia exclusit certamina Martis.

these prizes remain,
for those who, the Alps traversed, shall have opted for your arms."
The Punic checked his tears and, by bearing steadfastly, lessened the ills,
and with mouth closed he mutters that he will send funeral offerings worthy and in due time
to his brother.
then, with the camp moved far away, dissembling with adverse quiet,
he shut out the doubtful combats of Mars.