Civil War
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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WHEN Caesar, following those who bore the head,
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First trod the shore accursed, with Egypt's fates
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His fortunes battled, whether Rome should pass
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In crimson conquest o'er the guilty land,
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Or Memphis' arms should ravish from the world
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Victor and vanquished: and the warning shade
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Of Magnus saved his kinsman from the sword.
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By that dread crime assured, his standards borne
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Before, he marched upon the Pharian town;
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But when the people, jealous of their laws,
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Murmured against the fasces, Caesar knew
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Their minds were adverse, and that not for him
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Was Magnus' murder wrought. And yet with brow
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Dissembling fear, intrepid, through the shrines
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Of Egypt's gods he strode, and round the fane
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Of ancient Isis; bearing witness all
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To Macedon's vigour in the days of old.
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Yet did nor gold nor ornament restrain
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His hasting steps, nor worship of the gods,
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Nor city ramparts: but in greed of gain
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He sought the cave dug out amid the tombs.The body of Alexander was embalmed, and the mummy placed in a glass case. The sarcophagus which enclosed them is stated to be now in the British Museum.
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The madman offspring there of Philip lies,
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The famed Pellaean robber, Fortune's friend,
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Snatched off by fate, in vengeance for the world.
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In sacred sepulchre the hero's limbs,
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Which should be scattered o'er the earth, repose,
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Still spared by Fortune to these tyrant days:
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For in a world to freedom once recalled,
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All men had mocked the dust of him who set
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The baneful lesson that so many lands
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Can serve one master. Macedon he left
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His home obscure; Athena he despised,
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The conquest of his sire, and spurred by fate
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Through Asia rushed with havoc of mankind,
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Plunging his sword through peoples; red with blood
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UnknownReading 'ignoto' (Francken). to them Euphrates, Ganges ran.
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Curse of all earth, fell star of evil fate
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To every nation! On the outer sea
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He launched his fleet to sail the ocean wave:
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Nor flame nor flood nor sterile Libyan sands
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Stayed back his course, nor Hammon's pathless shoals;
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Far to the west, where downward slopes the world
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He would have led his armies, and the poles
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Had compassed, and had drunk the fount of Nile:
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But came his latest day; such end alone
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Could nature place upon the madman king,
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Who jealous in death as when he won the world
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His empire with him took, nor left an heir.
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Thus every city to the spoiler's hand
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Was victim made. Yet in his fall was his
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Babylon; and Parthia feared him. Shame on us
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That Eastern nations dreaded more the lance
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Of Macedon than now the Roman spear.
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True that we rule beyond where takes its rise
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The burning southern breeze, beyond the homes
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Of western winds, and to the northern star;
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But towards the rising of the sun, we yield
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To him who kept the Arsacids in awe;
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And puny Pella held as province sure
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The Parthia fatal to our Roman arms.
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Now from the stream Pelusian of the Nile,
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Was come the boyish king, taming the rage
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Of his effeminate people: pledge of peace;
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And Caesar safely trod Pellean halls;
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When Cleopatra bribed her guard to break
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The harbour chains, and borne in little boat
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Within the Macedonian palace gates,
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Caesar unknowing, entered: Egypt's shame;
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Fury of Latium; to the bane of Rome
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Unchaste. For as the Spartan queen of yore
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By fatal beauty Argos urged to strife
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And Ilium's homes, so Cleopatra roused
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Italia's frenzy. By her drum The kettledrum used in the worship of Isis. (See Book VIII., line 975.) she called
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Down on the Capitol terror (if to speak
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Such word be lawful); mixed with Roman arms
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Coward Canopus, hoping she might lead
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A Pharian triumph, Caesar in her train;
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And 'twas in doubt upon Leucadian At the Battle of Actium. The island of Leucas, close to the promontory of Actium, is always named by Lucan when he refers to this battle. (See also Virgil,'Aeneid,' viii., 677.) waves
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Whether a woman, not of Roman blood,
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Should hold the world in awe. Such lofty thoughts
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Seized on her soul upon that night in which
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The wanton daughter of Pellean kings
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First shared our leaders' couches. Who shall blame
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Antonius for the madness of his love,
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When Caesar's haughty breast drew in the flame?
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Who red with carnage, 'mid the clash of arms,
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In palace haunted by Pompeius' shade,
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Gave place to love; and in adulterous bed,
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Magnus forgotten, from the Queen impure,
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To Julia gave a brother: on the bounds
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Of furthest Libya permitting thus
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His foe to gather: while in dalliance base
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He waited on his mistress, and to her
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Pharos would give; for her would conquer all.
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Then Cleopatra, trusting to her charms,
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Tearless approached him, though in form of grief;
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Her tresses loose as though in sorrow torn,
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So best becoming her; and thus began:
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'If, mighty Caesar, aught to noble birth
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' Be due, give ear. Of Lagian race am I
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' Offspring illustrious; from my father's throne
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'Cast forth to banishment; unless thy hand
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'Restore to me the sceptre: then a Queen
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' Falls at thy feet embracing. To our race
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' Bright star of justice thou Nor first shall I
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' As woman rule the cities of the Nile;
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' For, neither sex preferring, Pharos bows
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'To queenly governance. Of my parted sire
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' Read the last words, by which 'tis mine to share
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' With equal rights the kingdom and the bed.
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'And the boy loves his sister, were he free;
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' But his affections and his sword alike
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' Pothinus orders. Nor wish I myself
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' To wield my father's power; but this my prayer:
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' Save from this foul disgrace our royal house,
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' Bid that the king shall reign, and from the court
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'Remove this hateful varlet, and his arms.
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'How swells his bosom for that his the hand
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'That shore Pompeius' head! And now he threats
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Thee, Caesar, also; which the Fates avert!
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Shame on the earth and thee that Magnus' death
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Should be Pothinus' triumph or his guilt.'
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Her words were nothing to his stubborn ear;
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Her face achieved the prayer, her wanton smile,
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The long voluptuous night of shame untold:
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So did she bribe her judge; so Caesar fell.
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When she had purchased at so vast a price
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Peace from the chief,Reading 'ducis' (Francken). the joys of such a peace
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A feast proclaimed. There in full pomp the Queen
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Displayed her luxuries, as yet unknown
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To Roman manners. Spacious rose the hall
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Like to such fane as this corrupted age
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Shall scarcely rear: the lofty ceiling shone
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With richest tracery, the beams were bound
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In golden coverings; no scant veneer
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Lay on its walls, but built in solid blocks
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Of marble, gleamed the palace. Agate stood
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In sturdy columns, bearing up the roof;
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Onyx and porphyry on the spacious floor
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Were trodden 'neath the foot; the mighty gates
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Of Maroe's ebony throughout were formed,
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No mere adornment; ivory clothed the hall,
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Studded with emerald spots; upon the doors
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Gleamed polished tortoise shells from Indian seas:
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And gems of price and yellow jasper shone
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On couch and coverlet, whose greater part
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Dipped more than once within the vats of Tyre
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Had drunk their juice; and part were feathered gold;
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Part crimson dyed, in manner as are passed
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Through Pharian leash the threads. There waited slaves
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In number as a people, some in ranks
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By different blood distinguished, some by age;
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This band with Libyan, that with auburn hair
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Red so that Caesar on the banks of Rhine
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None such had witnessed; some with features scorched
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By torrid suns, their locks in twisted coils
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Drawn from their foreheads. Eunuchs too were there,
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Unhappy race; and on the other side
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Men of full age whose cheeks with growth of hair
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Were hardly darkened.
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Upon either hand
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Lay kings, and Caesar in the midst supreme.
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There in her fatal beauty lay the Queen
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Thick daubed with unguents, nor with throne content
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Nor with her brother spouse; laden she lay
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On neck and hair with all the Red Sea spoils,
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And faint beneath the weight of gems and gold.
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Her snowy breast shone through Sidonian lawn
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Which woven close by shuttles of the East
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The art of Nile had loosened. Ivory feet
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Bore citron tables brought from woods that waveBook IX., 507.
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On Atlas, such as Caesar never saw
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When Juba was his captive. Blind in soul
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By madness of ambition, thus to fire
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By such profusion of her wealth, the mind
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Of Caesar armed, her guest in civil war!
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Not though he aimed with pitiless hand to grasp
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The riches of a world; not though were here
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Those ancient leaders of the simple age,
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Fabricius or Curius stern of soul,
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Or he who, Consul, left in sordid garb
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His Tuscan plough, could all their several hopes
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Have risen to such spoil. On plates of gold
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They piled the banquet sought in earth and air
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And from the deepest seas and Nilus' waves,
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Through all the world; in craving for display,
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No hunger urging. Frequent birds and beasts,
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Egypt's high gods, they placed upon the board:
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In crystal goblets water of the Nile
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They handed, and in massive cups of price
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Was poured the wine; no juice of Mareot grape,Yet the Mareot grape was greatly celebrated. (See Professor Rawlinson's note to Herodotus, ii, 18.)
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But noble vintage of Falernian growth
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Which seasons few in Meroe's famous vats
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Had mellowed as with age. Upon their brows
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Chaplets were placed of roses ever young
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With glistening nard entwined; and in their locks
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Was cinnamon infused, not yet in air
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Its fragrance perished, nor in foreign climes;
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And rich amomum from the neighbouring fields.
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Thus Caesar learned the booty of a world
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To lavish, and his breast was shamed of war
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Waged with his son-in-law, from whose defeat
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His spoils were meagre, and he longed to find
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A cause of battle with the Pharian realm.
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When of the banquet and of wine and feast
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They wearied and their pleasure found an end,
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Caesar drew out in colloquy the night
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Thus with Achoreus, on the highest couch
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With linen ephod as a priest begirt:
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'O thou devoted to all sacred rites,
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'Loved by the gods, as proves thy length of days,
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'Tell, if thou wilt, whence sprang the Pharian race;
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'How lie their lands, the manners of their tribes,
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'The form and worship of their deities.
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'Expound the sculptures on your ancient fanes:
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'Reveal your gods if willing to be known:
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'If to th' Athenian sage your fathers taught
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'Their mysteries, who worthier than I
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' To bear in trust the secrets of the world?
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' True, by the rumour of my kinsman's flight
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' Here was I drawn; yet also by your fame:
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' And even in the midst of war's alarms
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' The stars and heavenly spaces have I conned;
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'Nor shall Eudoxus' year The calendar introduced by Caesar, in B.C. 45, was founded on the Egyptian or solar year. (See Herodotus, ii., 4.) Eudoxus seems to have dealt with this year and to have corrected it. He is probably alluded to by Virgil, 'Eclogue' iii., 41. excel mine own.
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' But though such ardour burns within my breast,
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' Such zeal to know the truth, yet my chief wish
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' To learn the source of your mysterious flood
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' Through ages hidden : give me certain hope
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' To see the fount of Nile-and civil war
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' I quit for ever.' He spake, and then the priest:
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' The secrets, Caesar, of our mighty sires Herodotus was less fortunate. For he says, ' Concerning the nature of the river I was not able to gain any information either from the priests or from others.' (ii., 19.)
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' Kept from the common people until now
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' I hold it right to utter. Some may deem
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' That silence on these wonders of the earth
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' Were greater piety. But to the gods
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' I hold it grateful that their handiwork
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' And sacred edicts should be known to men.
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' A different power by the primal law,
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' Each star possesses: It was supposed that the Sun and Moon and the planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus) were points which restrained the motion of the sky in its revolution. (See Book VI., 576.) these alone control
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' The movement of the sky, with adverse force
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' Opposing: while the sun divides the year,
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' And day from night, and by his potent rays
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' Forbids the stars to pass their stated course.
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' The moon by her alternate phases sets
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' The varying limits of the sea and shore.
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' Neath Saturn's sway the zone of ice and snow
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' Has passed; while Mars in lightning's fitful flames
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' And winds abounds: beneath high Jupiter
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' Unvexed by storms abides a temperate air;
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' And fruitful Venus' star contains the seeds
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' Of all things. Ruler of the boundless deep
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' The god Mercury. (See Book IX., 778.) Cyllenian : whene'er he holds
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' That part of heaven where the Lion dwells
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' With neighbouring Cancer joined, and Sirius star
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' Flames in its fury; where the circular path
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' (Which marks the changes of the varying year)
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' Gives to hot Cancer and to Capricorn
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' Their several stations, under which doth lie
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' The fount of Nile, he, master of the waves,
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' Strikes with his beam the waters. Forth the stream
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' Brims from his fount, as Ocean when the moon
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' Commands an increase; nor shall curb his flow
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' Till night wins back her losses from the sun.That is, at the autumnal equinox. The priest states that the planet Mercury causes the rise of the Nile. The passage is difficult to follow; but the idea would seem to be that this god, who controlled the rise and fall of the waves of the sea, also when he was placed directly over the Nile caused the rise of that river.
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' Vain is the ancient faith that Ethiop snows So also Herodotus, Book II., 22. Yet modern discoveries have proved the snows.
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' Send Nile abundant forth upon the lands.
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' Those mountains know nor northern wind nor star.
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' Of this are proof the breezes of the South,
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' Fraught with warm vapours, and the people's hue
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' Burned dark by suns: and 'tis in time of spring,
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' When first are thawed the snows, that ice-fed streams
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' In swollen torrents tumble; but the Nile
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' Nor lifts his wave before the Dog star burns;
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' Nor seeks again his banks, until the sun
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' In equal balance measures night and day.
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' Nor are the laws that govern other streams
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' Obeyed by Nile. For in the wintry year
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'Were he in flood, when distant far the sun,
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' His waters lacked their office; but he leaves
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' His channel when the summer is at height,
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' Tempering the torrid heat of Egypt's clime.
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' Such is the task of Nile; thus in the world
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' He finds his purpose, lest exceeding heat
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' Consume the lands: and rising thus to meet
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' Enkindled Lion, to Syene's prayers
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' By Cancer burnt gives ear; nor curbs his wave
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' Till the slant sun and Meroe's lengthening shades
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' Proclaim the autumn. Who shall give the cause?
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' 'Twas Parent Nature's self which gave command
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' Thus for the needs of earth should flow the Nile.
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' Vain too the fable that the western winds So, too, Herodotus, Book II., 20, who attributes this theory to Greeks who wish to get a reputation for cleverness.
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' Control his current, in continuous course
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' At stated seasons governing the air;
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' Or hurrying from Occident to South
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' Clouds without number which in misty folds
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' Press on the waters; or by constant blast,
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' Forcing his current back whose several mouths
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' Burst on the sea;-so, forced by seas and wind,
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'Men say, his billows pour upon the land.
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' Some speak of hollow caverns, breathing holes
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' Deep in the earth, within whose mighty jaws
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' Waters in noiseless current underneath
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' From northern cold to southern climes are drawn;
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'And when hot Meroe pants beneath the sun,
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' Then, say they, Ganges through the silent depths
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' And Padus pass: and from a single fount
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' The Nile arising not in single streams
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' Pours all the rivers forth. And rumour says
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' That when the sea which girdles in the worldSee on Book V., 712. Herodotus mentions this theory also, to dismiss it.
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' O'erflows, thence rushes Nile, by lengthy course,
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' Softening his saltness. More, if it be true
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' That ocean feeds the sun and heavenly fires,
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' Then Phoebus journeying by the burning Crab
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' Sucks from its waters more than air can hold
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' Upon his passage-this the cool of night
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' Pours on the Nile. If, Caesar, 'tis my part
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' To judge such difference, 'twould seem that since
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' Creation's age has passed, earth's veins by chance
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' Some waters hold, and shaken cast them forth:
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' But others took when first the globe was formed
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' A sure abode; by Him who framed the world
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' Fixed with the Universe. And, Roman, thou,
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' In thirsting thus to know the source of Nile,
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' Dost as the Pharian and Persian kings
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' And those of Macedon; nor any age
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' Refused the secret, but the place prevailed
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' Remote by nature. Greatest of the kings
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' By Memphis worshipped, Alexander grudged The historians state that Alexander made an expedition to the temple of Jupiter Hammon and consulted the oracle. Jupiter assisted his march, and an army of crows pointed out the path (Plutarch). It is, however, stated, in a note in Langhorne's edition, that Maximus Tyrius informs us that the object of the journey was the discovery of the sources of the Nile.
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' To Nile its mystery, and to furthest earth
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' Sent chosen Ethiops whom the crimson zone
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' Stayed in their further march, while flowed his stream
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' Warm at their feet. Sesostris Sesostris, the great king, does not appear to have pushed his conquests to the west of Europe. westward far
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' Reached, to the ends of earth; and necks of kings
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' Bent 'neath his chariot yoke: but of the springs
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' Which fill your rivers, Rhone and Po, he drank,
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'Not of the fount of Nile. Cambyses king
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'In madman quest led forth his host to where
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'The long-lived races dwell: then famine struck,
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'Ate of his dead See Herodotus, III., 17. These Ethiopian races were supposed to live to the age of 120 years, drinking milk, and eating boiled flesh. On Cambyses's march his starving troops cast lots by tens for the one man who was to be eaten. and, Nile unknown, returned.
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No lying rumour of thy hidden source
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'Has e'er made mention; wheresoe'er thou art
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'Yet art thou sought, nor yet has nation claimed
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'In pride of place thy river as its own.
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' Yet shall I tell, so far as has the god,
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' Who veils thy fountain, given me to know,
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'Thy progress. Daring to upraise thy banks
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''Gainst fiery Cancer's heat, thou tak'st thy rise
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'Beneath the zenith: straight towards the north
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'And mid Bootes flowing; to the couch
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'Bending, or to the risings, of the sun
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'In sinuous bends alternate; just alike
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'To Araby's peoples and to Libyan sands.
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'By Seres The Seres are, of course, the Chinese. The ancients seem to have thought that the Nile came from the east. But it is possible that there was another tribe of this name dwelling in Africa. first beheld, yet know they not
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Whence art thou come; and with no native stream
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Strik'st thou the Ethiop fields. Nor knows the world
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'To whom it owes thee. Nature ne'er revealed
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'Thy secret origin, removed afar.
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'Nor did she wish thee to be seen of men
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' While still a tiny rivulet, but preferred
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' Their wonder to their knowledge. Where the sun
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' Stays at his limit, dost thou rise in flood
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' Untimely; such thy right: to other lands
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' Bearing thy winter: and by both the poles
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' Thou only wanderest. Here men ask thy rise
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' And there thine ending. Meroe rich in soil
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'And tilled by swarthy husbandmen divides
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'Thy broad expanse, rejoicing in the leaves
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'Of groves of ebony, which though spreading far
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'Their branching foliage, by no breadth of shade
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'Soften the summer sun-whose rays direct
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'Pass from the Lion to the fervid earth.A passage of difficulty. I understand it to mean that at this spot the summer sun (in Leo) strikes the earth with direct rays.
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'Next dost thou journey onwards past the realm
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'Of burning Phoebus, and the sterile sands,
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'With equal volume; now with all thy strength
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'Gathered in one, and now in devious streams
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'Parting the bank that crumbles at thy touch.
10.1.tr
'Then by our kingdom's gates, where Philae parts
10.1.tr
'Arabian peoples from Egyptian fields
10.1.tr
' The sluggish bosom of thy flood recalls
10.1.tr
' Thy wandering currents, which through desert wastes
10.1.tr
' Flow gently on to where the merchant track
10.1.tr
' Divides the Red Sea waters from our own.
10.1.tr
' Who, gazing, Nile, upon thy tranquil flow,
10.1.tr
' Could picture how in wild array of foam
10.1.tr
' (Where shelves the earth) thy billows shall be plunged
10.1.tr
' Down the steep cataracts, in fuming wrath
10.1.tr
' That rocks should bar the passage of thy stream
10.1.tr
' Free from its source? For whirled on high the spray
10.1.tr
' Aims at the stars, and trembles all the air
10.1.tr
With rush of waters; and with sounding roar
10.1.tr
The foaming mass down from the summit pours
10.1.tr
In hoary waves victorious. Next an isle
10.1.tr
In all our ancient lore "untrodden" named
10.1.tr
Stems firm thy torrent; and the rocks we call
10.1.tr
Springs of the river, for that here are marked
10.1.tr
The earliest tokens of the coming flood.
10.1.tr
With mountain shores now nature hems thee in
10.1.tr
And shuts thy waves from Libya; in the midst
10.1.tr
Hence do thy waters run, till Memphis first
10.1.tr
Forbids the barrier placed upon thy stream
10.1.tr
And gives thee access to the open fields.'
10.1.tr
Thus did they pass, as though in peace profound,
10.1.tr
The nightly watches. But Pothinus' mind,
10.1.tr
Once with accursed butchery imbued,
10.1.tr
Was frenzied still; since great Pompeius fell
10.1.tr
No deed to him was crime; his rabid soul
10.1.tr
Th' avenging goddesses and Magnus' shade
10.1.tr
Stirred to fresh horrors; and a Pharian hand
10.1.tr
No less was worthy, as he deemed, to shed
10.1.tr
That blood which Fortune purposed should bedew
10.1.tr
The conquered fathers: and the fell revenge
10.1.tr
Due to the senate for the civil war
10.1.tr
This hireling almost snatched. Avert, ye fates,
10.1.tr
Far hence the shame that not by Brutus' hand
10.1.tr
This blow be struck! Shall thus the tyrant's fall,
10.1.tr
Just at our hands, become a Pharian crime.
10.1.tr
Reft of example? To prepare a plan
10.1.tr
(Fated to fail) he dares; nor veils in fraud
10.1.tr
A plot for murder, but with open war
10.1.tr
Attacks th' unconquered chieftain : from his crimes
10.1.tr
He gained such courage as to send command
10.1.tr
To lop the head of Caesar, and to join
10.1.tr
In death the kinsmen chiefs. These words by night
10.1.tr
His faithful servants to Achillas bear,
10.1.tr
His foul associate, whom the boy had made
10.1.tr
Chief of his armies, and who ruled alone
10.1.tr
O'er Egypt's land and o'er himself her king:
10.1.tr
' Now lay thy limbs upon the sumptuous couch
10.1.tr
' And sleep in luxury, for the Queen hath seized
10.1.tr
'The palace; nor alone by her betrayed,
10.1.tr
' But Caesar's gift, is Pharos. Dost delay
10.1.tr
' Nor hasten to the chamber of thy Queen?
10.1.tr
' Thou only? Married to the Latian chief,
10.1.tr
'The impious sister now her brother weds
10.1.tr
' And hurrying from rival spouse to spouse
10.1.tr
' Hath Egypt won, and plays the bawd for Rome.
10.1.tr
' By amorous potions she has won the man:
10.1.tr
' Then trust the boy! Yet give him but a night
10.1.tr
' In her enfondling arms, and drunk with love
10.1.tr
' Thy life and mine he'll barter for a kiss.
10.1.tr
' We for his sister's charms by cross and flame
10.1.tr
' Shall pay the penalty: nor hope of aid;
10.1.tr
' Here stands adulterous Caesar, here the King
10.1.tr
' Her spouse: how hope we from so stern a judge
10.1.tr
' To gain acquittal? Shall she not condemn
10.1.tr
'Those who ne'er sought her favours? By the deed
10.1.tr
We dared together and lost, by Magnus' blood
10.1.tr
' Which wrought the bond between us, be thou swift
10.1.tr
' With hasty tumult to arouse the war:
10.1.tr
' Dash in with nightly band, and mar with death
10.1.tr
' Their shameless nuptials: on the very bed
10.1.tr
With either lover smite the ruthless Queen.
10.1.tr
' Nor let the fortunes of the Western chief
10.1.tr
' Make pause our enterprise. We share with him
10.1.tr
' The glory of his empire o'er the world.
10.1.tr
' Pompeius fallen makes us too sublime,
10.1.tr
There lies the shore that bids us hope success:
10.1.tr
Ask of our power from the polluted wave,
10.1.tr
And gaze upon the scanty tomb which holds
10.1.tr
Not all Pompeius' ashes. Peer to him
10.1.tr
Was he whom now thou fearest. Noble blood,
10.1.tr
' True, is not ours: what boots it? Nor are realms
10.1.tr
' Nor wealth of peoples given to our command.
10.1.tr
'Yet have we risen to a height of power
10.1.tr
For deeds of blood, and Fortune to our hands
10.1.tr
Attracts her victims. Lo! a nobler now
10.1.tr
Lies in our compass, and a second death
10.1.tr
Hesperia shall appease; for Caesar's blood,
10.1.tr
Shed by these hands, shall give us this, that Rome
10.1.tr
Shall love us, guilty of Pompeius' fall.
10.1.tr
Why fear these titles, why this chieftain's strength?
10.1.tr
For shorn of these, before your swords he lies
10.1.tr
A common soldier. To the civil war
10.1.tr
This night shall bring completion, and shall give
10.1.tr
To peoples slain fit offerings, and send
10.1.tr
That life the world demands beneath the shades.
10.1.tr
Rise then in all your hardihood and smite
10.1.tr
This Caesar down, and let the Roman youths
10.1.tr
Strike for themselves, and Lagos for its King.
10.1.tr
No do thou tarry: full of wine and feast
10.1.tr
Thou'lt fall upon him in the lists of love;
10.1.tr
Then dare the venture, and the heavenly gods
10.1.tr
Shall grant of Cato's and of Brutus' prayers
10.1.tr
To thee fulfilment.'
10.1.tr
Nor was Achillas slow
10.1.tr
To hear the voice that counselled him to crime.
10.1.tr
No sounding clarion summoned, as is wont,
10.1.tr
His troops to arms; nor trumpet blare betrayed
10.1.tr
Their nightly march: but rapidly he seized
10.1.tr
All needed instruments of blood and war.
10.1.tr
Of Latian race the most part of his train,
10.1.tr
Yet to barbarian customs were their minds
10.1.tr
By long forgetfulness of Rome debased:
10.1.tr
Else had it shamed to serve the Pharian King;
10.1.tr
But now his vassal and his minion's word
10.1.tr
Compel obedience. Those who serve in camps
10.1.tr
Lose faith and love of kin: their pittance earnedReading 'ibi fas ubi proxima merces,' with Hosius and Francken.
10.1.tr
Makes just the deed: and for their sordid pay,
10.1.tr
Not for themselves, they threaten Caesar's life.
10.1.tr
Where finds the piteous destiny of the realm
10.1.tr
Rome with herself at peace? The host withdrawn
10.1.tr
From dread Thessalia raves on Nilus' banks
10.1.tr
As all the race of Rome. What more had dared,
10.1.tr
With Magnus welcomed, the Lagean house?
10.1.tr
Each hand must render to the gods their due,
10.1.tr
Nor son of Rome may cease from civil war;
10.1.tr
By Heaven's command our state was rent in twain;
10.1.tr
Nor love for husband nor regard for sire
10.1.tr
Parted our peoples. 'Twas a slave who stirred
10.1.tr
Afresh the conflict, and Achillas grasped
10.1.tr
In turn the sword of Rome: nay more, had won,
10.1.tr
Had not the fates adverse restrained his hand
10.1.tr
From Caesar's slaughter.
10.1.tr
For the murderous pair
10.1.tr
Ripe for their plot were met; the spacious hall
10.1.tr
Still busied with the feast. So might have flowed
10.1.tr
Into the kingly cups a stream of gore,
10.1.tr
And in mid banquet fallen Caesar's head.
10.1.tr
Yet did they fear lest in the nightly strife
10.1.tr
(The fates permitting) some incautious hand-
10.1.tr
So did they trust the sword-might slay the King.
10.1.tr
Thus stayed the deed, for in the minds of slaves
10.1.tr
The chance of doing Caesar to the death
10.1.tr
Might bear postponement: when the day arose
10.1.tr
Then should he suffer; and a night of life
10.1.tr
Thus by Pothinus was to Caesar given.
10.1.tr
Now from the Casian rock looked forth the Sun
10.1.tr
Flooding the land of Egypt with a day
10.1.tr
Warm from its earliest dawn, when from the walls
10.1.tr
Not wandering in disorder are they seen,
10.1.tr
But drawn in close array, as though to meet
10.1.tr
A foe opposing; ready to receive
10.1.tr
Or give the battle. Caesar, in the town
10.1.tr
Placing no trust, within the palace courts
10.1.tr
Lay in ignoble hiding place, the gates
10.1.tr
Close barred : nor all the kingly rooms possessed,
10.1.tr
But in the narrowest portion of the space
10.1.tr
He drew his band together. There in arms
10.1.tr
They stood, with dread and fury in their souls.
10.1.tr
He feared attack, indignant at his fear.
10.1.tr
Thus will a noble beast in little cage
10.1.tr
Imprisoned, fume, and break upon the bars
10.1.tr
His teeth in frenzied wrath; nor more would rage
10.1.tr
The flames of Vulcan in Sicilian depths
10.1.tr
Should Etna's top be closed. He who but now
10.1.tr
By Haemus' mount against Pompeius chief,
10.1.tr
Italia's leaders and the Senate line,
10.1.tr
His cause forbidding hope, looked at the fates
10.1.tr
He knew were hostile, with unfaltering gaze,
10.1.tr
Now fears before the crime of hireling slaves,
10.1.tr
And in mid palace trembles at the blow:
10.1.tr
He whom nor Scythian nor Alaun had dared
10.1.tr
To violate, nor the Moor who aims the dart
10.1.tr
Upon his victim slain, to prove his skill.
10.1.tr
The Roman world but now did not suffice
10.1.tr
To hold him, nor the realms from furthest Ind
10.1.tr
To Tyrian Gades. Now, as puny boy,
10.1.tr
Or woman, trembling when a town is sacked,
10.1.tr
Within the narrow corners of a house
10.1.tr
He seeks for safety; on the portals closed
10.1.tr
His hope of life: and with uncertain gait
10.1.tr
He treads the halls; yet not without the King;
10.1.tr
In purpose, Ptolemaeus, that thy life
10.1.tr
For his shall give atonement; and to hurl
10.1.tr
Thy severed head among the servant throng
10.1.tr
Should darts and torches fail. So story tells
10.1.tr
The Colchian princess Medea, who fled from Colchis with her brother, Absyrtus. Pursued by her father AEetes, she killed her brother and strewed the parts of his body into the sea. The king paused to collect them. with sword in hand,
10.1.tr
And with her brother's neck bared to the blow,
10.1.tr
Waited her sire, avenger of his realm
10.1.tr
Despoiled, and of her flight. In the imminent risk
10.1.tr
Caesar, in hopes of peace, an envoy sent
10.1.tr
To the fierce vassals, from their absent lord
10.1.tr
Bearing a message, thus : ' At whose command
10.1.tr
Wage ye the war?' But not the laws which bind
10.1.tr
All nations upon earth, nor sacred rights,
10.1.tr
Availed to save or messenger of peace,
10.1.tr
Or King's ambassador; or thee from crime
10.1.tr
Such as befitted thee, thou land of Nile
10.1.tr
Fruitful in monstrous deeds: not Juba's realm,
10.1.tr
Vast though it be, nor Pontus, nor the land
10.1.tr
Thessalian, nor the arms of Pharnaces,
10.1.tr
Nor yet the tracts which chill Iberus girds,
10.1.tr
Nor Libyan coasts such wickedness have dared,
10.1.tr
As thou, and all thy minions. Closer now
10.1.tr
War hemmed them in, and weapons in the courts,
10.1.tr
Shaking the innermost recesses, fell.
10.1.tr
Yet did no ram, fatal with single stroke,
10.1.tr
Assail the portal, nor machine of war;
10.1.tr
Nor flame they called in aid; but blind of plan
10.1.tr
They wander purposeless, in separate bands
10.1.tr
Around the circuit, nor at any spot
10.1.tr
With strength combined attempt to breach the wall.
10.1.tr
The fates forbad, and Fortune from their hands
10.1.tr
Held fast the palace as a battlement.
10.1.tr
Nor failed they to attack from ships of war
10.1.tr
The regal dwelling, where its frontage bold
10.1.tr
Made stand apart the waters of the deep :
10.1.tr
There, too, was Caesar's all-protecting arm;
10.1.tr
For these at point of sword, and those with fire
10.1.tr
He forces back, and though besieged he dares
10.1.tr
To storm th' assailants: and as lay the ships
10.1.tr
Joined rank to rank, bids drop upon their sides
10.1.tr
Lamps drenched with reeking tar. Nor slow the fire
10.1.tr
To seize the hempen cables and the decks
10.1.tr
Oozing with melting pitch; the oarsman's bench
10.1.tr
All in one moment, and the topmost yards
10.1.tr
Burst into flame: half merged the vessels lay
10.1.tr
While swam the foemen, all in arms, the wave;
10.1.tr
Nor fell the blaze upon the ships alone,
10.1.tr
But seized with writhing tongues the neighbouring homes,It was in this conflagration that a large part of the library of the Ptolemies was destroyed. 400,000 volumes are stated to have perished.
10.1.tr
And fanned to fury by the Southern breeze
10.1.tr
Tempestuous, it leaped from roof to roof;
10.1.tr
Not otherwise than on its heavenly track,
10.1.tr
Unfed by matter, glides the ball of light,
10.1.tr
By air alone aflame.
10.1.tr
This pest recalled
10.1.tr
Some of the forces to the city's aid
10.1.tr
From the besieged halls. Nor Caesar gave
10.1.tr
To sleep its season; swifter than all else
10.1.tr
To seize the crucial moment of the war.
10.1.tr
Quick in the darkest watches of the night
10.1.tr
He leaped upon his ships, and Pharos The island of Pharos, which lay over against the port of Alexandria, had been connected with the mainland in the middle by a narrow causeway. On it stood the lighthouse. (See Book IX., 1192.) Proteus, the old man of the sea, kept here his flock of seals, according to the Homeric story. ('Odyssey,' Book IV., 400.) seized,
10.1.tr
Gate of the main; an island in the days
10.1.tr
Of Proteus seer, now bordering the walls
10.1.tr
Of Alexander's city. Thus he gained
10.1.tr
A double vantage, for his foes were pent
10.1.tr
Within the narrow entrance, which for him
10.1.tr
And for his aids gave access to the sea.
10.1.tr
Nor longer was Pothinus' doom delayed,
10.1.tr
Yet not with cross or flame, nor with the wrath
10.1.tr
His crime demanded; nor by savage beasts
10.1.tr
Torn, did he suffer; but by Magnus' death,
10.1.tr
Alas the shame! he fell; his head by sword
10.1.tr
Hacked from his shoulders. Next by frauds prepared
10.1.tr
By Ganymede her base attendant, fled
10.1.tr
Arsinoe Younger sister of Cleopatra. from the Court to Caesar's foes;
10.1.tr
There in the absence of the King she ruled
10.1.tr
As of Lagean blood: there at her hands,
10.1.tr
The savage minion of the tyrant boy,
10.1.tr
Achillas, fell by just avenging sword.
10.1.tr
Thus did another victim to thy shade
10.1.tr
Atone, Pompeius; but the gods forbid
10.1.tr
That this be all thy vengeance! Not the King
10.1.tr
Nor all the stock of Lagos for thy death
10.1.tr
Would make fit sacrifice! So Fortune deemed;
10.1.tr
And not till patriot swords shall drink the blood
10.1.tr
Of Caesar, Magnus, shalt thou be appeased.
10.1.tr
Still, though was slain the author of the strife,
10.1.tr
Sank not their rage: with Ganymede for chief
10.1.tr
Again they rush to arms; in deeds of fight
10.1.tr
Again they conquer. So might that one day
10.1.tr
Have witnessed Caesar's fate; so might its fame
10.1.tr
Have lived through ages.
10.1.tr
As the Roman Chief,
10.1.tr
Crushed on the narrow surface of the mole,
10.1.tr
Prepared to throw his troops upon the ships,
10.1.tr
Sudden upon him the surrounding foes
10.1.tr
With all their terrors came. In dense array
10.1.tr
Their navy lined the shores, while on the rear
10.1.tr
The footmen ceaseless charged. No hope was left,
10.1.tr
For flight was not, nor could the brave man's arm
10.1.tr
Achieve or safety or a glorious death.
10.1.tr
Not now were needed for great Caesar's fall,
10.1.tr
Caught in the toils of nature, routed host
10.1.tr
Or mighty heaps of slain: his only doubt
10.1.tr
To fear or hope for death: while on his brain
10.1.tr
Brave Scaeva's image flashed, now vainly sought,
10.1.tr
Who on the wall by Epidamnus' fields
10.1.tr
Earned fame immortal, and with single arm
10.1.tr
Drove back Pompeius as he trod the breach.