Lucan, Civil War Book 5 Translated by H. T. Riley (1853) Formatted and by C. Chinn (2008) THUS did Fortune reserve the two generals who had suffered the alternate wounds of warfare for the land of the Macedonians, mingling adversity with prosperity. Now had the winter sprinkled the snows on Haemus, and the daughter of Atlas who sets in the cold Olympus; 5 the day, too, was at hand which gives a new name to the Calendar, and which is the first to worship Janus, who introduces the seasons. But while the latter part still remained of their expiring sway, each Consul invited the Senators dispersed amid the duties of the warfare to Epirus. A foreign and a lowly retreat received 10 the Roman nobles, and a foreign senate under a distant roof heard the secrets of the state. For who could call so many axes wielded by the laws, so many fasces, a camp? The venerable order taught the people that it was not the party of Magnus, but that Magnus was their partisan. 15 When first silence pervaded the sorrowing assembly, Lentulus from a lofty seat thus spoke: "If strength exists in your minds worthy of the Latian spirit, if of your ancient blood, consider not in what land you are banished, and how far we are located from the abodes of the captured City; 20 but think of the aspect of your own assembly; and, able to command everything, first, Senators, decree this, which to realms and to nations is manifest, that we are the Senate. For whether Fortune shall lead us beneath the icy Wain of the Hyperborean Bear, or where the burning region and the clime 25 shut up in vapors permits not the nights nor yet the days, unequal, to increase, the dominion of the world will attend us, and empire as our attendant. When the Tarpeian seat was consumed by the torches of the Gauls, and when Camillus was dwelling at Veii, there was Rome. Never by change of place 30 has our order lost its rights. Sorrowing abodes does Caesar possess, and deserted houses, and silenced laws, and judgment seats shut up in sad cessation from the law. That Senate-house beholds those Senators alone, whom from the full City it banished. Whoever was not expelled by us from an order so mighty, is here. 35 Unacquainted with crimes, and at rest during a lengthened peace, the first fury of warfare dispersed us; once again do all the members of the state return to their place. Behold! with all the might of the world do the Gods above recompense us for Hesperia lost; the enemy lies overwhelmed in the Illyrian waves; in the loathsome fields of Libya, 40 Curio, a large portion of Caesar's Senate, has fallen. Generals, raise your standards; urge on the course of fate; entrust to the Gods your hopes, and let fortune give us courage as great, as the cause gave when you fled from the foe. Our rule is closing with the finished year; 45 you, whose power is destined to experience no limit, Senators, consult for the common welfare, and bid Magnus be your leader." With joyous applause the Senate received the name, and entrusted to Magnus his own and his country's fate. Then honors were distributed among kings and nations that 50 deserved them; both Rhodes sacred to Phoebus and powerful by sea, was decorated with gifts, and the unpolished youth of cold Taygetus. In fame is ancient Athens praised, and for her own Massilia is Phocis presented with freedom from tribute. Then do they extol Sadales, and brave Cotys, and Deiotarus 55 faithful in arms, and Rhasipolis, the ruler of a frozen region; and, the Senate decreeing it, they bid Libya pay obedience to the sceptre-bearing Juba. Alas, sad destinies! behold! Ptolemy, to thee, most worthy of the sway of a faithless race, the shame of Fortune and the disgrace of the Gods, 60 it is permitted to bind thy pressed locks with the Pellaean diadem. A remorseless sword, O boy, dost thou receive over thy people; and would it were over thy people alone! The palace of Lagus has been given; to this the life of Magnus is added; and by this a realm has been snatched away from a sister, and crime from a father-in-law. Now, the assembly broken up, 65 the multitude takes up arms. When the people and the chieftains were resorting to these with uncertain chances, and with indiscriminate allotment, alone did Appius fear to embark upon the doubtful events of the warfare; and he entreated the Gods of heaven to unfold the destiny of events, and opened again the Delphic shrine of 70 fate-foretelling Phoebus, that had been closed for many a year. Just as far removed from the western as from the eastern clime, Parnassus with its twofold summit reaches to the skies, a mountain sacred to Phoebus and to Bromius; on which, the Deities united, the Theban Bacchanals celebrate the triennial Delphic festival. 75 This peak alone, when the deluge covered the earth, rose aloft, and was the mid division of the sea and the stars. Thou even, Parnassus, raised above the sea, didst scarcely lift the top of thy rocks, and as to one ridge thou didst lie concealed. There, when her offspring extended her womb, did Paean, the avenger 80 of his persecuted mother, lay Python prostrate, with his darts till then unused, when Themis was occupying the sway and the tripods. When Paean beheld that the vast chasms of the earth breathed forth divine truths, and that the ground exhaled prophetic winds, he enshrined himself in the sacred caves, and there, 85 become prophetic, did Apollo abide in the inmost shrines. Which of the Gods of heaven lies here concealed? What Deity, descended from the skies, deigns, enclosed, to inhabit the darkened caverns? What God of heaven puts up with the earth, preserving all the secrets of the eternal course of fate, and conscious of the future 90 events of the world, and ready, himself, to disclose them to nations, and enduring the contact of mortals, both mighty and powerful, whether it is that he prophesies destiny, or whether it is that that becomes destiny which by prophesying he commands? Perhaps a large portion of the entire Jove, pervading the earth by him to be swayed, 95 which sustains the globe poised in the empty air, passes forth through the Cirrhaean caves, and is attracted, in unison with the aethereal Thunderer. When this divine inspiration has been conceived in the virgin's breast, coming in contact with the human spirit, it re-echoes, and opens the mouth of the prophetess, just as the Sicilian peaks undulate when the flames 100 press upon Aetna; or as Typhoeus, buried beneath the everlasting mass of Inarime, roaring aloud, heats the Campanian rocks. This Deity, however, made manifest to all and denied to none, alone denies himself to the pollution of human criminality. Not there in silent whispers do they conceive impious 105 wishes. For, prophesying what is destined and to be altered for no one, he forbids mortals to wish, and, benignant to the just, full oft has he assigned an abode to those quitting entire cities, as to the Tyrians; he has granted to drive back the threats of war, as the sea of Salamis remembers; he has removed the wrath 110 of the earth when barren, the end of it being shown; he has cleared the air when generating pestilence. Our age is deprived of no greater blessing of the Deities, than that the Delphic seat has become silent, since monarchs have dreaded events to come, and have forbidden the Gods of heaven to speak. Nor yet, a voice denied 115 them, do the Cirrhaean prophetesses mourn; and they have the benefit of the cessation of the Temple's rites. For if the God enters any breast, a premature death is either the punishment of the Deity being received, or the reward; inasmuch as under the vehemence and the fitfulness of the frenzy the human frame sinks, and the impulses 120 of the Gods shake the frail spirit. Thus does Appius, an enquirer into the remotest secrets of the Hesperian destiny, make application to the tripods for a length of time unmoved, and the silence of the vast rocks. The priest, requested to open the dreaded seats, and to admit to the Gods a trembling prophetess, 125 seizes Phemonoë, roving amid her wanderings around the streams of Castalia and the recesses of the groves, and compels her to burst open the doors of the Temple. The maid inspired by Phoebus, dreading to stand within the awful threshold, by a vain stratagem attempts to wean the chieftain from his 130 ardent longing to know the future. "Why, Roman," says she, "does an unbecoming hope of hearing the truth attract thee? Its chasms dumb, Parnassus holds its peace, and has silenced the God; whether it is that the spirit has forsaken these yawning clefts, and has turned its changed course towards the far regions of the world; or whether, when Python was 135 consumed by the barbarian torch, the ashes entered the immense caverns, and obstructed the passage for Phoebus; or whether, by the will of the Gods, Cirrha is silent, and it is sufficient that the secrets of future fate have been entrusted to yourselves in the lines of the aged Sibyl; or whether Paean, wont to drive the guilty from his temples, 140 finds not in our age mouths by which to disclose the Fates." The deceit of the maiden is manifest, and, the Deities being denied, her very fear imparts confidence. Then does the wreathed fillet bind her locks in front, and, her hair streaming down her back a white head-dress encircles with Phocaean laurel. 145 The priest, urging on the delaying priestess, forced her into the temple. She, dreading the fate-foretelling recess of the deep-seated shrine, in the first part of the Temple comes to a stop, and, feigning the inspiration of the God, utters from her breast, undisturbed beneath, fictitious words, testifying a spirit moved 150 by no divine frenzy with no murmurs of a hurried voice, and not so much about to injure the chieftain to whom she is prophesying falsely, as the tripods and the credit of Phoebus. Her words broken with no trembling sound, her voice not sufficing to fill the space of the capacious cavern, the laurels shaken off, with no standing 155 of her hair on end, and the summits of the Temple without vibration, the grove, too, unshaken, all these betrayed that she dreaded to yield herself to Phoebus. Appius beheld the tripods unoccupied, and raging, exclaimed: "Impious woman, thou shalt both pay the deserved penalty to me and to the Gods of heaven, whom thou art feigning as inspiring thee, unless thou 160 art hidden in the caverns, and, consulted upon the tumults so vast of the trembling world, dost cease, thyself, to speak." At length, the affrighted maiden flies for refuge to the tripods, and, led away within the vast caverns, there remains, and receives the Deity in her unaccustomed breast; who pours forth the spirit of the rock, now for so many ages 165 unexhausted, into the prophetess; and at length having gained the Cirrhaean breast, never more fully did Paean enter into the limbs of female inspired by him; and he banishes her former mind, and throughout her whole breast bids the mortal give way to himself. Frantic, she rages throughout the cave, bearing her 170 neck possessed, and, shaking from her upright hair both the fillets of the God and the garlands of Phoebus, through the empty space of the Temple she whirls round with her neck shaking to and fro, and throws prostrate the tripods that stand in her way as she roams along, and boils with mighty flames, enduring thee, Phoebus, raging with wrath. Nor dost thou employ 175 the lash alone and goads, flames, too, dost thou bury in her entrails; and the bridle she submits to; nor is it permitted the prophetess to disclose as much as to know. All time comes in a single mass; and ages so many press upon her afflicted breast. Such a vast chain of events is disclosed, and all the future struggles 180 for the light of day; and fates are striving that demand utterance: not the first day, not the last of the world; not the laws of ocean, not the number of the sands, is wanting. Such did the Cumaean prophetess, in the Euboean retreat, indignant that her frenzy should be at the service of many 185 nations, cull with proud hand the Roman from the heap of destinies so vast. Thus does Phemonoë, filled with Phoebus, struggle, while thee, O Appius, consulter of the Deity hidden in the Castalian land, with difficulty she discovers, long amid fates so mighty seeking thee concealed. 190 Then, first the foaming frenzy flows forth about her maddened lips, and groans and loud murmurs from her gasping mouth; then are there mournful yells in the vast caverns, and at last voices resound, the maiden now overcome: "O Roman, thou dost escape from the vast threatenings 195 of war, free from dangers so great; and alone shalt thou take thy rest in the wide valley of the Euboean quarter.'' The rest Apollo suppresses, and stops her speech. Ye tripods, guardians of the Fates, and ye secrets of the world, and thou, Paean, powerful in the truth, uninformed by the Gods 200 of heaven of no day of the future, why dost thou hesitate to reveal the latest moments of the falling state, and the slaughtered chieftains, and the deaths of potentates, and nations so numerous falling amid Hesperian bloodshed? Is it that the Deities have not yet decreed mischief so great, and are destinies so numerous withheld, 205 while the stars yet hesitate to doom the head of Pompey? Or art thou silent upon the crimes of the avenging sword, and the penalties of civic frenzy and tyrannies falling to the avenging Bruti once again, that Fortune may fulfil her aim? Then, smitten by the breast of the prophetess the doors open, and, hurried on, she leaps forth 210 from the Temple. Her frantic fit still lasts; and the God whom as yet she has not expelled still remains in her not having said the whole. She still rolls her fierce eyes, and her looks wandering over the whole sky, now with timid, now stern with threatening, features; a fiery blush tints her face and her livid cheeks, 215 and a paleness exists, not that which is wont to be in one who fears, but inspiring fear. Nor does her wearied heart find rest; but, as the swelling sea after the hoarse blasts of Boreas moans, so do silent sighs relieve the prophetess. And while from the sacred light by which she has beheld the Fates she is being 220 brought back to the sunbeams of ordinary day, shades, intervening, come on. Paean sends Stygian Lethe into her entrails, to snatch from her the secrets of the Gods. Then from her breast flies the truth, and the future returns to the tripods of Phoebus, and, hardly come to herself, she falls to the, ground. Nor yet, Appius, 225 does the nearness of death alarm thee, deceived by ambiguous responses; but, the sway of the world being matter of uncertainty, hurried on by vain hopes thou dost prepare to found the kingdom of Euboean Chalcis. Alas, madman! what one of the Gods, Death excepted, can possibly grant for thee to be sensible of no crash of warfare, to be exempt from the woes 230 so numerous of the world? The secret recesses of the Euboean shore thou shalt possess, buried in a memorable tomb, where rocky Carystos straitens the outlets of the sea, and where Rhamnus worships the Deity hostile to the proud; where the sea boils, enclosed in its rapid tide, 235 and the Euripus hurries along, with waves that change their course, the ships of Chalcis to Aulis, hostile to fleets. In the meantime, the Iberians subdued, Caesar returned, about to carry his eagles into another region; when almost did the Gods turn aside the course so mighty of fate amid 240 his prosperity. For, in no warfare subdued, within the tents of his camp did the chieftain fear to lose the profit of his excesses; when almost, the bands, faithful throughout so many wars, satiated with blood, at last forsook their leader: whether it was that the trumpet-call 245 ceasing for a time from its melancholy sound, and the sword sheathed and cold, had expelled the mania for war; or whether, while the soldier looked for greater rewards, he condemned both the cause and the leader, and even then held on sale his sword stained with crime. Not in any danger was Caesar more tried, as now, not from 250 a firm height, but from a trembling one, he looked down on everything, and stood propped up upon a stumbling spot; deprived of hands so many, and left almost to his own sword, he who dragged so many nations to war, was sensible that it is the sword not of the general, but of the soldier, that is unsheathed. 255 There was now no timid murmuring, nor yet anger concealed in the secret breast; for the cause which is wont to check doubting minds, while each is afraid of those to whom he is a cause of fear, and thinks that the injustice of tyranny oppresses himself alone, does not withhold them; inasmuch as the daring multitude itself has laid all 260 its fears aside. Whatever offence is committed by many goes unpunished. Thus they pour forth their threats: "Let it be permitted us, Caesar, to depart from the frantic career of crime. By land and by sea thou dost seek a sword for these throats, and our lives, held so cheap, thou art ready to throw away upon any foe. Gaul has snatched 265 from thee a part of us; Spain, with her severe wars, a part; a part lies in Hesperia; and the whole world over, thee being the conqueror, does the army perish. What profits it to have poured forth our blood in the northern regions, the Rhone and the Rhine subdued? In return for so many woes to me thou hast given civil war. 270 When, the Senate expelled, we captured the abodes of our country, which of mortals or which of the Gods was it allowed us to spoil? Guilty with hands and weapons we incur every crime, pious, however, in our poverty. What limit is sought for our arms? What is enough, if Rome is too little? Now look upon our hoary 275 locks and our weak hands, and behold our feeble arms. The prime of our life is past, our years we have consumed in wars; dismiss us, aged men, to die. Behold our unreasonable request! to allow us not to lay our dying limbs upon the hard turf; not with our breath as it flies to beat against the clod, 280 and to seek in death the right hand that shall close our eyes; to sink amid the tears of our wives, and to know that a pile is prepared for each. May it be allowed us by disease to end our old age. Besides the sword let there be under Caesar's rule some other death. Why by hopes dost thou draw us on, as though ignorant for what monstrous 285 crimes we are being trained? As though, indeed, we alone are not aware, amid civil war, of which treason the reward is the greatest? Nothing has been effected by the wars, if he has not yet discovered that these hands are capable of doing everything. Nor do right or the bonds of law forbid us to attempt this. Amid the waves of the Rhine Caesar 290 was my chieftain, here he is my comrade. Those whom criminality defiles, it renders equal. Add that, under a thankless estimator of our deserts, our valor is lost; whatever we do is entitled 'fortune.' Let him be aware that we are his destiny. Though thou shouldst hope for every favour of the Gods, the soldiers enraged, Caesar, 295 there will be peace." Thus having said, they began to rush to and fro throughout all the camp, and with hostile looks to demand the chief. Thus may it be, O Gods of heaven! when duty and fidelity forsake us, and it is left to place our hopes in evil ways, let discord make an end in civil war. 300 What chieftain could not that tumult alarm? But Caesar comes, accustomed headlong to meet the Fates, and rejoicing to exercise his fortunes amid extreme dangers; nor does he wait until their rage may abate: he hastens to tempt their fury in full career. 305 Not to them would he have denied cities and temples to be spoiled, and the Tarpeian abode of Jove, and the matrons of the Senate, and brides doomed to suffer disgraceful indignities. He wishes indeed for everything to be asked of him; he wishes the rewards of warfare to be courted; only the recovered senses of the disobedient soldiery are feared. 310 Alas! Caesar, art thou not ashamed for wars now to prove pleasing to thyself alone that have been condemned by thy own bands? Shall these be weary first of bloodshed? Shall the law of the sword prove burdensome to them? Wilt thou thyself rush through all right and wrong? Be tired at last, and learn to be able to endure existence without arms; let it be possible for thee to put an 315 end to criminality. Barbarous man, why dost thou press on? Why now dost thou urge on the unwilling? Civil war is flying from thee. On a mound of turf built up he stood, intrepid in countenance, and not alarmed, deserved to be feared; and, anger dictating, thus he spoke: "Him, against whom, when absent, soldiers, just now with countenance 320 and right hands you were raging, you have, with breast bared and exposed to wounds. Fly, if an end of the warfare pleases you, your swords left here. Sedition, that dares nothing bravely, proves faint hearts, and youths that meditate flight alone, and wearied with the prospering successes of their unconquered general. 325 Go, and leave me, with my own destinies, to the warfare; these weapons will find hands, and, yourselves rejected, Fortune will give in return heroes as many as the weapons that shall be unemployed. Do the nations of Hesperia attend the flight of Magnus with a fleet so great, and shall victory give us no attending 330 multitude, to bear off the rewards of the shortened warfare, only receiving the concluding stroke, and, the price of your labors snatched away, to attend with no wound the laurel-bearing chariot? You, aged men, a crowd neglected and destitute of blood, then the commonalty of Rome, shall behold my triumphs. 335 Do you suppose that the career of Caesar can possibly feel ill results from your flight? Just as, though all the rivers should threaten to withdraw the streams which they mingle with the deep, the sea would never decrease the more, its waters diminished, than now it swells. Do you suppose that you have imparted 340 any weight to me? Never does the care of the Gods thus lower itself, that the Fates should have leisure to attend to your death and your safety. On the movements of the great do all these things attend. Through a few does the human race exist. Soldiers, beneath my fame the terror of the Iberian and of the native of the north, certainly, 345 Pompey your leader, you would have fled. Amid the arms of Caesar Labienus was brave; now, a worthless runaway, with the chief whom he has preferred he wanders over land and sea. Nor more pleasing to me will be your fidelity, if, myself neither your foe nor your leader, you do not carry on the war. Whoever deserts my 350 standards, and does not deliver up his arms to Pompey's party, he never wishes to be on my side. Undoubtedly this camp is a care to the Gods, who have been desirous only to entrust me to wars so mighty upon a change of my soldiers. Alas! how vast a weight does Fortune now remove from my shoulders, 355 wearied with the burden! It is granted me to disarm right hands that hope for everything, for which this earth does not suffice. Now at least, for myself will I wage the war; depart from the camp, base Quirites, deliver up my standards to men. But the few, in whom as the prompters this madness has raged, 360 not Caesar, but retribution, detains here. Fall down upon the earth, and extend your faithless heads and your necks to suffer the stroke; and you, raw recruits, by whose strength alone my camp shall henceforth stand, be witnesses of the punishment, and learn how to strike, learn how to die." The motionless throng trembled beneath his stern voice 365 as he threatened; and of one person did a force so great, able to make him a private man, stand in awe; as though he could command the swords themselves, able to wield the weapons in spite of soldiers. Caesar himself is apprehensive lest weapons and right hands may be denied him for this dreadful deed; their endurance surpasses the hopes 370 of their stern leader, and affords throats, not swords alone. Nothing does be fear more than to lose spirits inured to crime, and that they should be lost; with ratification so dire of the treaty is peace obtained, and, appeased by punishment, the youths return to their duty. This force, after ten encampments, he orders to reach Brundisium, 375 and to call in all the shipping, which the winding Hydrus, and the ancient Taras, and the secret shores of Leuca, which the Salapian fens receive, and the Sipus, situate below the mountains; where the fruitful Garganus from Apulia, winding through the Ausonian land, enters into the Adriatic waves, 380 opposed to the Dalmatian Boreas and the southern breeze of Calabria. In safety, without his soldiers, he himself repairs to trembling Rome, now taught to obey the requirements of peace; and, indulgent to the entreating people, forsooth, as Dictator he attains the highest honor, and, himself Consul, renders joyous the annals. 385 For all the expressions by means of which now for long we have lied to our rulers this age was the first to invent. That in no way any legality in wielding weapons might be wanting to him, Caesar was desirous to unite the Ausonian axes with his swords. He added the fasces, too, to the eagles; and, seizing 390 the empty name of authority, stamped the sad times with a worthy mark. For by what Consul will the Pharsalian year be better known? The Field of Mars feigns the solemnity, and divides the suffrages of the commonalty not admitted, and cites the tribes, and to no purpose turns the votes into the urn. 395 Nor is it allowed to prognosticate from the heavens; the augur remaining deaf, it thunders, and the birds are sworn to be propitious, the ill-omened owl presenting itself. From that time first fell a power once venerated, stripped of its rights; only, lest time should be wanting an appellation, the Consul of the month distinguishes the ages in the annals. 400 Besides, the Divinity who presides at Ilian Alba, not deservedly, Latium subdued, still beholds the solemn rites, the Latin sacrifices performed in the flaming night. Then he hurries on his course, and speeds across the fields which the inactive Apulian has deserted with his harrows, and has yielded up to slothful 405 grass, quicker than both the flames of heaven and the pregnant tigress; and, arriving at the Minoïan abodes of the winding Brundisium he finds the waves pent up by the winds of winter, and the fleets alarmed by the wintry Constellation. Base does it seem to the chieftain for the moments for hurrying 410 on the war to pass in slow delay, and to be kept in harbor while the sea is open in safety, even to those who are unsuccessful. Spirits unacquainted with the sea thus does he fill with courage: "More constantly do the wintry blasts possess the heavens and the main, when they have once begun, than those which the perfidious inconstancy 415 of the cloudy spring forbids to prevail with certainty. No windings are there of the sea, and no shores are there to be surveyed by us, but straight onward are the waves to be cleaved, and by the aid of the north wind alone. O that he would bend the head of our topmost mast, and press on in his fury, and waft us to the Grecian walls, 420 lest the partisans of Pompey should come with impelled oars from all the shore of the Phaeacians upon our languid sails; sever the cables which retain our conquering prows; already are we losing the clouds and the raging waves." The first stars of the sky, Phoebus concealing himself beneath the 425 waves, had come forth, and the moon had now spread her shadows, when they both unmoored the ships, and the ropes unfurled the full sails; and the sailor, the end of the yard being bent by the rope towards the left, slants the canvass to catch the wind, and expanding the loftiest top-sail, catches the gales that might die away. 430 When first a slight breeze has begun to move the sails, and they swell a little, soon, returning to the mast, they fall into the midst of the ship; and, the land left behind, the wind itself is not able to accompany the vessels which has brought them out. The sea lies becalmed, bound by a heavy torpor. 435 More sluggish do the waves stand than unmoved swamps. So stands the motionless Bosporus that binds the Scythian waves, when, the ice preventing, the Danube does not impel the deep, and the boundless sea is covered with ice; whatever ships they have overtaken the waves keep fast; and the horseman breaks through 440 the waters not pervious to sails, and the wheel of the migrating Bessan cleaves the Maeeotis, resounding with its waves lying concealed. Fearful is the calm of the sea, and sluggish are the stagnant pools of becalmed water on the dismal deep; as though deserted by stiffened nature the seas are still, and the ocean, forgetful to observe its 445 ancient laws, moves not with its tides, nor shudders with a ripple, nor dances beneath the reflection of the sun. Detained, to dangers innumerable were the barks exposed. On the one side were fleets hostile and ready to move the sluggish waves with their oars; on the other was famine threatening to come on them blockaded by 450 the calm on the deep. Unwonted vows were found for unwonted fears, both to pray for the billows and the exceeding might of the winds, so long as the waves should release themselves from their torpid stagnation, and there should be a sea. Clouds and indications of waves are there nowhere; the sky and the sea languid, 455 all hope of shipwreck departs. But, the night dispersed, the day sends forth its beams obscured by clouds, and by degrees arouses the depths of the ocean, and for the mariners sets Ceraunia in Motion. Then do the ships begin to be borne along, and the furrowed waves to follow the fleet, which now moving on with fair wind 460 and tide, pierces with its anchors the sands of Palaeste. The region was the first to see the generals pitch their adjoining camps, which the swift Genususand which the more gentle Apsus, surround with their banks. The cause for the Apsus being able to carry ships is a fen, which, deceiving by its water slowly flowing, it empties. 465 But the Genusus, snows, now dissolved by the sun, and now dissolved by showers, render of headlong course; neither wearies itself by a long course, but, the sea-shore being near, is acquainted with but very little land. In this spot did Fortune bring together two names of a fame so great, and the hopes of the wretched world were deceived, that the 470 chieftains might possibly, when separated by the trifling distance of a plain, condemn the criminality now brought home. For they have the opportunity to see their countenances and to hear their voices; and for many a year, Magnus, not personally did thy father-in-law, beloved by thee, after pledges so great of blood, the birth and the death of a luckless grandson, 475 behold thee, except upon the sands of the Nile. A part of his forces left behind compelled the mind of Caesar, aroused for mingling in the conflict, to submit to delay in crime. Antony was the leader, daring in all warfare, even then, in civil war, training for Leucas. Him delaying 480 full oft by threats and by entreaties does Caesar summon forth: "O cause of woes so mighty to the world, why dost thou retard the Gods of heaven and the Fates? The rest has been effected by my speed; Fortune demands thee as the finishing hand to the successes of the hastened warfare. Does Libya, sundered 485 with her shoaly quicksands, divide us with uncertain tides? Have I in any way entrusted thy arms to an untried deep, and art thou dragged into dangers unknown? Sluggard, Caesar commands thee to come, not to go. I myself, the first, amid the foe touched upon sands in the midst of them, and under the sway of others. 490 Dost thou fear my camp? I lament that the hours of fate are wasting; upon the winds and the waves do I expend my prayers. Keep not those back who desire to go on the shifting deep; if I judge aright, the youths would be willing, by shipwreck even to repair to the arms of Caesar. Now must I employ the language of grief; 495 not on equal terms have we divided the world. Caesar and the whole Senate occupy Epirus; thou alone dost possess Ausonia." After he sees that he, summoned three or four times in this language, is still delaying, as he believes that it is he himself who is wanting to the Gods, and not the Deities 500 to him, of his accord amid the unsafe shades of night he dares to try the sea, which they, commanded, stand in fear of, having experienced that venturous deeds have prospered under a favoring Divinity; and waves, worthy to be feared by fleets, he hopes to pass over in a little bark. Night with its languor had now relaxed the wearied care of arms; 505 rest was obtained for the wretched, into whose breasts by sleep a more humble lot inspires strength. Now was the camp silent; now had its third hour brought on the second watch; Caesar with anxious step amid the vast silence attempted things hardly by his servants to be dared; and, all left behind, Fortune alone 510 pleased him as his companion. After he had gone through the tents, he passed over the bodies of the sentinels which had yielded to sleep, silently complaining that he was able to elude them. He, passed along the winding shore, and at the brink of the waves found a bark attached by a cable to the rocks eaten away. 515 Not far from thence a house, free from all cares, propped up with no stout timbers, but woven with barren rushes and the reeds of the marsh, and covered on its exposed side with a boat turned bottom upwards, sheltered the pilot and the owner of the bark. Caesar twice or thrice knocked with his hand at this threshold, 520 that shook the roof. Amyclas arose from the soft couch, which the sea-weed afforded. "What shipwrecked person, I wonder," said he, "repairs to my abode? Or whom has Fortune compelled to hope for the aid of our cottage?" Thus having said, the tow now raised from the dense heap of warm ashes, 525 he nourished the small spark into kindled flames; free from care of the warfare, he knew that in civil strife cottages are no prey. O safe the lot of a poor man's life, and his humble home! O gifts of the Deities not yet understood! What temples or what cities could 530 this befall, to be alarmed with no tumult, the hand of Caesar knocking? Then, the door being opened, the chieftain says: "Look for what is greater than thy moderate wishes, and give scope to thy hopes, O youth. If, obeying my commands, thou dost carry me to Hesperia, no more wilt thou be owing 535 everything to thy bark, and by thy hands dragging on a needy old age. Hesitate not to entrust thy fate to the God who wishes to fill thy humble abode with sudden wealth." Thus he says, unable to be taught to speak as a private man, though clad in a plebeian garb. Then says the poor Amyclas, 540 "Many things indeed forbid me to trust the deep to-night. For the sun did not take down into the seas ruddy clouds, and rays of one hue; one portion of Phoebus invited the southern gales, another, with divided light, the northern. Dimmed, too, and languid in the middle of his orb, he set, 545 not dazzling the eyes that looked on him, with his weakly light. The moon, also, did not rise, shining with slender horn, or hollowed with clear cavities in her mid orb; nor did she describe tapering points on her straitened horn, and with the signs of wind she was red; besides, pallid, she bears 550 a livid aspect, sad with her face about to sink beneath the clouds. But neither does the waving of the woods, nor the lashings of the sea-shore, nor the fitful dolphin, that challenges the waves, please me; nor yet that the sea-gull loves the dry land; the fact, too, that the heron ventures to fly aloft, trusting to its hovering wing; and that, 555 sprinkling, its head with the waves, as though it would forestall the rain, the crow paces the sea-shore with infirm step. But if the weight of great events demands, I would not hesitate to lend my aid. Either I will touch the commanded shore, or, on the other hand, the seas and the winds shall deny it." 560 Thus having said and unmooring his craft, he spreads the canvas to the winds; at the motion of which, not only meteors gliding along the lofty air, as they fall, describe tracks in all quarters of the heavens; but even the stars which are held fixed in the loftiest skies, appear to shake. A dusky swell pervades 565 the surface of the sea; with many a heaving along their lengthened track the threatening waves boil up, uncertain as to the impending blasts; the swelling seas betoken the winds conceived says the master of the quivering bark: "Behold, how vast dangers the raging sea is preparing. Whether it presages the Zephyrs, or whether the east 570 winds, it is uncertain. On every side the fitful waves are beating against the bark. In the clouds and in the heavens are the southern blasts; if we go by the murmurs of the sea, Corus is skimming along the deep. In a storm thus mighty neither will bark nor shipwrecked person reach the Hesperian shores. To despair of making our way, and to turn from the forbidden course, 575 is our only safety. Let it be allowed me to make for shore with the tossed bark, lest the nearest land should be too distant." Caesar, confident that all dangers will give way for him, says, "Despise the threats of the deep, and spread sail to the raging winds. If, heaven prompting thee, thou dost decline Italy, myself thy prompter, 580 seek it. This alone is thy reasonable cause for fear, not to have known thy freight; one whom the Deities never forsake; of whom Fortune deserves badly then, when after his wishes expressed she comes. Secure in my protection, burst through the midst of the storms. This is the labor of the heavens 585 and of the sea, not of our bark; that, trod by Caesar, the freight will protect from the waves. Nor will long duration be granted to the raging fury of the winds; this same bark will advantage the waves. Turn not thy hands; avoid, with thy sails, the neighboring shores; believe that then thou hast gained the Calabrian port, 590 when no other land can be granted to the ship and to our safety. Art thou ignorant what, amid a tempest so great, is preparing? Amid the tumult of the sea and sky, Fortune is enquiring how she shall favor me." No more having said, a furious whirlwind, the stern being struck, tears away the 595 shrouds rent asunder, and brings the flapping sails upon the frail mast; the joints overstrained, the vessel groans. Then rush on perils gathered together from the whole universe. First, moving the tides, Corus, thou dost raise thy head from the Atlantic Ocean; now, as thou dost lift it, the sea rages, 600 and uplifts all its billows upon the rocks. The cold Boreas meets it, and beats back the ocean, and doubtful stands the deep, undecided which wind to obey. But the rage of the Scythian north wind conquers and hurls aloft the waves, and makes shallows of the sands entirely concealed. 605 And Boreas does not carry the waves on to the rocks, and he dashes his own seas against the billows of Corus; and the aroused waves, even with the winds lulled, are able to meet in conflict. I would surmise that the threats of Eurus were not withheld, and that the winds of the South, black with showers, did not lie beneath the dungeons 610 of the Aeolian rocks; that all, rushing from their wonted quarters, with, violent whirlwinds defended their own regions, and that thus the ocean remained in its place. No small seas do they speak of as having been carried along by the gales; the Tyrrhenian runs into Aegean waves; the wandering Adriatic echoes in the Ionian sea. 615 O how often did that day overwhelm mountains before beaten in vain by the waves! What lofty summits did the subdued earth permit to be overcome! Not on that shore do waves so tremendous rise, and, rolling from another region of the earth, from the vast ocean have they come, and the waves that encircle 620 the world speed on their monstrous billows. Thus did the ruler of Olympus aid his wearied lightnings against the world with his brother's trident, and the earth was added to the secondary realms of Neptune, when Tethys was unwilling to submit to any shores, content to be bounded by the skies alone. Now as well would 625 the mass of sea so vast have increased to the stars, if the ruler of the Gods of heaven had not kept down the waves with clouds. That was not a night of the heavens; the air lay concealed infected with the paleness of the infernal abodes, and, oppressed with storms, was kept down, and the waves received the showers in the clouds. 630 Even the light so dreadful is lost, and the lightnings flash not with their brilliance, but the cloudy atmosphere obscurely divides for their flashes. Then do the convex abodes of the Gods of heaven resound, and the lofty skies re-echo, and, the structure strained, the poles re-echo. Nature dreads Chaos, the elements seem to have burst from 635 their concordant repose, and night once more to return about to mingle the shades below with the Gods of heaven. The sole hope of safety is, that not as yet have they perished amid ruin of the universe so great. As far as from the Leucadian heights the calm deep is beheld below, so far do the trembling mariners look down upon the headlong sea 640 from the summits of the waves; and when the swelling billows gape open once again, hardly does the mast stand above the surface. The clouds are touched by the sails, and the earth by the keel. For the sea, in the part where it is at rest, does not conceal the sands; it arises in mountains, and all the waters are in waves. 645 Fears conquer the resources of art, and the pilot knows not which to break, to which wave to give way. The discord of the sea comes to their aid in their distress, and billow is not able to throw over the vessel against billows; the resisting wave supports the yielding side, and the bark rises upright amid all the winds. 650 They dread not the lowly Sason with its shallows, nor yet the rocky shores of curving Thessaly, and the dangerous harbors of the Ambracian coast; of the summits of rocky Ceraunia the sailors are in dread. Now does Caesar believe there to be a danger worthy of his destiny. "Is it a labour so great," says he, 655 "with the Gods above to overwhelm me, whom, sitting in a little bark, they have assaulted with seas so vast? If the glory of my end has been granted to the deep, and I am denied to the warfare, fearlessly will I receive whatever death, ye Deities, you send me. Although the day hurried on by the Fates should 660 cut short my mighty exploits, things great enough have I done. The nations of the north have I conquered; hostile arms have I subdued with fear; Rome has beheld Magnus second to me. The commonalty ordered by me, I have obtained by warfare the fasces which were denied unto me. No Roman dignity will be wanting to 665 my titles. No one will know this, except thee, Fortune, who alone art conscious of my wishes, that I, although I go loaded with honors and Dictator and Consul, to the Stygian shades, die as a private person. There is need, O Gods of heaven, of no funereal rites for me; retain my mangled carcass 670 in the midst of the waves; let tomb and funeral pile be wanting to me, so long as I shall be always dreaded and looked for by every land." Him, having thus said, a tenth wave, wondrous to be said, lifts with the frail bark on high; nor again does it hurl it down from the lofty heights of the sea, but the wave bears it along, 675 and casts it on dry land, where the narrow shore is free from rugged cliffs. At the same moment, the land being touched, realms so many, cities so many, and his own fortune does he regain. But not so easily did Caesar, now returning, on the following day deceive his camp and his adherents, as on the occasion of his silent flight. 680 Thronging around their general the multitude wept, and accosted him with their lamentations and not displeasing complaints. "Whither, cruel Caesar, has thy rash valor carried thee, or to what fate abandoning us, valueless lives, didst thou give thy limbs to be scattered by the reluctant storm? 685 Since the existence and the safety of so many nations depend upon this life of thine, and the world so great has made thee its head, it is cruelty to wish to die. Did no one of thy followers deserve, not to be able to be a survivor of thy fate? When the sea was hurrying thee along, slothful slumber was in possession 690 of our bodies. Alas! we are ashamed! This was the cause of thy seeking, Hesperia; it seemed cruel to commit any one to a sea so boisterous. The last lot of events is wont to precipitate men into doubtful dangers and the headlong perils of death. For one now holding the rule of the world to have entrusted 695 himself to the sea! Why thus greatly dost thou tempt the Deities? Is this favour and effort of Fortune sufficient for the crisis of the war, which has impelled thee to our sands? Has this service of the Deities pleased thee, not that thou shouldst be ruler of the world, not chief of the state, but fortunate in shipwreck?" 700 Uttering such things, the night dispersed, the day with its sunshine came upon them, and the wearied deep lulled the swelling waves, the winds permitting. The captains also in Hesperia, when they beheld the sea weary of waves, and the clearing Boreas rising in the 705 heavens to subdue the deep, unmoored the barks, which the wind and the right hands, plied with equal time, long kept mingled; and over the wide sea, the ships keeping close together, the fleet united, just as a troop on land. But relentless night took away from the sailors the steadiness of the breeze, 710 and the even course of the sails, and threw the barks out of their line. Thus, Nile, do the cranes, about to drink of thee, the winter driving them away, leave the frozen Strymon, and at their first flight describe various figures as chance directs them. Afterwards, when the south wind prevailing more on high has impelled their 715 spread wings, mixed indiscriminately they are crowded into confused masses, and the letter, disarranged, is destroyed by their wings scattered in all directions. When first, the day returning, a stronger breeze blew upon the ships, aroused at the rising of Phoebus, they passed by the shores of Lissus attempted in vain, 720 and made for Nymphaeum. Already had the south wind, succeeding Boreas, made into a harbour the waves exposed to the north. The arms of Caesar being collected in strength from every side, Magnus, beholding the extreme dangers of the dreadful warfare now drawing near his own camp, determined to deposit in safety 725 the charge of wedlock, and to conceal thee, Cornelia, removed to Lesbos, afar from the din of cruel warfare. Alas! how greatly does virtuous passion prevail in well-regulated minds! Even thee, Magnus, did love render doubtful and anxious as to the result of battles; thy wife alone thou wast unwilling to be 730 subject to the stroke of Fortune, beneath which was the world and the destiny of Rome. Now do words forsake his mind, made up, and it pleases him, putting off what is about to come, to indulge a pleasing delay, and to snatch the moment from the Fates. Towards the close of the night, the repose of slumber banished, 735 while Cornelia cherishes in her embrace his breast weighed down with cares, and seeks the delightful kisses of her husband who turns away; wondering at his moistened cheeks, and smitten with a secret wound, she dares not to arraign Magnus with weeping. He, sighing, says: "Wife, dearer to me than life, not now 740 when tired of life, but in joyous times; the sad day is come, and one which both too much and too little we have deferred: now is Caesar at hand for battle with all his might. To war must we give way; during which for thee Lesbos will be a safe retreat. Forbear making trial of entreaty; already have I 745 denied myself. Thou wilt not have to endure a prolonged absence from me. Events will succeed with headlong speed; ruin hastening on, the highest interests are downward speeding. 'Tis enough to have heard of the dangers of Magnus; and thy love has deceived me, if thou canst be witness of the civil war. For I am ashamed now, the line of battle drawn up, 750 to have been enjoying tranquil slumbers together with my wife, and to arise from thy bosom, when the trumpet-call is shaking the distracted world. I dread to engage Pompey in civil warfare sorrowing with no loss. More safe meantime than nations, and more safe than every king, 755 far and wide, and removed afar, the fortune of thy husband may not overwhelm thee with all its weight. If the Deities shall overthrow my ranks, let the better part of me survive; and let there be for me, if the Fates and the blood-stained victor shall overwhelm me, whither I may desire to fly." In her weakness hardly did she sustain 760 grief so great, and her senses fled from her astounded breast. At length, with difficulty was she able to utter her sorrowing complaints: "Nothing, Magnus, is left me to say in complaint of the destiny of our union and of the Gods of heaven; death does not divide our love, nor the closing torch of the sad funereal pile; but, sent away, 765 by a common and too vulgar lot am I separated from my husband. At the approach of the foe let us sever the union of our marriage torch; let us appease thy father-in-law. Has, Magnus, my fidelity been thus experienced by thee? And dost thou believe that anything can be more safe to me than to thee? Have we not for long depended on one lot? 770 Dost thou, relentless one, command me, absent, to expose my life to lightnings and to ruin so mighty? Does my lot seem a tranquil one to thee, to be perishing with apprehension, when even now thou art entertaining hopes? As I shall be reluctant to be the slave of the wicked, still, by a ready death, I shall follow thee to the shades; until the sad report reaches the 775 regions removed afar, I, forsooth, shall be living, the survivor of thee. Add this, that thou dost accustom me to my fate, and, in thy cruelty, to endure grief so great. Pardon me confessing it; I fear to be able to endure it. But if my prayers are realized, and I am heard by the Gods, last of all will thy wife know the result of affairs. 780 The rocks will be detaining, me, full of anxiety, thou being already the conqueror; and I shall be dreading the ship which may be bringing destinies so joyous. Nor will the successes of the war, heard of by me, end my fears, when, exposed in an undefended place, I may be taken by Caesar even in his flight. The shores will grow famous through the exile 785 of a famous name, and, the wife of Magnus abiding there, who will possibly be ignorant of the retreat of Mytilene? This, the last thing do I entreat, if thy conquered arms shall leave thee nothing more safe than flight, when thou hast entrusted thyself to the waves, to any quarter in preference turn thy unlucky bark; on my shores 790 thou wilt be sought for." Thus saying, distractedly she leaps forth, the couch abandoned, and wishes to defer her woes by no delay. In her sweet embrace she does not endure to clasp the breast of the sorrowing Magnus, nor yet his neck; and the last enjoyment of love so prolonged passes away; 795 and their own sorrows they hasten on, and neither on withdrawing can endure to say, "farewell;" and throughout all their lives no day has there been so sad. For other griefs with a mind now strengthened by woes, and resolute, did they submit to. She falls fainting in her wretchedness, and, received in the hands 800 of her attendants, is carried down to the sands of the sea, and there prostrates herself, and clings to the very shore, and at length is borne to the ship. Not thus unhappy did she leave her country and the Hesperian harbors, when the arms of ruthless Caesar were pressing. The faithful companion of Magnus now goes alone, the chieftain left behind, 805 and from Pompey does she fly. The next night that came to her was without sleep. Then for the first time was her rest chilled and not as usual, alone in her widowed bed, and with no husband pressing her unprotected side. How often, overpowered with sleep, with deceived hands, did she embrace the empty couch, 810 and, forgetful of her flight, seek her husband in the night! For, although the flame in silence pervaded her marrow, it pleased her not to extend her body over all the bed; the one part of the couch was kept. She was afraid of losing Pompey; but the Gods above did not ordain things so joyous. 815 The hour was pressing on which was to restore Magnus to her in her wretchedness.