Lucan, Civil War Book 9 Translated by H. T. Riley (1853) Formatted and by C. Chinn (2008) BUT not in the Pharian embers lay the shade, nor did a few ashes contain a ghost so mighty; forth from the tomb did he issue, and, leaving the limbs half burnt and the unworthy pile, he reached the concave of the Thunderer, 5 where the swarthy air meets with the starry poles, and where it extends between the earth and the courses of the moon (half-deified shades inhabit it, whom, guiltless in their lives, an ardent virtue has made able to endure the lower tracts of heaven), and he withdrew his spirit to the eternal spheres. 10 Not thither do those come entombed in gold, or buried amid frankincense. There, after he had filled himself with genuine light, and admired the wandering planets, and the stars fixed in the skies, he beheld beneath how vast a night our day lies concealed, and he laughed at the mockery of his headless body. 15 Hence did he hover over the plains of Emathia, and the standards of the blood-stained Caesar, and the fleets scattered upon the waves; and, the avenger of crimes, he seated himself in the hallowed bosom of Brutus, and implanted himself in the breast of the unconquered Cato. He, while the chances were undecided, and it remained in doubt, 20 which one the civil wars were to make ruler of the world, had hated Magnus too, although he had gone as his follower in arms, hurried on by the auspices of his country and by the guidance of the Senate; but after the disasters of Thessaly, then with all his heart he was a partisan of Pompey. His country, wanting a protector, he took into 25 his own protection, the trembling limbs of the people he cherished once more, the swords thrown away he placed again in timid hands, and neither desiring rule, nor yet fearing to serve under another, he waged the civil war. Nothing in arms did he do for the sake of self; after the death of Magnus it was entirely the party 30 of liberty; and, lest victory should sweep this away scattered along the shores, with the rapid speed of Caesar, he sought the secret retreats of Corcyra, and in a thousand ships carried off with him the fragments of the Emathian downfall. Who could have supposed that flying troops were speeding on in barks 35 so numerous? Who, that conquered ships were crowding the seas? Then does he repair to Dorian Malea, and Taenarus open to the shades, and next Cythera; and Crete vanishes, Boreas speeding on the barks; the waves moderating, he coasts along the Dictaean shores. Then, Phycus, that dared to shut its ports against the fleet, 40 and that well deserved ruthless rapine, he burst into and sacked; and thence, Palinurus, was he borne by the calm breezes along the deep to thy shores; (for not only in the Ausonian seas dost thou possess memorials; Libya, also, testifies that her quiet ports were pleasing to the Phrygian pilot;) 45 when, spreading their sails afar upon the deep, some ships kept their minds in suspense, whether they were conveying partners in their misfortunes, or whether foes. The conqueror, so swiftly moving, made everything to be dreaded, and in no ship was he not believed to be. But these barks were bearing grief and lamentation, 50 and woes to move the tears of even the stern Cato. For after by entreaties Cornelia had in vain tried to detain the sailors and the flight of her step-son, lest by chance, beaten back from the Pharian shores, the trunk might return to sea, and when the flames disclosed the pile with funeral rites unworthy of him, 55 she exclaimed: "Have I, then, Fortune, proved unworthy to light the pile for my husband, and, stretched upon his cold limbs, to throw myself upon my spouse? To burn my hair torn out? And to gather up the limbs of Magnus dispersed upon the sea? To pour abundant tears into all his wounds? 60 To cover my garments with the bones and the heated embers, about to scatter in the Temples of the Gods whatever I might be allowed to take from the extinguished pyre? Without any honor of funereal rites is the pile to burn; perhaps an Egyptian hand has performed this office repulsive to his shade. O well did the ashes 65 of the Crassi lie exposed! By greater enmity of the Gods has the fire fallen to Pompey's lot. Shall there always be to me a like fatality in my woes? Shall I never be allowed to provide a grave for my husband? Shall I never lament over a filled urn? What further need, sorrow, hast thou of tombs, or why require any 70 instruments of grief? Dost thou not, unnatural one, retain Pompey throughout all thy breast? Does not his image dwell in thy inmost vitals? Let one look for the ashes, who is destined long to survive. Still, however, now does the fire that from afar shines with scanty light, as it rises from the Pharian shore, present to me something, 75 Magnus, of thee. Now has the flame subsided, and the smoke that bears Pompey away vanishes at the rising of the sun, and, hateful to me, the winds spread the sails. Not now if any land conquered by Pompey were affording a triumph, would it be more dear to me, nor yet the chariot as it wears away the lofty Capitol; 80 Magnus as prosperous has vanished from my breast. Him do I wish for whom the Nile retains, and at remaining on the guilty laud I do not complain; the crime makes welcome the sands. If I am believed at all, I wish not to leave the Pelusian shores. Do thou, Sextus, try throughout the world the chances of war, 85 and bear thy father's standards; for Pompey left this charge to you his sons, entrusted to my care: 'When the fated hour shall have doomed me to death, take up, O my sons, the civil war, and never, while on earth any one of my race shall remain, let opportunity be given 90 to the Caesars to reign. Urge on even monarchies, even cities powerful in their own liberty, by the fame of my name. This party, these arms, to you do I leave. He will find fleets whichever Pompey shall launch upon the waves; and to no nations shall my heir not cause war; 95 only do you have feelings unsubdued and mindful of your father's rights. Cato alone will it be right to obey, if he shall espouse the cause of liberty.' Magnus, I have performed my trust to thee; thy injunctions I have complied with. Thy stratagem has taken effect, and, deceived, I have survived, 100 that I might not, breaking my faith, carry, away the words entrusted to me. Now then, husband, through empty Chaos will I follow thee, through Tartarus, if any such there is: how long respited from death it is uncertain; upon itself will I first wreak vengeance for my long-enduring life. It endured, Magnus, beholding thy wounds, 105 not to take refuge in death; smitten with blows in wailing it shall end, it shall flow forth in tears; never shall I have to resort to the sword or the halter, or the headlong leap through the empty realms of air. It is disgraceful, after thee not to be able to die of grief alone." When thus she had spoken, she covered her head with a mourning veil, 110 and resolved to endure darkness, and lay hid in the recesses of the ship; and, strictly embracing cruel grief, she enjoyed her tears, and cherished mourning for her husband. Not the billows moved her, and the eastern gales howling through the rigging, and the cries that rose in extreme peril; 115 and conceiving wishes opposed to the anxious sailors, composed for death she lay, and wished success to the storms. Cyprus with its foaming waves first receives the ship; thence, the eastern gales, retaining possession of the deep, but now more moderate, impel them towards the Libyan settlements, and the camp of Cato. 120 Sad, as is his presaging mind amid much fear, Magnus from the shore beholds the companions of his father, his brother, too; headlong is he then borne through the midst of the waves. "Say, brother, where is our father; does the summit and head of the earth exist, or are we undone? Has Magnus borne away the destinies of Rome 125 to the shades?" Thus he says; him, on the other hand, his brother addresses in such words as these: "O happy thou, whom fate has separated in other regions, and who dost only hear of this wickedness: brother, I have eyes guilty of looking on my father when dying. Not by the arms of Caesar did he fall, and so perish by a worthy author of his downfall; 130 under the impure king who owns the fields of Nile, relying on the Gods of hospitality, and his services so great to his progenitors, he fell, the victim of the realm he had presented. I myself beheld them wounding the breast of our noble sire, and not believing that the Pharian tyrant could possibly commit so great a crime, 135 I imagined that already his father-in-law was standing on the shores of the Nile. But me neither did the blood nor the wounds of our aged sire so much affect, as the head of the chieftain carried through the city, which we saw borne aloft on a javelin thrust through it; the report is that this is saved for the eyes of the ruthless conqueror, 140 and that the tyrant wishes to ensure belief in his guilt. But, whether Pharian dogs and greedy birds have torn the body in pieces, or whether a stealthy fire which we saw consumed it, I am ignorant. Whatever injustice of fate has carried away these limbs, for these crimes do I forgive the Gods of heaven; 145 as to the portion preserved do I lament." When Magnus heard such words as these, he did not pour forth his sorrow in groans and tears; and inflamed with righteous affection he thus spoke: "Launch forth, ye sailors, the ships from the dry shore; with its oars let the fleet cleave onward against the opposing gales; 150 come on, ye chieftains, with me; never for civil war was there a reward so great, to inter the unburied ghost, to satiate Magnus with the blood of the effeminate tyrant. Shall I not sink the Pellaean towers, and the corpse of Alexander, torn from its shrine, in the sluggish Mareotis? 155 Dragged forth from the sepulchers of the pyramids, shall not Amasis and the other kings float for me upon the stream of the Nile? For thee unburied, Magnus, let all the sepulchers pay the penalty; I will hurl forth Isis from her tomb, now a Divinity among the nations, and over the ashes of Magnus shall sacred Apis be slain. 160 Osiris, too, clad in linen, I will scatter among the crowd; and, the Gods placed beneath, I will burn Pompey's head. This penalty shall the land pay to me; the fields I will leave deprived of cultivation, and no one shall there be for whom Nile shall increase; and thou, my sire, shalt possess Egypt alone, the people and the Deities banished." 165 He said, and was hurrying the fleet into the ruthless waves. But Cato restrained the praiseworthy resentment of the youth. In the meantime, the death of Magnus being heard of, the sky resounded, smitten by lamentations; there was grief, too, wanting a parallel and known 170 to no age, the people bewailing the death of a great man. But, still more, when, exhausted by tears, having her disheveled locks streaming over her features, Cornelia was seen coming forth from the ship, did they again lament with redoubled blows. As soon as she reached the shores of a friendly land, 175 she collected the garments and the memorials of the ill-fated Magnus, and the spoils embossed with gold, which he had formerly worn, and the embroidered robes, vestments thrice beheld by supreme Jove, and she threw them into a funereal fire. To her thus sorrowing these were the ashes of Magnus. All feelings 180 of affection followed her example, and throughout all the shore funeral piles arose, giving their fires to the Thessalian shades. Thus, when the Apulian is preparing to reproduce the grass on the plains eaten bare, and to renew the wintry herbage, does he warm the earth with fires, and together do both Garganus 185 and the fields of Vultur and the pastures for oxen on warm Matinus shine. Still, not more pleasing did all that the common people dared to utter in censure of the Gods of heaven, and in which it rebuked the Deities as to Pompey, reach the ghost of Magnus, than did the words of Cato, few, but coming from a breast replete with truth. 190 "A citizen has perished," he said, "much inferior to our forefathers in knowing moderation in his sway, but still, useful in this age, which has had no respect for justice, powerful, liberty still safe, and the only one who was a private man when the people were ready to be his slaves, and the ruler of the Senate, but of that 195 still reigning. Nothing in right of war did he demand; whatever he wished to be granted him he wished it to be possible for it to be refused him. Wealth unbounded did he possess, but more did he present to the public than what was retained; the sword he took up, but he knew how to lay it down. Arms he preferred to civil life; but, amid arms, he loved peace. 200 Authority assumed pleased the chieftain; laid down, it pleased him. Chaste was his household, and void of luxury, and never corrupted by the good fortune of its lord. A name illustrious and revered by nations, and one that has advantaged our City much. Long since, on Sulla and Marius being received into the City, real 205 confidence in liberty disappeared; now, Pompey taken away from the State, even a feigned one perishes. No longer now will there be shame at holding kingly sway; neither the color of authority, nor yet any front of the Senate, will there be. O happy man, whom, when conquered, his last day came to meet, and to whom the Pharian villainy presented a sword deserving to be sought! 210 Perhaps under the sway of his father-in-law he might have been able to live. To know how to die is the first blessing to man, but the next, to be compelled. To me, too, if by the Fates we fall into the power of another, Fortune, grant Juba to be such; I do not beg not to be reserved for an enemy, so long as he reserves me, my head cut off." 215 By these words more honor in his death accrued to the noble shade, than if the Roman Rostra had resounded with praises of the chieftain. In the meantime, the discord of the people in the camp creates murmurs, and after the death of Magnus they are weary of the war, when Tarchondimotus raises the standard for leaving Cato. 220 Following him to the edge of the shore, as he flies with his fleet hurrying off, Cato censures him in such words: "O Cilician, never reduced to peace, dost thou again go to thy rapine on the main? Fortune has removed Magnus; now as a pirate thou art returning to the seas." Then he gazes upon 225 all the men in groups and in commotion; one of whom, disclosing his mind as to the flight, in such words addresses the chief: "Cato, grant us pardon, it was the love of Pompey, not of civil war, that moved us to arms, and through affection did we espouse a faction. He lies prostrate, whom the earth preferred to peace, 230 and fallen is our cause; allow us to re-visit our country's household Gods, and our deserted homes and dear children. For what end of the contest will there beg if neither Pharsalia nor Pompey shall be so? The moments of our lives have been wasted; let death come upon us in our retreat; let our old age look forward 235 to the flames its due. Civil warfare can hardly afford sepulchers to chieftains. No barbarian sway awaits the conquered; no cruel Fortune threatens me with an Armenian or a Scythian yoke; I come beneath the rule of a citizen who wears the toga. Whoever, while Magnus was living, was the second, 240 the same to me shall be the first; the highest honor shall be paid to the hallowed shade; the ruler whom disaster forces me to have, I will have; general, Magnus, none. Thee alone having followed to the war, next after thee will I follow destiny, for it is neither right nor lawful for me to hope for success. All things are embraced by the fortune 245 of Caesar; victory has destroyed the Emathian sword. All confiding is closed against us in our wretchedness, and in the whole earth there is one alone, who is willing and is able to give safety to the conquered. Pompey slain, civil war is a crime, who living it was fidelity. If, Cato, thou wilt always obey the public 250 laws, if always thy country, let us follow the standards which Caesar, the Roman Consul, raises." Thus having said, he leaped on board ship, the cheers of the youths accompanying him. There was an end of the state of Rome, and in want of servitude all the multitude thronged upon the shore. 255 These words burst forth from the hallowed breast of their leader: "Did you then, youths, wage the war with like hopes, were you too for tyrants, and were you a Pompeian, not a Roman, army? Because for no one's sway you toil, because for yourselves, not for your leaders, you live and die, because 260 for no one you win the world, because now it is safe for you to conquer, do you fly from war, and do you seek a yoke, your necks yet free, and know you not how to endure to be without a king? Now is the cause of danger worthy of men. Pompey might have made bad use of your blood; now to your country do your refuse your throats and swords, 265 when liberty is nigh? Of three lords Fortune has now left but one. Be ashamed of yourselves; more has the court of the Nile conferred upon the laws, the bows, too, of the Parthian soldiers. Away, O degenerate men, despise the gift and the arms of Ptolemy. Who could suppose that your hands were guilty 270 of any slaughter? He will believe that you readily turned your backs, he will believe that you were the first to fly from Emathian Philippi. Go in security; in Caesar's judgment you have deserved life, subdued by no arms, in no siege. O base slaves, after the death of your first master you 275 descend to his heir. Why do you not choose to merit more than life and pardon? Let the unhappy wife of Magnus, and the offspring of Metellus be hurried off upon the waves; carry off the Pompeys, surpass the gift of Ptolemy. My own head as well, whoever shall present to the hated tyrant, 280 will give it for no small reward. This force will know that at the price of my life it has well followed my standards. Come on, then, and in one vast slaughter earn your deserts; cowardly treason only is flight." He thus said, and all the ships did he recall from the midst of the sea, no otherwise 285 than as when the swarms together leave the teeming wax, and, forgetful of the combs, mingle not their wings in clusters, but each one takes flight for itself, nor now slothfully tastes the bitter thyme; the sound of the Phrygian brass censures them; astounded, they cease their flight, and seek again the pursuits of their 290 flower-gathering labors, and their fondness for the scattered honey; freed from care, glad is the shepherd on the grass of Hybla, that he has preserved the wealth of his cottage: thus by the words of Cato was patience recommended to the men in a righteous warfare. And now by the movements of war, and by a continuance of labors 295 he determines to exercise their minds, not taught to endure repose. First, the soldiers are wearied on the sands of the sea-shore; at the walls and fortifications of Cyrene is their next labor; excluded, by no wrath does he avenge himself; and the sole vengeance of Cato upon the conquered is the having conquered them. 300 Thence does it please him to repair to the realms of Juba, adjoining to the Moors; but nature forbids a passage by the Syrtes lying between; a dauntless valor trusts that these even will give way to it. Either nature, when she gave its first figure to the world, left the Syrtes in a doubtful position between sea and land 305 (for neither did the land subside entirely in order that it might receive the waters of the deep, nor did it protect itself from the sea; but a tract lay impassable, by reason of the ambiguous nature of the place; the seas are broken by shoals, and the land is torn away by the deep, and the waves intervening, resound behind many a shallow. 310 Thus did nature heedlessly forsake it, and she wrought for no use this portion of herself); or else the Syrtis once was more full of the deep ocean, and was entirely deluged with waters; but the scorching sun, feeding his light with the sea, drew up the adjacent waters of the burnt-up zone; 315 and now, the sea still contends with Phoebus as he dries it up. At a future day, when destroying time shall have enough applied the rays, the Syrtis will be dry land; for now shallow water floats above, and the waves are failing, destined far and wide to come to an end. When first all the force of the fleet impelled the sea 320 urged by its oars, the south wind, black with showers, roared, raging throughout his realms; with a whirlwind he defends the deep invaded by the fleets, and far from the Syrtes he drives the billows, and dashes the sea upon the extending shores. Then, the sails of some which he finds extended on the upright masts, 325 he tears away from the mariners; and the ropes having vainly attempted to deny the canvas to the southern gales, they surpass the length of the ship, and beyond the prow swells the bellying sail. If any one with foresight has fastened beneath all the cloth to the topmost yard, he, too, with bared rigging is driven out of his course. 330 Better was the lot of the fleet which happened upon deep waves, and was tossed by a steady sea. Whatever ships lightened by their masts cut down avoided the raging blast, the tide at liberty bore these on, rolling them in a contrary direction to the winds, and victorious drove them against the struggling south wind. 335 Some barks do the shallows forsake, and the earth broken in upon by the deep strikes them; and exposed to a doubtful fate, one part of the ship rests on land, the other part is poised in the waves. Then still more is the sea dashed upon the quicksands, and the earth rages rising to meet it in its path; although repelled by the south wind, 340 still full oft the wave masters not the hills of sand. There stands aloft upon the surface of the main afar from all the fields, untouched by the water, a heap of now dry sand; the wretched sailors stand confounded, and the ship run on land they behold no shore. Thus does the sea intercept a part; 345 a greater portion of the ships obey the rudder and the helm; safe in flight, and having obtained pilots well acquainted with the spot, unhurt it arrives at the stagnant swamps of Triton. This, as the report is, the God loves, whom throughout all the shore the ocean hears, as he raises his murmurs on his windy shell; 350 this does Pallas love as well, who, springing from her father's head touched Libya first of all lands (for nearest is it to heaven, as the heat itself proves), and beheld her features in the quiet water of the pool, and on the margin set her feet, and named herself Tritonis from the beloved waves. 355 Near to which does Lethon, silent river, flow along; bringing obliviousness, as is the report, from the streams of hell; and, once the care of the sleepless dragon, the poor garden of the Hesperides, spoiled of its boughs. Spiteful the man, who robs old times of their credit, 360 and who summons poets to the truth. There was a golden wood, and branches weighed down with riches and with yellow fruit; a virgin troop, too, were the guardians of the shining grove, and a serpent with its eyes never condemned to sleep, entwining around the boughs bending with shining metal. 365 Alcides took away the prize from the trees; and, allowing the branches to be valueless without their load, brought back the shining apples to the tyrant of Argos. Pushing off from these spots, therefore, and driven away from the Syrtes, the fleet did not proceed beyond the waves of the Garamantes, 370 but under the command of Pompey remained on the coasts of more wealthy Libya. But the valour of Cato, impatient at delaying, ventured to lead his band among unknown nations, and to skirt the Syrtes by land, trusting in his arms. This did the same wintry season prompt, which had shut up the deep; 375 and showers were objects of their hopes, as they feared the excessive heats; that the year would temper their march, severe with neither the sun's heat nor with extreme cold, on the one hand with the clime of Libya, on the other with the winter season. And, about to enter upon the barren sands, he thus spoke: "O ye, to whom, following my camp, one safety alone has proved 380 pleasing, to die with necks unenslaved, make up your minds to the great work of constancy and labors extreme. We are going unto sterile plains and scorched regions of the world, where are excessive heat of the sun and scanty water in the springs, and the parched fields are horrid with deadly serpents, a toilsome march. 385 For the sake of the laws and for the love of their falling country, through the midst of Libya let them come, and let them attempt these places so remote, if any have centered their wishes in no escape, if to any to march onward is enough. Nor indeed is it my intention to deceive any one, and by concealing my fears to draw on the multitude. 390 Let those be my companions, whom the dangers themselves would lead, who, myself the witness, would deem it glorious and befitting a Roman to endure even the most shocking fate. But the soldier who wants a surety for his safety, and is influenced by the sweetness of life, let him go to a tyrant by an easier way. So long as I am the first to set foot upon 395 the sands, and the first to imprint my steps in the dust, upon me let the heat of the sky strike, me let the serpent, filled with venom, meet; and try beforehand your perils in my fate; whoever shall behold me drinking, let him thirst; or whoever shall see we seeking the shade of the groves, 400 let him swelter with heat, or on horseback going before troops of foot, let him flag; if in fact it shall by any difference be known whether as general or as soldier I am marching. Serpents, thirst, heat, sand, are sweet to valor; in adversity patience delights. More pleasing is that which is honorable, as often as it costs itself 405 a heavy price. Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from." Thus did he with valor and with the love of difficulties inflame their wavering minds, and commence upon a path not to be retraced with its desert track; and, destined in a little tomb to enclose a hallowed name, 410 Libya secured the death of Cato, free from care. Libyais the third part of the earth, if you are ready to trust report in everything; but if you trace the winds and climate, it will be a portion of Europe. For, not more distant are the shores of Nile, than is the Scythian Tanais from the nearest Gades, in which quarter 415 Europe separates from Libya, and by their retreat the shores make room for the ocean: but a larger portion of the world composes Asia singly. For whereas, these in common send forth Zephyrus, the other touching upon the left-hand side of Boreas, and the right-hand side of the South, slopes away to the East, 420 alone possessing Eurus. That which is the fertile part of the Libyan land lies to the Westward; but even this is not relaxed with any springs; with few Northern breezes does it receive the Arctoan showers, and refresh its fields with our serene weather. It is corrupted by no riches; neither for copper nor for gold 425 is it melted, with no faultiness of the soil, it is pure, and is mould throughout. The Maurusian wood is the only wealth of the race, the use of which it knows not, but it lives content with the foliage of the cedar, and its shade. To unknown groves have our axes come, and in the extremities 430 of the earth have we sought our banquets and our tables. But whatever region skirts around the shifting Syrtis, extended beneath beat too intense, adjacent to a patching sky, it scorches the corn and chokes up the grape with dust, and, crumbling, is held by no root. 435 A temperature suited to life is wanting, and under no care of Jove is that land; nature lying slothful, the region is torpid, and with its unmoved sands is not sensible of the changing year. Still, this soil so dull puts forth a few herbs, which the Nasamonian, a hardy race, collects, who, bare of all comforts, possesses the country 440 adjacent to the sea; and whom the barbarian Syrtis feeds with the losses of the world. For the wrecker hovers over the sands of the shore, and, no keel touching at his harbors, he knows of wealth. Thus in shipwrecks do the Nasamonians have traffic with the whole world. This way does resolute valor 445 bid Cato march. There is the youthful band regardless of the winds, and, dreading no storms by land, suffers the terrors of the deep. For upon the dry shore does the Syrtis with greater violence receive the south winds than on the sea, and more injurious is it to the land. With no mountains opposing 450 does Libya break its force, and scatter it repelled by rocks, and change it from a hurricane into serene air; nor does it rush into woods, and weary itself with hurling down aged oaks; all the land lies open, and in its passage it works out the rage of Aeolus, free from all rein; and 455 the sand whirled aloft, sweeping along it drives in wreaths a cloud teeming with no rain. The greater portion of the land is raised on high, and, in a whirlwind never dissolved, hangs aloft. The poor Nasamonian sees his possessions floating in the wind, and his home rent asunder; and, the Garamantian laid bare, the cottages, 460 torn away, fly from the roofs. Not higher does fire bear aloft what it consumes; and as far as it is possible for smoke to arise and to obscure the day, so high does the sand possess the air. Then, too, more violently than usual does it attack the Roman troops, and not a soldier is able to keep his footing, infirm 465 of hold, even the sands being borne away on which he treads. It would shake the earth, and would move the region away from the spot, if Libya, of solid texture and of hard substance, all covered with crags, were to enclose the southern blasts in its caverns eaten away; but because it is easily moved with its shifting sands, 470 by never struggling it remains firm, and the lower part of the land stands fast, because the upper gives way. With its violent impulse the blast hurls away helmets and shields and the javelins of the men, and, without ceasing, bears them through the void realms of the wide heavens. Perhaps on some foreign and far remote land that is a prodigy; 475 and nations are alarmed at weapons falling from the skies, and, torn away from the arms of men, they think them sent down by the Gods of heaven. Thus undoubtedly did those fall for sacrificing Numa, which the chosen youths wore on their Patrician necks; the South wind 480 or Boreas had spoiled nations bearing our ancilia. Notus thus attacking the region, the Roman troops lay down, and, dreading to be borne away, girded fast their clothes, and thrust their hands into the earth; nor by their weight alone did they lie, but by their efforts to hold fast, hardly thus unmoved by the 485 southern blasts; which rolled upon them vast heaps of sand, and covered the men with earth. Hardly is the soldier able to raise his limbs, sticking fast in a large pile of dust. Some even standing the vast mass of drifted sand overpowers; and, unable to move, they are held fast in the rising ground. 490 Stones does it bear afar, torn away from the walls shaken down, and scatter them at a distance, with a wondrous kind of disaster; they who beheld no houses, behold the ruins. And now all the path lies hid; nor is there now any difference in the sky and earth, except the lights of heaven, as though in the midst of the sea. 495 By the Constellations they know the way, nor does the horizon, the limit of the Libyan region, show the well-known Constellations, and it conceals many of them by the margin of the earth downward sloping. And when the heat released the air which the wind had borne to and fro, and the day was inflamed, their limbs flowed with perspiration, 500 their mouths were parched with thirst. A little water was beheld afar in a scanty streamlet; which a soldier, with difficulty scooping it up from the dust, poured forth into the wide concavity of a helmet and offered to the general. The jaws of all were clogged with dust; and, receiving the tiny draught of water, the general himself 505 was an object of envy "What," said he, "degenerate soldier, didst thou suppose that I alone in this multitude was devoid of manliness? Did I seem so very tender and unequal to the morning's heat? How much more worthy of this punishment art thou, to be drinking while the people thirsts!" Thus, aroused with anger, 510 he dashed down the helmet, and the water sufficed for all. They had now come to the Temple, the only one which among the Libyan nations the uncivilized Garamantes possess. There stands Jupiter, the foreteller of destiny, as they relate; but not either brandishing the lightnings or like to ours, but Ammon with crooked horns. 515 Not there have Libyan nations erected costly Temples, nor do shrines glitter with eastern gems. Although among the tribes of the Aethiopians and the rich nations of the Arabians and the Indians, Jupiter Ammon is the only God, still he is a poor God, possessing sanctuaries polluted in no age 520 with wealth, and a Divinity of primitive habits, he protects the Temple from Roman gold. That there are Deities in the spot a wood attests, the only one verdant throughout all Libya. For whatever country with its parching sand separates burning Berenice from hot Leptis, 525 is destitute of shrubs; Ammon alone produces a grove. A fountain on the spot is the cause of the woods, which knits together the crumbling particles of earth, and unites the sand subdued by its waters. Here, as well, nothing resists Phoebus, when in the highest zenith the day stands poised; hardly does the tree overshadow its trunk, 530 so small a shadow is thrown down perpendicularly by the rays. It has been ascertained that this is the spot where the circle of the elevated solstice cuts through the mid sphere of the Constellations. Not obliquely do they proceed, nor does the Scorpion go more vertically than the Bull, nor does the Ram give his hours to the Balance, 535 nor does Astraea bid the lagging Fishes to go down. Chiron is equally matched with the Twins, and just as the burning Carcinus is the watery Aegoceros, nor is the Lion raised higher than the Urn. But whatever race thou art, cut off by the Libyan fires, for thee the shadows fall to the south, which with us go towards the north; 540 and the Cynosure, slowly moving, sets; thou dost think that its dry Wain is immersed in the deep, and dost deem no star in the loftiest heights of the northern sky exempt from the sea. Afar is either pole, and the course of the Constellations hurries on all of them in the intermediate heavens. Before the doors stood the nations whom the East had sent, 545 and by the warning of horned Jupiter they sought the approaching destinies; but for the Latian chieftain they gave way; and his attendants entreated Cato that he would enquire of the Deity famed throughout the Libyan world, and form a judgment as to the report of such lengthened ages. Labienus was the principal adviser to enquire into events 550 by the voice of the Gods. "Chance," said he, "and the fortune of the way has presented the lips of a Deity so great and the counsel of a God; a guide so mighty amid the Syrtes we may employ, and learn the destined events of the warfare. For to whom could I suppose that the Gods of heaven would rather reveal 555 and disclose their secrets than the truth to the hallowed Cato? Assuredly thy life has ever been regulated according to the laws of heaven, and thou art a follower of the God. Lo! the opportunity is granted thee of communing with Jove; make enquiry into the fates of wicked Caesar, and search into the future manners of thy country; whether it will 560 be possible for nations to enjoy their own rights and those of the laws, or whether civil war is hopeless. Fill thy heart with the sacred words; ever a lover of strict virtue, seek what is virtue, and request an example of right." He, filled with the God, whom in his silent mind he bore, 565 poured forth from his breast words worthy of the shrines: "What, Labienus, dost thou request to be asked? Whether, a free man, I would rather die in arms than behold a tyranny? Whether life is nothing at all, even though it be a long one? Whether age makes any difference? Whether any violence can injure the good man? Whether Fortune wastes her 570 threats on virtue being opposed to her? And whether it is enough to wish for what is to be commended, and whether rectitude is never crowned by a successful result? These things we know, and Ammon will not engraft them more deeply. We all of us depend upon the Gods of heaven, and, his Temple silent, nothing do we effect but by the will of the God. Nor does the Divinity 575 stand in need of any voice; and, once for all, our author has told us at our birth whatever we may be allowed to know: nor has he chosen barren sands that he may prophesy to a few, and in this dust concealed the truth. The abode of God, too, is, wherever is earth, and sea, and air, and sky, and virtue. Why further do we seek the Gods of heaven? 580 Whatever thou dost behold and whatever thou dost touch, that is Jupiter. Let the apprehensive need diviners, and those that are ever doubtful on future events; it is not oracles, but a certain death that makes me certain. Both the coward and the brave must fall; this is enough for Jove to have pronounced." Thus does he speak; 585 and, the credit of the Temple preserved, he departs from the altars, leaving Ammon untried by the people. He himself, in his hand wielding a javelin, on foot, goes before the faces of the panting soldiers. He shows them how to endure labors, he does not command; and, with face uplifted on no necks is he borne, 590 or sitting in a chariot. Most sparing is he himself of sleep, the last drinker of the water. When, at last a spring discovered, the youthful band longing for the stream endeavor to drink, he stands until the camp follower has drunk. If by real merits great fame is acquired, and if, success disregarded, unadorned virtue 595 is looked at, whatever in any one of our forefathers we praise was merely Fortune. Who by prosperous warfare, who by the blood of nations, has deserved a name so great? This triumph I would rather conduct through the Syrtes and the extremities of Libya than thrice with the chariot 600 of Pompey ascend the Capitol, than break the neck of Jugurtha. Behold a true parent of his country, most worthy, Rome, of thy altars; by whom it will never shame thee to swear; and whom, if ever thou shalt stand with neck released, then at last thou art destined to make a God. Now was the heat more intense, 605 and a region, beyond which none in the southern climes have the Gods created, was traversed, and the water was more scarce. There was found in the mime of the sands a single spring abounding in water, but which a multitude of serpents possessed, the spot hardly containing them. Parched asps were standing 610 at the brink, in the midst of the waves the Dipsas thirsted. The chieftain, when he saw them likely to perish, the spring left behind, addressed them: "Alarmed with the false show of death, fear not, soldiers, in safety to quaff the stream. Noxious is the poison of serpents when mixed with the blood; 615 they have venom in their sting, and they threaten destruction with their teeth; the draughts are devoid of deadliness." He spoke, and quaffed the supposed poison; and throughout the whole sands of Libya that was the only stream of which he was the first to demand the water for himself. Why the Libyan climate, fruitful in deadliness, should abound 620 in plagues so great, or what nature has secretly mixed in the noxious soil, our care and labor are not able to ascertain; except that a story, spread throughout all the world, has deceived ages, in place of the real cause. In the extreme parts of Libya, where the glowing earth 625 receives the ocean warmed by the setting sun, far and wide lay parched the fields of Medusa, the daughter of Phorcys; not overshadowed by the foliage of the groves, not softened by ridges, but rugged with rocks looked upon by the countenance of its mistress. In this body first did noxious nature produce deadly plagues; 630 from those jaws snakes poured forth whizzing hisses with vibrating tongues, which, after the manner of a woman's hair flowing along the back, flapped about the very neck of the delighted Medusa. Upon her forehead turned towards you erect did serpents rise, 635 and viper's venom flowed from her combed locks. This alone does unhappy Medusa possess, which with impunity it is permitted all to look upon; for who has dreaded the mouth and the head of the monster? Whom, that with glance direct has seen her, has Medusa suffered to die? She arrested doubting destiny, 640 and prevented fear; the life retained, the limbs died, and spirits not sent forth grew rigid beneath the bones. The locks of the Eumenides produced madness alone; Cerberus moderated his hissing at the song of Orpheus; the son of Amphitryon beheld the Hydra when he had conquered it. 645 This monster did Phorcus dread, her father, and the second Deity in the waves, her mother Ceto, also, and her Gorgon sisters themselves. This was able to threaten to the heavens and to the sea an unwonted numbness, and from the universe to withdraw the world. From the skies the birds fell with sudden weight; 650 in rocks wild beasts stood fast; whole nations of Aethiopians, inhabiting the vicinity, grew hard in marble. No animal was there that could brook the sight; and the serpents themselves, streaming in a backward direction, shunned her countenance. She turned Atlas the Titan into rock, as he stood beneath 655 the Hesperian pillars; and, formerly, the heavens dreading, the Giants standing on Phlegraean serpents for feet, the Gorgon raised mountains aloft, and in the midst of the breast of Pallas ended the mighty warfare of the Gods. Hither, after the Parrhasian wings of the Arcadian inventor of the lyre 660 and of the oily palaestra had carried Perseus born of the womb of Danaë and the enriched shower, and the winged steed, that suddenly sprung up, had borne aloft the Cyllenian falchion, the falchion reddened already by the slaughter of another monster (the watcher of the heifer beloved by Jove, by it destroyed), 665 unwedded Pallas gave aid to her swift brother, having stipulated for the head of the monster; and she bade Perseus turn towards the rising of Phoebus on the margin of the Libyan land, cleaving the realms of Gorgon in his flight with averted face; she gave him, too, a shield for his left hand, shining with yellow gold, 670 in which she bade him look at the stone-transforming Medusa, whom sleep, destined to bring on eternal slumber in death, did not entirely overpower. A great part of her locks are awake, and the snakes, extending along the hair, protect her head; on the midst of her features some lie, and upon the lid of her eye. 675 Pallas herself guides him palpitating, and in his shaking right hand directs the Cyllenian falchion of the averted Perseus, cutting asunder the broad extremities of the serpent-bearing neck. What a countenance had the Gorgon, the head cut off by the wound of the hooked sword! With how much poison I could conceive her 680 mouth breathing forth! What death, too, her eyes shooting forth! Not even Pallas was able to look upon her; and they would have congealed the features of the averted Perseus, if Tritonia had not spread her dense hair, and covered her face with the serpents. Thus, the Gorgon spoiled, the winged hero flew towards heaven. 685 He, indeed, was shortening his path, and by a nearer course was cleaving the air; if he should cut through the midst of the cities of Europe, Pallas enjoined him not to hurt the fruitful lands, and to spare the nations. For who, an object so great flying aloft, would not look up at the sky? Towards the west he, winged, turns, 690 and over Libya he goes, which, sowed by no agriculture, is exposed to the stars and to Phoebus; the course of the sun oppresses it and parches up the soil; nor in any part of the earth does a shadow fall from a loftier height upon the heavens, and impede the course of the moon, if at any time forgetful of her oblique route she runs straight onward through 695 the signs of the Zodiac, and escapes not the shade by swerving to the north or to the south. Still, that sterile land, and the fields prolific in nothing good, conceive the venom from the gore of the bleeding Medusa, and dreadful moisture from the fell blood, which the heat promotes and anneals in the loose sand. 700 Here, the gore which first from the sand lifted a head raised the drowsy asp with puffed-out neck. More thick did the blood and the drops of the clogged venom fall on this; in no serpent is it more dense. Itself wanting heat, it passes not to a cold clime of its 705 own will, and near the Nile it inhabits the sands. But what shame shall we have in profit? Thence are brought hither the deadly plagues of Libya, and the asp we have made an object of traffic. But the huge Haemorrhois unfolds its scaly wreaths, that will not allow their blood to remain in the wretched sufferers; 710 the Chersydros, too, is produced to haunt the plains of the doubtful Syrtis, and the Chelydri, trailing along with smoking track; the Cenchris, also, ever to move in a straight path; this is painted with more marks on its speckled belly than the Theban Ophites, tinted with little spots. The Ammodytes, 715 of the same color with the parched sands, and not to be distinguished therefrom, and the Cerastae, moving with twisting back-bone; the Scytale, too, alone, even now, the hoar-frost lying scattered on the ground, about to cast its slough; and the scorching Dipsas; the dangerous Amphisbaena, also, that moves on at both of its heads; 720 the water-serpent, also, the tainter of the water; and the swift Jaculi, and the Pareas, content with its tail to cleave its track; the greedy Prester, too, distending its foaming jaws; and the deadly Seps, dissolving the body together with the bones. The Basilisk, too, sending forth hisses that terrify all the plagues, 725 hurtful before its venom, removes from itself far and wide all the race, and rules upon the deserted sands. You also, the Dragons, shining with golden brightness, who crawl in all other lands as innoxious Divinities, scorching Africa renders deadly. With wings you move 730 the air on high, and, following whole herds, you burst asunder vast bulls, embracing them with your folds. Nor is the elephant safe through his size; everything you devote to death, and no need have you of venom for a deadly fate. Amid these pest, Cato, with his hardy soldiers, moved on 735 upon his scorching march, seeing the sad fates of so many of his men and extraordinary deaths through a little wound. A Dipsas trodden on, turning back its head, bit Aulus, a young standard-bearer of Etrurian blood. Hardly was there pain or any feeling of the sting, and his face itself 740 was free from the anguish of death, nor did the wound threaten anything. Behold! the venom creeps silently on, and a devouring flame consumes his marrow, and burns his entrails with the heating poison. The virus sucks up the moisture flowing around the vitals, and begins to scorch the tongue with the dried palate; 745 no perspiration is there to run down his wearied limbs, and the fountain of tears flies from his eyes. Not the ensign of the state, not the orders of the sorrowing Cato, restrained the parched man from daring to hurl down the standard, and, infuriate, seeking over all the fields the water 750 which the venom, thirsting in his heart, demanded. He, sent even to Tanais and Rhone and Padus, would be parched, and even if drinking of Nile as it wanders through the fields. Libya promoted his death, and the Dipsas has a fame unequal to its deadliness, when aided by the scorching regions. 755 Deep down he seeks for rain in the glowing sands; now to the Syrtes he returns, and takes sea-water in his mouth, and the moisture of the deep is grateful, but suffices not for him. Nor is he sensible of the nature of the death and the fatality of the venom, but he thinks that it is thirst alone, and brooks to 760 open the swelling veins, and to fill his mouth with blood. Instantly does Cato order the standard to be taken up; to no one is it allowed to learn that thirst can have this effect. But a more sad death than that was before their eyes; and upon the thigh of the wretched Sabellius there stood a little Seps, which, hanging with its barbed tooth, 765 he both tore off with his hand, and pinned with his javelin to the sand; a little serpent only, but than which not one is so sure a source of a bloody death. For the skin nearest the wound, torn off, disappears and discloses the pallid bones. And now with open surface, without a body left, the wound is bare; 770 the limbs swim in corrupt matter; the calves fall off; without any covering are the hams; of the thighs, too, every muscle is dissolved, and the groin distils black matter. The membrane that binds the stomach snaps asunder, and the bowels flow away; nor does just so much of the entire body as may be expected 775 flow upon the earth, but the raging venom melts the limbs; soon does the poison convert all the ligaments of the nerves, and the textures of the sides, and the hollow breast, and what is concealed in the vital lungs, everything that composes man, into a diminutive corrupt mass. 780 By a foul death does nature lie exposed; the shoulders and strong arms melt; the neck and head flow away. Not more quickly does the snow fall away, dissolved by the warm south wind, nor is wax influenced by the sun. Trifling things I mention, how that the body flowed away scorched up by corruption; this flame can do as well. But what pile has ever dissolved the 785 bones? These, too, disappear, and, following the crumbling marrow, suffer no vestiges of their rapid destruction to remain. Among the Cinyphian plagues thine is the palm in destroying; all take away the life, thou alone the carcass. Behold! a form occurs quite different from this wasting death. 790 A scorching Prester stung Nasidius, a cultivator of the Marsian fields. A fiery redness lighted up his face, and, his shape destroyed, a swelling, confounding all features, now larger than the whole body, stretched out his skin; and, exceeding the human growth, the corrupt matter puffed up throughout all the limbs; 795 the poison prevailing far and wide, he himself lay concealed, completely hidden within his swollen body: nor did the coat of mail withhold the increase of the distended body. Not thus does the foaming mass of water boil over on the cauldron being heated, nor do the sails under the effects of Corus swell out into 800 a bellying form so vast. Now he wielded not his limbs a deformed bloated mass, and a trunk in a confused heap. Not daring to commit it to the tomb, they fled from the increasing carcass, untouched, and destined, to afford a feast to the beaks of the birds and to the wild beasts, not with impunity, the swelling not even ceasing after death. 805 But sights more monstrous do the Libyan pests provide. A fierce Haemorrhois thrust its fangs into Tullus, a noble youth, and an admirer of Cato. And just as the pressure of the Corycian saffron is wont to discharge itself from all the statues of the Theatre, in such manner do all the 810 members at the same moment send forth a red virus instead of blood. His tears are blood; whatever outlets the moisture finds, from them the gore distils in streams; his mouth is running over, the distended nostrils too; his sweat is red; all his members flow from the gorged veins; his whole body is as though one wound. 815 But thy heart, wretched Levus, has the gore, congealed by the serpent of the Nile, benumbed; and, attesting the sting by no pain, in sudden darkness thou dost receive thy death, and in sleep descend to the Stygian shades. Not with a fate so swift do the slips of the yew, which, resembling 820 the shoots of the Sabine tree, when ripe, the death-gathering Sabaeans cut from the deadly trunk, corrupt the draughts. Behold! afar, around the trunk of a barren oak a fierce serpent (Africa calls it the Jaculus) wreathes itself, and then darts forth; and through the head and pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight; 825 nothing does venom there effect, death seizes him through the wound. It was then understood how slowly fly the stones which the sling hurls, how sluggishly whizzes the air of the Scythian arrow. What avails a Basilisk being pierced by the spear of the wretched Murrus? Swift flies the poison along the weapon, and fastens 830 upon the hand; which, instantly, with sword unsheathed, he smites, and at the same moment severs it entirely from the arm; and, looking upon the dreadful warning of a death his own, he stands in safety, his hand perishing. And who could suppose that the Scorpion has the power to cause a rapid death? 835 He, threatening with knotted tail, and furious with stroke direct, heaven being the witness, bore off the honors of Orion's death. Who, Solpuga, would be afraid to tread upon thy abodes? And vet to thee do the Stygian sisters give power over their threads. Thus does neither bright day nor dark night bring rest; it is matter for 840 suspicion for them in their wretchedness upon what ground they are lying. For neither do leaves, heaped up, form their beds, nor are their couches made larger with reeds; but, exposing their bodies to death, they roll upon the ground, and by the warm vapor attract the pests, chilled by the rigor of the night; and among their limbs 845 they warm the jaws for a time innocuous from the poison having grown torpid. Nor, the heavens their guide, do they know what is the length of their wanderings, or what the limit. Full oft complaining, they cry aloud: "Restore, ye Gods, to us distressed, the warfare from which we have fled; restore us Thessaly. Why do we suffer a coward's death, 850 a band sworn to the sword? The Dipsas fights for Caesar, and the Cerastes wages the civil war. It would please me to go where the torrid zone is red, and the sky scorched by the steeds of the sun; it would delight me to ascribe to causes of climate that I perish, and to die by reason of the temperature. Not at all, Africa, of thee, 855 nor, nature, of thee do I complain; thou hadst devoted to the serpents a region bearing monsters so numerous, and removed from nations; and, a soil unable to produce corn, cultivators being denied, thou hast condemned, and hast willed that men should be afar from their venom. To the regions of the serpents have we come; demand retribution, 860 thou, whoever thou art, of the Gods above, who, vexed at our trespass, bounding the region by the burning districts on the one side, by the dubious Syrtes on the other, hast placed destruction in the middle space. Through the secret spots of thy retreat does the warfare proceed; and, with thee sharing the knowledge of the secrets of the earth, the soldier 865 repairs to the confines of the world. Perhaps greater misfortunes remain for us, having made the entrance. The fires meet in the hissing waves, and the fabric of the sky is convulsed. But, in that direction, there lies no land further than lie the sad realms of Juba, known to us by fame. Perhaps we shall then be longing for these 870 regions of the serpents; the heavens, too, are productive of some comfort; still, something does live. I seek not the fields of my native land, and Europe, beholding other suns, and Asia; under what part of the sky, in what region, Africa, did I leave thee? At Cyrene, even still was the winter freezing. 875 In so small a distance do we change the course of the year? We am proceeding towards the opposite pole; our world we leave behind; our backs we present to be smitten by the southern blasts. Now, perhaps, is Rome herself beneath our feet. This solace in death do we ask; let the enemy come, and let Caesar follow 880 whither we fly." Thus does enduring patience disburden itself of its complaints; the extreme valor of their leader compels them to endure hardships so great, who lies extended on the bare sand, and at every hour challenges Fortune. In all vicissitudes he alone is at hand; and, wherever he is called, 885 thither he flies, and a great boon, and one larger than health, does he confer strength to undergo death; and they are ashamed, he the witness, to die uttering groans. What power over him could any misery have? Sorrows in the breast of another does he subdue, and, a looker on, he shows that mighty pains are powerless. 890 Hardly did Fortune, wearied with dangers so great, grant them a tardy aid in their wretchedness. A single nation inhabits the land, unhurt by the cruel sting of the serpents, the Marmarian Psylli; their tongues are equal to powerful drugs; their very blood is safe, and can admit no venom, 895 even their charms unemployed. The nature of the place has commanded, that, mingled with the serpents, they should be unharmed. It has profited them to have placed their abodes in the midst of venom. Peace has been made between them and death. So great is their confidence in their blood; when a little babe, newly born, falls upon the earth, 900 fearing lest there may be any contamination by foreign intercourse, they test the doubtful offspring by the deadly asp; and as the bird of Jove, when from the heated egg it has brought forth its unfledged young ones, turns them to the rising of the sun; those which can endure the rays, and with direct glance 905 can sustain the light of heaven, are preserved for rearing; those which flinch from Phoebus, it leaves exposed; so does the Psyllian consider it a pledge of its origin, if any infant does not shudder at the snakes when touched, if any one plays with the presented serpents. Nor is that race only contented with its own safety; the Psyllian 910 is on the watch for strangers, and assists people against the hurtful monsters. And these, then following the Roman standards, as soon as the general ordered the tents to be pitched, in the first place, purged the sands which the compass of the trenches enclosed, with charms and words that put the snakes to fight. 915 A fire made with drugs surrounds the extremity of the camp. Here does wall-wort crackle, and foreign galbanum steam, and tamarisk rejoicing in no foliage, and eastern costus, and pungent all-heal, and Thessalian centaury; and sulphur-wort resounds in the flames, and the thapsus of Eryx. 920 Larch-trees, too, they burn, and southern-wood, with its smoke stifling to serpents, and the horns of stags bred afar. Thus is the night made safe for the men. But if any one in the day receives the fatal sting from the pest, then are the miracles of the magic nation seen, and the mighty struggle of the Psylli and of the imbibed venom. 925 For, in the first place, he marks the limbs by the contact of spittle, which restrains the virulence, and retains the poison in the wound. Then, with foaming tongue, he hurries over many a charm in a continuous murmur, nor does the rapid spread of the wound give time for breathing, or death allow him for an instant to be silent. 930 Full oft, indeed, the venom, received into the blackening marrow, charmed forth, takes to flight; but if any poison obeys too tardily, and, summoned forth and commanded, refuses to depart, then, lying down upon the pallid wounds, he licks them, sucking the poison with his mouth, and squeezes the limbs with his teeth, 935 and, holding the deadly matter drawn forth from the cold body, spits it out; and even from the taste of the poison it is quite easy for the Psylli to tell what serpent's bite it is that has taken effect. Relieved, then, at last, by this aid, the Roman youth wandered far and wide in the glowing fields. 940 Phoebe, her flames twice laid aside, her light twice recovered, rising and departing, beheld Cato wandering on the sands. And now for them, more and more did the sands begin to harden, and Libya, growing more compact, to return to glebe. And now afar a few branches of woods began to raise 945 themselves; and rude cottages of piled-up reeds to appear. How great joy in their wretchedness did it afford them by reason of an improved land, when first they beheld, facing them, the savage lions! Leptis was nearest at hand, in whose harbor they passed a quiet winter, devoid of clouds and heat. 950 When Caesar, satiated with the Emathian slaughter, withdrew, the other weights of care he threw aside, thinking of his son-in-law alone; vainly tracking whose footsteps scattered throughout the dry land, rumour his guide, he resorted to the waves, and coasted along the Thracian straits, and the sea famed 955 for love, and the tower of Hero on the tearful shore, where Helle, daughter of Nephele, took away its name from the deep. Not anywhere do the waves of a more limited tract of water divide Asia from Europe, although Pontus, by a narrow channel, divides Byzantium and Chalcedon, that produces the purple, 960 and Propontis, carrying along the Euxine, rushes from a small mouth. An admirer, too, of glory, he seeks the Sigaean sands, and the waters of Simois, and Rhoeteum, ennobled with the Grecian tomb, and the ghosts that owe so much to the Poets. He goes around the name of burnt Troy, and seeks 965 for the vast traces of the Phoebean wall. Now have barren woods and crumbling trunks of oak overwhelmed the abodes of Assaracus, and they take hold upon the Temples of the Gods with roots now wearied; and the whole of Pergamus is covered with brambles; even the ruins are gone. 970 He beholds the rocks of Hesione, and the concealed groves, the nuptial retreat of Anchises; in what cave the umpire took his seat; from what spot the boy was carried to the heavens; upon what mountain height the Naiad Oenone disported; no rock is there without a name. Unknowingly he passed over a rivulet creeping along the 975 dry sand, which once was Xanthus. Unthinkingly he was placing his step in the thick grass, a Phrygian native forbade him to tread upon the ghost of Hector. Torn asunder lay the stones, and showing no appearance of aught that was sacred. "Dost thou not behold," said the guide, "the Hercaean altars?" 980 O sacred and mighty labors of the Poets, all things do ye rescue from fate, and immortality do ye bestow on mortal men! Caesar, be not touched with envy at their hallowed fame; for if it is allowable to promise aught to the Latian Muses, so long as the honors of the Smyrnaean Poet shall last, 985 those to come will read both me and thee; my Pharsalia will survive, and by no age shall we be condemned to obscurity. When venerable antiquity had satisfied the view of the chieftain, he erected momentary altars with piles of turf heaped-up, and poured forth these prayers over flames that burned frankincense, to no purpose: 990 "Ye Gods who guardthese ashes, whoever haunt the Phrygian ruins; and ye Lares of my Aeneas, whom now the Lavinian abodes and Alba preserve, and upon whose altars still does the Phrygian fire glow, and Pallas, by no male beheld, the memorable pledge of empire in the hidden shrine, 995 the most illustrious descendant of the Julian race offers on your altars the pious frankincense, and solemnly invokes you in your former abodes: grant me for the future a fortunate career. I will restore the people; in grateful return the Ausonians shall return to the Phrygians their walls, and a Roman Pergamus shall arise." 1000 Thus having said, he seeks the fleet once more, and gives full sail to the prospering Cori; and desirous, the gale speeding him on, to compensate for the delays of Ilium, he is both carried past powerful Asia Minor, and leaves Rhodes behind with the foaming main. The seventh night, Zephyrus never allowing the ropes 1005 to flag, shows by the Pharian flames the Egyptian shores. But rising day obscures the torch of the night, before he enters the still waters. There he hears the shores filled with tumult, and confused voices with uncertain murmurs; and, hesitating to entrust himself to a doubtful power, he keeps 1010 the ships off from the shore. But a courtier, bearing the dreadful gift of the monarch, launching forth into the mid sea, carries the head of Magnus, concealed in a Pharian mantle, and first with impious words justifies the crime: "Subduer of the earth, greatest of the Roman race, 1015 and, what as yet thou dost not know, secure, thy son-in-law slain; the Pellaean monarch spares thee thy labors by land and by sea, and bestows on thee what alone has been wanting to the Emathian arms: for thee in thy absence has the civil war been finished. Magnus, seeking to repair the Thessalian ruin, lies prostrate 1020 by my sword: with a pledge so mighty, Caesar, do we purchase thee; by this blood has a treaty been concluded with thee. Accept the realms of Pharos, obtained with no bloodshed. Accept the rule of the streams of Nile, accept whatever thou wouldst give for the head of Magnus; and deem him a dependant 1025 worthy of thy camp, to whom the Fates have willed that there should be power so great over thy son-in-law. And think not this merit worthless, in that it has been acquired by an easy slaughter. He was the friend of his grandsire; to his banished parent he had restored the scepter. Why mention more? Thou shalt find a name 1030 for an exploit so great; or at least consult the fame of the world. If it is a crime, confess that thou dost owe the more to us, in that thou thyself dost not commit this crime." Thus having said, he uncovered the concealed head and held it up. The features, now languid in death, had changed the expression of the well-known face. 1035 Not at the first sight did Caesar condemn the gift, and turn his eyes away; his looks were fixed upon it until he recognized it. And when he saw that there was truth in the assertion of the crime, and thought it safe now to be an affectionate father-in-law, he poured forth tears that fell not of their own accord, and uttered groans from a joyous heart, 1040 not thinking otherwise to conceal the transparent joyousness of his mind than by tears; and he cancelled the vast merit of the tyrant, and chose rather to mourn the severed head of his son-in-law, than to be under an obligation for it. He, who with features unmoved had trodden upon the limbs of Senators, who with dry eyes had beheld 1045 the Emathian plains, to thee, Magnus, alone, dares not refuse a sigh. O most unhappy turn of fate! Didst thou, Caesar, pursue him with accursed warfare who was worthy to be bewailed by thee? Do not the ties of the united families influence thee, nor thy daughter and grandchild bid thee mourn? 1050 Dost thou suppose that among the people who love the name of Magnus this can avail thy cause? Perhaps thou art moved with envy of the tyrant, and art grieved that others have had this power over the vitals of the ensnared Magnus, and dost complain that the revenge of war has been lost, and that thy son-in-law has been snatched 1055 from the power of the haughty victor. Whatever impulse compels thee to weep, far from true affection does it differ. With these feelings, forsooth, art thou hunting over land and sea, that nowhere thy son-in-law, cut off, may perish? O how fortunately has this death been rescued from thy award! How much criminality 1060 has sad Fortune spared the Roman shame, in that, perfidious man, she did not suffer thee to have compassion on Magnus when still alive! Still further, in these words does he presume to dissemble, and he gains credit for the grief pretended by his countenance: "Remove, courtier, from my sight, the melancholy gift 1065 of thy king; worse has your wickedness deserved from Caesar than from Pompey. The sole reward of civil war, to give safety to the vanquished, have I lost. Were not his sister hated by the Pharian tyrant, I might have given to the king in return 1070 what he has deserved, and have sent, Cleopatra, thy head in return for such a present. Why has he wielded secret arms, and intruded his own weapons into my task? Did we create a sway for the Pellaean sword in the Thessalian fields? Was licence sought for in your realms? 1075 I would not endure Magnus ruling the Roman destinies together with me; Ptolemy, am I to put up with thee? In vain have we involved nations in civil war, if in this earth there is any other power than Caesar; if any land belongs to two. I would have turned the Latian prows from your shore; but regard for my 1080 fame forbids it, lest I should seem not to have condemned, but to have dreaded the blood-stained Pharos. And do not suppose that you can deceive me, the conqueror. For us as well was provided the like hospitality on your shores. That my own head is not borne in like fashion, the fortune of Thessaly causes. With greater danger, 1085 in truth, than could be dreaded, did we wield arms in the conflict; of exile and of the threats of my son-in-law and of Rome did I stand in dread; Ptolemy was the punisher of defeat. But I spare his years, and forgive him the crime. Let the tyrant know that for this murder nothing more than pardon can be granted. Do you bury in the tomb 1090 the head of a chieftain so mighty; but not alone that the earth may hide your guilt; give frankincense to the sepulcher, his due, and appease the head, and collect the ashes scattered on the shore, and give but one urn to the dispersed shades. Let the ghost be sensible of the arrival of his father-in-law, and hear 1095 his affectionate voice as he complains. Since he preferred everything to me, since his life he had rather owe to his Pharian dependant, a joyous day has been snatched away from nations; our reconcilement has been lost to the world. My prayers have been denied favoring Gods, that, embracing thee, Magnus, my victorious arms 1100 laid aside, I might beg of thee thy former affection and thy life; and, content with a sufficient reward of my labors, to be thy equal, then, by an enduring peace, I would have caused that, though conquered, thou mightst have been able to forgive the Gods, thou wouldst have caused that Rome would have been able to forgive me." Having thus said, 1105 he neither found a sharer in his grief, nor did the multitude believe him thus complaining; they suppressed their sighs, and concealed their feelings by joyous features, and dared with delight to behold the bloodstained deed, (O happy freedom!) while Caesar mourned.