Lucan, Civil War Book 4 Translated by H. T. Riley (1853) Formatted and by C. Chinn (2008) BUT afar in the remotest regions of the world stern Caesar wages a warfare, not injurious with much slaughter, but destined to give the greatest impulse to the fate of the chieftains. With equal rights, Afranius and Petreius were rulers 5 in that camp; an agreement divided the common command into equal shares; and the ever-watchful guard, protector of the trenches, obeyed alternate standards. With these, besides the Latian bands, there was the active Asturian and the light-armed Vettones, and the Celts, who migrated from 10 the ancient race of the Gauls, mingling their name with the Iberians. The rich soil swells with a slight elevation, and with a hill of gentle slope increases on high; upon this rises Ilerda, founded by ancient hands; the Sicoris, not the last among the Hesperian rivers, flows by with its placid waves, which a stone bridge 15 spans with its large arch, destined to endure the wintry waters. But an adjoining rock bears the standard of Magnus; nor on a smaller hill does Caesar rear his camp; a river in the middle divides the tents. The earth, expanding from here, unfolds extended fields, 20 the eye scarcely catching the limits; and thou dost bound the plains, impetuous Cinga, being forbidden to repel the waves and the shores of ocean in thy course; for, the streams being mingled, the Iberus, that gives it to the region, takes away thy name from thee. The first day of the warfare refrained from blood-stained battle, 25 and drew out both the strength of the chieftains and the numerous standards to be reviewed. They were ashamed of their wickedness; fear restrained the arms of them thus frenzied, and one day did they devote to country and the broken laws. Then, the light of day declining, Caesar by night surrounded his troops with a trench suddenly formed, while the 30 front ranks kept their post, and he deceived the foe, and, his maniples being drawn up near each other in close ranks, enveloped the camp. At early dawn he commanded them with a sudden movement to ascend a hill, which in the middle separated Ilerda in safety from the camp. Hither did both shame and terror drive the foe, 35 and, his troops hurried on, he first took possession of the hill; to these valor and the sword promised the spot, but to those possession of the place itself. The loaded soldiers struggled up the steep rocks; and with faces upturned the ranks clung to the opposing mountain, and, likely to fall upon their backs, were elevated by the shields 40 of those that followed. There was opportunity for no one to poise his dart, while he was tottering and strengthening his footsteps with his javelin fixed in the ground, while they were clinging to crags and stumps of trees, and, the enemy neglected, cut their way with the sword. The chieftain beheld the troops likely to fail with disaster, and ordered the cavalry to take part 45 in the warfare, and by a circuit to the left to place before them its protected side. Thus was the foot, readily, and with no one pressing upon it, relieved, and the disappointed conqueror, the battle being cut short, stood aloft. Thus far were the vicissitudes of arms; the rest of its fortunes did the weather give to the warfare, uncertain with its varying fluctuations. 50 The winter, clogged with the sluggish ice, and the dry north winds, kept the showers in the clouds, the sky being frozen up. Snows pinched the mountain districts, and hoar-frosts destined not to last on seeing the sun; and the whole earth nearer to the sky that sinks the Constellations 55 was parched, hardened beneath the winter's clear sky. But after the vernal carrier of Helle who fell off, that looks back upon the Constellations, brought back the warm Titan, and once again, the hours having been made equal according to the weights of the true Balance, the days exceeded in duration; then, the sun left behind, 60 at the time when Cynthia first shone dubious with her horn, she excluded Boreas, and received flames from Eurus. He, whatever clouds he find in his own region, hurls on towards the western world with Nabathaean blasts; both those which the Arabian feels, and the mists which the 65 Gangetic land exhales, and whatever the orient sun allows to collect, whatever Corus, the darkener of the eastern sky, has carried along, whatever has defended the Indians from the heat; the clouds removed afar from the east rendered tempestuous the day; nor could they with their heaviness burst upon the mid region of the world, 70 but hurried along the showers in their flight. Arctus and Notus are free from rains; towards Calpe alone floats the humid air. Here, where now the lofty sky of heaven meets with the limits of Zephyrus and the ocean, forbidden to pass beyond and they roll in their dense masses, and hardly does the space that separates 75 the earth from the heavens contain the mass of darkened air. And now, pressed by the sky, they are thickened into dense showers, and, united together, they flow downward; nor do the lightnings preserve their flames, although they flash incessantly; the bolts are quenched by the rains. On this side, with arch incomplete, the rainbow with its curve 80 spans the air, varying in color with hardly any light, and drinks of the ocean, and carries the waves, borne away, up to the clouds, and restores to the heavens the ocean spread beneath. And now, the Pyrenean snows, which Titan never was able to melt, flow down, and the rocks are wet with broken ice. 85 Then, the waters which spring forth from wonted channels have no passage, such an extended stream does all the bed of the river receive away beyond the banks. Now the shipwrecked arms of Caesar are floating in the plain, and, carried along with a vast torrent, the camp is swept away; in the deep trench rivers overflow. 90 No capture of cattle is easy, no fodder do the furrows under water bear; through mistake of the covered way, the foragers, scattered abroad, are deceived amid the fields hidden from their sight. And now, ever the first attendant on great calamities, ravening famine comes, and, besieged by no enemy, 95 the soldier is in want. For a whole fortune, one, not a prodigal, buys a little corn. O the pallid thirst for gain! The gold proffered, a starving seller is not found wanting. Now hills and elevations lie concealed; now one continued marsh hides all the rivers, and sinks them in its vast gulf; 100 entirely it absorbs the rocks, and bears away the shelters of wild beasts, and carries off themselves; and, stronger than they, it whirls in sudden vortices the roaring waters and repulses the tides of ocean. Nor is the night, spread over the sky, sensible that Phoebus rises; the disfigured face of heaven 105 and the united shades mingle the varying traces of objects. Thus lies the remotest part of the world, which the snowy zone and perpetual winters oppress; in the heavens no stars does it behold, not anything does it produce with its barren cold, but with ice it moderates the fires of the Constellations in the middle of the system. 110 Thus, O supreme Parent of the world, thus, Neptune, ruler in the second rank of the ocean trident, mayst thou do, and mayst thou render dense the air with perpetual showers; do thou, Neptune, forbid to return, whatever streams thou hast sent forth. Let not the rivers find a downward course to the sea-shore, 115 but be beaten back by the waters of the main; and let the shaken earth crumble into channels for the streams. These plains let the Rhine inundate, these the Rhone; hither let the rivers direct their vast resources. Hither send the Rhipaean snows to thaw; hither poor forth the pools and lakes, and, wherever they extended, the sluggish marshes, 120 and rescue from civil wars the wretched lands. But the Fortune of the hero, contented with this slight alarm, returns in full career, and more than usual do the propitious Deities favour him and merit his forgiveness. Now the air is more serene, and Phoebus, equal to the waters, has scattered the dense clouds 125 into fleecy forms, and the nights are reddening with the approaching light; and, the due order of things observed, moisture departs from the stars, and whatever of the water is poised aloft seeks the lower regions. The woods begin to raise their foliage, the hills to emerge from the standing waters, and the valleys to become hard, the light of day beheld. 130 And when the Sicoris regains its banks and leaves the plains, in the first place the white willow, its twigs steeped in water, is woven into small boats, and covered over, the bullock being slaughtered, adapted for passengers it floats along the swelling stream. Thus does the Venetian on the flowing Padus, and on the expanded 135 ocean the Briton sail; thus, when the Nile covers everything, is the Memphitic boat framed of the swampy papyrus. Thrown across on these vessels the army hastens on either side to curve the cut-down wood; and dreading the swelling of the threatening river, it does not place the wooden foundations on the edges of the banks, 140 but extends the bridge into the midst of the fields. And lest the Sicoris may dare anything with its waters rising once again, it is drawn away into channels, and, the stream being divided by canals, it pays the penalty for the more swollen waters. When Petreius sees that all things proceed with fortune to Caesar, he abandons the lofty Ilerda, 145 and, distrusting the might of the known world, seeks nations unsubdued, and always fierce in arms by courting death, and he directs his course to the limits of the world. Caesar, beholding the hills forsaken and the camp abandoned, bids them take up arms, and not look for bridge 150 or fords, but surmount the stream with hardy arms. Obedience is given, and the soldier, rushing to the battle, eagerly hastens on a path which in flight he would have dreaded. Afterwards, their arms regained, they warm their soaking limb, and, by running, reinvigorate their joints chilled by the stream, until the shadows decrease, 155 the day speeding onwards to the noon. And now the cavalry over takes the hindmost ranks, and, undecided for flight and for fight, they are detained. Two rocks raise their craggy ridges from the plain, a hollow vale being in the midst. On the one side the elevated earth forms a chain of lofty hills, between which with darkened route 160 safe paths lie concealed. These straits an enemy gaining possession of, Caesar perceives that the warfare may be carried thence into the remote regions of the earth and into savage nations. "Go," says he, "without keeping your ranks, and in your speedy course turn back your hastening force, and present your faces and your threatening countenances to the battle; 165 and let not the cowards fall by an ignoble death; as they fly let them receive the weapon straight in the breast." He spoke, and he came in front of the foe speeding onward to the mountains. There they pitched their camps a little distant from each other, with a narrow trench between. After their eyes, straining by reason of no 170 distance, had mutually caught sight of each other's countenances in full view, and they beheld their own brothers, and children, and fathers, the wickedness of civil warfare was revealed. For a little time they held their peace through fear; only with signs and the waving of the sword did they salute their friends. Soon, when, with more powerful impulses, 175 ardent affection overpowered the rules of war, the soldiers ventured to pass the trench, and to stretch the extended hands for an embrace. One calls out the name of his host; another shouts to a neighbour; a youth spent together reminds another of their boyish pursuits; nor is there a Roman that does not recognize an enemy as an acquaintance. 180 The arms are wet with tears, with sighs they interrupt their kisses; and, although stained with no blood, the soldier dreads to have done what he might have done. Why dost thou beat thy breast? Why, madman, dost thou groan? Why dost thou pour forth empty laments, and not own that of thine own accord thou hast been obedient to criminality? 185 Dost thou so greatly dread him, whom thou thyself dost make to be dreaded? Let the trumpet-call sound to battle, do thou neglect the ruthless signal; let them bear on the standards, stay behind; soon will the civic strife come to an end, and Caesar, a private person, will love his son-in-law. Now, Concord, do thou approach, encircling all things in thine everlasting 190 embrace, O thou salvation of things and of the harmonizing world, and hallowed love of the universe! now does our age hold a vast influence on what is to come. The skulking places of crimes so many have come to an end; pardon is torn away from an erring people; they have recognized their own friends. O Fates, the Deity thus unpropitious, 195 that by reason of a little respite increase calamities so great! There was a truce, and the soldiers, mingled in either camp, wandered at large; in friendship on the hard turf they prepared the banquets; and with the mingled wine the libations flowed on the grassy hearths, and, their couches united, 200 the tale of the wars prolonged the sleepless night: on what plain they first came to a stand, from what right hand sped the lance. While they are boasting of the valiant things which they have done, and while they are disagreeing on many a point, what alone the Fates are seeking, confidence is renewed in them, wretched beings, and all the future criminality 205 waxes the stronger by reason of their affection. For after the treaty for a truce is known to Petreius, and he sees himself and his own camp being betrayed, he arouses the right hands of his household troops to the accursed warfare, and, surrounded with a multitude, headlong drives the unarmed enemy from the camp, and separates them, joined in embraces, 210 with the sword, and with plenteous bloodshed disturbs the peace. Fierce anger adds words to provoke the battle: "O soldiers, unmindful of your country, forgetful of your standards, if you cannot bestow this on the cause of the Senate, to return, its champions, Caesar being overcome; at least you can, 215 to be overcome. While there is the sword, and the Fates are yet uncertain, and blood shall not be wanting to flow from many a wound, will you be going over to a tyrant, and will you raise standards condemned for treason? And will Caesar have to be entreated that he will make no distinction between his slaves? Is life also to be begged for for your generals? 220 Never shall my safety be the price and the reward of abominable treason; civil wars tend not to this, that we should live on. Under the name of peace we are betrayed. Nations would not be digging iron out of the mine that retreats far within the earth, no walls would be fortifying cities, 225 no spirited steed would be going to the wars, no fleet upon the ocean to spread its tower-bearing ships upon the deep, if liberty were ever righteously bartered in return for peace. Oaths sworn in accursed criminality are to bind my enemies, forsooth! but by you is your fidelity less esteemed, 230 because it is allowed you fighting for a just cause to hope for pardon as well. O shocking compact of disgrace! Now, Magnus, ignorant of thy lot throughout the whole world thou art levying armies, and art arousing the monarchs who possess the extremities of the world, when perhaps by our treaty safety 235 is already basely promised thee." Thus he spoke, and he aroused all their feelings, and brought back the fondness for criminality. Thus, when, unused to the woods, wild beasts have grown tame in an enclosed prison, and have laid aside their threatening countenances, and have learned to submit to man; if a little blood comes 240 to their burning mouths, their rage and fury return, and, reminded by the tasted gore, their jaws swell; their anger waxes hot, and hardly does it withhold from the trembling keeper. They rush on to all wickedness, and broken faith commits excesses, which, amid the dark night of battle, Fortune, to the disgrace of the Deities, 245 might have been guilty of; amid the tables and the couches, they stab the breasts which just before they have enfolded in their embraces. And, although at first lamenting they unsheathe their weapons, when the sword, the dissuader from right, adheres to the right hand, soon as they strike, they hate their own friends and strengthen their 250 wavering spirits with the blow. Now the camp waxes hot with the tumult, and with rise riot of criminality; the necks of parents are wrenched. And as though hidden criminality might be valueless, they expose all their monstrous deeds before the faces of their chieftains; they take delight in being guilty. Thou, Caesar, although despoiled of many a soldier, dost recognize 255 the Gods of heaven as favouring thee. Nor indeed in the Emathian plains was thy fortune greater, nor in the waves of Phocaean Massilia; nor were exploits so great performed in the Pharian seas; since through this crime alone in the civil warfare thou shalt be the leader of the better cause. Polluted by an accursed slaughter, 260 the generals dare not entrust their troops to an adjoining camp, and again they take flight towards the walls of lofty Ilerda. The cavalry, meeting them, cuts off all the plain, and encloses the enemy on the parched hills. Then Caesar strives to surround them destitute of water with a deep 265 entrenchment, and not to permit the camp to reach the banks of the river, or the outworks to wind around plenteous springs. When they beheld the road to death, their terror was turned into headlong rage. The soldiers slew the horses, no useful aid to people blockaded; and at length, hope laid aside, 270 being compelled to condemn all flight, doomed to fall they are borne upon the foe. When Caesar saw them running down with extended front, and, devoted, making their way to certain death, he said: "Soldiers, now keep back your darts, and withhold your swords front them as they rush on; with no blood shall the victory be gained for me; 275 he is not conquered at no cost, who with his throat exposed challenges the foe. See how life being hated by them, valueless to themselves, the youths rush on, now threatening to perish with loss to myself. They will feel no wounds, they will fall on the swords, and rejoice in shedding their blood. Let this zeal forsake their minds, let this mad fit subside. 280 Let them be rid of their wish to die." Thus did he suffer them to be inflamed to no purpose as they threatened, and, the war forbidden, to wax faint, until, Phoebus having sunk, night substituted her lights. Then, witch no opportunity was given of mingling in the fight, by degrees their fierce anger moderated, and their spirits cooled; 285 just as wounded breasts manifest the greatest courage while the pain and the wound is recent, and the warm blood gives an active impulse to the nerves, and the bones have not as yet cleaved to the skin; if the victor stands conscious of the sword being driven home, and withholds his hands, then a cold numbness fastens 290 on the limbs and spirit, the strength being withdrawn, after the congealed blood has contracted the dried-up wounds. And now deprived of water, the earth first dug up, they seek hidden springs and concealed streams; and not alone with mattocks and sturdy spades do they dig up 295 the fields, but with their own swords: and a well upon the hollowed mountain is sunk us far as the surface of the watery plain. Not so deeply down, not daylight left so far behind, does the pale searcher for the Asturian gold bury himself; still, neither do any rivers resound in their hidden course, 300 nor any new streams gush forth, on the pumice-stone being struck; nor do the sweating caverns distil with small drops, nor is the gravel disturbed, moved upwards by the little spring. Then, exhausted with much perspiration, the youths are drawn up above, wearied with the hard incisions in the flinty rocks. 305 And you, waters, in the search for you cause them to be the less able to endure the parching atmosphere. Nor do they, wearied, refresh their bodies with feasting, and, loathing food, they make hunger their resource against thirst. If a softer soil betrays moisture, both hands squeeze the unctuous clods 310 over their mouths. If turbid filth is lying unmoved upon the black mud, all the soldiers vying with each other fall down for the polluted draughts, and dying, quaff the waters, which, likely to live, they would have been unwilling: after the manner, too, of wild beasts, they dry the distended cattle, and, milk denied, 315 the loathsome blood is sucked from the exhausted udder. Then they wring the grass and leaves, and strip off the branches dripping with dew, and if at all they can, they squeeze juices from the crude shoots or the tender sap. O happy they, whom the barbarian enemy, flying, has slain 320 amid the fields with poison mingled with the springs! Though, Caesar, thou shouldst openly pour into these streams poison, and the gore of wild beasts, and the pallid aconite that grows upon the Dictaen rocks, the Roman youth, not deceived, would drink. Their entrails are scorched by the flame, 325 and their parched mouths are clammy, rough with scaly tongues. Now do their veins shrink up, and, refreshed with no moisture, their lungs contract the alternating passages for the air; and hard- drawn sighs hurt their ulcerated palates. Still, however, they open their mouths, and catch at the night air. 330 They long for the showers, by whose onward force but just now all things were inundated, and their looks are fixed upon the dry clouds. And that the more the want of water may afflict them in their wretchedness, they are not encamped upon the scorching Meroë beneath the sky of the Crab, where the naked Garamantes plough; 335 but, the army, entrapped between the flowing Sicoris and the rapid Iberus, looks upon the adjacent streams. Now subdued, the generals yielded, and, arms being laid down, Afranius, the adviser to sue for peace, dragging after him his half-dead squadrons into the enemy's camp, stood suppliantly 340 before the feet of the conqueror. His dignity is preserved as he entreats, not beaten down by calamities, and he performs between his former good fortune and his recent misfortunes all the parts of one conquered, but that one a general, and with a breast void of care he sues for pardon: "If the Fates had laid me prostrate under a degenerate enemy, 345 there was not wanting the bold right hand for hurrying on my own death; but now the sole cause of my entreating for safety is, Caesar, that I deem thee worthy to grant life. By no zeal for party are we influenced; nor have we taken up arms as foes to thy designs. Us in fact did the civil warfare 350 find generals; and to our former cause was fidelity preserved so long as it could be. The Fates we do not withstand; the western nations we yield, the eastern ones we open unto thee, and we permit thee to feel assured of the world left behind thy back. Nor has blood, shed upon the plains, concluded the war for thee, 355 nor sword and wearied troops. This alone forgive thy foes, that thou dost conquer. And no great things are asked. Grant repose to the wearied; suffer us unarmed to pass the life which thou dost bestow; consider that our troops are lying prostrate along the plains; nor does it indeed befit thee to mingle with 360 fortunate arms those condemned, and the captured to take part in thy triumphs; this multitude has fulfilled its destiny. This do we ask, that thou wilt not compel us, conquered, to conquer along with thyself." He spoke; but Caesar, readily prevailed upon, and serene in countenance, was appeased, and remitted continuance in the warfare and all punishment. 365 As soon as ever the compact for the desired peace had pleased them, the soldiers ran down to the now unguarded rivers; they fell down along the banks, and troubled the conceded streams. In many the long-continued draughts of water suddenly gulped not permitting the air to have a passage along the empty veins, 370 compresses and shuts in the breath; nor even yet does the parching plague give way; but the craving malady, their entrails now filled with the stream, demands water for itself. Afterwards strength returned to the nerves, and power to the men. O Luxury, prodigal of resources, never content with moderate provision, 375 and gluttony, craving for food sought for over land and sea, and thou, pride of a sumptuous table, learn from this with how little we have the power to prolong life, and how much it is that nature demands. No wine, poured forth under a Consul gone out of memory, refreshes them fainting; 380 from no gold and porcelain do they drink; but from the pure water does life return. Enough for the people is the stream and bread. Ah, wretched they who engage in wars! Then, leaving their arms to the victor, the soldiers, unharmed with spoiled breast and free from cares, are dispersed among their own cities. 385 Oh! how much do they regret, on having obtained the granted peace, that they have ever with vibrated shoulders poised the weapon, and have endured thirst, and have in vain asked the Gods for prosperous battles. To those, forsooth, who have experienced successful warfare, there still remain so many doubtful battles, so many toils throughout the world; 390 should wavering Fortune never make a slip in success, so often must victory be gained, blood be poured forth upon all lands, and through his fortunes so numerous Caesar be followed. Happy he, who was able then to know, the ruin of the world impending, in what place he was to lie. No battles summoned them forth 395 in their weariness; no trumpet-call broke their sound slumbers. Now do the wives, and the innocent children, and the humble dwellings, and the land their own, receive no husbandmen drafted off. This burden as well does Fortune remove from them at ease, that tormenting party spirit is removed from their minds. The one 400 is the giver of their safety, the other was their leader. Thus do they alone, in happiness, look on upon the cruel warfare with no favoring wishes. Not the same fortune of war lasted throughout the whole earth; but against the side of Caesar something did it dare, where the waves of the Adriatic sea beat against the extended Salonae, 405 and the warm Jader flows forth towards the gentle Zephyrs. There, trusting in the warlike race of the Curictans, whom the land rears, flowed around by the Adriatic sea, Antony, taking up his position in that distant region, is shut up, safe from the onset of war, if only famine, 410 that besieges with certainty, would withdraw. The earth affords no forage for feeding the horses, the yellow-haired Ceres produces no crops of corn; the soldiers strip the plains of grass, and, the fields now shorn close, with their wretched teeth they tear the dry grass from off the turf of their encampment. 415 As soon as they behold their friends on the shore of the opposite mainland and Basilus their leader, a new stratagem for flight across the sea is discovered. For, not according to wont do they extend the keels and build aloft the sterns, but with an unusual shape they fasten firm planks together for supporting a massive tower. 420 For, on every side, empty caissons support the raft, a series of which, fastened together, with extended chains receives alder planks laid obliquely in double, rows. Nor does it carry its oars exposed to the weapons in the open front; but that sea which it has surrounded with the beams the oars strike, 425 and it shows the miracle of a silent course, because it neither carries sails nor beats the discovered waves. Then the straits are watched, while the ebbing tide is retreating with lessening waves, and the sands are laid bare by the sea flowing out. And now, the waters retiring, the shores increase; 430 the raft, being launched, is borne gliding along the receding tide, and its two companions. Upon them all a lofty tower is threatening above, and the decks are formidable with nodding pinnacles. Octavius, the guardian of the Illyrian waves, was unwilling immediately to assault the raft, and withheld his swift ships, until his 435 prey should be increased on a second passage, and invited them, rashly going on board, to try deep once more through the pacific appearance of the sea. Thus, while the hunter encloses the scared deer in the feather-foil, as they dread the scent of the strong-smelling feathers, or while he is lifting the nets on the forked sticks duly arranged, 440 he holds the noisy mouth of the light Molossian hound, and restrains the Spartan and the Cretan dogs; neither is the wood permitted to any dog, except the one which, with nose pressed to the ground, scents the footsteps, and, the prey found, knows how not to bark, contented by shaking the leash to point out the lair. 445 And no delay is there; the masses are filled again, and, the rafts greedily sought, the island is abandoned, at the time when at nightfall the waning light now opposes the first shades of night. But the Cilicians of Pompey with their ancient skill prepare to lay stratagems beneath the sea, and suffering the surface 450 of the main to be free, suspend chains in the midst of the deep, and permit the connected links to hang loose, and fasten them to the rocks of the Illyrian cliffs. Neither the first raft nor the one that follows is retarded; but the third mass sticks fast, and by a rope drawn follows on to the rocks. 455 The hollow cliffs hang over the sea, and, strange! the mass stands, always about to fall, and with the woods overshadows the deep. Hither did the ocean often bear ships, wrecked by the north wind, and drowned bodies, and hide them in the darkened caverns. The sea enclosed restores the spoil; and when 460 the caverns have vomited forth the water, the waves of the eddying whirlpool surpass in rage the Tauromenian Charybdis. Here one mass, laden with colonists of Opitergium, stopped short; this the ships, unmoored from all their stations, surrounded; others swarmed upon the rocks and the sea-shore. 465 Vulteius perceived the silent stratagems beneath the waves (he was the captain of the raft), who having in vain endeavored to cut the chains with the sword, without any hope demanded the fight, uncertain which way to turn his back, which way his breast, to the warfare. Valor, however, in this calamity effected as much as, ensnared, 470 it was able. The fight was between so many thousands pouring in upon the captured raft and scarcely on the other side a complete cohort; not long indeed, for black night concealed the dubious light, and darkness caused a truce. Then thus with magnanimous voice did Vulteius encourage 475 the cohort dismayed and dreading their approaching fate: "Youths, free no longer than one short night, consult in this limited time for your fortunes in this extremity. A short life remains for no one who in it has time to seek death for himself; nor, youths, is the glory of death 480 inferior, in running to meet approaching fate. The period of their life to come being uncertain to all, equal is the praise of courage, both in sacrificing the years which you have hoped for, and in cutting short the moments of your closing existence, while by your own hand you hasten your fate. No one is compelled 485 to wish to die. No way for flight is open; our fellow-citizens stand on every side bent against our throats. Determine on death, and all fear is gone; whatever is necessary, that same desire. Still, we have not to fall amid the dark haze of warfare, or when armies envelope their own darts with the shades 490 intermingling, when heaped up bodies are lying on the plain, and every death goes to the common account, and valor perishes overwhelmed. In a ship have the Gods placed us conspicuous to our allies and to the foe. The seas will find us witnesses, the land will find them, the island from the summit of its cliffs will present 495 them; the two sides from opposite shores will be spectators. Fortune! an example in our deaths how great and memorable thou art contemplating I know not. Whatever memorials in ages past fidelity has afforded and a soldier's duty preserved by the sword, the same our youths will transcend. 500 For, Caesar, to fall upon our own swords for thee we deem to be but little; but to us, hemmed in, no greater ones are existing, for us to give as pledges of affection so great. An envious lot has cut off much from our praises, in that we are not environed, captured together with our old men and children. 505 Let the enemy know that we are men unsubdued, and dread our courage, glowing and eager for death, and be glad that no more rafts have stuck fast. They will be trying to corrupt us with treaties and with a disgraced life. O would that, in order that our distinguished death might gain the greater 510 fame, they would proffer pardon, and bid us hope for safety; that they might not, when we pierce our vitals with the warm weapon, think that we are desperate. By great valor must we deserve, that Caesar, a few among so many thousands being lost, may call this a loss and a calamity. Though the Fates should afford 515 an egress and let us escape, I would not wish to avoid what is pressing on. I have parted with life, companions, and am wholly impelled by the longing for approaching death. It is a frenzy. To those alone is it granted to feel it whom now the approach of doom is influencing; and the Gods conceal from those destined to live, in order that they may 520 endure to live, that it is sweet to die." Thus did courage arouse all the spirits of the magnanimous youths; whereas, before the words of their leader, they all beheld with moistened eyes the stars of heaven, and were in dread at the turning of the Wain of the Bear, those same, when his precepts had influenced their brave minds, 525 now longed for day. Nor was the sky then slow to sink the stars in the main; for the sun was occupying the Ledaean Constellations when his light is most elevated in the Crab. A short night was then urging the Thessalian arrows. The rising day disclosed the Istrians standing on the rocks, 530 and the warlike Liburnians on the sea with the Grecian fleet. The fight suspended, they first tried to conquer by a treaty, if perchance life might become more desirable to those entrapped, through the very delay of death. Life now forsworn, the devoted youths stood resolved, and, secure in fight, their deaths 535 assured to themselves by their own hands; and in no one of them did the outcry of the enemy shake the minds of the heroes prepared for the worst; and at the same time, both by sea and land, few in number, they bore up against innumerable forces, so great was their confidence in death. And when it seemed that in the warfare blood enough had flowed, 540 their fury was turned from the enemy. First, Vulteius himself, the commander of the float, his throat bared, now demanding death, exclaims: "Is there any one of the youths whose right hand is worthy of my blood, and who, with certain assurance, can testify that with wounds from me he is ready to die?" Having said no more, 545 already has not one sword alone pierced his entrails. He commends all, but him to whom he owes the first wounds, dying, he slays with a grateful stroke. The others rush to meet each other, and the whole horrors of warfare on one side do they perpetrate. Thus did the Dircaean 550 band spring up from the seed sown by Cadmus, and fall by the wounds of its own side, a dire presage to the Theban brothers; the earth-born ones, too, sprung on the plains of Phasis from the wakeful teeth of the dragon, the anger being enflamed by magic charms, filled the furrows so vast with kindred blood; 555 and Medea herself shuddered at the crime which she had wrought with herbs before untried. Thus engaged to mutual destruction do the youths fall, and in the deaths of the heroes death has too great a share in the valor; equally do they slay and fall with deadly wounds; nor does his right hand 560 deceive any one. Nor are the wounds owing to the swords driven home; the blade is run against by the breast, and with their throats they press against the hand of him who gives the wound. When with a blood-stained fate brothers rush upon brothers, and the son upon the parent, still, with no trembling right hand, with all their might they drive 565 home the swords. There is but one mark of duty in those who strike, not to repeat the blow. Now, half-dead, they drag their entrails, gushing out, to the hatches, and they pour into the sea plenteous blood. It gives them pleasure to behold the scorned light of day, and with proud looks to gaze upon their conquerors, and to feel 570 the approach of death. Now is the raft beheld heaped up with the bloody slaughter, and the victors give the bodies to the funeral piles, the generals wondering that to any one his leader can be of value so great. Fame, spreading abroad over the whole world, has spoken with greater praises of no ship. 575 Still, after these precedents of the heroes, cowardly nations will not come to a sense how far from difficult it is to escape slavery by one's own hand. But tyrants' rule is feared by reason of the sword, and liberty is galled by cruel arms, and is ignorant that swords were given that no one might be a slave. 580 Death, I wish that thou wouldst refuse to withdraw the fearful from life, but that valour alone could bestow thee! Not more inactive than this warfare was the one which at that time was raging in the Libyan fields. For the bold Curio unmoors his ships from the shore of Lilybaeum, and, no boisterous north wind being caught in his sails, 585 makes for the shores between the half-buried towers of great Carthage and Clupea with its well-known encampment; and his first camp he pitches at a distance from the surging sea, where the sluggish Bagrada betakes itself, the plougher-up of the parched sand. Thence he repairs to the hills and the rocks eaten away on every side, 590 which antiquity, not without reason, names the realms of Antaeus. A rude countryman informed him, desiring to know the reasons for the ancient name, what was known to him through many ancestors. "Earth, not as yet barren, after the Giants being born, conceived a dreadful offspring in the Libyan caves. 595 Nor to the Earth was Typhon so just a ground of pride, or Tityus and the fierce Briareus; and she spared the heavens, in that she did not bring forth Antaeus in the Phlegraean fields. By this privilege as well did the Earth redouble the strength so vast of her offspring, in that, when they touched their parent, 600 the limbs now exhausted were vigorous again with renewed strength. This cavern was his abode; they report that under the lofty rock he lay concealed, and had caught lions for his food. For his sleep no skins of wild beasts were wont to afford a bed, no wood a couch, and lying on the bare earth 605 he recovered his strength. The Libyans, tillers of the fields, perish; they perish whom the sea has brought; and his strength, for a long time not using the aid of falling, slights the gift of the Earth; unconquered was he in strength by all, although he kept standing. At length the report of the blood-stained pest 610 was spread abroad, and invited to the Libyan shores the magnanimous Alcides, who was relieving the land and sea from monsters. He threw off the skin of the lion of Cleonae, Antaeus that of a Libyan lion. The stranger besprinkled his limbs with oil, the custom of the Olympic exercises observed; 615 the other, not entirely trusting to touching his mother with his feet, sprinkled warm sand as an aid to his limbs. With many a twist they linked their hands and arms. For long, in vain were their throats tried at by their ponderous arms, and with fixed features the head was held unmoved; 620 and they wondered at having found their match. Nor in the beginning of the contest was Alcides willing to employ his strength, and he wearied out the hero; which his continued panting betrayed, and the cold sweat from his fatigued body. Then his wearied neck began to shake; then breast to be pressed 625 upon by breast; then the thighs to totter, struck sideways by the hand. Now does the victor grasp the back of the hero as it is giving way, and, his flanks squeezed up, he encircles him around the middle; and his feet inserted, he spreads asunder his thighs, and stretches the hero with all his limbs upon the ground. The scorching 630 earth carries off his sweat; with warm blood his veins are filled. The muscles swell out, and in all the limbs he grows hard, and, his body refreshed, he loosens the Herculean grasp. Alcides stands astounded at strength so vast; and not so much, although he was then inexperienced, did he dread 635 the Hydra cut asunder in the Inachian waves, her snakes renewed. Equally matched they struggle, the one with strength from the earth, the other with it his own. Never has it been allowed his unrelenting stepdame to be more in hopes. She sees the limbs of the hero exhausted by sweat, and his neck parched, upon which he bore Olympus. 640 And when again he lays hands upon his wearied limbs, Antaeus, not waiting for the might of the foe, falls of his own accord, and, strength received, rises more mighty. Whatever vigor there is in the ground it is infused into his weary limbs, and with the struggling hero the earth labors. 645 When at last Alcides perceived the aid of the contact of his parent availing him, he said, 'Thou must stand, and no further shalt thou be entrusted to the ground, and thou shalt be forbidden to be laid upon the earth. With thy compressed limbs thou shalt cling fast to my breast; thus far, Antaeus, shalt thou fall.' Thus having said he raised aloft 650 the youth, struggling to gain the ground. Earth was not able to infuse strength into the limbs of her dying son. Alcides held him by the middle; now was his breast numbed by a torpid chill; for long he did not entrust his foe to the earth. Hence, recording antiquity, the guardian of ancient times and 655 the admirer of herself, has marked the land with his name. But a more noble name has Scipio given to these hills, who called back the Punic foe from the Latian towers; for this was the encampment on the Libyan land being first reached. Look! you perceive the vestiges of the ancient entrenchment. 660 Roman victory first took possession of these plains." Curio, overjoyed, as though the fortune of the spot would wage the war, and preserve for himself the destinies of former commanders, pitching his unlucky tents upon the fortunate spot, indulged his camp with hopes, and took their omen away from 665 the hills, and with unequal strength provoked the warlike foes. All Africa, which had submitted to the Roman standards, was then under the command of Varus; who, though trusting in the Latian strength, still summoned from every side the forces of the king of the Libyan nation, and standards that attended their Juba 670 from the extremities of the world. Not a more extended region was there under any master. Where the realms are the longest, on the western extremity, Atlas, in the vicinity of Gades, terminates them; on the south, Ammon, adjacent to the Syrtes; but where in its breadth extends the scorching track of his vast realms, it divides the 675 Ocean, and the burnt-up regions of the scorched zone suffice for the space that intervenes. Races so numerous follow the camp; the Autololes and the wandering Numidians, and the Gaetulian, ever ready with his uncaparisoned horse; then the Moor, of the same color as the Indian; the needy Nasamonian, the swift Marmaridae, 680 mingled with the scorched Garamantes, and the Mazagian, that will rival the arrows of the Medes, when he hurls the quivering spear; the Massylian nation, too, that sitting on the bare back of the horse, with a slight wand guides the mouth unacquainted with the bit; the African huntsman, too, who is wont to wander with his empty cot, 685 and at the same time, since he has no confidence in his weapons, accustomed to cover the infuriate lions with flowing garments. Nor alone did Juba prepare arms in the cause of civil strife, but aroused, he granted war to his private resentment. Him too, in the year in which he had defiled the Gods above and things 690 human, by a tribunitial law Curio had attempted to expel from the throne of his forefathers, and to wrest, Libya from its king, while, Rome, he was making a kingdom of thee. He, remembering his sorrows, fancies that this war is the fruit of himself retaining the sceptre. At this report, therefore, of the king approaching Curio now trembles. 695 And because those youths have never been entirely devoted to the cause of Caesar, nor as soldiers had been tried in the waves of the Rhine, having been taken in the citadel of Corfinium, both unfaithful to their new leaders, and wavering to their former one, they deem either side equally right. But after he perceives all faint 700 with inactive dread, and the nightly guards of the trenches forsaken by desertion, thus in his agitated mind does he speak : "By daring great fears are concealed; to arms will I resort the first. Let the soldiers descend to the level plains while they are yet my own; rest ever produces a wavering disposition; 705 remove all consideration by fight. When the dire intent waxes strong with the sword grasped in hand, and helmets conceal their shame, who thinks of comparing the leaders, who of weighing the causes? The side he has taken to that does he wish well; just as in the shows of the fatal sand no ancient grudge compels those brought forward to combat 710 together, but they hate those pitted against them." Thus having said, in the open plains he drew up his ranks, whom the fortune of war, about to deceive him with future woes, blandly received. For he drove Varus from the field, and smote their backs exposed in disgraceful flight, until their camp prevented it. 715 But after the sad battle of the worsted Varus was heard of by Juba; joyous that the glory of the warfare might be recovered by his own aid, by stealth he hurried on his troops, and by enjoined silence retarded the report of himself approaching, fearing this alone, through want of caution to be dreaded by the enemy. 720 Sabura, next after the king among the Numidians, was sent before to provoke the commencing battle with a small troop and to draw them on, as though pretending that the warfare was entrusted to himself. He himself in a hollow valley keeps back the strength of the realm; just as the more crafty enemy with his tail deceives the Pharian 725 asps, and provokes them, enraged by a deceiving shadow; and obliquely seizes with safe grip the head of the serpent, stretching out in vain into the air, without its deadly matter; then the venom, baulked of its purpose, is squeezed out, and its jaws overflow with the wasted poison. 730 To the stratagems Fortune given success; and fierce, the strength of the concealed foe not surveyed, Curio commands his cavalry to sally forth from the camp by night, and to spread far and wide over the unknown plains. He himself, about the first break of dawn, commands the signal 735 to sound in the camp, often and vainly having begged them to apprehend Libyan stratagem and the Punic warfare, always fraught with treachery. The destiny of approaching death had delivered up the youth to the Fates, and the civil warfare urged on its author to his doom. Over steep rocks, 740 over crags, along an abrupt path he led his standards; when, espied afar from the tops of the hills, the enemy, in their stratagem, gave way a little, until, the hill being left, he entrusted his extended ranks to the wide plains. He, believing this a flight, and unacquainted with the concealed design, 745 as though victorious, led forward his forces into the midst of the fields. Then first was the stratagem disclosed, and the flying Numidians, the mountains filled on every side, hemmed in the troops. At the same moment the leader himself was astounded, and the multitude, doomed to perish. The fearful sought not flight, the valiant not battle; 750 since not there did the charger, moved by the clangor of trumpets, shake the rocks with the beating of his hoof, working at his mouth that champs the stiffened reins, and spread his mane, and prick up his ears, and not with the varying movement of the feet did he struggle not to be at rest. His wearied neck hangs down. His limbs reek with sweat, 755 and his parched mouth is clammy, his tongue hanging out; his hoarse breast, which an incessant panting excites, groans aloud; and the breath, hardly drawn, contracts the spent flanks; the foam, too, grows hard upon the blood-stained bits. And now, compelled neither by whips nor goads, 760 nor though prompted by frequent spurring, do they increase their speed. By wounds are the horses urged on. Nor avails it any one to have cut short the, delay of his horny-hoofed steed, for they have neither space nor force for the onset; he is only carried on against the foe, and affords room for the javelins, the wound being offered. 765 But when first the skirmishing African sent forth his steeds in a troop, then did the plains re-echo with the sound; and, the earth loosened, the dust enveloped the air in its clouds, and brought on the shades, as vast as it is when hurled by the Bistonian whirlwind. But when the miserable fate of war befell the foot, 770 no fortune stood in suspense, upon the decision of a doubtful conflict, but death occupied the duration of the battle. Nor yet had they the power to run straight against them, and to mingle their troops. Thus, the youths, hemmed in on every side, by those who fight hand to hand and by those who send them from above, are overwhelmed with lances obliquely 775 slanting and held horizontally; doomed to perish not by wounds or bloodshed, solely through the cloud of darts and the weight of the weapons. Therefore, ranks so numerous are crowded into a small compass, and if any one, fearing, creeps into the middle of the troop, hardly with impunity does he turn amid the swords of his own friends; 780 and the mass is made more dense, inasmuch as the first rank, their feet bearing backwards, contract the circles. For them compressed there is now no room for wielding their arms, and their crowded limbs are trodden on; armed breast is broken by breast beaten against it. The victorious Moor did not enjoy a spectacle so joyous 785 as Fortune really presented; he did not behold the streams of blood, and the fainting of the limbs, and the bodies as they struck the earth; squeezed up in the crowd every carcase stood upright. Let Fortune arouse the hated ghosts of dire Carthage by these new funeral sacrifices; let blood-stained Hannibal 790 and the Punic shades receive this expiation so dire. 'Twere profane, ye Gods of heaven, for a Roman's fall on Libyan ground to benefit Pompey and the wishes of the Senate; rather for herself may Africa conquer us! Curio, when he beheld his troops routed on the plain, and the dust, laid by the blood, 795 allowed him to perceive how great the slaughter, did not endure to prolong his life amid his stricken fortunes, or to hope for flight; and he fell amid the slaughter of his men, eager for death, and valiant with a bravery to which he was forced. What now avail thee the turmoil of the Rostra and the Forum, from 800 which, with the arts of harangue, the standard-bearer of the plebeians, thou didst deal arms to the people? What, the betrayed rights of the Senate, and the son-in-law and the father-in-law enjoined to meet in battle? Thou liest prostrate before dire Pharsalia has brought the chieftains together, and the civil warfare has been denied thee to behold. 805 Is it thus, forsooth, that to the wretched City you pay the penalty with your blood? Thus, ye powerful ones, do you atone with your throats for your warfare! Happy Rome, indeed, and destined to possess fortunate citizens, if the care of its liberty had pleased the Gods above as much as to avenge it pleases them! Lo, Curio, a noble corpse, 810 covered by no tomb, is feeding the Libyan birds. But to thee (since it will be to no purpose to be silent upon those things from which their own fame repels all the lengthened age of time) we grant, O youth, the due praises of a life that deserved them. Not another citizen of capacity so great did Rome produce, 815 or to whom the laws owed more, when pursuing what was right. Then did the corrupt age injure the City, after ambition and luxury, and the possession of wealth, so much to be dreaded, had carried along with a torrent that crossed his path his unsettled mind; and the altered Curio became the controller of events, 820 charmed by the spoils of the Gauls and the gold of Caesar. Although powerful Sulla acquired rule over our lives by the sword, and the fierce Marius, and the blood-stained Cinna, and the long line of Craesar's house; to whom was power so great ever granted? They all bought the City, he sold it.