Lucan, Civil War Book 8 Translated by H. T. Riley (1853) Formatted and by C. Chinn (2008) NOW, beyond the vales of Hercules and the woody Tempe, seeking the desert by-paths of the Haemonian wood, Magnus, urging on the steed exhausted with the flight and refusing the spur, in his wanderings confuses the uncertain traces of his flight 5 and the intricate paths. He starts with fear at the sound of the groves moved by the winds; and that of his own attendants, which reaches him from behind, startles him, fearful sad afraid that the enemy is at his side. Although fallen from his lofty summit, he knows that not yet is the price of his blood valueless, 10 and, mindful of his destiny, he believes that he himself still possesses a life of value as great as that which he himself would give for the torn-off head of Caesar. As he followed the desert trucks the noble features of the hero did not allow him to conceal his station in a safe retreat. Many, as they were repairing to the Pharsalian 15 camp, rumor not as yet having disclosed, his downfall, were astounded on meeting the chieftain, at the mutations of events; and hardly was he himself a trustworthy informant on his own ruin. Grievous is it to Magnus, whoever is the witness of his woes. He would prefer to be unknown to all nations, 20 and in safety to pass through the world with an obscure name; but Fortune demands from him in his affliction the punishment of her prolonged favors, who presses hard upon his adversity with the weight of a fame so great, and burdens him with his former lot. Now is he sensible that honors were too much hastened for him, 25 and he condemns the exploits in Sulla's day of his laurel-crowned youth. Now hurled down it grieves him to recollect both the Corycian fleets and the Pontic standards. Thus does an age too lengthened destroy great spirits, and a life that survives empire. Unless the last day comes with the end of our blessings, 30 and anticipates, sorrows by a speedy death, fortune is the prelude to disgrace. Does any one dare to surrender himself to a prosperous lot, except on having prepared for death? He had reached the shore, through which the river Peneus, now red with the Emathian carnage, discharged itself into the sea. 35 From them a bark, unsuited for the wind and waves, hardly safe on the shallows of a river, bore him, in trepidation, upon the deep. He, with whose oars even yet Corcyra shakes, and the Leucadian bays, the master of the Cilicians and of the Liburnian land, stole away, a timid passenger, in a little boat. 40 Partner of his cares, thou didst bid him turn his sails towards the secret shores of Lesbos, in which land at that time thou didst lie concealed, Cornelia more sad than if thou wast standing in the midst of the plains of Emathia. Presages arouse sad anxieties; thy slumber is convulsed by trembling fears; Thessaly does 45 each night present; and, the shades departed, thou dost run along the crags of steep rocks and the verge of the shore, looking out upon the waves; fluttering afar thou art always the first to behold the sails of the approaching ship, nor dost thou venture to make any enquiries about thy husband's fate. 50 Lo! a bark, which spreads its canvas towards your harbors! what it is bringing thou knowest not; and now, the sum of thy fears, a sad messenger of arms is come, and ill-boding report. Thy vanquished husband is come. Why dost thou lose the moments for grief? When now thou couldst be weeping, thou art stricken with fear. Then, the ship 55 drawing nigh, she leaps forward, and marks the cruel judgment of the Gods, the chieftain disfigured with paleness, and having his countenance overhung with white hairs, and his garments squalid with black dust. Darkness coming over her, afflicted, with its shades, takes away the heavens and the light, and grief besets her soul; all her limbs, 60 forsaken by their sinews, totter; her heart grows contracted, and long does she lie deceived with the hope of death. Now, the cable fastened to the shore, Pompey surveys the vacant sands. After the faithful handmaids behold him close at hand, no further than silent sighs do they allow themselves with which 65 to rebuke the Fates, and in vain do they attempt to raise their lifeless mistress from the ground; whom Magnus clasps to his breast, and with his embraces warms her enervated limbs. The blood now recalled to the surface of her body, she had begun to feel the hands of Pompey, and to be able to meet the 70 sad looks of her husband; Magnus forbids her to yield to fate, and with his voice reproves her immoderate grief: "Why, at the first wound of Fortune, dost thou fail in thy high-born courage, woman, rendered illustrious by the titles of ancestors so great? Thou hast a road to a fame destined to endure for ages. 75 In this sex of thine the sole ground for praise is not the enactment of laws, nor yet arms, but an unfortunate husband. Elevate thy mind, and let thy duty struggle with destiny, and love myself because I have been conquered. Now am I a still greater glory to thee, because the emblems of state, and because the virtuous throng of Senators, 80 and troops so vast of Kings, have departed from me. Begin to be the only one to follow Magnus. Misplaced the grief, which, while thy husband survives, is extreme, and forbidden is it to increase. It ought to be thy last token of fidelity to mourn for thy husband. In my warfare thou hast borne no losses. After the battles Magnus still lives, but his fortunes 85 have perished; that which thou dost bewail, that alone hast thou loved." Rebuked by these words of her husband, with difficulty she raised her weak limbs from the ground, with lamentations breaking forth into such complaints: "O would that I had entered the marriage bed of hated Caesar, an unhappy wife, and joyous in no husband! Twice have I proved 90 injurious to the world; Erinys has conducted me as my bridal attendant, and the shades of the Crassi; and devoted, to those ghosts I have borne the disasters of Assyria to the civil warfare, sad have hurled nations headlong, and have scared all the Gods from the better cause. O most famous husband, 95 O thou, unworthy of my marriage bed, had Fortune this control over a head so mighty? Why impiously did I marry thee, if I was doomed to make thee wretched? Now lake revenge, but such as I shall willingly submit to. In order that the ocean may be more propitious to thee, the fidelity of kings assured, and the whole world more 100 hospitable, hurl me, thy partner, into the sea. More do I wish that I had laid down this life for the fortune of arms; now at last, Magnus, expiate thy overthrow. Wherever ruthless Julia, thou dost lie, having by civil strife taken vengeance upon my nuptials, do thou come hither and exact the penalty, and appeased, thy rival slain, 105 spare thy Magnus." Thus having said, and again sinking into the bosom of her husband, she melts the eyes of all to tears. The heart of stern Magnus relents, and eyes that were dry in Thessaly does Lesbos fill. Then does the multitude of Mytilene upon the thronged shore 110 thus address Magnus: "If it shall always proved to us the greatest glory to have preserve the precious pledge of a husband so mighty, do thou as wall, we entreat, deign to grace for oven one night the walls devoted to thee by a sacred treaty, and our household Gods thy allies; make this, Magnus, a place which all ages shall 115 revisit, which the Roman stranger on coming shall venerate. By thee vanquished, no walls ought in preference to be entered. All places are able to hope for the favor of the conqueror; this has already committed crime. And what if this lies, an island, on the sea? Caesar is in want of ships. A great part of thy nobles will collect here, 120 assured of thy locality. Upon a known shore must the war be renewed. Take the wealth of the Temples and the gold of the Gods; if these youths are better suited for the land, if for ships, take them; make use of, Lesbos, so far as it is of service. Take them; lest Caesar should seize them, do thou, vanquished, accept them. 125 This charge alone do thou remove, from land that deserves well of thee, that thou mayst not appear both to have obtained our alliance, when fortunate, to have repudiated it when unsuccessful." Glad, in his adversity at such affection in these men, and rejoicing for the sake of the world, that fidelity still exists, he says: "That there is no land in all the world 130 more dear to me, I have shown to you by no slight pledge. By this hostage did Lesbos retain my affection; here was my hallowed home and my dear household Gods, here was Rome to me. To no shores in my flight have I before this turned my ship, as I knew that Lesbos had already earned 135 the wrath of Caesar, my wife being sheltered there, not having feared to entrust to you so great a ground for pardon. But now, sufficient is it to have rendered you guilty; over the whole world my destinies must be pursued by me. Alas! too happy Lesbos, with everlasting fame, 140 whether thou dost teach nations and kings to receive Magnus, or whether thou alone dost show fidelity to me. For I am resolved to seek in what lands there is righteousness, and where is guilt. Receive, O Deity, if still thou art in any degree favorable to me, the extreme of my prayers: grant me nations like to Lesbos who will not forbid me, 145 subdued in war, Caesar my foe, to enter their harbors, nor yet to leave them." He spoke, and he placed his sorrowing partner on board the ship. You would have supposed that all were changing their land and their paternal soil; in such a manner did they lament throughout all the shore, and reproaching right hands were extended to the skies; 150 and less for Pompey, whose fortunes had aroused their grief, but rather for her, whom, throughout the whole period of the war, they had looked on as their own fellow-citizen, did the people lament on beholding her depart; whom hardly, if she had been repairing to the camp of a victorious husband, could the matrons have now supposed 155 to depart with dry eyes; with so great love had her virtue attached to her some, some her integrity and the modesty of her chaste features, inasmuch as, humble in the extreme, a sojourner, cause of offence to not one of the multitude, she lived, her fortunes still erect, just as though her husband had been conquered. Now Titan, sinking to his mid fires in the sea, was not entire 160 to those from whom he conceals, nor to those to whom, if any, he discloses his orb; the watchful anxieties in Pompey's breast now revert to the allied cities of the Roman confederacy and the varying dispositions of kings, now to the remote regions of the world beyond oppressive suns extending, and the south. 165 Full oft the sad struggle of cares and a distrust in the future cast aside the wearying fluctuations of his undecided breast, and he consults the pilot of the ship about all the stars; in which quarter he marks the land; what is his method of dividing the sea by the heavens; by means of what Constellation he makes for Syria, 170 or which fire in the Wain rightly points to Libya. To these words the skilled observer of the silent heavens makes answer: "The Constellations which fleet on in the star-bearing sky, deceiving wretched mariners, the heavens never standing still, we do not follow; but that pole which never sets, 175 most bright with the twofold Arcti, guides the ships. Here, always when the Lesser Bear rises vertically before me and stands over the summit of the ropes of the mainmast yards then do we look towards the Bosporus and the sea that winds along the shores of Scythia. Is Arctophylax descending at all from the summit of the mast, 180 and is the Cynosure brought nearer to the sea, then is the bark making towards file harbors of Syria. Then does Canopus receive us, a star content to wander in the southern sky, dreading Boreas: speed onward with it also to the left, beyond Pharos, the bark in the mid sea will touch the Syrtes. 185 But in what direction dost thou command the sails to be set, in what the canvas to be now spread with the sheet?" To him, on the other hand, with doubting breast Magnus answered: "Observe this alone throughout the whole ocean, that thy bark is always afar from the Emathian shores, and leave Hesperia to the sea and sky; 190 leave the rest to the winds. My partner and deposited pledge have I regained; then was I assured what shores I desired; now Fortune will provide a harbour." Thus he speaks; but he turns the sails hanging in equal degree from the level ends of the sailyards, and guides the ship to the left, and that he may cleave 195 the waves which the Samian rocks and which Chios renders rugged, these ropes he loosens at the prow, those he tightens at the stern. The seas are sensible of the change, and now, the beak in another direction cleaving the deep, and the bark not looking the same way, they change their sound. Not so dexterously does the guide of the horses, 200 when he sweeps round the left end of the axle with the right-hand wheel, force the chariot to keep close to the mining-place untouched. Titan has now disclosed the earth mad concealed the stars. Each one dispersed by the Emathian storms, follows after Magnus, and the first from the shores of Lesbos 205 his son comes to meet him, and then a faithful band of nobles. For not from Magnus when hurled down by rite Fates and worsted in fight, has Fortune taken kings as his attendants; an exile, he has the rulers of the earth and those who wield the scepters of the East as his companions. He bids Deiotarus, who follows 210 the flying track of his leader, go to the remote regions of the world. "Since," says he, "most faithful of kings, the earth, wherever it is Roman, has been lost by the Emathian defeat, it remains for us to try the fidelity of the East, and the nations that drink of Euphrates, and Tigris still safe from Caesar. 215 Object not, seeking the destinies of Magnus, to penetrate to the remote abodes of the Medians and the Scythian retreats, and to change the entire clime, and to carry my words to the proud descendant of Arsaces. ‘If your ancient treaties with me are still in force, sworn unto me by the Thunderer of Latium, 220 ratified by your magicians, fill your quivers, and stretch the Armenian bows with Getan strings; if, you, O Parthians, when I sought the Caspian strongholds, and pursued the hardy Alani with their eternal wars, permitting you to range at large in the Achaemenian plains, 225 I never drove trembling in flight to well-defended Babylon. Beyond the realms of Cyrus, and the confines of the Chaldaean sway, where the rapid Ganges and where the Nysaean Hydaspes approach the sea, nearer was I then to the fires of rising Phoebus than Persia was; still, subduing all places, 230 I endured that yourselves alone should be wanting to my triumphs; and alone in the number of kings of Eastern lands does the Parthian approach me on equal terms. Nor once do the descendants of Arsaces stand saved by the favor of Magnus. For who was it that, after the wounds of the Assyrian slaughter, restrained the just wrath of Latium? 235 Bound by so many obligations to me, now let Parthia, the limits burst open, pass beyond the banks forbidden for ages, and the Zeugma of him of Pella. Conquer for Pompey, ye Parthians; Rome will be ready to be conquered.'" The King does not hesitate to obey him commanding an enterprise so difficult; and, the insignia of the 240 palace laid asides, he goes forth, clad in the assumed garb of a menial. In doubtful enterprises it is safe for the monarch to counterfeit the needy man. How much more securely, then, does the man who is truly poor pass his life than the rulers of the world! The king having been dismissed upon the shore, he himself amid the rocks of Icaria, leaving behind both Ephesus, 245 and Colophon with its tranquil seas, skims past the foaming rocks of little Samos; the floating breeze blows off from the shores of Cos; next does he fly past Cnidos and leave Rhodes behind, made illustrious by the sun, and by the mid-sea he cuts short the great bays of the Telmessian waves. The Pamphylian land presents 250 itself to the ship; and not as yet venturing to entrust himself to any walls, to thee, little Phaselis, does Magnus first repair. For thee thy scanty inhabitants forbid to be distrusted, and thy homes exhausted of their people; and greater is the multitude in the ship than thine. Hence, again spreading the canvas, 255 now he beholds Taurus, and Dipsus, time flows down from Taurus. Could Magnus have believed this, that when he gave peace to the waves provision was made for himself as well? Safe, in his little bark he flies along the shores of the Cilicians. A greet part of the Senate, collected, overtakes the flying chieftain; and at little Celedrae, 260 at which port Selinus both sends forth and receives its ships, in an assembly of the nobles, at length does Magnus open his sorrowing lips, in these words: "Companions in the war and in my flight and dear as my native land, although on a naked shore, in the region of the Cilicians, and surrounded by no arms, 265 I take counsel, and consider of a commencement for a new career, still, do you bring courageous spirits. Not utterly have I fallen on the fields of Emathia, nor so far are my destinies depressed that I am not able to raise my head again, and shake off the reverse I have sustained. Were the ruins of Libya able to elevate Marius 270 to the Consular dignity and restore him to the filled annals, and me shall Fortune keep depressed by a lighter hand? A thousand ships of mine are tossed upon the Grecian seas, a thousand captains; rather does Pharsalia disperse our resources, than subvert them. But me even the fame alone of my exploits is 275 able to protect, which throughout the whole earth I have achieved, and a name which the world loves. Do you weigh these realms, both as to their strength and their fidelity--Libya, and the Parthians, and Pharos—which of them ought to succour the Roman state. But I, nobles, will disclose the secrets of my cares, and in 280 which direction the preponderance of my thoughts inclines. The age of the monarch of the Nile is suspected by me, because strict fidelity demands ripened years. On the other hand the two-faced subtlety of the doubtful Moor alarms me; for, mindful of his race, the ruthless descendant of Carthage longs for 285 Hesperia, and much of Hannibal is in his fickle breast. He who defiles his kingdom with collateral blood, and reaches up to Numidian forefathers, has now become puffed up with pride, on Varus being a suppliant, and has looked upon the destinies of Rome in a secondary rank. Come, then, my companions, let us hasten to the Eastern climes. 290 Euphrates with his tide divides the vast earth, and the Caspian strongholds set apart boundless retreats, and another pole measures the Assyrian nights and days, and a sea of different color in its waves is severed from ours, and an ocean their own. Their sole desire is rule. 295 More lofty is the war-horse in the plains, and more strong their bow; neither boy nor aged man is slow to stretch the deadly string, and from no arrow is death matter of uncertainty. They were the first with the bow to repulse the lances of Pella; and Bactria, the abode of the Medians, and Babylon, proud of 300 its walls, the home of the Assyrians. Nor yet are our javelins much feared by the Parthians; and they dare to engage in war, having made trial of the Scythian arrows, when Crassus died. Nor do they scatter darts that trust in iron alone, but the whizzing shafts are steeped in plenteous venom. Small wounds 305 are fatal, and there is death in the blood on the surface of the skin. Oh! would that I had not dependence so great upon the ruthless descendants of Arsaces! Destinies too strongly rivalling our own destinies influence the Medians, and greatly do the Gods favour the race. Nations will I pour forth summoned from other lands; and 310 the East will I send against him, awakened from its retreats. But if Eastern faith and barbarian confederacies betray us, let Fortune bear our wreck beyond the intercourse of the ordinary world. I will not go suing to realms which I have created; but I shall enjoy a great solace in my death, 315 as I lie in another clime, that nothing to these limbs my father-in-law has done with bloody, nothing with pious intent. But revolving all the destinies of my life, always was I venerated in that part of the world. Beyond Maeotis how mighty! How mighty at Tanais, in the sight of the whole East! 320 Into what lands did my name make its way with deeds more glorious, or whence with greater triumphs did it return? Rome, favour my purpose; for what could the Gods of heaven ever grant to thee more welcome than for thee to wage the civil war with Parthian troops, and to overthrow a nation so mighty, 325 and to confound it with our woes? When the arms of Caesar shall engage with the Medians, it follows that Fortune must avenge either me or the Crassi." Thus having said, he perceives by the murmurs that the men disapprove of his plans; all of whom Lentulus exceeded in his incentives to valor and in the dignity of his grief, 330 and uttered words worthy of one so late a Consul: "Have the Thessalian reverses so far impaired thy mind? Has a single day sealed the destinies of the world? Is a contest so mighty decided by Emathia? Does all aid lie prostrate for this blood-stained wound ? Has Fortune left to thee, Magnus, 335 the feet of the Parthians alone? Why, flying through the world, abhorring the entire regions of our earth and our sky, dost thou seek the opposite poles and remote stars, about to venerate Chaldaean Gods, and barbarian rites, a servant of the Parthians? Why is the love of liberty the pretext 340 alleged for our arms? Why dost thou deceive the wretched world, if thou canst be a slave? Thee, whom he dreaded to hear of when ruling the Roman state, whom he beheld leading captured kings from the Hyrcanian woods, and from the Indian shores, shall he behold cast down by the Fates, humble and abject, 345 and madly raise his aspirations for the Latian world, Pompey his suppliant, measuring himself and Rome together? Thou wilt be able to say nothing worthy of thy spirit and thy destiny. Ignorant of converse in the Latin tongue, he will demand, Magnus, that thou shouldst ask him by tears. Are we to endure this wound 350 on our shame, that Parthia shall avenge the woes of Hesperia, before Rome does her own? Thyself it was she chose as her chieftain in the civil strife. Why dost thou spread our wounds among the Scythian tribes, and our slaughters that at present lie concealed? Why dost thou teach the Parthians to come beyond? Rome loses thereby 355 the solace of woes so great in bringing in no kings, but becoming the slave of her own citizen. Does it give thee delight to go throughout the world leading savage nations against the walls of Rome, and following standards from the Euphrates, captured with the Crassi? He who alone among the kings, who, while Fortune concealed her preference, 360 was wanting to Emathia, will he now challenge the resources so mighty of him heard of as the conqueror, or be ready, Magnus, to unite his fortunes with thee ? Not this trustworthiness is there in the race. Every nation which is born amid the Arctoan frosts is unsubdued in war and a lover of death. 365 Whatever glides towards the Eastern lands and the warm regions of the world, the mildness of the climate makes the nations effeminate. There do you behold both the flowing vestments and the loose coverings of the men. The Parthian amid the Median fields, upon file Sarmatian plains and the lands of Tigris extending 370 with level track, is conquerable by no enemy in his powers of flight; but where the earth swells he will not ascend the rugged mountain ridges; nor will he wage the warfare in darkening shades, weak with his uncertain bow, nor by swimming cleave the current with its strong eddies; 375 nor, besprinkled in battle over all his limbs with blood, will he endure the summer's sun beneath the heated dust. No battering-rams have they, no engines of war; they are not able to fill up trenches; and, the Parthian pursuing, whatever shall be able to resist the arrow, that same shall prove a wall. 380 Skirmishing are their battles, and flying their fights, and straggling their squadrons, and more skilled are the troops at giving way than at repulsing. Steeped are their weapons with treachery, nor have they valor ever to endure the combat hand to hand, but rather to stretch tile strings of their bows from afar, and to leave their wounds to the winds, wherever they choose to carry them. 385 The sword requires strength, and every nation that exists of men wages the warfare with the sword; but the Medians the first onset disarms, and their emptied quivers bid them retreat. No confidence have they in their hands, in poison is it all. Dost thou, Magnus, deem those to be men for whom it is too little 390 to come to the hazard of the battle with the sword? Is it so greatly worth thy while to try a disgraceful aid, that, separated from thy country by the whole world, thou mayst die? Is barbarian earth to press upon thee? Is a little and a homely tomb to cover thee, matter of envy still, while Crassus wants a sepulcher. 395 But lighter is thy lot, since death is the extreme punishment, and one not to be feared by men. But Cornelia dreads not death alone under a wicked king. Is the barbarian lust unknown to us, which blindly, after the manner of wild beasts, pollutes the laws and the compacts of the marriage tie with 400 wives innumerable? The secrets, too, of the unrighteous bed lie there exposed. Amid a thousand wives, royalty, maddened with revelry and with wine, abhors not any intercourse interdicted by the laws; amid the embraces of women so many one night wearies not one man. Sisters lie in the beds 405 of brothers, the sacred ties of mothers, as well. The woeful story among nations condemns Thebes, stained by Oedipus, for a crime not voluntarily committed; how often is the Parthian ruler, descended from Arsaces, born of blood thus mixed! To him to whom it is lawful to unite with a parent, 410 what can I deem to be unlawful? The progeny so illustrious of Metellus will be standing, the thousandth wife, at a barbarian couch, although, Magnus, to no woman will royal lust more readily devote itself than to her when cruelty stimulates it, and the titles of her husbands. For, in order that still more portents may delight the Parthian, he will know 415 that she was the wife of Crassus too; as though owed already to the Assyrian destinies, she is dragged slang, the captive of the farmer overthrow. Let the woeful wound to our eastern destinies be impressed upon thee; not only to have asked aid from the ruthless king, but to have waged civil war before that thou wilt be ashamed. 420 For what crime among nations of thy father-in-law and of thyself will be greater, than that, you engaging in arms, vengeance for the Crassi has been lost? All the chieftains ought to have rushed to attack Bactria; and no arms should have been spared, even to laying bare the northern sides of our empire 425 to the Dacians and the bands of the Rhine, until perfidious Susa, falling upon the tombs of the heroes, and Babylon, had lain prostrate. An end, Fortune, do we pray for, to the Assyrian peace; and if the civil war of Thessaly has terminated, against the Parthians let him, who has proved the victor, go. It is the only nation 430 of the world at a triumph over whom by Caesar I could rejoice. Will not, when first thou shalt pass over the cold Araxes, the shade of the sorrowing old man, transfixed with the Scythian arrows, utter these wards to thee: 'Dost thou, whom we hoped for as the avenger of the ashes of our unburied ghosts, came 435 for treaties and for peace?' Then will many a memorial of the slaughter meet thee; the walls which the decapitated chieftains surveyed, where Euphrates ,overwhelmed names so mighty, and Tigris threw our carcasses on shore, and then took them back to himself. If, Magnus, thou art able 440 to submit to these things, thou art able also to appease thy father-in-law, paramount in the midst of Thessaly. Why dost thou not look upon the Roman world? If thou dost dread the realms situate beneath the south, and the faithless Juba, we repair to Pharos and the fields of Lagus. On the one side Egypt is safe in the Libyan Syrtes; then, 445 on the other, the rapid stream disturbs the sea by its seven mouths. It is a land contented with its own blessings, not standing in need of merchandise or of showers; in the Nile alone is its trust. The boy Ptolemy wields a scepter, Magnus, owed to thee, entrusted to thy guardianship. Who should dread the mere shadow 450 of a name? His age is free from guile; hope for neither justice and honor, nor reverence for the Gods in an aged court. Those used to the scepter are ashamed of nothing; mildest is the lot of realms under a youthful king." No more having said, he inclined their minds in that direction. How much freedom does the last hope 455 of success obtain! The opinion of Magnus was overruled. Then did they leave the territory of the Cilicians, and urge on their hastening barks to Cyprus, to which no altars has the Goddess preferred, remembering the Paphian waves, if we are to believe that the Deities have birth, or it is right to suppose that any one of the Gods has had a beginning. 460 When Pompey has departed from these shores, coasting along all the rocks of Cyprus, in which it projects towards the south, thence is he turned aside by the obliquely-flowing tides of the vast ocean; nor does he make for the mountain cheering at night with its light; and, with struggling sails, with difficulty he reaches the lower shores 465 of Egypt, where the largest portion of the divided Nile, the seventh channel, flows into the Pelusian fords. It was the time at which the Balance poises the level hours, but equal on not more than a single day, and then the decreasing light pays back to the winter nights a consolation for their losses in the spring. 470 When he understood that the King was staying at Mount Casius he changed his course; as yet neither was Phoebus gone down, nor did the sails flag. Now with rapid speed along the shore the horsemen scouts had filled the trembling court with the arrival of the stranger. Hardly was there time for counsel; still, all the miscreants of the 475 Pellaean household met together; among whom, Achoreus, now calmed by old age and more moderate through bending years (to him Memphis gave birth, frivolous in her rites, the observer of the Nile increasing upon the fields; he the worshipper of the Gods, not one Apis only had lived though the changes of his moon), 480 was the first speaker in the council; and he alleged the merits and the fidelity of Pompey, and the sacred ties of the deceased parent of Ptolemy. But more skilled in persuading the ill-disposed, and, in understanding tyrants, Pothinus, presuming to condemn Pompey to death, thus said : "Justice and right, Ptolemy, have rendered many a one guilty. 485 Fidelity, bepraised as it is, pays the penalty when it upholds those whom Fortune depresses. Concur with the Fates mad the Gods, and pay court to the fortunate; fly from the wretched. As different as are the stars from the earth, as the flames from the sea, so is the profitable from the right. The entire power of scepters perishes if it begins to weigh what 490 is just; and regard for what is honorable overthrows citadels. It is the liberty to commit crimes which protects a hated sway, and all restraint removed from the sword. Everything may you do in cruelty with no impunity, except when you dare to do it. Let him who wishes to be virtuous remove from a court. Goodness and supreme power do not 495 agree together; he will be always afraid whom cruelty shall shame. Not with impunity let Magnus have despised thy years, who thinks that thou art not able to drive away even the vanquished from our shores. Nor let a stranger deprive thee of thy scepter; nearer pledges hast thou; if thou art tired of reigning, 500 yield up Nile and Pharos to thy condemned sister. Let us at least protect Egypt from Latian arms. Whatever has not belonged to Magnus, while the war was being waged, will not belong to the conqueror. Now from the whole world expelled, after there is no confidence remaining in his fortunes, he seeks a nation 505 with which to fall; he is distracted by the ghosts of fellow-citizens. And not only from the arms of his father-in-law does he fly; from the faces of the Senate he is flying, of whom a great part is gorging the Thessalian birds; he dreads the nations, too, whom, mingled in one carnage, he has abandoned; kings, also, does he fear, all of whose fortunes he has ruined; 510 guilty, too, of Thessaly, in no land received, he appeals to our land, which not as yet he has betrayed. A more just cause of complaint, Ptolemy, has been given to us against Magnus. Why dost thou stain with the crimes of war Pharos distant and ever at repose, and why make our lands suspected 515 by the conqueror? Why has this region alone pleased thee, on thy fall, upon which to bring the fortunes of Pharsalia and thy own punishment? Already do we incur a blame, to be wiped away with the sword, in that on us, at thy persuasion, the Senate conferred the scepter. By our wishes we have encouraged thy arms, 520 This sword, which the Fates bid us unsheathe, I have provided, not for thee, but for the conquered one. Magnus, thy vitals I will pierce; those of thy father-in-law I could have preferred. Whither everything is being borne, we are hurried on. Dost thou have a doubt whether it is necessary for me to destroy thee while yet I may? What confidence in our kingdom brings thee hither, 525 unhappy man? Dost thou not behold our people unarmed, and, the Nile receding, hardly able to dig the softened fields? It is right to take measure of one's kingdom, and to confess one's strength. Art thou, Ptolemy, able to support the downfall of Magnus, beneath which Rome lies prostrate? Dost thou presume to stir the graves 530 and the ashes of Thessaly, and to summon war against thy realms? Before the Emathian combat with no arms did we side; is the camp of Pompey now to please thee, which the whole earth forsakes? Dost thou now provoke the resources of the victor and destinies that have been ascertained? It befits not to desert in adversity, but it so befits those who have attended upon 535 the prosperity. No fidelity ever made choice of unfortunate friends." All assent to the villainy. The boy king rejoices at the unusual honor, that now his servants allow matters of such importance to be entrusted to him. For the crime Achillas is chosen. Where the perfidious land projects in the Casian sands, 540 and the Egyptian shallows attest the adjoining Syrtes, he provides a little bark, with companions for the monstrous crime, and with swords. O Gods of heaven! have Nile and barbarian Memphis and the multitude so effeminate of Pelusian Canopus such a disposition as this? Does civil strife thus depress the world? 545 Do the Roman fortunes thus lie prostrate? Is there any room left for Egypt in these disasters, and is the Pharian sword introduced? At least, ye civil wars, preserve this fidelity; afford kindred hands, and drive afar misdeeds committed by foreign hands, if, with a name so illustrious Magnus has deserved to be the ground 550 for Caesar's crimes. Dost thou not dread, Ptolemy, the downfall of a name so great? The heavens, too, thundering, dost thou, impure one and but half a man, presume to interpose thy profane hands? Not that he was the subduer of the world, and not that he was thrice borne in his chariot to the Capitol, the ruler, too, of kings, the avenger of the Senate, 555 and the son- in-law of the conqueror; what might have been for a Pharian tyrant enough, he was a Roman. Why dost thou lay open our entrails with the sword? Thou knowest not, dishonorable boy, thou knowest not, in what position thy fortunes are; now without any right dost thou wield the scepter of the Nile; in civil fight has he fallen who gave 560 to thee thy realms. Now had Magnus denied his sails to the wind, and by the aid of oars was making for the accursed shores; to meet whom, borne in a two-oared boat, not long the wicked band pushed on; and pretending that the realms of Pharos lie open to Magnus, bade him come from the prow 565 of the lofty ship into the little bark, and censured the unfavorable shore, and the tides from the two seas upon the shoals that break them, which forbid foreign fleets to approach the land. And had not the laws of the Fates, and the approach of a wretched death destined by the command of an eternal ordination, 570 forced Magnus, condemned to destruction, unto the shore, to no one of his attendants were wanting omens of the crime; for, if their fidelity had been unstained, if the palace had been with true good feeling open to Magnus, the giver of the scepter, it was clear that the Pharian monarch would have come, together with all his fleet. 575 But he yields to his destiny; and, bidden to leave his fleet, he obeys, and delights to prefer death to fear. Cornelia was going straightway into the enemy's ship, through this more impatient at being absent from her departing husband because she apprehended calamity. "Stay behind, daring wife," said he, 580 "and thou, son, I pray, and afar from the shore await my fate; and upon this neck make trial of the fidelity of the tyrant." But towards him, thus harshly refusing, frantic Cornelia extended her two hands. "Wither, cruel one,"she said, "dost thou depart without me? Am I left again, 585 removed afar from the Thessalian woes? Never with joyous omens are we wretched persons severed asunder. Couldst thou not have guided thy ship elsewhere when thou didst fly, and have left me in the retreats of Lesbos, if thou didst intend to drive me away from all lands? Or do I only please thee as thy companion upon the waves?" When in vain, 590 she had poured forth these words, still in her anxiety did she hang over the end of the stern; and with astounded fear neither was she able in any direction to turn her eyes away, nor yet to look on Magnus. The fleet stands anxious upon the fate of the chieftain, fearing not arms and crime, but lest with submissive prayers Pompey should venerate the scepter 595 presented by his own hands. As he is preparing to pass on board, Septimius, a Roman soldier, salutes him from the Pharian ship; who (oh shame to the Gods of heaven!), the javelin laid aside, as a body-guard was bearing the disgraceful weapons of royalty; fierce, violent, unrelenting, and less inclined to carnage than no one 600 of the wild beasts. Who, Fortune, may not suppose that thou didst spare the nations, in that this right hand was wanting in the war, and that thou didst drive afar from Thessaly weapon so baneful? Thou dost so dispose the swords, alas! that in no quarter of the world a civil crime may not be perpetrated for thee. To the victors themselves 605 a disgrace, and a tale never to be free from shame to the Gods of heaven: thus did a Roman sword obey a king; and the Pellaean boy, Magnus, cut thy throat with a sword thy own. With what character shall posterity hand down Septimius to future ages? By what name shall they speak of this crime 610 who have pronounced that of Brutus a wickedness? Now had arrived the period of his closing hour, and borne off in the Pharian boat he had now lost the disposal of himself. Then did the royal miscreants prepare to unsheathe their swords. When he beheld their weapons closing upon him, he covered up his features, and, disdaining to expose 615 to Fortune his bared head, then did he close his eyes, and hold his breath, that he might be able to utter no words and spoil his eternal fame by lamentations. But after the murderous Achillas had pierced his side with his pointed weapon, with not a groan he submitted to the stroke, 620 and despised the villainy, and kept his body unmoved, and proved himself when dying to be Pompey, and revolved these things in his breast: "Ages, never to be silent, wait upon the woes of Rome, and generations to follow look from the whole earth upon this bark and the Pharian faith. Now think upon thy fame. 625 The prospering fortunes of a lengthened life have flowed on for thee. Nations know not, if at thy death thou dost not prove it, whether thou dost know how to endure adversity. Give way to no shame, nor grieve at the author of thy fate. By whatever one thou art smitten, think it the hand of thy father-in-law. Though they should rend and tear me, 630 still, O Gods of heaven, I am happy, and no God has the power to deprive me of that. The prosperity of my life is changed; through death a person does not become wretched. Cornelia beholds this murder and my Pompey. So much more patiently, grief, restrain thy sighs, I entreat; my son and my wife truly love me, 635 if they admire me in my death." Such was the self-possession of the mind of Magnus; this power had he over his dying spirit. But Cornelia, not so well able to behold the ruthless crime as to endure it with courage, fills the air with lamentable words: "O husband, I, wicked that I am, have murdered thee; 640 the cause of the fatal delay to thee was Lesbos so remote thy course, and Caesar has arrived the first at the shores of the Nile. For who else had the right to commit the crime? But thou, whoever thou art, sent down, by the Gods of heaven against that life, having a view either to Caesar's wrath, or to thyself, knowest not, cruel one, where are the vitals 645 themselves of Magnus; thou dost hasten and redouble thy blows, where such is the wish of the vanquished. Let him pay a penalty not less than death, and first let him behold my head cut off. Not free am I from the fault of the warfare, who alone of the matrons, an attendant on the waves and in the camp, scared away by no fatalities, sheltered him 650 conquered, which even monarchs feared to do. Have I, husband, deserved this, to be left in safety in the ship? Perfidious one, didst thou spare me? Thou coming to thy latest hour, have I been deserving of life? I will die, and that not by the favor of the king. Either, sailors, allow me a headlong leap, or to place 655 the halter and the twisted ropes around my neck; or let some companion worthy of Magnus provide a sword. For Pompey he may do that which he may lay to the charge of the arms of Caesar. O cruel men, do ye restrain me hurrying on to my fate? Still, husband, thou dost survive, and now, Magnus, Cornelia has 660 not the disposal of herself. They hinder me from hastening on my death; for the conqueror I am reserved." Thus having said, and having fallen into the arms of her friends, she was carried off, the alarmed ship hastening away. But when the back and the breast of Magnus resounded with the sword, those who beheld the lacerated head confess that the majestic gracefulness 665 of his hallowed form still remained, and that his features were angered at the Gods, and that the last moments of death changed nothing of the mien and features of the hero. But ruthless Septimius in this act of villainy invents a villainy still greater; and, the covering cut asunder, he uncovers the sacred features 670 of the half-dead Magnus, and lays hold of the breathing head, and places the languid neck crosswise upon a bench. Then he cuts the nerves and veins, and is long in breaking the knotty bones; not as yet was it an art to whip off a head with the sword. But after the neck, divided, shrunk back from the trunk, 675 the Pharian courtier claimed to carry this in his right hand. Roman soldier, degenerate and playing a second part, dost thou with the ruthless sword cut off the sacred head of Pompey, not to bear it away thyself? O fate, treated with extreme indignity! That the impious boy may recognize Magnus, that flowing hair 680 revered by kings, and the long locks graceful with his noble forehead are seized by the hand, and while the features are alive, and the sobs of the breath are moving the mouth to murmurs, and while the unclosed eyes are stiffening, the head is fixed on a Pharian spear, which when ordering war never was there 685 peace; this it was that swayed the laws, and the Plain, and the Rostra; with this face, Fortune of Rome, didst thou gratify thyself. Nor enough was it for the disgraceful tyrant to have beheld this; he wished a memorial to survive the crime. Then, by an accursed art, the moisture was extracted from the head, and, the brains removed, 690 the skin was dried, and the putrid juices flowed forth from within, and the head was hardened by drugs poured into it. Last offspring of the race of Lagus, and about to perish, degenerate, and destined to yield to the rule of thy unchaste sister; whilst by thee the Macedonian is preserved in the sacred vaults, 695 and with mountains piled over them, the ashes of kings are at rest, while the Pyramids and Mausolean graves, unworthy of them, enclose the shades of the Ptolemies and their abandoned line, are the shores to be beating against Pompey, and is the trunk to be tossed to and fro by the waves on the shoals? Was it so burdensome a care 700 to save the corpse entire for the father-in-law? Fortune with this fidelity ended the fates of Magnus so prosperous; with this death did she hurl him down from the highest summit of power, and cruelly centered all the calamities in one day, from which she granted him years so many of freedom; 705 and Pompey was one who never saw joys mingled with sorrows; happy in no one of the Gods molesting him, and wretched in no one sparing him. Once for all with delaying hand did Fortune hurl him down. He is beaten to and fro on the sands, he is mangled on the rocks, the waves received into his wounds, 710 the sport of the ocean; and, no figure remaining, the only mark of Magnus is the loss of the head torn off. Still, before the conqueror touched upon the Pharian sands, Fortune suddenly provided for Pompey a tomb, lest he might lie in none, or lest in a better sepulcher. 715 From his hiding-place Cordus, trembling, runs down to the sea-shore. The seeker had been the unhappy attendant of Magnus from the Idalian shore of Cyprus, the abode of Cinyras. He amid the shades daring to move his steps, repressed his fear, overcome by affection, that he might bring the body, sought in the midst of the waves, 720 to land, and draw Magnus to the shore. But little light does sorrowing Cynthia afford amid the thickening clouds; but the trunk, of different color from the hoary sea, is perceived. He seizes the chieftain in his strict embrace, as the sea drags him away; now overpowered by a burden so vast 725 he awaits the waves, and, the sea aiding him, moves on the corpse. After he has now seated himself upon the dry shore, he leans over Magnus, and pours forth his tears into every wound, and to the Gods of heaven and the darkened stars he says: "Thy Pompey, Fortune, asks not a sepulcher precious with 730 heaped-up frankincense; not that the unctuous smoke may bear eastern odors from his limbs unto the stars; that duteous necks of Romans may bear their parent, that the funereal procession should carry before it his ancient triumphs, that with the song of sorrow the market-places may re-echo; 735 that the whole army, grieving, may go round the flames with arms reversed. Grant to Magnus the lowly coffin of the plebeian funeral, which may lower his torn corpse into the dry flames. Let not wood be wanting for him ill-fated, nor yet a humble burner. Be it enough, O Gods of heaven, that Cornelia does not lie prostrate, 740 with flowing locks, and, embracing her husband, command the torch to be applied, but, unhappy wife, is absent from the last rites of the tomb, and still is not far distant from the shore." Thus having said, afar the youth beholds a little fire, with no watcher, burning a body, unregarded by its friends. 745 Thence he bears off the flames, and taking the half-burnt wood from beneath the limbs, he says: "Whoever thou art, neglected ghost, and dear to no friend of thine, but more happy than Pompey, grant pardon that now a stranger's hand despoils thy constructed pyre. If there is any sense left after death, thou thyself dost yield up 750 thy funeral pile, and dost submit to this spoiling of thy tomb, and dost feel ashamed for thee to burn the shades of Pompey, scattered abroad." Thus does he speak, and with his bosom filled with the burning embers he flies away to the trunk, which, almost carried back by the waves, is hovering on the edge of the shore. He moves away the surface of the sands, 755 and, trembling, places in the little trench the fragments collected from afar of a vessel broken up. No oaken beams press upon the noble corpse, upon no built-up wood do the limbs recline; applied, not placed beneath, the fire receives Magnus. Sitting near the flames, he said: "O greatest chieftain, 760 and sole glory of the Hesperian name, if more sad to thee this pile than the tossing on the deep, if more sad than no funereal rites, withdraw thy shade and thy mighty spirit from my duteous offices. The injustice of Fate declares this to be right; lest a monster of the sea, 765 lest a wild beast, lest the birds, lest the wrath of cruel Caesar should venture aught, accept, so far as thou canst, these flames, thus burnt by a Roman hand. If Fortune should grant me a return to Hesperia, not in this spot shall ashes so sacred repose; but, Magnus, Cornelia shall receive 770 thee, and by my hand transfer thee to the urn. In the meantime let me mark the shore with a little stone, that there may be a memorial of thy grave; if any one, perchance, should wish to appease thee thus cut off, and to render the full rites due to death, he may find the ashes of thy trunk, and may know the sands to which, 775 Magnus, he is to bring back thy head." Thus having said, with fuel heaped on he arouses the sluggish flames. Magnus is consumed, and disappears in the fire slowly burning, with his moisture feeding the pile. But now the day had dimmed the stars, the harbingers of dawn; he, the ceremonial of the funeral 780 interrupted, alarmed, seeks his hiding-place upon the shore. What punishment, simple man, dost thou dread for this crime, for which loud-mouthed fame has taken charge of thee for all years to come? The unnatural father-in-law, even, will commend the burial of the bones of Magnus; only go, secure of pardon, and disclosing the sepulcher, 785 demand the head. Affection compels him to place the finishing stroke to his duteous offices. He takes up the bones half-burnt and not yet quite decomposed, full of ligaments and of marrow unconsumed he quenches them with sea-water, and, collected together, encloses them in a little spot of earth. Then, that the light breeze may not bear away 790 the ashes uncovered, he presses down the sand with a stone; and that the sailor may not disturb the grave for fastening the cable, he inscribes the sacred name with a half-burnt stake, HERE MAGNUS LIES. Fortune, it pleases thee to call this the tomb of Pompey, in which his father-in-law would rather that 795 he were interred, than deprived of the earth. Rash right hand, why dost thou block up the tomb of Magnus, and shut in the wandering ghost? Wherever the extremity of the earth hangs steep over the ocean flowing back does he lie. The Roman name and all its empire is the limit of the tomb of Magnus. Overwhelm the stone replete with 800 the disgrace of the Gods. If to Hercules belongs the whole of Oeta, and the whole mountain ridges of Nysa make room for Bromius, why for Magnus in Egypt is there a single stone? All the fields of Lagus he might possess, if upon no clod his name was inscribed. Let us nations still be ignorant, and, Magnus, through 805 respect for thy ashes, let us tread upon no sands of Nile. But if thou dost deign to grace a stone with name so holy, add thy deeds so mighty, and the most glorious memorials of thy exploits; add the fierce rebellion of Lepidus, and the Alpine wars; the conquered arms, too, of Sertorius, the Consul recalled; 810 the triumphs, too, which, still a knight, he enjoyed; commerce, too, rendered safe to nations, and the Cilicians, fearful of the sea. Add barbarism subdued, and the wandering nations, and whatever realms lie beneath the eastern breeze and Boreas. Say how that after arms he always sought again the toga of the citizen; how that, thrice his chariot speeding on in triumph, 815 he was content to make present to his country of full many a triumph. What tomb can contain these things? Here rises a wretched sepulcher, filled with no titles, with no recital so vast of his annals; and after being wont to be read above the lofty heights of the Gods and the arches built up with the spoils of the foe, 820 not far is the name of Pompey from the lowest sand, crouching low on his tomb, which the sojourner cannot read standing upright, which, unless pointed out, the Roman stranger would be passing by. Egyptian land, rendered guilty by civil fate, not undeservedly indeed was warning given by the lines of the prophetess 825 of Cumae, that the soldier of Hesperia was not to touch the Pelusian shores of the Nile, and the banks swelling in summer-time. What, ruthless land, ought I to pray for thee for a crime so great? May Nile, detained in the region from which he springs, change the course of his streams, and may the barren fields miss the wintry waters, 830 and mayst thou be entirely lost in the loose sands of the Aethiopians. We in Roman Temples have received thy Isis, and the half-dog Deities, and the sistra commanding grief, and Osiris, whom thou by mourning dost attest to have been a man; thou, Egypt, art keeping our shades in the dust. 835 Thou, also, although thou hast now granted Temples to the ruthless tyrant, hast not yet sought, O Rome, the ashes of Pompey; still lies in exile the ghost of the chieftain. If former ages dreaded the threats of the conqueror, now, at least, receive the bones of thy Magnus, if, not yet rooted up by the waves, 840 they remain in the hated land. Who will respect the tomb? Who will be afraid to disturb a ghost deserving of sacred rites? I wish that Rome would enjoin this wickedness on me, and be ready to employ my bosom; enough, and O too greatly blessed, if me it should befall to transfer to Ausonia the ghost 845 removed, if of a chieftain to violate such a tomb. Perhaps, when Rome shall be desirous to ask of the Gods of heaven either an end for the barren furrows, or for the fatal south winds, or for heat too great, or for the earth moving the houses, by the counsel and command, Magnus, of the Gods, thou wilt 850 remove to thy City, and the highest Priest will carry thy ashes. Now, who will go to Syene, scorched by the burning Crab, and Thebes, parched beneath the showery Pleiad, a spectator of the Nile? who, Magnus, will repair to the waters of the deep Red Sea, or the ports of the Arabians, a barterer of the merchandize of the East, 855 whom the venerable stone upon the tomb, and the ashes scattered perchance upon the surface of the sands will not attract, and who will not delight in propitiating thy shade, and in preferring thee to Casian Jove? In no degree will that grave prove injurious to thy fame. Buried in a Temple and in gold, shade of higher 860 worth thou wouldst be; now is Fortune in place of the greatest Divinity, lying buried in this tomb. More august than the altars of the conqueror is the stone beaten against upon the Libyan shore. Those who have full oft denied their frankincense to the Tarpeian Gods would venerate the Deity enclosed beneath the dusky clod. 865 This in future time will advantage thee, that the lofty mass of thy sepulcher, destined to endure, has not soared aloft with its ponderous marble. No great length of time will scatter the heap of scanty dust, and the tomb will fall, and the proofs of thy death will perish. An age more blest will come, 870 in which there will be no credit given to those who point out that stone; and to the generations of posterity Egypt will be as lying in the tomb of Magnus, as Crete in that of the Thunderer.