Pharsalia [42]
Now was the dust laid low by streams of blood,
And Curio, knowing that his host was slain.
Chose not to live; and, as a brave man should.
He rushed upon the heap, and fighting fell.
In vain with turbid speech hast thou profaned
The pulpit of the forum: waved in vain
From that proud (26) citadel the tribune flag:
And armed the people, and the Senate's rights
Betraying, hast compelled this impious war
Betwixt the rival kinsmen. Low thou liest
Before Pharsalus' fight, and from thine eyes
Is hid the war. 'Tis thus to suffering Rome,
For arms seditious and for civil strife
Ye mighty make atonement with your blood.
Happy were Rome and all her sons indeed,
Did but the gods as rigidly protect
As they avenge, her violated laws!
There Curio lies; untombed his noble corpse,
Torn by the vultures of the Libyan wastes.
Yet shall we, since such merit, though unsung,
Lives by its own imperishable fame,
Give thee thy meed of praise. Rome never bore
Another son, who, had he right pursued,
Had so adorned her laws; but soon the times,
Their luxury, corruption, and the curse
Of too abundant wealth, in transverse stream
Swept o'er his wavering mind: and Curio changed,
Turned with his change the scale of human things.
True, mighty Sulla, cruel Marius,
And bloody Cinna, and the long descent
Of Caesar and of Caesar's house became
Lords of our lives. But who had power like him?
All others bought the state: he sold alone. (27)
ENDNOTES:
(1) Both of these generals were able and distinguished officers.
Afranius was slain by Caesar's soldiers after the battle of
Thapsus. Petreius, after the same battle, escaped along
with Juba; and failing to find a refuge, they challenged
each other to fight. Petreius was killed, and Juba, the
survivor, put an end to himself.
(2) These are the names of Spanish tribes. The Celtiberi dwelt
on the Ebro.
(3) Lerida, on the river Segre, above its junction with the
Ebro. Cinga is the modern Cinca, which falls into the Segre
(Sicoris).
(4) Phrixus and Helle, the children of Nephele, were to be
sacrificed to Zeus: but Nephele rescued them, and they rode
away through the air on the Ram with the golden fleece. But
Helle fell into the sea, which from her was named the
Hellespont. (See Book IX., 1126.) The sun enters Aries
about March 20. The Ram is pictured among the
constellations with his head averse.
(5) See Book I., 463.
(6) See Mr. Heitland's introduction, upon the meaning of the
word "cardo". The word "belt" seems fairly to answer to the
two great circles or four meridians which he describes. The
word occurs again at line 760; Book V., 80; Book VII., 452.
(7) The idea is that the cold of the poles tempers the heat of
the equator.
(8) Fuso: either spacious, outspread; or, poured into the land
(referring to the estuaries) as Mr. Haskins prefers; or,
poured round the island. Portable leathern skiffs seem to
have been in common use in Caesar's time in the English
Channel. These were the rowing boats of the Gauls.
(Mommsen, vol. iv., 219.)
(9) Compare Book I., 519.
(10) Compare the passage in Tacitus, "Histories", ii., 45,
in which the historian describes how the troops of Otho
and Vitellius wept over each other after the battle and
deplored the miseries of a civil war. "Victi
victoresque in lacrumas effusi, sortem civilium armorum
misera laetitia detestantes."
(11) "Saecula nostra" may refer either to Lucan's own time or to
the moment arrived at in the poem; or it may, as Francken
suggests, have a more general meaning.
(12) "Petenda est"? -- "is it fit that you should beg for the
lives of your leaders?" Mr. Haskins says, "shall you have
to beg for them?" But it means that to do so is the height
of disgrace.
(13) The scene is the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic. Here was
Diocletian's palace. (Described in the 13th chapter of
Gibbon.)
(14)