Pharsalia [66]
from your humble sepulchres descend,
And tread beneath your feet, in pride of place,
The wandering phantoms of the gods of Rome. (43)
Which of the chiefs by Tiber's yellow stream,
And which by Nile shall rest (the leaders' fate)
This fight decides, no more. Nor seek to know
From me thy fortunes: for the fates in time
Shall give thee all thy due; and thy great sire, (44)
A surer prophet, in Sicilian fields
Shall speak thy future -- doubting even he
What regions of the world thou should'st avoid
And what should'st seek. O miserable race!
Europe and Asia and Libya's plains, (45)
Which saw your conquests, now shall hold alike
Your burial-place -- nor has the earth for you
A happier land than this."
His task performed,
He stands in mournful guise, with silent look
Asking for death again; yet could not die
Till mystic herb and magic chant prevailed.
For nature's law, once used, had power no more
To slay the corpse and set the spirit free.
With plenteous wood she builds the funeral pyre
To which the dead man comes: then as the flames
Seized on his form outstretched, the youth and witch
Together sought the camp; and as the dawn
Now streaked the heavens, by the hag's command
The day was stayed till Sextus reached his tent,
And mist and darkness veiled his safe return.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Dyrrhachium (or Epidamnus) was a Corcyraean colony, but its
founder was of Corinth, the metropolis of Corcyra. It stood
some sixty miles north of the Ceraunian promontory (Book V.,
747). About the year 1100 it was stormed and taken by
Robert the Guiscard, after furious battles with the troops
of the Emperor Alexius. Its modern name is Durazzo. It may
be observed that, according to Caesar's account, he
succeeded in getting between Pompey and Dyrrhachium, B.C. 3,
41, 42.
(2) C. del Faro, the N.E. point of Sicily.
(3) The shores of Kent.
(4) Aricia was situated on the Via Appia, about sixteen miles
from Rome. There was a temple of Diana close to it, among
some woods on a small lake. Aricia was Horace's first
halting place on his journey to Brundisium ("Satires", i.
5). As to Diana, see Book I., line 501.
(5) An island in the Bay of Puteoli.
(6) Typhon, the hundred-headed giant, was buried under Mount
Etna.
(7) This was Scaeva's name.
(8) The vinewood staff was the badge of the centurion's office.
(9) This giant, like Typhon, was buried under Mount Etna.
(10) Juba and Petreius killed each other after the battle of
Thepsus to avoid falling into Caesar's hands. See Book IV.,
line 5.
(11) So Cicero: "Shall I, who have been called saviour of the
city and father of my country, bring into it an army of
Getae Armenians and Colchians?" ("Ep. ad Atticum," ix., 10.)
(12) See Book VIII., line 3.
(13) Protesilaus, from this place, first landed at Troy.
(14) Thamyris challenged the Muses to a musical contest, and
being vanquished, was by them deprived of sight.
(15) The arrows given to Philoctetes by Hercules as a reward for
kindling his funeral pyre.
(16) This is the Pelasgic, not the historical, Argos.
(17) Book I., line 632; Book VII., line 904. Agave was a
daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Pentheus, king of the
Boeotian Thebes. He was opposed to the mysterious worship
of Dionysus, which his mother celebrated, and which he had
watched from a tree. She tore him to pieces, being urged
into a frenzy and mistaking him for a wild beast. She then
retired to another Thebes, in Phthiotis, in triumph, with
his head and shoulders. By another legend she did not leave
the Boeotian Thebes. (See Grote, vol. i., p. 220. Edit.
1862.)
(18) Aeas was a river flowing from the boundary of Thessaly
through Epirus to the Ionian Sea. The sire of Isis, or Io,
was Inachus; but the river of that name is usually placed in
the Argive territory.
(19) A river rising in Mount Pindus and flowing into the Ionian
And tread beneath your feet, in pride of place,
The wandering phantoms of the gods of Rome. (43)
Which of the chiefs by Tiber's yellow stream,
And which by Nile shall rest (the leaders' fate)
This fight decides, no more. Nor seek to know
From me thy fortunes: for the fates in time
Shall give thee all thy due; and thy great sire, (44)
A surer prophet, in Sicilian fields
Shall speak thy future -- doubting even he
What regions of the world thou should'st avoid
And what should'st seek. O miserable race!
Europe and Asia and Libya's plains, (45)
Which saw your conquests, now shall hold alike
Your burial-place -- nor has the earth for you
A happier land than this."
His task performed,
He stands in mournful guise, with silent look
Asking for death again; yet could not die
Till mystic herb and magic chant prevailed.
For nature's law, once used, had power no more
To slay the corpse and set the spirit free.
With plenteous wood she builds the funeral pyre
To which the dead man comes: then as the flames
Seized on his form outstretched, the youth and witch
Together sought the camp; and as the dawn
Now streaked the heavens, by the hag's command
The day was stayed till Sextus reached his tent,
And mist and darkness veiled his safe return.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Dyrrhachium (or Epidamnus) was a Corcyraean colony, but its
founder was of Corinth, the metropolis of Corcyra. It stood
some sixty miles north of the Ceraunian promontory (Book V.,
747). About the year 1100 it was stormed and taken by
Robert the Guiscard, after furious battles with the troops
of the Emperor Alexius. Its modern name is Durazzo. It may
be observed that, according to Caesar's account, he
succeeded in getting between Pompey and Dyrrhachium, B.C. 3,
41, 42.
(2) C. del Faro, the N.E. point of Sicily.
(3) The shores of Kent.
(4) Aricia was situated on the Via Appia, about sixteen miles
from Rome. There was a temple of Diana close to it, among
some woods on a small lake. Aricia was Horace's first
halting place on his journey to Brundisium ("Satires", i.
5). As to Diana, see Book I., line 501.
(5) An island in the Bay of Puteoli.
(6) Typhon, the hundred-headed giant, was buried under Mount
Etna.
(7) This was Scaeva's name.
(8) The vinewood staff was the badge of the centurion's office.
(9) This giant, like Typhon, was buried under Mount Etna.
(10) Juba and Petreius killed each other after the battle of
Thepsus to avoid falling into Caesar's hands. See Book IV.,
line 5.
(11) So Cicero: "Shall I, who have been called saviour of the
city and father of my country, bring into it an army of
Getae Armenians and Colchians?" ("Ep. ad Atticum," ix., 10.)
(12) See Book VIII., line 3.
(13) Protesilaus, from this place, first landed at Troy.
(14) Thamyris challenged the Muses to a musical contest, and
being vanquished, was by them deprived of sight.
(15) The arrows given to Philoctetes by Hercules as a reward for
kindling his funeral pyre.
(16) This is the Pelasgic, not the historical, Argos.
(17) Book I., line 632; Book VII., line 904. Agave was a
daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Pentheus, king of the
Boeotian Thebes. He was opposed to the mysterious worship
of Dionysus, which his mother celebrated, and which he had
watched from a tree. She tore him to pieces, being urged
into a frenzy and mistaking him for a wild beast. She then
retired to another Thebes, in Phthiotis, in triumph, with
his head and shoulders. By another legend she did not leave
the Boeotian Thebes. (See Grote, vol. i., p. 220. Edit.
1862.)
(18) Aeas was a river flowing from the boundary of Thessaly
through Epirus to the Ionian Sea. The sire of Isis, or Io,
was Inachus; but the river of that name is usually placed in
the Argive territory.
(19) A river rising in Mount Pindus and flowing into the Ionian