Complete works of lucan, p.101
Complete Works of Lucan, page 101
fisus cuncta sibi cessura pericula Caesar
‘sperne minas’ inquit ‘pelagi uentoque furenti
trade sinum. Italiam si caelo auctore recusas
me pete. sola tibi causa est haec iusta timoris, 580
uectorem non nosse tuum, quem numina numquam
destituunt, de quo male tunc fortuna meretur
cum post uota uenit. medias perrumpe procellas
tutela secure mea. caeli iste fretique,
non puppis nostrae labor est: hanc Caesare pressam 585
a fluctu defendet onus. nec longa furori
uentorum saeuo dabitur mora: proderit undis
ista ratis. ne flecte manum, fuge proxima uelis
litora; tum Calabro portu te crede potitum
cum iam non poterit puppi nostraeque saluti 590
altera terra dari. quid tanta strage paretur
ignoras: quaerit pelagi caelique tumultu
quod praestet Fortuna mihi.’ non plura locuto
auolsit laceros percussa puppe rudentis
turbo rapax fragilemque super uolitantia malum 595
uela tulit; sonuit uictis conpagibus alnus.
But Caesar was confident that all dangers would make way for him. “Despise the angry sea,” he cried, “and spread your sail to the raging wind. If you refuse to make for Italy when Heaven forbids, then make for it when I command. One cause alone justifies your fear — that you know not whom you carry. He is a man whom the gods never desert, whom Fortune treats scurvily when she comes merely in answer to his prayer. Burst through the heart of the storm, relying on my protection. Yonder trouble concerns the sky and sea, but not our bark; for Caesar treads the deck, and her freight shall insure her against the waves. No long duration shall be permitted to the fierce fury of the winds: this bark shall be the salvation of the sea. Turn not your helm; use your sail to flee from the neighbouring shore; then you must believe that you have gained an Italian harbour, when it is no longer possible for any other land to shelter our boat and secure our safety. You know not the meaning of this wild confusion: by this hurly-burly of sea and sky Fortune is seeking a boon to confer on me.” Ere he spoke another word, the raging whirlwind smote the vessel and tore away the tattered cordage, and bore off the sails that fluttered over the frail mast, the hull groaned as the seams gave way.
inde ruunt toto concita pericula mundo.
primus ab oceano caput exeris Atlanteo,
Core, mouens aestus. iam te tollente furebat
pontus et in scopulos totas erexerat undas: 600
occurrit gelidus Boreas pelagusque retundit,
et dubium pendet, uento cui concidat, aequor.
sed Scythici uicit rabies Aquilonis et undas
torsit et abstrusas penitus uada fecit harenas.
nec perfert pontum Boreas ad saxa, suumque 605
in fluctus Cori frangit mare, motaque possunt
aequora subductis etiam concurrere uentis.
non Euri cessasse minas, non imbribus atrum
Aeolii iacuisse Notum sub carcere saxi
crediderim; cunctos solita de parte ruentis 610
defendisse suas uiolento turbine terras,
sic pelagus mansisse loco. nam priua procellis
aequora rapta ferunt; Aegaeas transit in undas
Tyrrhenum, sonat Ionio uagus Hadria ponto.
a quotiens frustra pulsatos aequore montis 615
obruit ille dies! quam celsa cacumina pessum
tellus uicta dedit! non ullo litore surgunt
tam ualidi fluctus, alioque ex orbe uoluti
a magno uenere mari, mundumque coercens
monstriferos agit unda sinus. sic rector Olympi 620
cuspide fraterna lassatum in saecula fulmen
adiuuit, regnoque accessit terra secundo,
cum mare conuoluit gentes, cum litora Tethys
noluit ulla pati caelo contenta teneri.
tum quoque tanta maris moles creuisset in astra 625
ni superum rector pressisset nubibus undas.
non caeli nox illa fuit: latet obsitus aer
infernae pallore domus nimbisque grauatus
deprimitur, fluctusque in nubibus accipit imbrem.
lux etiam metuenda perit, nec fulgura currunt 630
clara, sed obscurum nimbosus dissilit aer.
tum superum conuexa tremunt atque arduus axis
intonuit motaque poli conpage laborant.
extimuit natura chaos; rupisse uidentur
concordes elementa moras rursusque redire 635
nox manes mixtura deis. spes una salutis,
quod tanta mundi nondum periere ruina.
quantum Leucadio placidus de uertice pontus
despicitur, tantum nautae uidere trementes
fluctibus e summis praeceps mare; cumque tumentes 640
rursus hiant undae uix eminet aequore malus.
nubila tanguntur uelis et terra carina.
nam pelagus, qua parte sedet, non celat harenas
exhaustum in cumulos, omnisque in fluctibus unda est.
artis opem uicere metus, nescitque magister 645
quam frangat, cui cedat aquae. discordia ponti
succurrit miseris, fluctusque euertere puppem
non ualet in fluctum: uictum latus unda repellens
erigit, atque omni surgit ratis ardua uento.
non humilem Sasona uadis [non litora curuae 650
Thessaliae saxosa pauent] oraeque malignos
Ambraciae portus, scopulosa Ceraunia nautae
summa timent. credit iam digna pericula Caesar
fatis esse suis. ‘quantusne euertere’ dixit
‘me superis labor est, parua quem puppe sedentem 655
tam magno petiere mari! si gloria leti
est pelago donata mei bellisque negamur,
intrepidus quamcumque datis mihi, numina, mortem
accipiam. licet ingentis abruperit actus
festinata dies fatis, sat magna peregi. 660
Arctoas domui gentes, inimica subegi
arma metu, uidit Magnum mihi Roma secundum,
iussa plebe tuli fasces per bella negatos;
nulla meis aberit titulis Romana potestas,
nec sciet hoc quisquam nisi tu, quae sola meorum 665
conscia uotorum es, me, quamuis plenus honorum
et dictator eam Stygias et consul ad umbras,
priuatum, Fortuna, mori. mihi funere nullo
est opus, o superi: lacerum retinete cadauer
fluctibus in mediis, desint mihi busta rogusque, 670
dum metuar semper terraque expecter ab omni.’
haec fatum decumus, dictu mirabile, fluctus
inualida cum puppe leuat, nec rursus ab alto
aggere deiecit pelagi sed pertulit unda
scruposisque angusta uacant ubi litora saxis 675
inposuit terrae. pariter tot regna, tot urbes
fortunamque suam tacta tellure recepit.
And now dangers, summoned from all the world, came rushing on. First the North-west wind raised his head above the Atlantic Ocean and stirred the tides; and soon the sea, roused by him, was raging and would have lifted up all its waves to cover the cliffs; but the cold North wind struck athwart and beat back the flood, till the sea hung doubtful before which wind it would fall. But the fury of the Scythian North wind prevailed: it lashed the waves in circles and changed to shallows the sands hidden far below. But it could not carry the sea right to the shore, but broke its tide against the waves raised by the North-west wind; and, even if the winds were hushed, the angry waters might carry on their strife. I cannot but believe that the fierce East wind was active then, and that the South wind, black with storm, was not idle in the prison of Aeolus’ cave, and that all the winds, rushing from their accustomed quarters, protected their own regions with furious hurricane; and that therefore the sea remained in its place. Separate seas were caught up by the storm and carried away by the winds: the Tyrrhene Sea migrated to the Aegean, and the Adriatic moved and roared in the Ionian basin. That day buried mountains which the waves had often before battered in vain; and the defeated earth sent lofty peaks to the bottom. No shore gave birth to these mighty waves: they came rolling from another region and from the outer sea, and the waters which encircle the world drove on these teeming billows. Thus, when his own thunderbolt was weary, the Ruler of Olympus called in his brother’s trident to help in punishing mankind; and earth became an appanage of the second kingdom, when the Ocean swallowed up the human race and refused to endure any limits, content with no bound except the sky. Now once more the mighty mass of waters would have risen to the stars, had not the Ruler of the gods kept down the sea with clouds. The darkness was not the common darkness of night: the heavens were hidden and veiled with the dimness of the infernal regions, and weighed down by clouds; and in the midst of the clouds the rain poured into the sea. Light, even dreadful light, died; no bright lightnings darted, but the stormy sky gave dim flashes. Next, the dome of the gods quaked, the lofty sky thundered, and the heavens, with all their structure jarred, were troubled. Nature dreaded chaos: it seemed that the elements had burst their harmonious bonds, and that Night was returning, to blend the shades below with the gods above; the one hope of safety for the gods is this — that in the universal catastrophe they have not yet been destroyed. Far as the eye looks down from the Leucadian peak upon calm sea, so high a precipice of water was seen by trembling mariners on the top of the billows; and when once again the swollen waves open their jaws, the mast barely projects above the surface. The sails reach the clouds, the keel rests on the bottom. For the water, where it sinks down, does not cover the bottom: it all goes to form mounds and is used up in the waves. The danger was too great for the aid derived from skill: the steersman knows not when to face the current and when to evade it. The strife of the waters is helpful to the wretched sailors; for one wave is powerless against another to upset the vessel; when her side is struck, another sea beats her back and rights her, and she rises erect because all the winds blow at once. It is not the shoals of low-lying Sason that frighten the crews, nor yet the rocky shore of winding Thessaly, nor the scanty harbours of the Ambracian coast, but rather the tops of the Ceraunian mountains. — Caesar considers at last that the danger is on a scale to match his destiny. “What trouble the gods take,” he cried, “to work my ruin, assailing me on my little boat with such a mighty storm! If the glory of my death, denied to the battle-field, has been granted to the deep, I shall not shrink from meeting whatever end Heaven appoints for me. Although the date, hastened on by destiny, cuts short a great career, my achievements are sufficient: I have conquered the Northern peoples; by fear alone I have quelled the Roman forces opposed to me; Rome has seen me take precedence of Magnus; by appeal to the people I won the consulship denied to me by force of arms; no Roman office will be found missing from my record; and none other than Fortune, who shares with me the secret of my ambition, shall ever know that, though I go down to the Stygian shades loaded with honours, dictator as well as consul, nevertheless I am dying a private citizen. I ask no burial of the gods: let them leave my mutilated corpse amid the waves; I can dispense with grave and funeral pyre, provided I am feared for ever and my appearance is dreaded by every land.” As he spoke thus, a tenth wave — marvellous to tell — upbore him and his battered craft; nor did the billow hurl him back again from the high watery crest but bore him onwards till it laid him on the land, where a narrow strip of shore was clear of jagged rocks. He touched the land and recovered in one moment realms and cities innumerable and his own lucky star.
sed non tam remeans Caesar iam luce propinqua
quam tacita sua castra fuga comitesque fefellit.
circumfusa duci fleuit gemituque suorum 680
et non ingratis incessit turba querellis.
‘quo te, dure, tulit uirtus temeraria, Caesar,
aut quae nos uiles animas in fata relinquens
inuitis spargenda dabas tua membra procellis?
cum tot in hac anima populorum uita salusque 685
pendeat et tantus caput hoc sibi fecerit orbis,
saeuitia est uoluisse mori. nullusne tuorum
emeruit comitum fatis non posse superstes
esse tuis? cum te raperet mare, corpora segnis
nostra sopor tenuit. pudet, heu! tibi causa petendae 690
haec fuit Hesperiae, uisum est quod mittere quemquam
tam saeuo crudele mari. sors ultima rerum
in dubios casus et prona pericula morti
praecipitare solet: mundi iam summa tenentem
permisisse mari tantum! quid numina lassas? 695
sufficit ad fatum belli fauor iste laborque
Fortunae, quod te nostris inpegit harenis?
hine usus placuere deum, non rector ut orbis
nec dominus rerum, sed felix naufragus esses?’
talia iactantis discussa nocte serenus 700
oppressit cum sole dies, fessumque tumentis
conposuit pelagus uentis patientibus undas.
But when Caesar returned next day to his army and his officers, they were not taken unawares by his return as they had been by his secret departure. Crowding round their leader, they shed tears and assailed him with lament and expostulations not unpleasing to his ear. “Hardhearted Caesar, to what lengths your rash courage has carried you! And at the mercy of what fate did you leave our worthless lives, when you gave your limbs to be torn in pieces by the reluctant winds? When the existence and safety of so many nations depend upon your single life, and so large a part of the world has chosen you for its head, it is cruel of you to court death. Did none of your comrades deserve the honour of being prevented from surviving your end? While the sea drove you along, our limbs were held by slothful sleep; you put us to the blush. You made for Italy yourself, because you deemed it heartless to bid any other cross such a stormy sea. In general it is utter despair that hurls men into jeopardy and danger that runs straight to death; but that you, who are now master of the world, should grant such licence to the sea! Why do you overtask the goodwill of Heaven? Fortune has hurled you here upon the shore; for the issue of the war, are you content with that instance of her favour and assistance? Is this the use you prefer to make of Heaven, that you should be, not the ruler of the world or the master of mankind, but a shipwrecked wretch who escapes from drowning?” As thus they argued, darkness was dispelled and clear daylight came upon them together with the sun; and the weary sea, permitted by the winds, calmed its swollen billows.
nec non Hesperii lassatum fluctibus aequor
ut uidere duces, purumque insurgere caelo
fracturum pelagus Borean, soluere carinas. 705
quas uentus doctaeque pari moderamine dextrae
permixtas habuere diu, latumque per aequor,
ut terrestre, coit consertis puppibus agmen.
sed nox saeua modum uenti uelique tenorem
eripuit nautis excussitque ordine puppes. 710
Strymona sic gelidum bruma pellente relinquunt
poturae te, Nile, grues, primoque uolatu
effingunt uarias casu monstrante figuras;
mox, ubi percussit tensas Notus altior alas,
confusos temere inmixtae glomerantur in orbes, 715
et turbata perit dispersis littera pinnis.
cum primum redeunte die uiolentior aer
puppibus incubuit Phoebeo concitus ortu,
praetereunt frustra temptati litora Lissi
Nymphaeumque tenent: nudas Aquilonibus undas 720
succedens Boreae iam portum fecerat Auster.
The commanders in Italy also, when they saw that the sea was weary of waves, and that a clear North wind, rising in the sky, would soon break the force of the waters, cast loose their ships; and these were long kept close together by the wind and by skilled hands all steering the same course: like soldiers marching on land, the fleet sailed together over the broad sea, vessel keeping close to vessel. But night, proving unkind, robbed the sailors of steady wind, stopped the even progress of the sails, and threw the ships out of station. Thus, when cranes are driven by winter from the frozen Strymon to drink the water of the Nile, at the beginning of their flight they describe various chance-taught figures; but later, when a loftier wind beats on their outspread wings, they combine at random and form disordered packs, until the letter is broken and disappears as the birds are scattered. As soon as day returned, and the brisker air roused by the dawn bore down on the ships, after trying in vain to land at Lissus, they sailed past to reach Nymphaeum, where the sea, unprotected on the North, had been turned into a harbour by the shift of wind from North to South.
undique conlatis in robur Caesaris armis
summa uidens duri Magnus discrimina Martis
iam castris instare suis seponere tutum
coniugii decreuit onus Lesboque remota 725
te procul a saeui strepitu, Cornelia, belli
occulere. heu, quantum mentes dominatur in aequas
iusta Venus! dubium trepidumque ad proelia, Magne,
te quoque fecit amor; quod nolles stare sub ictu
fortunae quo mundus erat Romanaque fata, 730
