Complete works of lucan, p.126
Complete Works of Lucan, page 126
discubuere illic reges maiorque potestas
Caesar; et inmodice formam fucata nocentem,
nec sceptris contenta suis nec fratre marito,
plena maris rubri spoliis, colloque comisque
diuitias Cleopatra gerit cultuque laborat. 140
candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo,
quod Nilotis acus conpressum pectine Serum
soluit et extenso laxauit stamina uelo.
dentibus hic niueis sectos Atlantide silua
inposuere orbes, quales ad Caesaris ora 145
nec capto uenere Iuba. pro caecus et amens
ambitione furor, ciuilia bella gerenti
diuitias aperire suas, incendere mentem
hospitis armati. non sit licet ille nefando
Marte paratus opes mundi quaesisse ruina; 150
pone duces priscos et nomina pauperis aeui
Fabricios Curiosque graues, hic ille recumbat
sordidus Etruscis abductus consul aratris:
optabit patriae talem duxisse triumphum.
There the sovereigns sat down, and with them Caesar, greater than they. Cleopatra, not content with a crown of her own and her brother for husband, was there, with her baleful beauty painted up beyond all measure: covered with the spoils of the Red Sea, she carried a fortune round her neck and in her hair, and was weighed down by her ornaments. Her white breasts were revealed by the fabric of Sidon, which, close-woven by the shuttle of the Seres, the Egyptian needle-worker pulls out, and loosens the thread by stretching the stuff. Then they placed upon snowy tusks round tables cut in Moorish forests, such tables as Caesar did not see even after he conquered Juba. What blindness, what madness for display, to reveal their wealth to the general in a civil war, and to kindle the avarice of a guest in arms! Even if it were not Caesar, in his impious warfare greedy to get wealth by the havoc of a world — place here the ancient leaders whose names adorn an age of poverty, a Fabricius and stern Curius; or let the consul, summoned unwashed from his plough in Etruria, take his place at this table, and he will pray to celebrate for his country a triumph as splendid.
infudere epulas auro, quod terra, quod aer, 155
quod pelagus Nilusque dedit, quod luxus inani
ambitione furens toto quaesiuit in orbe
non mandante fame; multas uolucresque ferasque
Aegypti posuere deos, manibusque ministrat
Niliacas crystallos aquas, gemmaeque capaces 160
excepere merum, sed non Mareotidos uuae,
nobile sed paucis senium cui contulit annis
indomitum Meroe cogens spumare Falernum.
accipiunt sertas nardo florente coronas
et numquam fugiente rosa, multumque madenti 165
infudere comae quod nondum euanuit aura
cinnamon externa nec perdidit aera terrae,
aduectumque recens uicinae messis amomon.
discit opes Caesar spoliati perdere mundi
et gessisse pudet genero cum paupere bellum 170
et causas Martis Phariis cum gentibus optat.
They served on gold a banquet of every dainty that earth or air, the sea or the Nile affords, all that extravagance, unspurred by hunger and maddened by idle love of display, has sought out over all the earth. Many birds and beasts were served that are divine in Egypt; crystal ewers supplied Nile water for their hands; the wine was poured into great jewelled goblets — no wine of Egyptian grapes, but generous Falernian, to which Meroe brings ripeness in a few years, forcing its stubborn nature to ferment. They put on wreaths, twined of blooming nard and ever-flowering roses; they drenched their hair with cinnamon, which had not yet grown faint from foreign air nor lost the scent it had at home, and with cardamom, plucked not far away and freshly imported. Caesar learns to squander the wealth of a plundered world; he is ashamed to have made war against one so poor as Pompey, and desires a pretext for war with the Egyptians.
postquam epulis Bacchoque modum lassata uoluptas
inposuit, longis Caesar producere noctem
inchoat adloquiis, summaque in sede iacentem
linigerum placidis conpellat Acorea dictis. 175
‘o sacris deuote senex, quodque arguit aetas
non neclecte deis, Phariae primordia gentis
terrarumque situs uolgique edissere mores
et ritus formasque deum; quodcumque uetustis
insculptum est adytis profer, noscique uolentes 180
prode deos. si Cecropium sua sacra Platona
maiores docuere tui, quis dignior umquam
hoc fuit auditu mundique capacior hospes?
fama quidem generi Pharias me duxit ad urbes,
sed tamen et uestri; media inter proelia semper 185
stellarum caelique plagis superisque uacaui,
nec meus Eudoxi uincetur fastibus annus.
sed, cum tanta meo uiuat sub pectore uirtus,
tantus amor ueri, nihil est quod noscere malim
quam fluuii causas per saecula tanta latentis 190
ignotumque caput: spes sit mihi certa uidendi
Niliacos fontes, bellum ciuile relinquam.’
finierat, contraque sacer sic orsus Acoreus:
When sated enjoyment set a limit to feasting and wine, Caesar began to prolong the night with discourse long drawn out; and thus he accosted in friendly speech aged Acoreus, who lay, dressed in his linen robe, upon the highest seat. “Sir, devoted as you are to the service of heaven, and, as your age proves, not unprotected by the gods, expound to me the origins of the Egyptian nation, the features of the land, the manners of the common people, your forms of worship, and the shapes of your gods; reveal all that is engraved upon your ancient shrines, and disclose your gods who are willing that they should be known. If your ancestors taught their religion to Plato the Athenian, was ever guest of yours more worthy than I to hear these things, was ever a mind more able to contain the world’s secrets? It is true that the report concerning my kinsman brought me to your cities; but your fame attracted me too: in the midst of war I ever found time to study the world above us and the starry and celestial zones; and the Julian year shall not be outdone by the calendar of Eudoxus. But, though such intellectual vigour and love of truth flourish in my breast, yet there is nothing I would rather learn than the causes, concealed through such long ages, that account for the Nile, and the secret of its source. Give me an assured hope to set eyes on the springs of the river, and I will abandon civil war.” He ended his speech, and thus the holy priest, Acoreus, began his reply:
‘fas mihi magnorum, Caesar, secreta parentum
edere ad hoc aeui populis ignota profanis. 195
sit pietas aliis miracula tanta silere;
ast ego caelicolis gratum reor ire per omnis
hoc opus et sacras populis notescere leges.
sideribus, quae sola fugam moderantur Olympi
occurruntque polo, diuersa potentia prima 200
mundi lege data est. sol tempora diuidit aeui,
mutat nocte diem, radiisque potentibus astra
ire uetat cursusque uagos statione moratur;
luna suis uicibus Tethyn terrenaque miscet;
frigida Saturno glacies et zona niualis 205
cessit; habet uentos incertaque fulmina Mauors;
sub Ioue temperies et numquam turbidus aer;
at fecunda Venus cunctarum semina rerum
possidet; inmensae Cyllenius arbiter undaest.
hunc ubi pars caeli tenuit, qua mixta Leonis 210
sidera sunt Cancro, rapidos qua Sirius ignes
exerit et uarii mutator circulus anni
Aegoceron Cancrumque tenet, cui subdita Nili
ora latent, quae cum dominus percussit aquarum
igne superiecto, tunc Nilus fonte soluto, 215
exit ut Oceanus lunaribus incrementis,
iussus adest, auctusque suos non ante coartat
quam nox aestiuas a sole receperit horas.
“To me, Caesar, it is permitted to disclose the secrets of our great ancestors — secrets hitherto unknown to the herd. Let others think it pious to conceal such great marvels; but I believe it the will of heaven that this fabric of theirs should be published abroad and that all mankind should learn their sacred laws. The primal ordinance of the universe assigned different powers to those stars which alone rule the rapid movement of the sky, and move in opposition to the heavens. The sun divides time into periods, and changes day for night; and the power of his rays forbids the planets to go forward, and delays their wanderings with stationary periods. The changes of the moon bring sea and land in contact. To Saturn has been assigned freezing ice in the snowy zone; Mars is lord of the winds and of thunder that has no fixed season; under the rule of Jupiter is temperate climate and air that is always bright; fruitful Venus is mistress of the seeds of all things that exist; and Mercury controls the vast element of water. When Mercury has reached that part of the sky where Leo and Cancer are in contact, where Sirius blazes forth and where lies the circle which changes the year and contains Capricorn and Cancer, whereunder are the hidden founts of the Nile; and when the ruler of the element of water has shone down vertically on these — then the source of the river is opened, and, as the Ocean is lifted up by the waxing moon, so the Nile answers the bidding, and does not narrow his flood again until night has got back from day the hours it lost in summer.
uana fides ueterum, Nilo, quod crescat in arua,
Aethiopum prodesse niues. non Arctos in illis 220
montibus aut Boreas. testis tibi sole perusti
ipse color populi calidique uaporibus Austri.
adde quod omne caput fluuii, quodcumque soluta
praecipitat glacies, ingresso uere tumescit
prima tabe niuis: Nilus neque suscitat undas 225
ante Canis radios nec ripis alligat amnem
ante parem nocti Libra sub iudice Phoebum.
inde etiam leges aliarum nescit aquarum,
nec tumet hibernus, cum longe sole remoto
officiis caret unda suis: dare iussus iniquo 230
temperiem caelo mediis aestatibus exit
sub torrente plaga, neu terras dissipet ignis
Nilus adest mundo contraque incensa Leonis
ora tumet Cancroque suam torrente Syenen
inploratus adest, nec campos liberat undis 235
donec in autumnum declinet Phoebus et umbras
extendat Meroe. quis causas reddere possit?
sic iussit natura parens discurrere Nilum,
sic opus est mundo. Zephyros quoque uana uetustas
his ascripsit aquis, quorum stata tempora flatus 240
continuique dies et in aera longa potestas,
uel quod ab occiduo depellunt nubila caelo
trans Noton et fluuio cogunt incumbere nimbos,
uel quod aquas totiens rumpentis litora Nili
adsiduo feriunt coguntque resistere fluctu: 245
ille mora cursus aduersique obice ponti
aestuat in campos. sunt qui spiramina terris
esse putent magnosque cauae conpagis hiatus.
commeat hac penitus tacitis discursibus unda
frigore ab Arctoo medium reuocata sub axem, 250
cum Phoebus pressit Meroen tellusque perusta
illuc duxit aquas; trahitur Gangesque Padusque
per tacitum mundi: tunc omnia flumina Nilus
uno fonte uomens non uno gurgite perfert.
rumor ab Oceano, qui terras alligat omnes, 255
exundante procul uiolentum erumpere Nilum
aequoreosque sales longo mitescere tractu.
nec non Oceano pasci Phoebumque polosque
credimus: hunc, calidi tetigit cum bracchia Cancri,
sol rapit, atque undae plus quam quod digerat aer 260
tollitur; hoc noctes referunt Niloque profundunt.
ast ego, si tantam ius est mihi soluere litem,
quasdam, Caesar, aquas post mundi sera peracti
saecula concussis terrarum erumpere uenis
non id agente deo, quasdam conpage sub ipsa 265
cum toto coepisse reor, quas ille creator
atque opifex rerum certo sub iure coercet.
“The ancients erred when they believed that the Nile is helped to overflow the fields by the snows in Ethiopia. For there is no North star nor North wind in those mountains. The mere colour of the Ethiopians, who are blackened by the sun, and their hot scorching winds, may convince you of this. Moreover, every river-head which is set running by the melting of ice begins to rise at the coming of spring, when the snow first thaws; but the Nile does not arouse its water before the shining of the Dog-star, nor confine its stream within the banks until the day becomes equal to the night, with Libra as arbitress. Hence also the Nile knows not the laws that govern other rivers: it does not rise in winter, when the sun is far away and the waters have no function to discharge; but, having orders to mitigate an oppressive climate, he issues forth in the torrid zone at midsummer; and, in order that fire may not dissolve the earth, Nile comes to help the world, rising against the burning mouth of Leo, and answering the prayer of Syene, when its lord, Cancer, is consuming it; nor does he free the plains from his waters, until the sun slopes down towards autumn and Meroe casts a shadow. Who can explain the reasons? Mother Nature ordained that the Nile should overflow thus, and the world requires that so it should be. — The ancients were wrong again, when they accounted for this inundation by West winds which blow day after day at a fixed season, and whose empire over the air lasts long. These winds were supposed to work in one of two ways: either they drive the clouds down from the western sky across the South and force the rain to descend on the Nile; or else, when the river breaks the shore with so many mouths, they strike it and bring it to a halt by the steady pressure of the sea; and thus the stream overflows the fields, because its course is hindered and a barrier interposed by the sea. Some think that there are air-passages in the earth, and great fissures in its hollow frame. In these, far below the surface, water travels and moves to and fro invisibly, and is summoned from the cold North to the Equator, whenever the sun is directly above Meroe and the parched earth attracts water thither; the Ganges and the Po are thus conveyed through a hidden region of the world; and then the Nile, discharging all rivers from a single source, carries them by many mouths to the sea. There is a tale that the Nile bursts forth from the distant flood of Ocean which bounds every land, and that the brine grows fresh owing to the long distance it travels. Further, we believe that the sun and sky are fed by the Ocean; the sun, when he has reached the claws of fiery Cancer, sucks up the Ocean, and more water is raised than the air can digest; and this overplus the nights repay and pour down upon the Nile. But I myself, if I have the right to decide so great a dispute, hold this opinion, Caesar: certain waters, long after the world was created, burst forth in consequence of earthquakes, with no special purpose on the part of the deity; but certain others, at the very formation of the world, had their beginning along with the universe; and the latter the creator and artificer of all things restrains under a law of their own.
quae tibi noscendi Nilum, Romane, cupido est,
et Phariis Persisque fuit Macetumque tyrannis,
nullaque non aetas uoluit conferre futuris 270
notitiam; sed uincit adhuc natura latendi.
summus Alexander regum, quem Memphis adorat,
inuidit Nilo, misitque per ultima terrae
Aethiopum lectos: illos rubicunda perusti
zona poli tenuit; Nilum uidere calentem. 275
uenit ad occasus mundique extrema Sesostris
et Pharios currus regum ceruicibus egit;
ante tamen uestros amnes, Rhodanumque Padumque,
quam Nilum de fonte bibit. uaesanus in ortus
Cambyses longi populos peruenit ad aeui, 280
defectusque epulis et pastus caede suorum
ignoto te, Nile, redit. non fabula mendax
ausa loqui de fonte tuo est. ubicumque uideris
quaereris, et nulli contingit gloria genti
ut Nilo sit laeta suo. tua flumina prodam, 285
qua deus undarum celator, Nile, tuarum
te mihi nosse dedit. medio consurgis ab axe;
ausus in ardentem ripas attollere Cancrum
in Borean is rectus aquis mediumque Booten
(cursus in occasus flexu torquetur et ortus, 290
nunc Arabum populis, Libycis nunc aequus harenis),
teque uident primi, quaerunt tamen hi quoque, Seres,
Aethiopumque feris alieno gurgite campos,
et te terrarum nescit cui debeat orbis.
arcanum natura caput non prodidit ulli, 295
nec licuit populis paruum te, Nile, uidere,
amouitque sinus et gentes maluit ortus
mirari quam nosse tuos. consurgere in ipsis
ius tibi solstitiis, aliena crescere bruma
atque hiemes adferre tuas, solique uagari 300
concessum per utrosque polos. hic quaeritur ortus,
illic finis aquae. late tibi gurgite rupto
ambitur nigris Meroe fecunda colonis,
laeta comis hebeni, quae quamuis arbore multa
