Complete works of lucan, p.89
Complete Works of Lucan, page 89
interea totum Magni fortuna per orbem
secum casuras in proelia mouerat urbes. 170
proxima uicino uires dat Graecia bello.
Phocaicas Amphissa manus scopulosaque Cirrha
Parnasosque iugo misit desertus utroque.
Boeoti coiere duces, quos inpiger ambit
fatidica Cephisos aqua Cadmeaque Dirce, 175
Pisaeaeque manus populisque per aequora mittens
Sicaniis Alpheos aquas. tum Maenala liquit
Arcas et Herculeam miles Trachinius Oeten.
Thesproti Dryopesque ruunt, quercusque silentis
Chaonio ueteres liquerunt uertice Selloe. 180
exhausit totas quamuis dilectus Athenas,
exiguae Phoebea tenent naualia puppes
tresque petunt ueram credi Salamina carinae.
iam dilecta Ioui centenis uenit in arma
Creta uetus populis Cnososque agitare pharetras 185
docta nec Eois peior Gortyna sagittis;
tunc qui Dardaniam tenet Oricon et uagus altis
dispersus siluis Athaman et nomine prisco
Encheliae uersi testantes funera Cadmi,
Colchis et Hadriaca spumans Apsyrtos in unda; 190
Penei qui rura colunt, quorumque labore
Thessalus Haemoniam uomer proscindit Iolcon.
inde lacessitum primo mare, cum rudis Argo
miscuit ignotas temerato litore gentes
primaque cum uentis pelagique furentibus undis 195
conposuit mortale genus, fatisque per illam
accessit mors una ratem. tum linquitur Haemus
Thracius et populum Pholoe mentita biformem.
deseritur Strymon tepido committere Nilo
Bistonias consuetus aues et barbara Cone, 200
Sarmaticas ubi perdit aquas sparsamque profundo
multifidi Peucen unum caput adluit Histri,
Mysiaque et gelido tellus perfusa Caico
Idalis et nimium glaebis exilis Arisbe,
quique colunt Pitanen, et quae tua munera, Pallas, 205
lugent damnatae Phoebo uictore Celaenae,
qua celer et rectis descendens Marsya ripis
errantem Maeandron adit mixtusque refertur,
passaque ab auriferis tellus exire metallis
Pactolon, qua culta secat non uilior Hermus. 210
Iliacae quoque signa manus perituraque castra
ominibus petiere suis, nec fabula Troiae
continuit Phrygiique ferens se Caesar Iuli.
accedunt Syriae populi; desertus Orontes
et felix, sic fama, Ninos, uentosa Damascos 215
Gazaque et arbusto palmarum diues Idume
et Tyros in stabilis pretiosaque murice Sidon.
has ad bella rates non flexo limite ponti
certior haud ullis duxit Cynosura carinis.
(Phoenices primi, famae si creditur, ausi 220
mansuram rudibus uocem signare figuris:
nondum flumineas Memphis contexere biblos
nouerat, et saxis tantum uolucresque feraeque
sculptaque seruabant magicas animalia linguas.)
deseritur Taurique nemus Perseaque Tarsos 225
Coryciumque patens exesis rupibus antrum;
Mallos et extremae resonant naualibus Aegae,
itque Cilix iusta iam non pirata carina.
The news of war roused also the distant parts of the East, where Ganges and its peoples are — Ganges, the one river on earth that dares to unlock its mouths opposite the rising sun and drives its flood forward in the teeth of the East wind; here it was that the Macedonian captain halted, with the outer Ocean in front of him, and confessed that he was beaten by the vastness of the world. Roused was the land where the Indus, bearing along its swift stream with two-fold flood, is unchanged by the addition of the Hydaspes to its waste of waters.
mouit et Eoos bellorum fama recessus,
qua colitur Ganges, toto qui solus in orbe 230
ostia nascenti contraria soluere Phoebo
audet et aduersum fluctus inpellit in Eurum,
hic ubi Pellaeus post Tethyos aequora ductor
constitit et magno uinci se fassus ab orbe est;
quaque ferens rapidum diuiso gurgite fontem 235
uastis Indus aquis mixtum non sentit Hydaspen;
quique bibunt tenera dulcis ab harundine sucos,
et qui tinguentes croceo medicamine crinem
fluxa coloratis astringunt carbasa gemmis,
quique suas struxere pyras uiuique calentis 240
conscendere rogos. pro, quanta est gloria genti
iniecisse manum fatis uitaque repletos
quod superest donasse deis! uenere feroces
Cappadoces, duri populus non cultor Amani,
Armeniusque tenens uoluentem saxa Niphaten. 245
aethera tangentis siluas liquere Choatrae.
ignotum uobis, Arabes, uenistis in orbem
umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras.
tum furor extremos mouit Romanus Orestas
Carmanosque duces, quorum iam flexus in Austrum 250
aether non totam mergi tamen aspicit Arcton
lucet et exigua uelox ibi nocte Bootes,
Aethiopumque solum, quod non premeretur ab ulla
signiferi regione poli, nisi poplite lapso
ultima curuati procederet ungula Tauri, 255
quaque caput rapido tollit cum Tigride magnus
Euphrates, quos non diuersis fontibus edit
Persis, et incertum, tellus si misceat amnes,
quod potius sit nomen aquis. sed sparsus in agros
fertilis Euphrates Phariae uice fungitur undae; 260
at Tigrim subito tellus absorbet hiatu
occultosque tegit cursus rursusque renatum
fonte nouo flumen pelagi non abnegat undis.
inter Caesareas acies diuersaque signa
pugnaces dubium Parthi tenuere fauorem 265
contenti fecisse duos. tinxere sagittas
errantes Scythiae populi, quos gurgite Bactros
includit gelido uastisque Hyrcania siluis;
hinc Lacedaemonii, moto gens aspera freno,
Heniochi saeuisque adfinis Sarmata Moschis; 270
Colchorum qua rura secat ditissima Phasis,
qua Croeso fatalis Halys, qua uertice lapsus
Riphaeo Tanais diuersi nomina mundi
inposuit ripis Asiaeque et terminus idem
Europae, mediae dirimens confinia terrae, 275
nunc hunc nunc illum, qua flectitur, ampliat orbem;
quaque, fretum torrens, Maeotidos egerit undas
Pontus, et Herculeis aufertur gloria metis,
Oceanumque negant solas admittere Gadis;
hinc Essedoniae gentes auroque ligatas 280
substringens Arimaspe comas; hinc fortis Arius
longaque Sarmatici soluens ieiunia belli
Massagetes, quo fugit, equo uolucresque Geloni.
non, cum Memnoniis deducens agmina regnis
Cyrus et effusis numerato milite telis 285
descendit Perses, fraternique ultor amoris
aequora cum tantis percussit classibus, unum
tot reges habuere ducem, coiere nec umquam
tam uariae cultu gentes, tam dissona uolgi
ora. tot inmensae comites missura ruinae 290
exciuit populos et dignas funere Magni
exequias Fortuna dedit. non corniger Hammon
mittere Marmaricas cessauit in arma cateruas,
quidquid ab occiduis Libye patet arida Mauris
usque Paraetonias Eoa ad litora Syrtis. 295
acciperet felix ne non semel omnia Caesar,
uincendum pariter Pharsalia praestitit orbem.
Up rose the men who drink sweet juices from soft reeds; and those who colour their hair with saffron dye and loop up their robes of cotton with bright-hued gems; and those who build pyres for themselves and climb, while yet alive, upon the burning heap. How glorious for a people to lay violent hands on death, and, when satiated with life, to refuse the remnant of it from the gods! The savage Cappadocians came; and the men who find the soil of Mount Amanus too hard to till; and the Armenians, who dwell where the Niphates rolls along boulders in its course. The Choatrae abandoned their forests that reach the sky; the Arabs entered a world unknown to them, and marvelled that the shadows of the trees did not fall to the left. The remote Orestae too were disturbed by the madness of Rome, and the chiefs of Carmania — where the sky, beginning to incline southwards, sees part at least of the Bear sink below the horizon, and where Bootes, swift to set, is visible only for a short portion of the night — and the land of Aethiopia, which would not be covered by any part of the Zodiac, did not the leg of hunched-up Taurus give way and the tip of his hoof project; and the land where the mighty Euphrates and rushing Tigris uplift their heads. They rise in Persia from springs not far apart; and, if earth suffered them to meet, who can say which of the names the waters would bear? But the Euphrates, diffused over the land, fertilises it as the Nile fertilises Egypt; whereas the Tigris is suddenly swallowed up by a chasm in the earth, which hides its course from the eye, but then gives birth to it again from a new source and suffers the river to reach the sea. The warlike Parthians remained neutral between the army of Caesar and the host opposed to him: it was enough for them that they had reduced the rivals to two. The nomad peoples of Scythia, bounded by the cold stream of Bactros and the endless forests of Hyrcania, dipped their arrows in poison. From one quarter came the Heniochi of Spartan blood, a dangerous people when they shake their bridles, and the Sarmatians, akin to the savage Moschi. Men came from the regions where the Phasis cleaves the rich land of the Colchians, where flows the Halys that brought doom to Croesus, and where the Tanais, falling down from the Riphaean heights, gives the names of two worlds to its two banks, bounding Asia and Europe as well — it keeps the central part of earth from union, and, according to its windings, enlarges now one continent and now the other — and where the Euxine drains the rushing waters of the Maeotian Mere through the strait; and thus men deny that Gades alone lets in the Ocean, and the Pillars of Hercules are robbed of their boast. From another quarter came the Essedonian tribes, the Arimaspians who loop up their hair bound with gold, the brave Arians, the Massagetae who break the long fast of battle with Sarmatians by bleeding the horse that bore them from the fight, and the fleet Geloni. Neither Cyrus, when he led his host from the land of morning and the Persians came down with an army that was numbered by the casting of darts, nor he that avenged his brother’s wrong — neither of these smote the sea with such mighty fleets; never did so many kings obey a single leader, never did nations meet so different in dress, never was there such a confusion of tongues. Fortune roused all those peoples, to send them as escort for measureless disaster, and provided them as a funeral train befitting the burial of Magnus. Nor was horned Ammon slow to send to battle African squadrons from the whole extent of parched Libya — from the Moors in the West to Egyptian Syrtes on the eastern coast. That Caesar, favoured by Fortune, might win all at a single cast, Pharsalia presented him the whole world to conquer at once.
ille ubi deseruit trepidantis moenia Romae
agmine nubiferam rapto super euolat Alpem;
cumque alii famae populi terrore pauerent 300
Phocais in dubiis ausa est seruare iuuentus
non Graia leuitate fidem signataque iura,
et causas, non fata, sequi. tamen ante furorem
indomitum duramque uiri deflectere mentem
pacifico sermone parant hostemque propinquum 305
orant Cecropiae praelata fronde Mineruae.
When Caesar left the walls of terrified Rome, he rushed with swift march over the cloud-capped Alps. Though other peoples cowered at the terror of his name, the Phocaean warriors, with steadfastness rare in Greeks, dared to be faithful in the hour of danger to their solemn compacts, and to follow the right rather than fortune. But first they tried by peaceable argument to turn aside the reckless rage and stern heart of Caesar; and when the enemy drew near, they appealed to him thus, holding out before them the leaves of Athenian Minerva:
‘semper in externis populo communia uestro
Massiliam bellis testatur fata tulisse
conprensa est Latiis quaecumque annalibus aetas.
et nunc, ignoto siquos petis orbe triumphos, 310
accipe deuotas externa in proelia dextras.
at, si funestas acies, si dira paratis
proelia discordes, lacrimas ciuilibus armis
secretumque damus. tractentur uolnera nulla
sacra manu. si caelicolis furor arma dedisset 315
aut si terrigenae temptarent astra gigantes,
non tamen auderet pietas humana uel armis
uel uotis prodesse Ioui, sortisque deorum
ignarum mortale genus per fulmina tantum
sciret adhuc caelo solum regnare Tonantem. 320
adde quod innumerae concurrunt undique gentes,
nec sic horret iners scelerum contagia mundus
ut gladiis egeant ciuilia bella coactis.
sit mens ista quidem cunctis, ut uestra recusent
fata, nec haec alius committat proelia miles. 325
cui non conspecto languebit dextra parente
telaque diuersi prohibebunt spargere fratres?
finis adest elerum, si non committitis ullis
arma quibus fas est. nobis haec summa precandi:
terribilis aquilas infestaque signa relinquas 330
urbe procul nostrisque uelis te credere muris
excludique sinas admisso Caesare bellum.
sit locus exceptus sceleri, Magnoque tibique
tutus, ut, inuictae fatum si consulat urbi,
foedera si placeant, sit quo ueniatis inermes. 335
uel, cum tanta uocent discrimina Martis Hiberi,
quid rapidum deflectis iter? non pondera rerum
nec momenta sumus, numquam felicibus armis
usa manus, patriae primis a sedibus exul,
et post translatas exustae Phocidos arces 340
moenibus exiguis alieno in litore tuti,
inlustrat quos sola fides. si claudere muros
obsidione paras et ui perfringere portas,
excepisse faces tectis et tela parati,
undarum raptos auersis fontibus haustus 345
quaerere et effossam sitientes lambere terram
et, desit si larga Ceres, tunc horrida cerni
foedaque contingi maculato attingere morsu.
nec pauet hic populus pro libertate subire
obsessum Poeno gessit quae Marte Saguntum. 350
pectoribus rapti matrum frustraque trahentes
ubera sicca fame medios mittentur in ignis
uxor et a caro poscet sibi fata marito,
uolnera miscebunt fratres bellumque coacti
hoc potius ciuile gerent.’ sic Graia iuuentus 355
finierat, cum turbato iam prodita uoltu
ira ducis tandem testata est uoce dolorem.
“Every age included in Italian history bears witness that Massilia has shared the fortunes of the Roman people in their foreign wars. And now too, if you seek triumphs in some unknown region, here at your service are our swords to fight against the foreigner. But if Romans are divided, and if you purpose ill-omened battles and accursed strife, then we offer tears for civil war, and we stand aside. No other hand should meddle with the wounds of gods. If frenzy had armed the immortals, or if the earth-born Giants assailed the sky, the piety of man, nevertheless, would shrink from aiding Jupiter either with arms or with prayers; and the human race, ignorant of what was happening in heaven, would know only from his thunderbolts that the Thunderer still reigned in the sky without a rival. Moreover, countless nations are speeding to the fray from every quarter; nor is mankind so slow to fight, so averse to the contagion of crime, that civil war need compel recruits. We wish indeed that all men had this purpose — to refuse a share in Roman destiny, and that no foreign soldier should fight in your quarrel. What Roman arm will not be enfeebled by the sight of his father? who will not be hindered from hurling his weapon when he sees his brothers in the ranks of the foe? The civil war will soon end, if you refrain from enlisting those whom alone it is lawful to enlist. For ourselves, this is the sum total of our petition: leave your dreaded eagles, your formidable standards, at a distance from our city, and be willing to trust yourself within our walls; permit us to let Caesar in and keep war out. Let there be one spot exempt from crime, safe for Magnus and safe for you. So, if Fortune is merciful to unconquered Rome and peace is resolved upon, you two will have a place where you can meet unarmed. Again, when you are summoned to Spain by so great a crisis of the war, why do you turn hither your hasty march? We have no weight in affairs, no power to turn the scale. Our people has never been victorious in war. Driven from the ancient seat of our nation, when Phocis was burnt down and her towers were removed, we dwell on a foreign shore and owe our safety to narrow walls; and our only glory is our fidelity. If you intend to blockade our walls and break down our gates by storm, then we are ready: we shall receive firebrands and missiles upon our houses; if you divert our springs, we shall dig for a hasty draught of water and lick with parched tongues the earth we have dug; and, if bread run short, then we shall pollute our lips by gnawing things hideous to see and foul to touch. In defence of freedom we do not shrink from sufferings that were bravely borne by Saguntum when beset by the army of Carthage. Our infants, torn from their mothers’ arms and tugging in vain at breasts dry with famine, shall be hurled into the midst of the flames; wives shall seek death at the hands of loved husbands; brother shall exchange wounds with brother, and shall choose, if driven to it, that form of civil war.” Thus the Greeks ended speaking, and Caesar’s wrath, betrayed already by his clouded countenance, at last proved his resentment by spoken word:
‘uana mouet Graios nostri fiducia cursus.
quamuis Hesperium mundi properemus ad axem
Massiliam delere uacat. gaudete, cohortes: 360
obuia praebentur fatorum munere bella.
uentus ut amittit uires, nisi robore densae
occurrunt siluae, spatio diffusus inani,
utque perit magnus nullis obstantibus ignis,
sic hostes mihi desse nocet, damnumque putamus 365
