Complete works of lucan, p.90
Complete Works of Lucan, page 90
armorum, nisi qui uinci potuere rebellant.
sed, si solus eam dimissis degener armis,
tunc mihi tecta patent. iam non excludere tantum,
inclusisse uolunt. at enim contagia belli
dira fugant. dabitis poenas pro pace petita, 370
et nihil esse meo discetis tutius aeuo
quam duce me bellum.’ sic postquam fatus, ad urbem
haud trepidam conuertit iter; cum moenia clausa
conspicit et densa iuuenum uallata corona.
“These Greeks trust to my haste, but their trust is vain; though I am hastening to the western region of the world, I have time to destroy Massilia. Rejoice, my soldiers! By favour of destiny war is offered you in the course of your march. As a gale, unless it meets with thick-timbered forests, loses strength and is scattered through empty space, and as a great fire sinks when there is nothing in its way — so the absence of a foe is destructive to me, and I think my arms wasted if those who might have been conquered fail to fight against me. They say that their city is open to me if I disband my army and enter alone and degraded. Their real purpose is not merely to keep me out, but to shut me in. They say that they seek to drive away the horrid taint of war. They shall suffer for seeking peace; they shall learn that in my days none are safe but those who fight under my banner.” With these words he turned his march against the citizens who feared him not; and then he saw the walls closed and fenced with a crowded ring of warriors.
haut procul a muris tumulus surgentis in altum 375
telluris paruum diffuso uertice campum
explicat: haec patiens longo munimine cingi
uisa duci rupes tutisque aptissima castris.
proxima pars urbis celsam consurgit in arcem
par tumulo, mediisque sedent conuallibus arua. 380
tunc res inmenso placuit statura labore,
aggere diuersos uasto committere colles.
sed prius, ut totam, qua terra cingitur, urbem
clauderet, a summis perduxit ad aequora castris
longum Caesar opus, fontesque et pabula campi 385
amplexus fossa densas tollentia pinnas
caespitibus crudaque extruxit bracchia terra.
Not far from the walls a hill rose above the level land and expanded into a small plain at its flattened top. This height seemed to Caesar capable of being surrounded by a line of fortifications, and a safe site to pitch his camp. The nearest part of the town rises in a lofty citadel as high as the hill outside, and the land between sinks in hollows. Then Caesar decided on a plan that would cost endless toil — to join the opposing heights by an immense rampart of earth. But first, in order to blockade the town entirely on its landward side, he carried a long line of works from his lofty camp to the sea, cutting off by a trench the water-springs and pasture-land; and with turf and freshly dug soil he built up his lines, crowned by frequent battlements.
iam satis hoc Graiae memorandum contigit urbi
aeternumque decus, quod non inpulsa nec ipso
strata metu tenuit flagrantis in omnia belli 390
praecipitem cursum, raptisque a Caesare cunctis
uincitur una mora. quantum est quod fata tenentur
quodque uirum toti properans inponere mundo
hos perdit Fortuna dies! tunc omnia late
procumbunt nemora et spoliantur robore siluae, 395
ut, cum terra leuis mediam uirgultaque molem
suspendant, structa laterum conpage ligatam
artet humum, pressus ne cedat turribus agger.
For the Greek city this alone was fame enough and immortal glory — that she was not overborne or laid low by mere terror, but arrested the headlong rush of war blazing over the world; that, when Caesar made short work with all else, she alone took time to conquer. It was a great thing to hinder destiny, and to cause Fortune, in her haste to set Caesar above all the world, to lose those days. Now all the woods were felled and the forests stripped of their timber far and wide; for, since light earth and brushwood made the mid-structure loose, the timber was intended to compress and bind the soil by the carpentry of the sides, and to keep the mound from sinking under the weight of the towers.
lucus erat longo numquam uiolatus ab aeuo
obscurum cingens conexis aera ramis 400
et gelidas alte summotis solibus umbras.
hunc non ruricolae Panes nemorumque potentes
Siluani Nymphaeque tenent, sed barbara ritu
sacra deum; structae diris altaribus arae
omnisque humanis lustrata cruoribus arbor. 405
siqua fidem meruit superos mirata uetustas,
illis et uolucres metuunt insistere ramis
et lustris recubare ferae; nec uentus in illas
incubuit siluas excussaque nubibus atris
fulgura: non ulli frondem praebentibus aurae 410
arboribus suus horror inest. tum plurima nigris
fontibus unda cadit, simulacraque maesta deorum
arte carent caesisque extant informia truncis.
ipse situs putrique facit iam robore pallor
attonitos; non uolgatis sacrata figuris 415
numina sic metuunt: tantum terroribus addit,
quos timeant, non nosse, deos. iam fama ferebat
saepe cauas motu terrae mugire cauernas,
et procumbentis iterum consurgere taxos,
et non ardentis fulgere incendia siluae, 420
roboraque amplexos circum fluxisse dracones.
non illum cultu populi propiore frequentant
sed cessere deis. medio cum Phoebus in axe est
aut caelum nox atra tenet, pauet ipse sacerdos
accessus dominumque timet deprendere luci. 425
A grove there was, untouched by men’s hands from ancient times, whose interlacing boughs enclosed a space of darkness and cold shade, and banished the sunlight far above. No rural Pan dwelt there, no Silvanus, ruler of the woods, no Nymphs; but gods were worshipped there with savage rites, the altars were heaped with hideous offerings, and every tree was sprinkled with human gore. On those boughs — if antiquity, reverential of the gods, deserves any credit — birds feared to perch; in those coverts wild beasts would not lie down; no wind ever bore down upon that wood, nor thunderbolt hurled from black clouds; the trees, even when they spread their leaves to no breeze, rustled of themselves. Water, also, fell there in abundance from dark springs. The images of the gods, grim and rude, were uncouth blocks formed of felled tree-trunks. Their mere antiquity and the ghastly hue of their rotten timber struck terror; men feel less awe of deities worshipped under familiar forms; so much does it increase their sense of fear, not to know the gods whom they dread. Legend also told that often the subterranean hollows quaked and bellowed, that yew-trees fell down and rose again, that the glare of conflagration came from trees that were not on fire, and that serpents twined and glided round the stems. The people never resorted thither to worship at close quarters, but left the place to the gods. For, when the sun is in mid-heaven or dark night fills the sky, the priest himself dreads their approach and fears to surprise the lord of the grove.
hanc iubet inmisso siluam procumbere ferro;
nam uicina operi belloque intacta priore
inter nudatos stabat densissima montis.
sed fortes tremuere manus, motique uerenda
maiestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent, 430
in sua credebant redituras membra securis.
inplicitas magno Caesar torpore cohortes
ut uidit, primus raptam librare bipennem
ausus et aeriam ferro proscindere quercum
effatur merso uiolata in robora ferro 435
‘iam nequis uestrum dubitet subuertere siluam
credite me fecisse nefas’. tum paruit omnis
imperiis non sublato secura pauore
turba, sed expensa superorum et Caesaris ira.
procumbunt orni, nodosa inpellitur ilex, 440
siluaque Dodones et fluctibus aptior alnus
et non plebeios luctus testata cupressus
tum primum posuere comas et fronde carentes
admisere diem, propulsaque robore denso
sustinuit se silua cadens. gemuere uidentes 445
Gallorum populi, muris sed clausa iuuentus
exultat; quis enim laesos inpune putaret
esse deos? seruat multos fortuna nocentis
et tantum miseris irasci numina possunt.
utque satis caesi nemoris, quaesita per agros 450
plaustra ferunt, curuoque soli cessantis aratro
agricolae raptis annum fleuere iuuencis.
This grove was sentenced by Caesar to fall before the stroke of the axe; for it grew near his works. Spared in earlier warfare, it stood there covered with trees among hills already cleared. But strong arms faltered; and the men, awed by the solemnity and terror of the place, believed that, if they aimed a blow at the sacred trunks, their axes would rebound against their own limbs. When Caesar saw that his soldiers were sore hindered and paralysed, he was the first to snatch an axe and swing it, and dared to cleave a towering oak with the steel: driving the blade into the desecrated wood, he cried: “Believe that I am guilty of sacrilege, and thenceforth none of you need fear to cut down the trees.” Then all the men obeyed his bidding; they were not easy in their minds, nor had their fears been removed; but they had weighed Caesar’s wrath against the wrath of heaven. Ash trees were felled, gnarled holm-oaks overthrown; Dodona’s oak, the alder that suits the sea, the cypress that bears witness to a monarch’s grief, all lost their leaves for the first time; robbed of their foliage, they let in the daylight; and the toppling wood, when smitten, supported itself by the close growth of its timber. The peoples of Gaul groaned at the sight; but the besieged men rejoiced; for who could have supposed that the injury to the gods would go unpunished? But Fortune often guards the guilty, and the gods must reserve their wrath for the unlucky. When wood enough was felled, waggons were sought through the countryside to convey it; and the husbandmen, robbed of their oxen, mourned for the harvest of the soil left untouched by the crooked plough.
dux tamen inpatiens haesuri ad moenia Martis
uersus ad Hispanas acies extremaque mundi
iussit bella geri. stellatis axibus agger 455
erigitur geminasque aequantis moenia turris
accipit; hae nullo fixerunt robore terram
sed per iter longum causa repsere latenti.
cum tantum nutaret onus, telluris inanis
concussisse sinus quaerentem erumpere uentum 460
credidit et muros mirata est stare iuuentus.
illinc tela cadunt excelsas urbis in arces.
sed maior Graio Romana in corpora ferro
uis inerat. neque enim solis excussa lacertis
lancea, sed tenso ballistae turbine rapta, 465
haut unum contenta latus transire quiescit,
sed pandens perque arma uiam perque ossa relicta
morte fugit: superest telo post uolnera cursus.
at saxum quotiens ingenti uerberis actu
excutitur, qualis rupes quam uertice montis 470
abscidit inpulsu uentorum adiuta uetustas,
frangit cuncta ruens, nec tantum corpora pressa
exanimat, totos cum sanguine dissipat artus.
ut tamen hostiles densa testudine muros
tecta subit uirtus, armisque innexa priores 475
arma ferunt, galeamque extensus protegit umbo,
quae prius ex longo nocuerunt missa recessu
iam post terga cadunt. nec Grais flectere iactum
aut facilis labor est longinqua ad tela parati
tormenti mutare modum; sed pondere solo 480
contenti nudis euoluunt saxa lacertis.
dum fuit armorum series, ut grandine tecta
innocua percussa sonant, sic omnia tela
respuit; at postquam uirtus incerta uirorum
perpetuam rupit defesso milite cratem 485
singula continuis cesserunt ictibus arma.
tunc adoperta leui procedit uinea terra,
sub cuius pluteis et tecta fronte latentes
moliri nunc iam parant et uertere ferro
moenia; nunc aries suspenso fortior ictu 490
incussus densi conpagem soluere muri
temptat et inpositis unum subducere saxis.
sed super et flammis et magnae fragmine molis
et sudibus crebris et adusti roboris ictu
percussae cedunt crates, frustraque labore 495
exhausto fessus repetit tentoria miles.
But Caesar could not brook this protracted warfare before the walls: he turned to the army in Spain and the limits of the world, leaving orders that the operations should go on. The mound was built up with planks arranged lattice-wise, and two towers, as high as the town walls, were placed upon it; the timber of the towers was not driven into the ground, but they crawled from far, moved by hidden means. When the tall structure nodded, the besieged believed that wind, seeking to burst forth, had shaken the hollow caverns of the earth, and marvelled that their walls remained standing. From the towers missiles were thrown against the lofty citadel of the town. But the shot of the Greeks fell with greater force on the bodies of the Romans; for their javelins, not sped merely by men’s arms, but hurled by the tension of the powerful catapult, pierced more than one body before they were willing to stop: through armour and through bones they cleft a broad way and passed on, leaving death behind them; after dealing its wound the weapon flew on. And every boulder launched by the mighty impulse of a released cord, like a crag which length of time, aided by the blast of the winds, tears from a mountain-top, broke all things in its course, not merely crushing out the lives of its victims, but annihilating limbs and blood together. But when brave men approached the enemy’s wall in close formation — the foremost carrying shields which overlapped the shields of those behind, and their helmets protected by the roof of bucklers — then the missiles which had dealt death at long range, flew over their heads; nor was it easy for the Greeks to shift the range or change the aim of engines made to hurl their bolts to a distance; and so they heaved over boulders with unaided arms, relying on the weight alone. The locking of the shields, while it continued, flung off every missile, just as a roof rattles under the harmless blows of hail; but when the weariness and wavering valour of the soldiers made gaps in the armament, the shields gave way, one by one, to the unceasing battery. Next, mantlets, lightly covered with turf, were brought up; and the besiegers, screened by the boards and covered fronts of the mantlets, strove to sap the foundations and upset the walls with tools of iron; and now the ram, more effective with its swinging blow, tries by its impact to break the solid fabric of the wall and remove one stone from those laid above it; but smitten from above by fire and huge jagged stones, by a rain of stakes and by blows from oaken poles hardened by fire, the hurdles gave ground, and the besiegers, foiled after so great an effort, went back weary to their tents.
summa fuit Grais, starent ut moenia, uoti:
ultro acies inferre parant, armisque coruscas
nocturni texere faces, audaxque iuuentus
erupit. non hasta uiris, non letifer arcus, 500
telum flamma fuit, rapiensque incendia uentus
per Romana tulit celeri munimina cursu.
nec, quamuis uiridi luctetur robore, lentas
ignis agit uires, taeda sed raptus ab omni
consequitur nigri spatiosa uolumina fumi, 505
nec solum siluas sed saxa ingentia soluit,
et crudae putri fluxerunt puluere cautes.
procubuit maiorque iacens apparuit agger.
The safety of their walls had been the utmost that the Greeks hoped for; but now they prepared to take the offensive. By night they hid flaming torches behind their shields, and their warriors boldly sallied forth. The weapon they bore was neither spear nor death-dealing bow, but fire alone; and the wind, whirling the conflagration along, bore it swiftly over the Roman works. Though contending with green wood, the fire was not slow to put forth its strength: flying from every torch, it followed close on huge volumes of black smoke, and consumed not merely timber but mighty stones; and hard rocks were dissolved into crumbling dust. Down fell the mound, and looked even larger on the ground.
spes uictis telluris abit, placuitque profundo
fortunam temptare maris. non robore picto 510
ornatas decuit fulgens tutela carinas,
sed rudis et qualis procumbit montibus arbor
conseritur, stabilis naualibus area bellis.
et iam turrigeram Bruti comitata carinam
uenerat in fluctus Rhodani cum gurgite classis 515
Stoechados arua tenens. nec non et Graia iuuentus
omne suum fatis uoluit committere robur
grandaeuosque senes mixtis armauit ephebis.
accepit non sola uiros, quae stabat in undis,
classis: et emeritas repetunt naualibus alnos. 520
ut matutinos spargens super aequora Phoebus
fregit aquis radios et liber nubibus aether
et posito Borea pacemque tenentibus Austris
seruatum bello iacuit mare, mouit ab omni
quisque suam statione ratem, paribusque lacertis 525
Caesaris hinc puppes, hinc Graio remige classis
tollitur: inpulsae tonsis tremuere carinae
crebraque sublimes conuellunt uerbera puppes.
cornua Romanae classis ualidaeque triremes
quasque quater surgens extructi remigis ordo 530
commouet et plures quae mergunt aequore pinus
multiplices cinxere rates. hoc robur aperto
oppositum pelago: lunata classe recedunt
ordine contentae gemino creuisse Liburnae.
celsior at cunctis Bruti praetoria puppis 535
uerberibus senis agitur molemque profundo
inuehit et summis longe petit aequora remis.
The defeated Romans despaired of success on land and resolved to try their fortune on the sea. Their ships were not adorned with painted timbers or graced with a glittering figure-head: unshaped trees, even as they were felled on the hills, were joined together to form a steady platform for fighting at sea. By now too the fleet, escorting the turret-ship of Brutus, had come down with the waters of the Rhone to the sea, and was anchored off the land of the Stoechades. The Greeks were no less ready to trust all their forces to the mercy of fortune: they put aged sires together with striplings in the ranks. They manned their fleet which rode at anchor, and even searched their dockyards for ships past service. The sun scattered his morning beams over the sea and splintered them on the water; the sky was free from clouds; the North wind was at rest and the South winds held their peace; the sea lay smooth, reserved for battle. Then each man started his vessel from its anchorage, and the two fleets leaped forward with rival strength of arm — Caesar’s ships on one side and the fleet rowed by Greeks on the other; the hulls tremble to the beat of the oars, and the rapid stroke tears the tall vessels through the water. The wings of the Roman fleet were closed in by ships of many kinds — stout triremes, and vessels driven by four tiers of rowers rising one above another, and others that dipped in the sea a still greater number of blades. These heavy ships were set as a barrier against the open sea; the galleys, content to rise aloft with but two banks of oars, were further back in crescent formation. Towering above them all, the flag-ship of Brutus, driven by six rows of oars and advancing its bulk over the deep, reaches for the water far below with its topmost tier.
