non audent, altaeque ad moenia rursus Ilerdae

  intendere fugam. campos eques obuius omnis

  abstulit et siccis inclusit collibus hostem.

  tunc inopes undae praerupta cingere fossa

  Caesar auet nec castra pati contingere ripas 265

  aut circum largos curuari bracchia fontes.

  Caesar, though robbed of many soldiers, recognised the hand of heaven. Never indeed was he more fortunate, either on the Emathian plain or on the sea of Phocian Massilia; nor did the coast of Egypt witness so great a triumph, inasmuch as he, thanks to this one crime of civil war, will be henceforward the leader of the better cause. The leaders dared not entrust their troops, stained with hideous bloodshed, to a camp near Caesar’s, but directed their flight back to the walls of lofty Ilerda. Caesar’s cavalry met them and drove them off the plains and cooped them up among waterless hills. Next Caesar eagerly attempts to surround them, in their lack of water, with a steep trench; he will not suffer their camp to reach the river banks or their outworks to enclose abundant springs.

  ut leti uidere uiam, conuersus in iram

  praecipitem timor est. miles non utile clausis

  auxilium mactauit equos, tandemque coactus

  spe posita damnare fugam casurus in hostes 270

  fertur. ut effuso Caesar decurrere passu

  uidit et ad certam deuotos tendere mortem,

  ‘tela tene iam, miles’, ait ‘ferrumque ruenti

  subtrahe: non ullo constet mihi sanguine bellum.

  uincitur haut gratis iugulo qui prouocat hostem. 275

  en, sibi uilis adest inuisa luce iuuentus

  iam damno peritura meo; non sentiet ictus,

  incumbet gladiis, gaudebit sanguine fuso.

  deserat hic feruor mentes, cadat impetus amens,

  perdant uelle mori.’ sic deflagrare minaces 280

  in cassum et uetito passus languescere bello,

  substituit merso dum nox sua lumina Phoebo.

  inde, ubi nulla data est miscendae copia mortis,

  paulatim cadit ira ferox mentesque tepescunt,

  saucia maiores animos ut pectora gestant, 285

  dum dolor est ictusque recens et mobile neruis

  conamen calidus praebet cruor ossaque nondum

  adduxere cutem: si conscius ensis adacti

  stat uictor tenuitque manus, tum frigidus artus

  alligat atque animum subducto robore torpor, 290

  postquam sicca rigens astrinxit uolnera sanguis.

  iamque inopes undae primum tellure refossa

  occultos latices abstrusaque flumina quaerunt;

  nec solum rastris durisque ligonibus arua

  sed gladiis fodere suis, puteusque cauati 295

  montis ad inrigui premitur fastigia campi.

  non se tam penitus, tam longe luce relicta

  merserit Astyrici scrutator pallidus auri.

  non tamen aut tectis sonuerunt cursibus amnes

  aut micuere noui percusso pumice fontes, 300

  antra nec exiguo stillant sudantia rore

  aut inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena.

  tunc exhausta super multo sudore iuuentus

  extrahitur duris silicum lassata metallis;

  quoque minus possent siccos tolerare uapores 305

  quaesitae fecistis aquae. nec languida fessi

  corpora sustentant epulis, mensasque perosi

  auxilium fecere famem. si mollius aruum

  prodidit umorem, pinguis manus utraque glaebas

  exprimit ora super; nigro si turbida limo 310

  conluuies inmota iacet, cadit omnis in haustus

  certatim obscaenos miles moriensque recepit

  quas nollet uicturus aquas; rituque ferarum

  distentas siccant pecudes, et lacte negato

  sordidus exhausto sorbetur ab ubere sanguis. 315

  tunc herbas frondesque terunt, et rore madentis

  destringunt ramos et siquos palmite crudo

  arboris aut tenera sucos pressere medulla.

  When the soldiers saw the path to death before them, their fear was changed to headlong ardour. Having slaughtered their horses, as powerless to help men besieged, they were forced at last to abandon hope and reject flight, and rushed upon the foe with intent to perish. When Caesar saw the devoted warriors coming on at full speed to meet inevitable death, he called to his men, “Hold your weapons for a time and withdraw the sword from him who rushes to meet it; no lives of my own men must be lost in the battle; he who challenges the foe with his life costs his victor dear. See! they come, hating life and holding themselves cheap, and I must pay for their deaths: insensible to wounds, they will fling themselves on the sword and rejoice to shed their blood. This excitement must calm down; this wild enthusiasm must flag; they must lose their wish to die.” So by refusing battle he suffered their threats to burn down to nothing and dwindle away, while the sun set and night replaced his light with her own. Then, when no chance was given them to kill and be killed, their ardour left them by degrees and their minds lost heat. So a wounded man has higher courage, while his wound and his pain are fresh, and while the warm blood lends active force to the muscles, and before the skin has shrunk over the bones; but, if the conqueror, aware that his sword has gone home, stands still and refrains from striking, then cold numbness binds both mind and body and steals strength away, after the congealing blood has closed the drying wounds. And now, in their shortage of water, they begin by digging in search of hidden springs and underground streams; as well as iron rakes and picks they use their swords to pierce the soil; and wells in the excavated hillside are sunk to the level of the watered plain. The pale searcher after Asturian gold would not bury himself so deep, or leave daylight so far behind. But there was no sound of rivers with hidden courses, no new springs gushed from the smitten rock, no dripping caves oozed forth a scanty moisture, no gravel was stirred and lifted even by a slender vein of water. Then the men are hauled up to the surface, worn out with heavy labour and wearied by mining in the flint; and their quest for water has made them less able to endure the drought and heat. Nor was their bodily weakness and weariness supported by food: they abhorred all meat and called in hunger to help them against thirst. Wherever soft soil betrayed moisture, they squeezed the oozy clods over their mouths with both hands. Where pools of stagnant filth were caked with black mire, each man fell down eager for the foul draught, and dying swallowed water which, with a prospect of life, he would have refused; like wild beasts they drained the swollen udders of cattle, and, if milk was denied, sucked the pallid blood from the empty teats. Next, they pounded grass and leaves, and stripped the dew off branches, and brushed off any moisture they could squeeze from the green shoots or soft pith of trees.

  o fortunati, fugiens quos barbarus hostis

  fontibus inmixto strauit per rura ueneno. 320

  hos licet in fluuios saniem tabemque ferarum,

  pallida Dictaeis, Caesar, nascentia saxis

  infundas aconita palam, Romana iuuentus

  non decepta bibet. torrentur uiscera flamma

  oraque sicca rigent squamosis aspera linguis; 325

  iam marcent uenae, nulloque umore rigatus

  aeris alternos angustat pulmo meatus,

  rescissoque nocent suspiria dura palato;

  pandunt ora tamen nociturumque aera captant.

  expectant imbres, quorum modo cuncta natabant 330

  inpulsu, et siccis uoltus in nubibus haerent.

  quoque magis miseros undae ieiunia soluant

  non super arentem Meroen Cancrique sub axe,

  qua nudi Garamantes arant, sedere, sed inter

  stagnantem Sicorim et rapidum deprensus Hiberum 335

  spectat uicinos sitiens exercitus amnes.

  Happy are those whom a barbarian foe, as he fled, has laid low upon the fields by mingling poison in the springs. Into the Spanish rivers Caesar may pour without concealment gore and the carrion of wild beasts, and the deadly aconite which grows on the rocks of Crete; and Roman soldiers will drink with their eyes open. Their inward parts are burnt with fire; their mouths are dry and hard, and rough with scaly tongues; by now their pulses flag, and their lungs, wetted by no moisture, choke the passage of air to and fro; and their difficult breathing is painful to their cracked palates; yet still they open their mouths, eager for the air that will prove their bane. They hope for rain — rain, whose downpour lately flooded all the land; and they fix their gaze on the rainless clouds. And, that the water-famine may break them down still more in their misery, their camp is not pitched beyond burning Meroe and beneath the sign of Cancer, where the naked Garamantes dwell; but the army, entrapped between the brimming Sicoris and the rapid Hiberus, can see the rivers close at hand while dying of thirst.

  iam domiti cessere duces, pacisque petendae

  auctor damnatis supplex Afranius armis

  semianimes in castra trahens hostilia turmas

  uictoris stetit ante pedes. seruata precanti 340

  maiestas non fracta malis, interque priorem

  fortunam casusque nouos gerit omnia uicti,

  sed ducis, et ueniam securo pectore poscit.

  ‘si me degeneri strauissent fata sub hoste,

  non derat fortis rapiendo dextera leto; 345

  at nunc causa mihi est orandae sola salutis

  dignum donanda, Caesar, te credere uita.

  non partis studiis agimur nec sumpsimus arma

  consiliis inimica tuis. nos denique bellum

  inuenit ciuile duces, causaeque priori, 350

  dum potuit, seruata fides. nil fata moramur:

  tradimus Hesperias gentes, aperimus Eoas,

  securumque orbis patimur post terga relicti.

  nec cruor effusus campis tibi bella peregit

  nec ferrum lassaeque manus: hoc hostibus unum, 355

  quod uincas, ignosce tuis. nec magna petuntur:

  otia des fessis, uitam patiaris inermis

  degere quam tribuis. campis prostrata iacere

  agmina nostra putes; nec enim felicibus armis

  misceri damnata decet, partemque triumphi 360

  captos ferre tui: turba haec sua fata peregit.

  hoc petimus, uictos ne tecum uincere cogas.’

  At last the leaders were overcome and yielded: Afranius advised that terms should be sought; despairing of resistance, he took with him squadrons of half-dead men to the enemy’s camp, and stood in supplication before the conqueror’s feet. The suppliant maintained his dignity unbroken by disaster; between his former high position and his recent misfortune, he had all the bearing of a general, though a defeated general, and he asked pardon with a mind at ease: “Had Fortune laid me low beneath an unworthy foeman, my own strong arm would not have failed to snatch death by violence; as it is, my sole reason for begging life is that I consider you, Caesar, worthy to grant it. We are not moved by party spirit; nor did we take up arms in opposition to your designs. In fact, the civil war found us at the head of an army; and, while we could, we were loyal to our former cause. We make no attempt to hinder destiny: to you we surrender the nations of the West and open the way to the East; we enable you to feel no anxiety for the region you leave in your rear. Your victory has not been gained by blood poured forth upon the plains, nor by the sword plied till the arm was weary; pardon your foes their one crime — that you are victorious over us. We do not ask much: only give rest to the weary, and suffer those to whom you grant life to spend it unarmed. Deem that our ranks lie prostrate on the field; for captives must not share in your triumph, nor warriors condemned by fate be mingled with conquerors: my army has completed its own destiny. This we beg — that you will not compel us whom you have conquered to conquer along with you.”

  dixerat; at Caesar facilis uoltuque serenus

  flectitur atque usus belli poenamque remittit.

  ut primum iustae placuerunt foedera pacis, 365

  incustoditos decurrit miles ad amnes,

  incumbit ripis permissaque flumina turbat.

  continuus multis subitarum tractus aquarum

  aera non passus uacuis discurrere uenis

  artauit clausitque animam; nec feruida pestis 370

  cedit adhuc, sed morbus egens iam gurgite plenis

  uisceribus sibi poscit aquas. mox robora neruis

  et uires rediere uiris. o prodiga rerum

  luxuries numquam paruo contenta paratis

  et quaesitorum terra pelagoque ciborum 375

  ambitiosa fames et lautae gloria mensae,

  discite quam paruo liceat producere uitam

  et quantum natura petat. non erigit aegros

  nobilis ignoto diffusus consule Bacchus,

  non auro murraque bibunt, sed gurgite puro 380

  uita redit. satis est populis fluuiusque Ceresque.

  Thus he spoke; and Caesar readily gave way with unclouded brow; he excused them from service in his army and from all punishment. As soon as the treaty of peace was settled in due form, the men rushed down to the unguarded rivers, lay down upon the banks, and made muddy the streams thrown open to them. While they gulped down the water, the uninterrupted draught prevented the air from passing through the empty arteries: it contracted and blocked the windpipes of many; nor does the burning plague yet abate, but the craving malady demands yet more when the stomach is full of water already. Soon the muscles recovered power, and the soldiers grew strong again. O Luxury, extravagant of resources and never satisfied with what costs little; and ostentatious hunger for dainties sought over land and sea; and ye who take pride in delicate eating — hence ye may learn how little it costs to prolong life, and how little nature demands. No famous vintage, bottled in the year of a long forgotten consul, restores these to health; they drink not out of gold or agate, but gain new life from pure water; running water and bread are enough for mankind.

  heu miseri qui bella gerunt! tunc arma relinquens

  uictori miles spoliato pectore tutus

  innocuusque suas curarum liber in urbes

  spargitur. o quantum donata pace potitos 385

  excussis umquam ferrum uibrasse lacertis

  paenituit, tolerasse sitim frustraque rogasse

  prospera bella deos! nempe usis Marte secundo

  tot dubiae restant acies, tot in orbe labores;

  ut numquam fortuna labet successibus anceps, 390

  uincendum totiens; terras fundendus in omnis

  est cruor et Caesar per tot sua fata sequendus.

  felix qui potuit mundi nutante ruina

  quo iaceat iam scire loco. non proelia fessos

  ulla uocant, certos non rumpunt classica somnos. 395

  iam coniunx natique rudes et sordida tecta

  et non deductos recipit sua terra colonos.

  hoc quoque securis oneris fortuna remisit,

  sollicitus menti quod abest fauor: ille salutis

  est auctor, dux ille fuit. sic proelia soli 400

  felices nullo spectant ciuilia uoto.

  Alas for those who still fight on! These men abandon their arms to the conqueror; safe, though they are stripped of their breast-plates, harmless and free from care, they are scattered among their native cities. Now that they possess the gift of peace, how much they regret that they ever hurled the steel with vigorous arms, and endured thirst, and prayed mistakenly to the gods for victory! For the victors, it is sure, so many doubtful battles and hardships over all the world still lie ahead; even though Fortune never fail — Fortune fickle in her favours — still they must conquer again and again, and shed their blood on every land, and follow Caesar through all his chances and changes. When the whole world is nodding to its fall, happy the man who has been able to learn already the lowly place appointed for him. No battles call them from where they rest; no trumpet-call breaks their sound slumbers. They are welcomed now by their wives and innocent babes, by their simple dwellings and their native soil, nor are they settled there as colonists. Of another burden too Fortune relieves them: their minds are rid of the trouble of partisanship; for, if Caesar granted them their lives, Pompey was once their leader. Thus they alone are happy, looking on at civil war with no prayer for the success of either.

  non eadem belli totum fortuna per orbem

  constitit, in partes aliquid sed Caesaris ausa est.

  qua maris Hadriaci longas ferit unda Salonas

  et tepidum in molles Zephyros excurrit Iader, 405

  illic bellaci confisus gente Curictum,

  quos alit Hadriaco tellus circumflua ponto,

  clauditur extrema residens Antonius ora

  cautus ab incursu belli, si sola recedat,

  expugnat quae tuta, fames. non pabula tellus 410

  pascendis summittit equis, non proserit ullam

  flaua Ceres segetem; spoliarat gramine campum

  miles et attonso miseris iam dentibus aruo

  castrorum siccas de caespite uolserat herbas.

  ut primum aduersae socios in litore terrae 415

  et Basilum uidere ducem, noua furta per aequor

  exquisita fugae. neque enim de more carinas

  extendunt puppesque leuant, sed firma gerendis

  molibus insolito contexunt robora ductu.

  namque ratem uacuae sustentant undique cupae 420

  quarum porrectis series constricta catenis

  ordinibus geminis obliquas excipit alnos;

  nec gerit expositum telis in fronte patenti

  remigium, sed, quod trabibus circumdedit aequor,

  hoc ferit et taciti praebet miracula cursus, 425

  quod nec uela ferat nec apertas uerberet undas.

  tum freta seruantur, dum se declinibus undis

  aestus agat refluoque mari nudentur harenae.

  iamque relabenti crescebant litora ponto:

  missa ratis prono defertur lapsa profundo 430

  et geminae comites. cunctas super ardua turris

  eminet et tremulis tabulata minantia pinnis.

  noluit Illyricae custos Octauius undae

  confestim temptare ratem, celeresque carinas

  continuit, cursu crescat dum praeda secundo, 435

  et temere ingressos repetendum inuitat ad aequor

  pace maris. sic, dum pauidos formidine ceruos

  claudat odoratae metuentis aera pinnae

  aut dum dispositis attollat retia uaris,

  uenator tenet ora leuis clamosa Molossi, 440

  Spartanos Cretasque ligat, nec creditur ulli

  silua cani, nisi qui presso uestigia rostro

 

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