THE SECOND BOOK AGAINST RUFINUS
PREFACE
(IV.)
Return, ye Muses, and throw open rescued Helicon; now again may your company gather there. Nowhere now in Italy does the hostile trumpet forbid song with its viler bray. Do thou too, Delian Apollo, now that Delphi is safe and fear has been dispelled, wreath thy avenger’s head with flowers. No savage foe sets profane lips to Castalia’s spring or those prophetic streams. Alpheus’[55] flood ran all his length red with slaughter and the waves bore the bloody marks of war across the Sicilian sea; whereby Arethusa, though herself not present, recognized the triumphs freshly won and knew of the slaughter of the Getae, to which that blood bore witness.
Let peace, Stilicho, succeed these age-long labours and ease thine heart by graciously listening to my song. Think it no shame to interrupt thy long toil and to consecrate a few moments to the Muses. Even unwearying Mars is said to have stretched his tired limbs on the snowy Thracian plain when at last the battle was ended, and, unmindful of his wonted fierceness, to have laid aside his spear in gentler mood, soothing his ear with the Muses’ melody.
[55] A reference to Stilicho’s campaign against Alaric in the Peloponnese in 397 (see Introduction, p. x).
LIBER II
(V.)
Iam post edomitas Alpes defensaque regna
Hesperiae merita complexus sede parentem
auctior adiecto fulgebat sidere mundus,
iamque tuis, Stilicho, Romana potentia curis
et rerum commissus apex, tibi credita fratrum 5
utraque maiestas geminaeque exercitus aulae.
Rufinus (neque enim patiuntur saeva quietem
crimina pollutaeque negant arescere fauces)
infandis iterum terras accendere bellis
incohat et solito pacem vexare tumultu. 10
haec etiam secum: “quanam ratione tuebor
spem vitae fragilem? qua tot depellere fluctus
arte queam? premor hinc odiis, hinc milite cingor.
heu quid agam? non arma mihi, non principis ullus
auxiliatur amor. matura pericula surgunt 15
undique et impositi radiant cervicibus enses.
quid restat, nisi cuncta novo confundere luctu
insontesque meae populos miscere ruinae?
everso iuvat orbe mori; solacia leto
BOOK II
(V.)
After the subjugation of the Alpine tribes and the salvation of the kingdoms of Italy the heavens welcomed the Emperor Theodosius[56] to the place of honour due to his worth, and so shone the brighter by the addition of another star. Then was the power of Rome entrusted to thy care, Stilicho; in thy hands was placed the governance of the world. The brothers’ twin majesty and the armies of either royal court were given into thy charge. But Rufinus (for cruelty and crime brook not peace, and a tainted mouth will not forgo its draughts of blood), Rufinus, I say, began once more to inflame the world with wicked wars and to disturb peace with accustomed sedition. Thus to himself: “How shall I assure my slender hopes of survival? By what means beat back the rising storm? On all sides are hate and the threat of arms. What am I to do? No help can I find in soldier’s weapon or emperor’s favour. Instant dangers ring me round and a gleaming sword hangs above my head. What is left but to plunge the world into fresh troubles and draw down innocent peoples in my ruin? Gladly will I perish if the world does too; general destruction shall console me for
[56] Theodosius died in January 395, not long after his defeat of Eugenius at the Frigidus River (near Aquileia), September 5-6, 394 (see Introduction, p. ix).
exitium commune dabit nec territus ante 20
discedam: cum luce simul linquenda potestas.”
Haec fatus, ventis veluti si frena resolvat
Aeolus, abrupto gentes sic obice fudit
laxavitque viam bellis et, nequa maneret
inmunis regio, cladem divisit in orbem 25
disposuitque nefas. alii per terga ferocis
Danuvii solidata ruunt expertaque remos
frangunt stagna rotis; alii per Caspia claustra
Armeniasque nives inopino tramite ducti
invadunt Orientis opes. iam pascua fumant 30
Cappadocum volucrumque parens Argaeus equorum,
iam rubet altus Halys nec se defendit iniquo
monte Cilix. Syriae tractus vastantur amoeni
adsuetumque choris et laeta plebe canorum
proterit imbellem sonipes hostilis Orontem. 35
hinc planctus Asiae; Geticis Europa catervis
ludibrio praedaeque datur frondentis ad usque
Dalmatiae fines: omnis quae mobile Ponti
aequor et Adriacas tellus interiacet undas
squalet inops pecudum, nullis habitata colonis, 40
instar anhelantis Libyae, quae torrida semper
solibus humano nescit mansuescere cultu.
Thessalus ardet ager; reticet pastore fugato
Pelion; Emathias ignis populatur aristas.
nam plaga Pannoniae miserandaque moenia Thracum
arvaque Mysorum iam nulli flebile damnum, 46
sed cursus sollemnis erat campusque furori
expositus, sensumque malis detraxerat usus.
eheu quam brevibus pereunt ingentia fatis!
mine own death, nor will I die (for I am no coward) till I have accomplished this. I will not lay down my power before my life.”
So spake he, and as if Aeolus unchained the winds so he, breaking their bonds, let loose the nations, clearing the way for war; and, that no land should be free therefrom, apportioned ruin throughout the world, parcelling out destruction. Some pour across the frozen surface of swift-flowing Danube and break with the chariot wheel what erstwhile knew but the oar; others invade the wealthy East, led through the Caspian Gates and over the Armenian snows by a newly-discovered pass. The fields of Cappadocia reek with slaughter; Argaeus, father of swift horses, is laid waste. Halys’ deep waters run red and the Cilician cannot defend himself in his precipitous mountains. The pleasant plains of Syria are devastated, and the enemy’s cavalry thunders along the banks of Orontes, home hitherto of the dance and of a happy people’s song. Hence comes mourning to Asia, while Europe is left to be the sport and prey of Getic hordes even to the borders of fertile Dalmatia. All that tract of land lying between the stormy Euxine and the Adriatic is laid waste and plundered, no inhabitants dwell there; ’tis like torrid Africa whose sun-scorched plains never grow kindlier through human tillage. Thessaly is afire; Pelion silent, his shepherds put to flight; flames bring destruction on Macedonia’s crops. For Pannonia’s plain, the Thracians’ helpless cities, the fields of Mysia were ruined but now none wept; year by year came the invader, unsheltered was the countryside from havoc and custom had robbed suffering of its sting. Alas, in how swift ruin perish
imperium tanto quaesitum sanguine, tanto 50
servatum, quod mille ducum peperere labores,
quod tantis Romana manus contexuit annis,
proditor unus iners angusto tempore vertit.
Urbs etiam, magnae quae ducitur aemula Romae
et Calchedonias contra despectat harenas, 55
iam non finitimo Martis terrore movetur,
sed propius lucere faces et rauca sonare
cornua vibratisque peti fastigia telis
adspicit. hi vigili muros statione tueri,
hi iunctis properant portus munire carinis. 60
obsessa tamen ille ferus laetatur in urbe
exultatque malis summaeque ex culmine turris
impia vicini cernit spectacula campi:
vinctas ire nurus, nunc in vada proxima mergi
seminecem, hunc subito percussum vulnere labi 65
dum fugit, hunc animam portis efflare sub ipsis;
nec canos prodesse seni puerique cruore
maternos undare sinus. inmensa voluptas
et risus plerumque subit; dolor afficit unus,
quod feriat non ipse manu. videt omnia late 70
exceptis incensa suis et crimine tanto
luxuriat carumque sibi non abnuit hostem;
iactabatque ultro, quod soli castra paterent
sermonumque foret vicibus permissa potestas.
egregii quotiens exisset foederis auctor, 75
stipatur sociis, circumque armata clientum
even the greatest things! An empire won and kept at the expense of so much bloodshed, born from the toils of countless leaders, knit together through so many years by Roman hands, one coward traitor overthrew in the twinkling of an eye.
That city,[57] too, called of men the rival of great Rome, that looks across to Chalcedon’s strand, is stricken now with terror at no neighbouring war; nearer home it observes the flash of torches, the trumpet’s call, and its own roofs the target for an enemy’s artillery. Some guard the walls with watchful outposts, others hasten to fortify the harbour with a chain of ships. But fierce Rufinus is full of joy in the leaguered city and exults in its misfortunes, gazing at the awful spectacle of the surrounding country from the summit of a lofty tower. He watches the procession of women in chains, sees one poor half-dead wretch drowned in the water hard by, another, stricken as he fled, sink down beneath the sudden wound, another breathe out his life at the tower’s very gates; he rejoices that no respect is shown to grey hairs and that mother’s breasts are drenched with their children’s blood. Great is his pleasure thereat; from time to time he laughs and knows but one regret—that it is not his own hand that strikes. He sees the whole countryside (except for his own lands) ablaze, and has joy of his great wickedness, making no secret of the fact that the city’s foes are his friends. It is his boast, moreover, that to him alone the enemy camp opened its gates, and that there was allowed right of parley between them. Whene’er he issued forth to arrange some wondrous truce his companions thronged him round and an armed band of dependents
[57] Constantinople.
agmina privatis ibant famulantia signis;
ipse inter medios, ne qua de parte relinquat
barbariem, revocat fulvas in pectora pelles
frenaque et inmanes pharetras arcusque sonoros 80
adsimulat mentemque palam proclamat amictu,
nec pudet Ausonios currus et iura regentem
sumere deformes ritus vestemque Getarum;
insignemque habitum Latii mutare coactae
maerent captivae pellito iudice leges. 85
Quis populi tum vultus erat! quae murmura furtim!
(nam miseris ne flere quidem aut lenire dolorem
colloquiis impune licet): “quonam usque feremus
exitiale iugum? durae quis terminus umquam
sortis erit? quis nos funesto turbine rerum 90
aut tantis solvet lacrimis, quos barbarus illinc,
hinc Rufinus agit, quibus arva fretumque negatur?
magna quidem per rura lues, sed maior oberrat
intra tecta timor. tandem succurre ruenti
heu patriae, Stilicho! dilecta hic pignora certe, 95
hic domus, hic thalamis primum genialibus omen,
hic tibi felices erexit regia taedas.
vel solus sperate veni. te proelia viso
languescent avidique cadet dementia monstri.”
Talibus urgetur discors Aurora procellis. 100
at Stilicho, Zephyris cum primum bruma remitti
et iuga diffusis nudari coepta pruinis,
partibus Italiae tuta sub pace relictis
utraque castra movens Phoebi properabat ad ortus,
danced attendance on a civilian’s standards. Rufinus himself in their midst drapes tawny skins of beasts about his breast (thorough in his barbarity), and uses harness and huge quivers and twanging bows like those of the Getae—his dress openly showing the temper of his mind. One who drives a consul’s chariot and enjoys a consul’s powers has no shame to adopt the manners and dress of barbarians; Roman law, obliged to change her noble garment, mourns her slavery to a skin-clad judge.
What looks then on men’s faces! What furtive murmurs! For, poor wretches, they could not even weep nor, without risk, ease their grief in converse. “How long shall we bear this deadly yoke? What end shall there ever be to our hard lot? Who will free us from this death-fraught anarchy, this day of tears? On this side the barbarian hems us in, on that Rufinus oppresses us; land and sea are alike denied us. A pestilence stalks through the country: yes, but a deadlier terror haunts our houses. Stilicho, delay no more but succour thy dying land; of a truth here are thy children, here thy home, here were taken those first auspices for thy marriage, so blessed with children, here the palace was illumined with the torches of happy wedlock. Nay, come even though alone, thou for whom we long; wars will perish at thy sight and the ravening monster’s rage subside.”
Such were the tempests that vexed the turbulent East. But so soon as ever winter had given place to the winds of spring and the hills began to lose their covering of snow, Stilicho, leaving the fields of Italy in peace and safety, set in motion his two armies and hastened to the lands of the sunrise, combining
Gallica discretis Eoaque robora turmis 105
amplexus. numquam tantae dicione sub una
convenere manus nec tot discrimina vocum:
illinc Armeniae vibratis crinibus alae
herbida collectae facili velamina nodo;
inde truces flavo comitantur vertice Galli, 110
quos Rhodanus velox, Araris quos tardior ambit
et quos nascentes explorat gurgite Rhenus
quosque rigat retro pernicior unda Garunnae,
Oceani pleno quotiens impellitur aestu.
mens eadem cunctis animique recentia ponunt 115
vulnera; non odit victus victorve superbit.
et quamvis praesens tumor et civilia nuper
classica bellatrixque etiamnunc ira caleret,
in ducis eximii conspiravere favorem.
haud aliter Xerxen toto simul orbe secutus. 120
narratur rapuisse vagos exercitus amnes
et telis umbrasse diem, cum classibus iret
per scopulos tectumque pedes contemneret aequor.
Vix Alpes egressus erat nec iam amplius errat
barbarus adventumque timens se cogit in unam 125
planitiem tutoque includit pascua gyro:
tum duplici fossa non exuperabile vallum
asperat alternis sudibus murique locata
in speciem caesis obtendit plaustra iuvencis.
At procul exanguis Rufinum perculit horror; 130
infectae pallore genae; stetit ore gelato
incertus peteretne fugam, veniamne subactus
the so different squadrons of Gaul and of the East. Never before did there meet together under one command such numerous bands, never in one army such a babel of tongues. Here were curly-haired Armenian cavalry, their green cloaks fastened with a loose knot, fierce Gauls with golden locks accompanied them, some from the banks of the swift-flowing Rhone, or the more sluggish Saône, some whose infant bodies Rhine’s flood had laved, or who had been washed by the waves of the Garonne that flow more rapidly towards, than from, their source, whenever they are driven back by Ocean’s full tide. One common purpose inspires them all; grudges lately harboured are laid aside; the vanquished feels no hate, the victor shows no pride. And despite of present unrest, of the trumpet’s late challenge to civil strife, and of warlike rage still aglow, yet were all at one in their support of their great leader. So it is said that the army that followed Xerxes, gathered into one from all quarters of the world, drank up whole rivers in their courses, obscured the sun with the rain of their arrows, passed through mountains on board ship, and walked the bridged sea with contemptuous foot.
Scarce had Stilicho crossed the Alps when the barbarian hordes began to restrict their forays and for fear of his approach gathered together in the plain and enclosed their pasture lands within a defensive ring. They then built an impregnable fortification with a double moat, planted stakes two deep at intervals along its summit and set wagons rigged with ox-hide all round like a wall.
Panic fear seized upon Rufinus as he saw this from afar, and his cheeks grew pale. He stood with ice-cold face, not knowing whether to fly, to own himself
posceret an fidos sese transferret in hostes.
quid nunc divitiae, quid fulvi vasta metalli
congeries, quid purpureis effulta columnis 135
atria prolataeve iuvant ad sidera moles?
audit iter numeratque dies spatioque viarum
metitur vitam. torquetur pace futura
nec recipit somnos et saepe cubilibus amens
excutitur poenamque luit formidine poenae. 140
sed redit in rabiem scelerumque inmane resumit
ingenium sacrasque fores praedivitis aulae
intrat et Arcadium mixto terrore precatur:
“Per fratris regale iubar, per facta parentis
aetherii floremque tui te deprecor aevi, 145
eripe me gladiis; liceat Stilichonis iniquas
evitare minas. in nostram Gallia caedem
coniurata venit. quidquid rigat ultima Tethys,
extremos ultra volitat gens si qua Britannos,
mota mihi. tantis capiendi credimur armis? 150
tot signis unum petitur caput? unde cruoris
ista sitis? geminum caeli sibi vindicat axem
et nullum vult esse parem. succumbere poscit
cuncta sibi: regit Italiam Libyamque coercet;
Hispanis Gallisque iubet; non orbita solis, 155
non illum natura capit. quascumque paravit
hic Augustus opes et quas post bella recepit,
solus habet, possessa semel nec reddere curat.
scilicet ille quidem tranquilla pace fruatur;
nos premat obsidio? quid partem invadere temptat?
deserat Illyricos fines; Eoa remittat 161
beaten and sue for mercy, or go over to an enemy whose good faith his treachery had assured. Of what use now were his riches, his vast stores of golden ore, his halls upheld with red marble pillars, his sky-towering palace? He hears of Stilicho’s march and counts the days, measuring his term of life according to the distance of his enemy from him. He is troubled with thoughts of coming peace and cannot sleep, often starts up distraught from his bed and suffers as punishment the fear of punishment. But his fury repossesses him and, regaining his genius for crime, he enters the sacred portal of the rich palace and addresses Arcadius with prayers and threats: “By thy brother’s royal star, by the deeds of thy divine sire and the flower of thine own age, I beg thee deliver me from the edge of the sword; let me escape the cruel threatenings of Stilicho. All Gaul is sworn to my destruction. Tethys’ extreme coasts, the wandering tribes beyond the farthest Britons are stirred up against me. Am I thought fit prey for all those armies? Are so many standards advanced against a solitary man? Whence comes this lust for blood? Stilicho lays claim to either hemisphere and will brook no equal. The world forsooth must lie at his feet. Italy is his kingdom, Libya his dominion, Spain and Gaul his empire. The sun’s path circumscribes him not, no nor the whole universe. All the wealth collected here by Theodosius or received by him after the war is Stilicho’s alone, and he has small mind to restore what he has once acquired. Is he to enjoy his gains in peace and quietness while ’tis mine to stand a siege? Why should he encroach on thy share? Let him leave Illyria, send back his Eastern troops, divide the
agmina; fraternas ex aequo dividat hastas,
nec sceptri tantum fueris, sed militis heres.
quodsi dissimulas nostrae succurrere morti
nec prohibere paras, Manes et sidera testor: 165
haec cervix non sola cadet; miscebitur alter
sanguis; nec Stygias ferar incomitatus ad undas
nec mea securus ridebit funera victor!”
Haec ubi, dictatur facinus missusque repente
qui ferat extortas invito principe voces. 170
Interea Stilicho iam laetior hoste propinquo
nec multo spatii distantibus aequore vallis
pugnandi cupidas accendit voce cohortes.
Armeniis frons laeva datur; per cornua Gallos
dexteriora locat. spumis ignescere frena, 175
pulveris extolli nimbos lateque videres
surgere purpureis undantes anguibus hastas
serpentumque vago caelum saevire volatu.
implet Thessaliam ferri nitor antraque docti
cornipedis, teneroque amnis reptatus Achilli 180
et nemus Oetaeum radiat. clamore nivalis
Ossa tonat pulsoque fragor geminatur Olympo.
intumuit virtus et lucis prodigus arsit
impetus; haud illos rupes, haud alta vetarent
flumina: praecipiti stravissent omnia cursu. 185
Si tunc his animis acies collata fuisset,
prodita non tantas vidisset Graecia caedes,
oppida semoto Pelopeia Marte vigerent,
hosts fairly between the two brothers, and do thou not be heir to the sceptre only but to thy forces. But if thou neglect to come to mine aid and make not ready to prevent my death, this head of mine shall not fall alone—by the dead and the stars I swear it. The blood of another shall be mingled with mine. I will not go unaccompanied to the waters of Styx nor shall the victor be free to exult in my death.”
So saying he dictates a treasonable letter and sends therewith an emissary to bear the message extorted from the emperor’s unwilling lips.
Meanwhile Stilicho, exulting in the thought of advancing upon the foe and of the narrow stretch of country that separated him from the fortifications, inflames with his words the hearts of his troops already thirsting for battle. On the left wing are posted the Armenians, farther to the right the Gauls. A beholder might have seen bits covered with warm foam, clouds of dust uprising, and on all sides waving banners bearing the device of a scarlet dragon; the very air seemed to teem with these fierce flying monsters. The glint of steel fills all Thessaly and the cave of the wise Centaur; the river whose banks supported Achilles’ baby footsteps and the forests of Oeta are agleam with arms, snowy Ossa re-echoes to the sound and Olympus smitten therewith sends it back twofold. Hearts beat high with a courage that is lavish of life. Neither precipice nor deep river could check their advance: their headlong speed would have overthrown all barriers.
If the two armies had then joined battle in this temper ruined Greece would not have witnessed such disaster as she did, the cities of the Peloponnese would still have been flourishing untouched by the hand
starent Arcadiae, starent Lacedaemonis arces;
non mare fumasset geminum flagrante Corintho 190
nec fera Cecropiae traxissent vincula matres.
illa dies potuit nostris imponere finem
cladibus et sceleris causas auferre futuri.
invida pro quantum rapuit Fortuna triumphum!
inter equos interque tubas mandata feruntur 195
regia et armati veniunt ductoris ad aures.
Obstupuit; simul ira virum, simul obruit ingens
maeror et ignavo tantum licuisse nocenti
miratur. dubios anceps sententia volvit
eventus: peragat pugnas an fortia coepta 200
deserat? Illyricis ardet succurrere damnis;
praeceptis obstare timet. reverentia frangit
virtutis stimulos: hinc publica commoda suadent,
hinc metus invidiae. tandem indignatus ad astra
extollit palmas et ab imo pectore fatur: 205
“Numina Romanis necdum satiata ruinis,
si iuvat imperium penitus de stirpe revelli,
uno si placuit deleri saecula lapsu,
si piget humani generis, prorumpat in arva
libertas effrena maris vel limite iusto 210
devius errantes Phaëthon confundat habenas.
cur per Rufinum geritur? procumbere mundum
hoc auctore pudet. mediis revocamur ab armis
(pro dolor!) et strictos deponere cogimur enses.
vos, arsurae urbes perituraque moenia, testor: 215
cedo equidem et miserum permitto casibus orbem
flectite signa, duces. redeat iam miles Eous.
of war, Arcadia and Sparta’s citadel would have remained unravaged. Burning Corinth would not have heated the waves of her two seas, nor would cruel chains have led in captivity the matrons of Athens. That day might have set an end to our disasters and destroyed the seeds of future calamities. For shame, envious Fortune, of what a triumph didst thou rob us! The kingly mandate came to Stilicho in arms amid the cavalry and the trumpets’ din.
He stood amazed; anger and great grief o’erwhelm the hero and he wonders that such power for ill is allowed a coward. His wavering mind ponders the uncertain issue: shall he continue his advance or fail his brave beginnings? He longs to stem Illyria’s ruin but fears to disobey orders. Loyalty annuls the prickings-on of valour. The public good urges him one way, fear of the emperor’s displeasure another. At length in his distress he raises his hands to heaven and speaks from deep within his heart: “Ye gods not yet glutted with Rome’s destruction, if ye will that our empire be utterly uprooted, if ye have resolved to blot out all the centuries with one blow, if ye repent you of the race of man, then let the sea’s unrestrained fury burst forth upon the land or let Phaëthon, deviating from his ordained course, drive his straying chariot at random. Shall Rufinus be your tool? ’Twere shame that such an one should be the author of the world’s destruction. O the grief of it! recalled in mid fight; forced to lay down the swords we have drawn! Cities marked out for the flames, walls doomed to destruction, I call you to witness: see, I retire; I leave the unhappy world to its fate. Turn your banners, captains; to your homes, soldiers of the east. Needs must we obey.
parendum est. taceant litui. prohibete sagittas.
parcite contiguo—Rufinus praecipit!—hosti.”
His dictis omnes una fremuere manipli 220
quantum non Italo percussa Ceraunia fluctu,
quantum non madidis elisa tonitrua Cauris,
secernique negant ereptaque proelia poscunt,
insignemque ducem populus defendit uterque
et sibi quisque trahit. magno certatur amore, 225
alternamque fidem non inlaudata lacessit
seditio talique simul clamore queruntur:
“Quis mihi nudatos enses, quis tela lacertis
excutit et solvi curvatos imperat arcus?
quisnam audet stricto leges imponere ferro? 230
inflammata semel nescit mitescere virtus.
iam mihi barbaricos sitientia pila cruores
sponte volant ultroque manus mucrone furenti
ducitur et siccum gladium vagina recusat.
non patiar. semperne Getis discordia nostra 235
proderit? en iterum belli civilis imago!
quid consanguineas acies, quid dividis olim
concordes aquilas? non dissociabile corpus
coniunctumque sumus. te qua libet ire sequemur.
te vel Hyperboreo damnatam sidere Thylen, 240
te vel ad incensas Libyae comitabor harenas.
Indorum si stagna petas Rubrique recessus
litoris, auriferum veniam poturus Hydaspen;
si calcare Notum secretaque noscere Nili
nascentis iubeas, mundum post terga relinquam; 245
Silence, ye clarions; men, forbear to shoot. The foe is at hand, spare him; ’tis Rufinus’ command.”
At these words an unanimous roar went up from all the companies. With less din are the cliffs of Ceraunia buffeted by the Italian sea or the thunders evoked from the western winds’ wet storm-clouds. They will not separate, and demand the battle of which they have been defrauded. East and west claim the leadership of that illustrious chief. It is a contest of affection; insubordination that none can blame threatens to sap the loyalty of both armies who thus utter their common complaint: “Who is it robs us of our drawn swords? Who strikes the lance from our hand and bids us unstring the bent bow? Who dares dictate to an army under arms? Valour once roused knows no abatement. Spears thirsting for barbarian blood cast themselves from out our hands; our headlong blades force our vengeful arms to follow them; our very scabbards refuse to sheath an unblooded sword. I will not bear it. Shall the Getae ever profit by our dissension? Behold once more the shadow of civil war. Why dost thou seek to separate armies whose blood is one, standards of immemorial alliance? We are a body one and indivisible. Thee will we follow whithersoever thou goest; thee will we accompany even as far as Thule lying ice-bound beneath the pole-star, or to the burning sands of Libya. Should thy path be by the waters of Ind, or the bays of the Red Sea,[58] I would go drink Hydaspes’ golden stream. Shouldst thou bid me fare south and search out the hidden sources of the stripling Nile, I would leave behind me the world
[58] By the mare rubrum the ancients meant the Indian Ocean. The Hydaspes is the modern Jhylum.
et quocumque loco Stilicho tentoria figat,
haec patria est.”
Dux inde vetat: “desistite, quaeso.
atque avidam differte manum. cadat iste minacis
invidiae cumulus. non est victoria tanti,
ut videar vicisse mihi. vos fida iuventus 250
ite, mei quondam socii.” nec plura locutus
flexit iter: vacuo qualis discedit hiatu
impatiens remeare leo, quem plurima cuspis
et pastorales pepulerunt igne catervae,
inclinatque iubas demissaque lumina velat 255
et trepidas maesto rimatur murmure silvas.
Ut sese legio vidit disiuncta relinqui,
ingentem tollit gemitum galeasque solutis
umectat lacrimis pressamque morantia vocem
thoracum validos pulsant suspiria nexus: 260
“tradimur, heu, tantumque sequi prohibemur
amorem!”
exclamant. “spernisne tuas, dux optime, dextras,
quas tibi victrices totiens Bellona probavit?
nos adeo viles? adeo felicior axis
Hesperius, meruit qui te rectore teneri? 265
quid nobis patriam, quid cara revisere tandem
pignora dilectosve iuvat coluisse penates?
te sine dulce nihil. iam formidata tyranni
tempestas subeunda mihi, qui forte nefandas
iam parat insidias, qui nos aut turpibus Hunis 270
aut impacatis famulos praebebit Alanis;
quamquam non adeo robur defecerit omne
tantave gestandi fuerit penuria ferri.
tu, licet occiduo maneas sub cardine caeli,
I know. Wheresoever Stilicho plants his tent there is my fatherland.”
But Stilicho said them nay: “Cease, I beg you,” he cried, “stay your eager hands. Suffer to disperse the mountain of hatred that towers over me. I hold not victory so dear that I would fain seem to win it for myself. Loyal gentlemen, so long my fellow-soldiers, get you gone.” He said no more but turned away, as a lion loath to retire makes off with empty maw when the serried spears and the burning branches in the hands of the shepherd band drive him back and he droops his mane and closes his downcast eyes and with a disappointed roar pushes his way through the trembling forest.
When the armies saw that they had been parted and left, they groaned deeply and bedewed their helmets with a stream of tears. The sighs that refused egress to their smothered words shook the strong fastenings of their breastplates. “We are betrayed,” they cried, “and forbidden to follow him we love so well. Dost thou despise, matchless chief, thine own right hands which have so often won thee the victory? Are we thus vile? Is the Western sky to be the happier which has won the right to enjoy thy rule? What boots it to return to our country, to see once more our children dear after so long an absence, to live again in the home we love? Without thee is no joy. Now must I face the tyrant’s dread wrath; mayhap e’en now he is making ready against me some wicked snare and will make me a slave to the foul Huns or restless Alans. Yet is not my strength altogether perished nor so complete my powerlessness to wield the sword. Rest thou beneath the sun’s westering course, Stilicho, thou art still
tu mihi dux semper, Stilicho, nostramque vel absens
experiere fidem. dabitur tibi debita pridem 276
victima: promissis longe placabere sacris.”
Tristior Haemoniis miles digressus ab oris
tangebat Macetum fines murosque subibat,
Thessalonica, tuos. sensu dolor haeret in alto 280
abditus et tacitas vindictae praestruit iras,
spectaturque favens odiis locus aptaque leto
tempora. nec quisquam tanta de pube repertus,
proderet incautis qui corda minantia verbis.
quae non posteritas, quae non mirabitur aetas 285
tanti consilium vulgi potuisse taceri
aut facinus tam grande tegi mentisque calorem
non sermone viae, non inter pocula rumpi?
aequalis tantam tenuit constantia turbam
et fuit arcanum populo. percurritur Haemus, 290
deseritur Rhodope Thracumque per ardua tendunt,
donec ad Herculei perventum nominis urbem.
Ut cessisse ducem, propius venisse cohortes
cognita Rufino, magna cervice triumphat
omnia tuta ratus sceptrumque capessere fervet 295
et coniuratos hortatur voce clientes:
“vicimus, expulimus, facilis iam copia regni.
nullus ab hoste timor. quis enim, quem poscere solum
horruit, hunc tanto munitum milite vincat?
quis ferat armatum, quem non superavit inermem?
i nunc, exitium nobis meditare remotus 301
ever our general, and though we be not together thou shalt still know our loyalty. Long has a victim been owed thee; he shall be sacrificed and thou placated by an immolation promised of old.”
Sad at heart the army left Thessaly, reached the borders of Macedon, and arrived before the walls of Thessalonica. Indignation deep hid in their hearts prepares the silent wrath of revenge. They look for a place where they may wreak their vengeance and a moment propitious for the blow, and of all that vast army not one is found to divulge with incautious speech his heart’s intent. What succeeding age and time but will marvel that a plot so widespread could be kept hid, a deed of such vast import concealed; that the ardour of their minds was not rendered of no avail by the chance word of a soldier on the march or a drunkard’s babbling? But discretion ruled all alike and the people’s secret was kept. The army crossed the Hebrus, left Rhodope behind, and struck across the uplands of Thrace until it came to the city called after Hercules.[59]
When Rufinus learned that Stilicho had retired and that his troops were approaching he held his head high in triumph, believing everything safe, and, anxious to seize the power, inflamed his traitorous minions with this speech: “We have conquered; have driven off our enemy; empire is within my grasp, nor have we anything to fear from the foe. Will one who dared not approach me when I stood alone defeat me now that I am strengthened by the addition of so great a force? Who could stand against him armed whom unarmed he could not conquer? Plot my destruction in exile, friend
[59] Probably Heraclea, at the west end of the Propontis.
incassum, Stilicho, dum nos longissima tellus
dividat et mediis Nereus interstrepat undis.
Alpinas transire tibi me sospite rupes
haud dabitur. iaculis illinc me figere tempta. 305
quaere ferox ensem, qui nostra ad moenia tendi
possit ab Italia. non te documenta priorum,
non exempla vetant? quisnam conatus adire
has iactat vitasse manus? detrusimus orbe
te medio tantisque simul spoliavimus armis. 310
nunc epulis tempus, socii, nunc larga parare
munera donandumque novis legionibus aurum!
opportuna meis oritur lux crastina votis.
quod nolit rex ipse velit iubeatque coactus
in partem mihi regna dari. contingat in uno 315
privati fugisse modum crimenque tyranni.”
Talibus adclamat dictis infame nocentum
concilium, qui perpetuis crevere rapinis
et quos una facit Rufino causa sodales,
inlicitum duxisse nihil; funesta tacere 320
nexus amicitiae. iamiam conubia laeti
despondent aliena sibi frustraque vicissim
promittunt, quae quisque petat, quas devoret urbes.
Coeperat humanos alto sopire labores
nox gremio, nigrasque sopor diffuderat alas. 325
ille diu curis animum stimulantibus aegre
labitur in somnos. toto vix corde quierat,
ecce videt diras adludere protinus umbras,
Stilicho. What harm can that do so long as a vast stretch of country divide us and Nereus’ waves thunder between? Thou shalt have no chance of crossing the rocky Alps while I live. Transfix me from thence with thine arrows, if thou canst. Seek in thy fury a sword that from Italy shall reach my city’s walls. Does not the experience and the example of those who have tried before deter thee? Who that has dared approach can boast escape from my hands? I have driven thee from the centre of the civilized world and at the same time deprived thee of thy great army. Now, my friends, is come the time for feasting and making ready bountiful gifts and bestowing gold upon these new legions. To-morrow’s light dawns prosperously for my purpose. Needs must the emperor will what he would not and bid a portion of his empire to be given to me. Mine alone be the happy fortune to rise above a private estate and yet escape the charge of tyranny.”
To such words they shout acclaim—that vile band of traitors, waxed fat on plunder, whom one principle makes fellows with Rufinus, the holding nothing unlawful, and whose bond of friendship is to guard guilt in silence. Straightway they joyfully promise themselves foreign wives and all to no purpose forecast the booty they will win and the cities they will sack.
Night had begun to soothe human toils in her deep bosom and sleep had spread his black wings when Rufinus, whose mind had long been a prey to anxiety, sank into a troubled slumber. Scarce had quiet fastened on his heart when, lo, he sees flit before his eyes the dread ghosts of those whom he
quas dedit ipse neci; quarum quae clarior una
visa loqui: “pro! surge toro. quid plurima volvis 330
anxius? haec requiem rebus finemque labori
adlatura dies: omni iam plebe redibis
altior et laeti manibus portabere vulgi.”
has canit ambages. occulto fallitur ille
omine nec capitis sentit praesagia fixi. 335
Iam summum radiis stringebat Lucifer Haemum
festinamque rotam solito properantior urget
tandem Rufini visurus funera Titan:
desiluit stratis densaeque capacia turbae
atria regifico iussit splendere paratu 340
exceptura dapes et, quod post vota daretur,
insculpi propriis aurum fatale figuris.
ipse salutatum reduces post proelia turmas
iam regale tumens et principe celsior ibat
collaque femineo solvebat mollia gestu 345
imperii certus, tegeret ceu purpura dudum
corpus et ardentes ambirent tempora gemmae.
Urbis ab angusto tractu, qua vergit in austrum,
planities vicina patet: nam cetera pontus
circuit exiguo dirimi se limite passus. 350
hic ultrix acies ornatu lucida Martis
explicuit cuneos. pedites in parte sinistra
consistunt. equites illinc poscentia cursum
ora reluctantur pressis sedare lupatis;
hinc alii saevum cristato vertice nutant 355
et tremulos umeris gaudent vibrare colores,
quos operit formatque chalybs; coniuncta per artem
had killed. Of them one, more distinct than the rest, seemed thus to address him: “Up from thy couch! why schemes thine anxious mind further? This coming day shall bring thee rest and end thy toils. High above the people shalt thou be raised, and happy crowds shall carry thee in their arms.” Such was the ambiguous prophecy of the ghost, but Rufinus observed not the hidden omen and saw not it foretold the elevation of his severed head upon a spear.
Now Lucifer touched the peak of Haemus with his rays and Titan urged his hastening wheel quicker than his wont, so soon to see at last the death of Rufinus. Rufinus himself leapt from his bed and bade make ready the capacious palace with regal splendour in preparation for the feast; the gold to be given in largesse he ordered to be stamped with his own fateful image. Himself went to welcome the troops returning from the battle in kingly pride and arrogance above a prince’s. Sure now of empire he wore a woman’s raiment about his neck; as though the purple already clothed his limbs and the jewelled crown blazed upon his brow.
Hard by a crowded quarter of the city of Constantinople, towards the south, there lies a plain. The rest is surrounded by the sea which here allows itself to be parted by a narrow way. Here the avenging army, bright with the panoply of the war god, disposes its squadrons. On the left stands the infantry. Over against them the cavalry seek to restrain their eager steeds by holding tight the reins. Here nod the savage waving plumes whose wearers rejoice to shake the flashing colours of their shoulder-armour; for steel clothes them on and gives them their shape; the limbs within
flexilis inductis animatur lamina membris;
horribiles visu: credas simulacra moveri
ferrea cognatoque viros spirare metallo. 360
par vestitus equis: ferrata fronte minantur
ferratosque levant securi vulneris armos.
diviso stat quisque loco, metuenda voluptas
cernenti pulcherque timor, spirisque remissis
mansuescunt varii vento cessante dracones. 365
Augustus veneranda prior vexilla salutat.
Rufinus sequitur, quo fallere cuncta solebat
callidus adfatu, devotaque brachia laudat;
nomine quemque vocat; natos patresque reversis
nuntiat incolumes. illi dum plurima ficto 370
certatim sermone petunt, extendere longos
a tergo flexus insperatoque suprema
circuitu sociare parant; decrescere campus
incipit, et clipeis in se redeuntia iunctis
curvo paulatim sinuantur cornua ductu: 375
sic ligat inmensa virides indagine saltus
venator; sic attonitos ad litora pisces
aequoreus populator agit rarosque plagarum
contrahit anfractus et hiantes colligit oras.
excludunt alios. cingi se fervidus ille 380
nescit adhuc graviterque adprensa veste morantem
increpat Augustum: scandat sublime tribunal,
participem sceptri, socium declaret honoris—cum
subito stringunt gladios; vox desuper ingens
infremuit: “nobis etiam, deterrime, nobis 385
give life to the armour’s pliant scales so artfully conjoined, and strike terror into the beholder. ’Tis as though iron statues moved and men lived cast from that same metal. The horses are armed in the same way; their heads are encased in threatening iron, their forequarters move beneath steel plates protecting them from wounds; each stands alone, a pleasure yet a dread to behold, beautiful, yet terrible, and as the wind drops the parti-coloured dragons[60] sink with relaxing coils into repose.
The emperor first salutes the hallowed standards; Rufinus follows him, speaking with that crafty voice wherewith he deceived all, praising their devoted arms and addressing each by name. He tells those who have returned that their sons and fathers are still alive. The soldiers, observing a feigned rivalry in asking questions, begin to extend their long lines behind his back and to join up the ends so as to form a circle unnoticed by Rufinus. The space in the centre grows smaller and the wings meeting with serried shields gradually form into one lessening circle. Even so the huntsman surrounds the grassy glades with his widespread snares: so the spoiler of the ocean drives to land the frightened fish, narrowing the circuit of his nets and closing up all possible ways of egress. All others they exclude. In his eagerness he notes not yet that he is being surrounded and, strongly seizing his robe, chides the hesitating emperor: let him mount the lofty platform and declare him sharer in his sceptre, partaker in his dignities—when suddenly they draw their swords and above the rest there rang out a mighty voice; “Basest of the base, didst
[60] Claudian refers to the devices emblazoned upon the banners.
sperasti famulas imponere posse catenas?
unde redi nescis? patiarne audire satelles,
qui leges aliis libertatemque reduxi?
bis domitum civile nefas, bis rupimus Alpes.
tot nos bella docent nulli servire tyranno.” 390
Deriguit. spes nulla fugae; seges undique ferri
circumfusa micat; dextra laevaque revinctus
haesit et ensiferae stupuit mucrone coronae,
ut fera, quae nuper montes amisit avitos
altorumque exul nemorum damnatur harenae 395
muneribus, commota ruit; vir murmure contra
hortatur nixusque genu venabula tendit;
illa pavet strepitus cuneosque erecta theatri
respicit et tanti miratur sibila vulgi.
Unus per medios audendi pronior ense 400
prosilit exerto dictisque et vulnere torvus
impetit: “hac Stilicho, quem iactas pellere, dextra
te ferit; hoc absens invadit viscera ferro.”
sic fatur meritoque latus transverberat ictu.
Felix illa manus, talem quae prima cruorem 405
hauserit et fessi poenam libaverit orbis!
mox omnes laniant hastis artusque trementes
dilacerant; uno tot corpore tela tepescunt
et non infecto puduit mucrone reverti.
thou hope to cast upon us the yoke of slavery? Knowest thou not whence I return? Shall I allow myself to be called another’s servant, I who gave laws to others and restored the reign of liberty? Two civil wars have I quenched, twice forced the barrier of the Alps. These many battles have taught me to serve no tyrant.”
Rufinus stood rooted to earth. There is no hope of escape, for a forest of flashing spears hems him in. Shut in on the right hand and on the left he stood and gazed in wonder on the drawn blades of the armed throng; as a beast who has lately left his native hills, driven in exile from the wooded mountains and condemned to the gladiatorial shows, rushes into the arena while over against him the gladiator, heartened by the crowd’s applause kneels and holds out his spear. The beast, alarmed at the noise, gazes with head erect upon the rows of seats in the amphitheatre and hears with amazement the murmuring of the crowd.
Then one more daring than the rest drew his sword and leapt forward from the crowd and with fierce words and flashing eye rushed upon Rufinus crying: “It is the hand of Stilicho whom thou vauntest that thou didst expel that smites thee; his sword, which thou thoughtest far away, that pierces thy heart.” So spake he and transfixed Rufinus’ side with a well-deserved thrust.
Happy the hand that first spilt such vile blood and poured out vengeance for a world made weary. Straightway all pierce him with their spears and tear quivering limb from limb; one single body warms all these weapons with its blood; shame to him whose sword returns unstained therewith.
hi vultus avidos et adhuc spirantia vellunt 410
lumina, truncatos alii rapuere lacertos.
amputat ille pedes, umerum quatit ille solutis
nexibus; hic fracti reserat curvamina dorsi;
hic iecur, hic cordis fibras, hic pandit anhelas
pulmonis latebras. spatium non invenit ira 415
nec locus est odiis. consumpto funere vix tum
deseritur sparsumque perit per tela cadaver.
sic mons Aonius rubuit, cum Penthea ferrent
Maenades aut subito mutatum Actaeona cornu
traderet insanis Latonia visa Molossis. 420
criminibusne tuis credis, Fortuna, mederi
et male donatum certas aequare favorem
suppliciis? una tot milia morte rependis?
eversis agedum Rufinum divide terris.
da caput Odrysiis, truncum mereantur Achivi. 425
quid reliquis dabitur? nec singula membra peremptis
sufficiunt populis.
Vacuo plebs undique muro
iam secura fluit; senibus non obstitit aetas
virginibusve pudor; viduae, quibus ille maritos
abstulit, orbataeque ruunt ad gaudia matres 430
insultantque alacres. laceros iuvat ire per artus
pressaque calcato vestigia sanguine tingui.
nec minus adsiduis flagrant elidere saxis
prodigiale caput, quod iam de cuspide summa
They stamp on that face of greed and while yet he lives pluck out his eyes; others seize and carry off his severed arms. One cuts off his foot, another wrenches a shoulder from the torn sinews; one lays bare the ribs of the cleft spine, another his liver, his heart, his still panting lungs. There is not space enough to satisfy their anger nor room to wreak their hate. Scarce when his death had been accomplished do they leave him; his body is hacked in pieces and the fragments borne on the soldiers’ spears. Thus red with blood ran the Boeotian mountain when the Maenads caused Pentheus’ destruction or when Latona’s daughter seen by Actaeon betrayed the huntsman, suddenly transformed into a stag, to the fury of her Molossian hounds. Dost thou hope, Fortune, thus to right thy wrongs? Seekest thou to atone by this meting out of punishment for favour ill bestowed? Dost thou with one death make payment for ten thousand murders? Come, portion out Rufinus’ corpse among the lands he has wronged. Give the Thracians his head; let Greece have as her due his body. What shall be given the rest? Give but a limb apiece, there are not enough for the peoples he has ruined.
The citizens leave the town and hasten exulting to the spot from every quarter, old men and girls among them whom nor age nor sex could keep at home. Widows whose husbands he had killed, mothers whose children he had murdered hurry to the joyful scene with eager steps. They are fain to trample the torn limbs and stain their deep pressed feet with the blood. So, too, they eagerly hurl a shower of stones at the monstrous head, nodding from the summit of the spear that transfixed it as it
nutabat digna rediens ad moenia pompa. 435
dextera quin etiam ludo concessa vagatur
aera petens poenasque animi persolvit avari
terribili lucro vivosque imitata retentus
cogitur adductis digitos inflectere nervis.
Desinat elatis quisquam confidere rebus 440
instabilesque deos ac lubrica numina discat.
illa manus, quae sceptra sibi gestanda parabat,
cuius se totiens summisit ad oscula supplex
nobilitas, inhumata diu miseroque revulsa
corpore feralem quaestum post fata reposcit. 445
adspiciat quisquis nimium sublata secundis
colla gerit: triviis calcandus spargitur ecce,
qui sibi pyramidas, qui non cedentia templis
ornatura suos extruxit culmina manes,
et qui Sidonio velari credidit ostro, 450
nudus pascit aves. iacet en, qui possidet orbem,
exiguae telluris inops et pulvere raro
per partes tegitur nusquam totiensque sepultus.
Senserunt convexa necem tellusque nefandum
amolitur onus iam respirantibus astris. 455
infernos gravat umbra lacus. pater Aeacus horret
intrantemque etiam latratu Cerberus urget.
tune animae, quas ille fero sub iure peremit,
circumstant nigrique trahunt ad iudicis urnam
infesto fremitu: veluti pastoris in ora 460
commotae glomerantur apes, qui dulcia raptu
mella vehit, pennasque cient et spicula tendunt
et tenuis saxi per propugnacula cinctae
was carried back in merited splendour to the city. Nay his hand too, made over to their mockery, goes a-begging for alms, and with its awful gains pays the penalty for his greedy soul, while forced, in mimicry of its living clutch, to draw up the fingers by their sinews.
Put not now your trust in prosperity; learn that the gods are inconstant and heaven untrustworthy. That hand which sought to wield a sceptre, which a humbled nobility stooped so often to kiss, now torn from its wretched trunk and left long unburied begs after death a baneful alms. Let him gaze on this whoso carries his head high in pride of prosperity, see trodden under foot at the cross-roads him who built pyramids for himself and a tomb, large as a temple, to the glory of his own ghost. He who trusted to be clothed in Tyrian purple is now a naked corpse and food for birds. See, he who owns the world lies denied six foot of earth, half covered with a sprinkling of dust, given no grave yet given so many.
Heaven knew of his death and earth is freed of her hated burden, now that the stars can breathe again. His shade oppresses the rivers of Hell. Old Aeacus shudders and Cerberus bays to stop, in this case, the entry of a ghost. Then those shades which he had sent to death beneath his cruel laws flock round him and hale him away with horrid shoutings to the tribunal of the gloomy judge: even as bees whom a shepherd has disturbed swarm round his head when he would rob them of their sweet honey, and flutter their wings and put forth their stings, making them ready for battle in the fastnesses of their little rock, and seek to defend the
rimosam patriam dilectaque pumicis antra
defendunt pronoque favos examine velant. 465
Est locus infaustis quo conciliantur in unum
Cocytos Phlegethonque vadis; inamoenus uterque
alveus; hic volvit lacrimas, hic igne redundat.
turris per geminos, flammis vicinior, amnes
porrigitur solidoque rigens adamante sinistrum 470
proluit igne latus; dextro Cocytia findit
aequora triste gemens et fletu concita plangit.
huc post emeritam mortalia saecula vitam
deveniunt. ibi nulla manent discrimina fati,
nullus honos vanoque exutum nomine regem 475
proturbat plebeius egens. quaesitor in alto
conspicuus solio pertemptat crimina Minos
et iustis dirimit sontes. quos nolle fateri
viderit, ad rigidi transmittit verbera fratris.
nam iuxta Rhadamanthys agit. cum gesta superni
curriculi totosque diu perspexerit actus, 481
exaequat damnum meritis et muta ferarum
cogit vincla pati. truculentos ingerit ursis
praedonesque lupis; fallaces vulpibus addit.
at qui desidia semper vinoque gravatus, 485
indulgens Veneri, voluit torpescere luxu,
hunc suis inmundi pingues detrudit in artus.
qui iusto plus esse loquax arcanaque suevit
prodere, piscosas fertur victurus in undas,
ut nimiam pensent aeterna silentia vocem. 490
quos ubi per varias annis ter mille figuras
egit, Lethaeo purgatos flumine tandem
rursus ad humanae revocat primordia formae.
crevices of their home, their beloved pumice-stone cave, swarming over the honeycombs therein.
There is a place where the unhallowed rivers of Cocytus and Phlegethon mingle their dread streams of tears and fire. Between the rivers yet nearer to that of Phlegethon there juts a tower stiff with solid adamant that bathes its left side in the flames; its right hand wall extends into Cocytus’ stream and echoes the lamentation of the river of tears. Hither come all the children of men whose life is ended; here there abide no marks of earthly fortune; no reverence is shown; the common beggar ousts the king, now stripped of his empty title. Seen afar on his lofty throne the judge Minos examines the charges and separates the wicked from the righteous. Those whom he sees unwilling to confess their sins he remits to the lash of his stern brother; for he, Rhadamanthus, is busy close at hand. When he has closely examined the deeds of their earthly life and all that they did therein, he suits the punishment to their crimes and makes them undergo the bonds of dumb animals. The spirits of the cruel enter into bears, of the rapacious into wolves, of the treacherous into foxes. Those, on the other hand, who were ever sunk in sloth, sodden with wine, given to venery, sluggish from excesses, he compelled to enter the fat bodies of filthy swine. Was any above measure talkative, a betrayer of secrets, he was carried off, a fish, to live in the waters amid his kind, that in eternal silence he might atone for his garrulity. When for thrice a thousand years he had forced these through countless diverse shapes, he sends them back once more to the beginnings of human form purged at last with Lethe’s stream.
Tum quoque, dum lites Stygiique negotia solvit
dura fori veteresque reos ex ordine quaerit, 495
Rufinum procul ecce notat visuque severo
lustrat et ex imo concussa sede profatur:
“Huc superum labes, huc insatiabilis auri
proluvies pretioque nihil non ause parato,
quodque mihi summum scelus est, huc improbe legum
venditor, Arctoi stimulator perfide Martis! 501
cuius ob innumeras strages angustus Averni
iam sinus et plena lassatur portitor alno.
quid demens manifesta negas? en pectus inustae
deformant maculae vitiisque inolevit imago 505
nec sese commissa tegunt. genus omne dolorum
in te ferre libet: dubio tibi pendula rupes
inmineat lapsu, volucer te torqueat axis,
te refugi fallant latices atque ore natanti
arescat decepta sitis, dapibusque relictis 510
in tua mansurus migret praecordia vultur.
quamquam omnes alii, quos haec tormenta fatigant,
pars quota sunt, Rufine, tui! quid tale vel audax
fulmine Salmoneus vel lingua Tantalus egit
aut inconsulto Tityos deliquit amore? 515
cunctorum si facta simul iungantur in unum,
praecedes numero. cui tanta piacula quisquam
supplicio conferre valet? quid denique dignum
omnibus inveniam, vincant cum singula poenas?
tollite de mediis animarum dedecus umbris. 520
adspexisse sat est. oculis iam parcite nostris
et Ditis purgate domos. agitate flagellis
So then while he settles these suits, dread business of that infernal court, while he examines in due order the criminals of old, he marks afar Rufinus, scans him with a stern scrutiny and speaks, shaking his throne to its foundation. “Hither, Rufinus, scourge of the world, bottomless sink of gold who wouldst dare aught for money; hither conscienceless seller of justice (that crime of crimes), faithless cause of that northern war whose thousand slaughtered victims now throng Hell’s narrow entry and weigh down Charon’s crowded barque. Madman, why deny what all know? The foul stains of wickedness are branded upon thy heart, thy crimes have made their impress on thy spirit and thy sins cannot be hid. Right glad I am to sentence thee to every kind of punishment. O’er thee shall hang the threatening rock the moment of whose fall thou knowest not. The circling wheel shall rack thee. Thy lips the stream’s waves shall flee, thirst shall parch thee to whose chin its elusive waters mount. The vulture shall leave his former prey and feast for ever on thy heart. And yet all these, Rufinus, whom the like punishments torment, how paltry their wickedness compared with thine! Did bold Salmoneus’ thunderbolt or Tantalus’ tongue ever do like wrong or Tityos so offend with his mad love? Join all their crimes together yet wilt thou surpass them. What sufficient atonement can be found for such wickedness? What to match thy sum of crimes whose single misdeeds outmatch all punishment? Shades, remove from this our ghostly company that presence that disgraces it. To have seen once is enough. Have mercy now on our eyes, and cleanse the realm of Dis. Drive
trans Styga, trans Erebum, vacuo mandate barathro
infra Titanum tenebras infraque recessus
Tartareos ipsumque[61] Chaos, qua noctis opacae 525
fundamenta latent; praeceps ibi mersus anhelet,
dum rotat astra polus, feriunt dum litora venti.”
[61] MSS. have nostrumque.
him with whips beyond the Styx, beyond Erebus; thrust him down into the empty pit beneath the lightless prison of the Titans, below the depths of Tartarus and Chaos’ own realm, where lie the foundations of thickest midnight; deep hidden there let him live while ever the vault of heaven carries round the stars and the winds beat upon the land.”
DE BELLO GILDONICO
LIBER I
(XV.)
Redditus imperiis Auster subiectaque rursus
alterius convexa poli. rectore sub uno
conspirat geminus frenis communibus orbis.
iunximus Europen Libyae. concordia fratrum
plena redit. patriis solum quod defuit armis, 5
tertius occubuit nati virtute tyrannus.
horret adhuc animus manifestaque gaudia differt,
dum stupet et tanto cunctatur credere voto.
necdum Cinyphias exercitus attigit oras:
iam domitus Gildo. nullis victoria nodis 10
haesit, non spatio terrae, non obice ponti.
congressum profugum captum vox nuntiat una
rumoremque sui praevenit laurea belli.
quo, precor, haec effecta deo? robusta vetusque
tempore tam parvo potuit dementia vinci? 15
quem veniens indixit hiems, ver perculit hostem.
THE WAR AGAINST GILDO[62]
BOOK I
(XV.)
The kingdom of the south is restored to our empire, the sky of that other hemisphere is once more brought into subjection. East and West live in amity and concord beneath the sway of one ruler. We have joined Europe again to Africa, and unswerving singleness of purpose unites the brother emperors. The would-be third participant of empire has fallen before the prowess of Honorius the son—that one victory that failed to grace the arms of Theodosius, the father. Still is my mind troubled and admits not the universal joy for very amazement, nor can believe the fulfilment of its heart-felt prayers. Not yet had the army landed upon Africa’s[63] coasts when Gildo yielded to defeat. No difficulties delayed our victorious arms, neither length of march nor intervening ocean. One and the same word brings news of the conflict, the flight, the capture of Gildo. The news of victory outstripped the news of the war that occasioned it. What god wrought this for us? Could madness so strong, so deep-seated be overcome so soon? The enemy whom early winter brought upon us, spring destroyed.
[62] For the details of Gildo’s rebellion see Introduction, p. x.
[63] The Cinyps is a river in Libya; cf. Virg. Georg. iii. 312.
Exitium iam Roma timens et fessa negatis
frugibus ad rapidi limen tendebat Olympi
non solito vultu nec qualis iura Britannis
dividit aut trepidos summittit fascibus Indos. 20
vox tenuis tardique gradus oculique iacentes
interius; fugere genae; ieiuna lacertos
exedit macies. umeris vix sustinet aegris
squalentem clipeum; laxata casside prodit
canitiem plenamque trahit rubiginis hastam. 25
attigit ut tandem caelum genibusque Tonantis
procubuit, tales orditur maesta querellas:
“Si mea mansuris meruerunt moenia nasci,
Iuppiter, auguriis, si stant inmota Sibyllae
carmina, Tarpeias si necdum respuis arces: 30
advenio supplex, non ut proculcet Araxen
consul ovans nostraeve premant pharetrata secures
Susa, nec ut Rubris aquilas figamus harenis.
haec nobis, haec ante dabas; nunc pabula tantum
Roma precor. miserere tuae, pater optinae, gentis, 35
extremam defende famem. satiavimus iram
si qua fuit; lugenda Getis et flenda Suebis
hausimus; ipsa meos horreret Parthia casus.
quid referam morbive luem tumulosve repletos
stragibus et crebras corrupto sidere mortes? 40
aut fluvium per tecta vagum summisque minatum
collibus? ingentes vexi summersa carinas
remorumque sonos et Pyrrhae saecula sensi.
“Ei mihi, quo Latiae vires urbisque potestas
Rome, the goddess, fearing for her city’s destruction and weak with corn withheld, hastened to the threshold of revolving Olympus with looks unlike her own; not with such countenance does she assign laws to the Britons, or subject the frightened Indians to her rule. Feeble her voice, slow her step, her eyes deep buried. Her cheeks were sunken and hunger had wasted her limbs. Scarce can her weak shoulders support her unpolished shield. Her ill-fitting helmet shows her grey hairs and the spear she carries is a mass of rust. At last she reaches heaven and falls at the Thunderer’s feet and utters this mournful complaint: “If prophecy rightly foretold the permanence of the rising walls of Rome; if the Sibyl’s verse is unalterable; if thou art not yet wearied of our city and the Capitol, I come to thee as a suppliant. My prayer is not that a consul may march in triumph along Araxes’ banks, nor that Rome’s power may crush the archer Persians and Susa their capital, nor yet that we may plant our standards on the Red Sea’s strand. All this thou grantedst us of old. ’Tis but food I, Rome, ask for now; father, take pity on thy chosen race and ease us of this hunger unto death. Whatever thy displeasure, we have surely sated it. The very Getae and Suebi would pity our sufferings; Parthia’s self would shudder at my disasters. What need have I to mention the pestilence, the heaps of corpses, the numberless deaths wherewith the very air is corrupted? Why tell of Tiber’s flooded stream, sweeping betwixt roofs and threatening the very hills? My submerged city has borne mighty ships, echoed the sound of oars, and experienced Pyrrha’s flood.
“Woe is me, whither are fled the power of Latium
decidit! in qualem paulatim fluximus umbram! 45
armato quondam populo patrumque vigebam
conciliis; domui terras urbesque revinxi
legibus: ad solem victrix utrumque cucurri.
postquam iura ferox in se communia Caesar
transtulit et lapsi mores desuetaque priscis 50
artibus in gremium pacis servile recessi,
tot mihi pro meritis Libyam Nilumque dedere,
ut dominam plebem bellatoremque senatum
classibus aestivis alerent geminoque vicissim
litore diversi complerent horrea venti. 55
stabat certa salus: Memphis si forte negasset,
pensabam Pharium Gaetulis messibus annum,
frugiferas certare rates lateque videbam
Punica Niliacis concurrere carbasa velis.
cum subiit par Roma mihi divisaque sumpsit 60
aequales Aurora togas, Aegyptia rura
in partem cessere novae. spes unica nobis
restabat Libyae, quae vix aegreque fovebat;
solo ducta Noto, numquam secura futuri,
semper inops, ventique fidem poscebat et anni. 65
hanc quoque nunc Gildo rapuit sub fine cadentis
autumni. pavido metimur caerula voto,
puppis si qua venit, si quid fortasse potenti
vel pudor extorsit domino vel praedo reliquit.
pascimur arbitrio Mauri nec debita reddi, 70
and the might of Rome? To what a shadow of our former glory are we by gradual decline arrived! Time was when my men bore arms and my greybeards met in council; mistress of the world was I and lawgiver to mankind. From rising to setting sun I sped in triumph. When proud Caesar had transferred my people’s power to himself, when manners became corrupt and forgetful of war’s old discipline I declined into the servile lap of peace, the emperors rewarded me with Africa and Egypt that they might nourish the sovereign people and the Senate, arbiter of peace and war, by means of summer-sped fleets, and that the winds, blowing alternately from either shore, should fill our granaries with corn. Our provisioning was secure. Should Memphis perchance have denied us food, I would make up for the failure of Egypt’s harvest by the African supply. I saw competition between grain-bearing vessels, and where’er I looked I beheld the fleet of Carthage strive in rivalry with that of the Nile. When a second Rome arose and the Eastern Empire assumed the toga of the West, Egypt fell beneath that new sway. Africa remained our only hope and scarcely did she suffice to feed us, whose corn-ships none but the south wind wafted across. Her promise for the future was insecure, as, ever helpless, she demanded the loyalty of the wind and of the season.[64] This province, too, Gildo seized towards the close of autumn. Anxiously and prayerfully we scan the blue sea to glance a coming sail in the fond hope that perchance a sense of shame has extorted somewhat from the powerful tyrant, or the conqueror left some corner unconquered. We are fed at the pleasure of the Moor,
[64] Claudian means that the African corn-supply was not always to be relied upon because (1) there might be a bad season, (2) there might be unfavourable winds.
sed sua concedi iactat gaudetque diurnos
ut famulae praebere cibos vitamque famemque
librat barbarico fastu vulgique superbit
fletibus et tantae suspendit fata ruinae.
Romuleas vendit segetes et possidet arva 75
vulneribus quaesita meis. ideone tot annos
flebile cum tumida bellum Carthagine gessi?
idcirco voluit contempta luce reverti
Regulus? hoc damnis, genitor, Cannensibus emi?
incassum totiens lituis navalibus arsit 80
Hispanum Siculumque fretum vastataque tellus
totque duces caesi ruptaque emissus ab Alpe
Poenus et attonitae iam proximus Hannibal urbi?
scilicet ut domitis frueretur barbarus Afris,
muro sustinui Martem noctesque cruentas 85
Collina pro turre tuli? Gildonis ad usum
Carthago ter victa ruit? hoc mille gementis
Italiae clades impensaque saecula bellis,
hoc Fabius fortisque mihi Marcellus agebant,
ut Gildo cumularet opes? haurire venena 90
compulimus dirum Syphacem fractumque Metello
traximus inmanem Marii sub vincla Iugurtham,
et Numidae Gildonis erunt? pro funera tanta,
pro labor! in Bocchi regnum sudavit uterque
Scipio. Romano vicistis sanguine Mauri. 95
ille diu miles populus, qui praefuit orbi,
qui trabeas et sceptra dabat, quem semper in armis
horribilem gentes, placidum sensere subactae,
who boasts that he does not repay a debt but that he gives us of his own, and rejoices to apportion out my daily food to me, as though I were his slave; with a barbarian’s pride he weighs me life or death by hunger, triumphs in a people’s tears, and holds above our heads an universal destruction. He sells Rome’s crops and possesses land won by my wounds. Was it for this that I waged lamentable war with proud Carthage for so many years? For this that Regulus reckoned his life as naught and would fain return to his captors? Is this my reward, father, for my losses on Cannae’s field? Have the Spanish and Sicilian seas resounded so often to our navies’ clarion for naught? For naught my lands been laid waste, so many of my generals slain, the Carthaginian invader broken his way through the Alps, Hannibal approached my affrighted capital? Have I kept the foe at bay with my walls and spent nights of slaughter before the Colline gate to enable a barbarian to reap the fruits of conquered Africa? Has thrice-conquered Carthage fallen for Gildo’s benefit? Was this the object of mourning Italy’s thousand disasters, of centuries spent in war, of Fabius’ and Marcellus’ deeds of daring—that Gildo should heap him up riches? We forced cruel Syphax to drink poison, drove fierce Iugurtha, whose power Metellus had broken, beneath Marius’ yoke—and shall Africa be Gildo’s? Alas for our toil and those many deaths: the two Scipios have laboured, it seems, to further Bocchus’[65] native rule; Roman blood has given victory to the Moors. That long warlike race, lord of the world, that appointed consuls and kings, whom foreign nations found ever formidable in war, though gentle once they had
[65] Bocchus, properly a king of Mauritania, stands here typically for any native monarch.
nunc inhonorus egens perfert miserabile pacis
supplicium nulloque palam circumdatus hoste 100
obsessi discrimen habet. per singula letum
impendet momenta mihi dubitandaque pauci
praescribunt alimenta dies, heu prospera fata!
quid mihi septenos montes turbamque dedistis,
quae parvo non possit ali? felicior essem 105
angustis opibus; mallem tolerare Sabinos
et Veios; brevior duxi securius aevum.
ipsa nocet moles. utinam remeare liceret
ad veteres fines et moenia pauperis Anci.
sufficerent Etrusca mihi Campanaque culta 110
et Quincti Curiique seges, patriaeque petenti
rusticus inferret proprias dictator aristas.
“Nunc quid agam? Libyam Gildo tenet, altera Nilum.
ast ego, quae terras umeris pontumque subegi,
deseror: emeritae iam praemia nulla senectae. 115
di, quibus iratis crevi, succurrite tandem,
exorate patrem; tuque o si sponte per altum
vecta Palatinis mutasti collibus Idam
praelatoque lavas Phrygios Almone leones,
maternis precibus natum iam flecte, Cybebe. 120
sin prohibent Parcae falsisque elusa vetustas
auspiciis, alio saltem prosternite casu
et poenae mutate genus. Porsenna reducat
Tarquinios; renovet ferales Allia pugnas;
me potius saevi manibus permittite Pyrrhi, 125
been subdued, dishonoured now and poverty-stricken, bends beneath the cruel lash of peace, and though not openly beleaguered by any foe yet has all the hazard of a siege. Destruction threatens me hourly; a few days will set a limit to my uncertain food-supply. Out upon thee, prosperity! Why hast thou given me seven hills and such a population as a small supply cannot nourish? Happier I, had my power been less. Better to have put up with the Sabines and Veii; in narrower bonds I passed securer days. My very magnitude undoes me; would that I could return to my former boundaries and the walls of poor Ancus. Enough for me then would be the ploughlands of Etruria and Campania, the farms of Cincinnatus and Curius, and at his country’s prayer the rustic dictator[66] would bring his home-grown wheat.
“What am I to do now? Gildo holds Libya, another[67] Egypt; while I, who subdued land and sea with my strong arm, am left to perish. Veteran of so many wars, can I claim no reward in mine old age? Ye gods in whose despite, it seems, I increased, now aid me at the last; pray Jove for me. And thou, Cybele, if ever of thine own free will thou wert carried over the sea and in exchange for Mount Ida tookest the hills of Rome and didst bathe thy Phrygian lions in Almo’s more favoured stream, move now thy son[68] with a mother’s entreaties. But if the fates forbid and our first founder was misled by augury untrue, o’erwhelm me at least in some different ruin, and change the nature of my punishment. Let Porsenna bring back the Tarquins; let Allia renew her bloody battle. Let me fall rather into the hands of cruel
[66] Doubtless a reference to Cincinnatus.
[67] Claudian means by “altera” the Eastern Empire.
[68] i.e. Jupiter.
me Senonum furiis, Brenni me reddite flammis.
cuncta fame leviora mihi.”
Sic fata refusis
obticuit lacrimis. mater Cytherea parensque
flet Mavors sanctaeque memor Tritonia Vestae,
nec Cybele sicco nec stabat lumine Iuno. 130
maerent indigetes et si quos Roma recepit
aut dedit ipsa deos. genitor iam corde remitti
coeperat et sacrum dextra sedare tumultum,
cum procul insanis quatiens ululatibus axem
et contusa genas mediis adparet in astris 135
Africa: rescissae vestes et spicea passim
serta iacent; lacero crinales vertice dentes
et fractum pendebat ebur, talique superbas
inrupit clamore fores:
“Quid magne moraris
Iuppiter avulso nexu pelagique solutis 140
legibus iratum populis inmittere fratrem?
mergi prima peto; veniant praerupta Pachyno
aequora, laxatis subsidant Syrtibus urbes.
si mihi Gildonem nequeunt abducere fata,
me rape Gildoni. felicior illa perustae 145
pars Libyae, nimio quae se munita calore
defendit tantique vacat secura tyranni.
crescat zona rubens; medius flagrantis Olympi
me quoque limes agat; melius deserta iacebo
vomeris impatiens. pulsis dominentur aristis 150
dipsades et sitiens attollat glaeba cerastas.
quid me temperies iuvit? quid mitior aether?
Gildoni fecunda fui. iam solis habenae
Pyrrhus; abandon me to the fury of the Senones or the flames of Brennus. Welcome all this rather than to starve!”
So spake she, and upwelling tears choked her voice. Venus, mother of Aeneas, wept, and Mars, father of Romulus and Minerva, mindful of Vesta’s sacred charge.[69] Nor Cybele nor Juno stood with dry eyes. The heroes mourn and all the gods whose worship Rome received from without or herself inaugurated. And now began the heart of Jove to soften. With hand outstretched he was checking the murmurings of the gods when, shaking heaven with distraught cries, Africa, her cheeks torn, appeared in the distance advancing amid the stars. Torn was her raiment, scattered her crown of corn. Her head was wounded and the ivory comb that secured her hair hung loose and broken. She rushed into Heaven’s halls shouting thus: “Great Jove, why delayest thou to loose the bonds of sea, to break its decree and hurl thy brother[70] in wrath against the land? May I be the first to be overwhelmed. Welcome the broken waters from Pachynus’ cape; sink my cities in the freed Syrtes. If so be fate cannot rid me of Gildo, rid Gildo of me. Happier that region of Libya that defends itself by means of its own excessive heat and thus knows not the irksome rule of so savage a tyrant. Let the torrid zone spread. Let the midmost path of the scorching sky burn me also. Better I lay a desert nor ever suffered the plough. Let the dust-snake lord it in a cornless land and the thirsty earth give birth to nought but vipers. What avails me a healthy climate, a milder air? My fruitfulness is but for
[69] i.e. the Palladium, the image of Pallas (=Minerva), rescued by Metellus from the burning temple of Vesta, 241 B.C.
[70] i.e. Neptune.
bis senas torquent hiemes, cervicibus ex quo
haeret triste iugum. nostris iam luctibus ille 155
consenuit regnumque sibi tot vindicat annos.
atque utinam regnum! privato iure tenemur
exigui specie fundi. quod Nilus et Atlas
dissidet, occiduis quod Gadibus arida Barce
quodque Paraetonio secedit litore Tingi, 160
hoc sibi transcripsit proprium. pars tertia mundi
unius praedonis ager.
“Distantibus idem
inter se vitiis cinctus: quodcumque profunda
traxit avaritia, luxu peiore refundit.
instat terribilis vivis, morientibus heres, 165
virginibus raptor, thalamis obscaenus adulter.
nulla quies: oritur praeda cessante libido,
divitibusque dies et nox metuenda maritis.
quisquis vel locuples pulchra vel coniuge notus,
crimine pulsatur falso; si crimina desunt, 170
accitus conviva perit. mors nulla refugit
artificem: varios sucos spumasque requirit
serpentum virides et adhuc ignota novercis
gramina. si quisquam vultu praesentia damnet
liberiusve gemat, dapibus crudelis in ipsis 175
emicat ad nutum stricto mucrone minister.
fixus quisque toro tacita formidine libat
carnifices epulas incertaque pocula pallens
haurit et intentos capiti circumspicit enses.
splendet Tartareo furialis mensa paratu 180
caede madens, atrox gladio, suspecta veneno.
Gildo. Twelve courses has the sun’s chariot run since first I wore this sorry yoke. He has now grown old amid our miseries and these many years have set their seal upon his rule. Rule—would it were rule: a private owner possesses me, as it had been some pelting farm. From Nile to Atlas’ mount, from scorched Barce to western Gades, from Tingi[71] to Egypt’s coast Gildo has appropriated the land as his own. A third of the world belongs to one robber-chief.
“He is a prey to the most diverse vices: whatsoe’er his bottomless greed has stolen, a yet more insatiable profligacy squanders. He is the terror of the living, the heir of the dead, the violator of the unwed, and the foul corrupter of the marriage-bed. He is never quiet; when greed is sated lust is rampant; day is a misery to the rich, night to the married. Is any wealthy or known to possess a beautiful wife, he is overwhelmed by some trumped-up charge. If no charge be brought against him, he is asked to a banquet and there murdered. No form of death but is known to this artist in crime. He investigates the properties of different poisons and serpents’ livid venom and knows of deadly herbs unknown even to stepmothers. If any condemns what he sees by a look or sighs with too much freedom, at the very festal board out darts some henchman with drawn sword at a nod from his master. Each glued to his seat tastes in silent fear of the deadly banquet; drains, pale of face, the treacherous cup, and looks around at the weapons that threaten his life. The deadly board is decked in infernal splendour, wet with slaughter, dreadful with fear of sword and suspected poison. When wine has
[71] Tangiers.
ut vino calefacta Venus, tum saevior ardet
luxuries, mixtis redolent unguenta coronis:
crinitos inter famulos pubemque canoram
orbatas iubet ire nurus nuperque peremptis 185
adridere viris. Phalarim tormentaque flammae
profuit et Siculi mugitus ferre iuvenci
quam tales audire choros. nec damna pudoris
turpia sufficiunt: Mauris clarissima quaeque
fastidita datur. media Carthagine ductae 190
barbara Sidoniae subeunt conubia matres;
Aethiopem nobis generum, Nasamona maritum
ingerit; exterret cunabula discolor infans.
his fretus sociis ipso iam principe maior
incedit; peditum praecurrunt agmina longe; 195
circumdant equitum turmae regesque clientes,
quos nostris ditat spoliis. proturbat avita
quemque domo; veteres detrudit rure colonos.
exiliis dispersa feror. numquamne reverti
fas erit errantesque solo iam reddere cives?” 200
Iret adhuc in verba dolor, ni Iuppiter alto
coepisset solio (voces adamante notabat
Atropos et Lachesis iungebat stamina dictis):
“nec te, Roma, diu nec te patiemur inultam,
Africa. communem prosternet Honorius hostem. 205
pergite securae. vestrum vis nulla tenorem
separat et soli famulabitur Africa Romae.”
Dixit et adflavit Romam meliore iuventa.
continuo redit ille vigor seniique colorem
mutavere comae. solidatam crista resurgens 210
inflamed the passions, his lust rages more savagely; ’midst the mingled smell of scents and flowers, ’midst curled minions and youthful choirs he bids go sport the widowed wives whose husbands he but a moment ago has murdered. Better Phalaris and the torments of his furnace, better to listen to the bellowings of the Sicilian bull than to such songs as these. Nor is the base sacrifice of their good name enough. When tired of each noblest matron Gildo hands her over to the Moors. Married in Carthage city these Sidonian mothers needs must mate with barbarians. He thrusts upon me an Ethiopian as a son-in-law, a Berber as a husband. The hideous half-breed child affrights its cradle. Thanks to those base allies his state is more regal than that of the emperor himself. Before him goes a body of foot-soldiers, squadrons of cavalry surround him and client kings whom he enriches with our spoils. He drives one and all from their ancestral houses and expels husbandmen from farms so long theirs. My people are scattered in exile. Are my citizens never to return from their wanderings to their native soil?”
She would have spoken further in her grief had not Jove begun from his lofty throne—Atropos wrote down his words in adamant and Lachesis spun them in with her thread—“Neither thou, Rome, nor yet thou, Africa, will we suffer to go long unavenged. Honorius shall disperse your common foe. Go in peace. No violence shall part your companionship; Africa shall serve Rome, and Rome alone.”
He spake and breathed into Rome a youth renewed. Straightway her former strength returned, and her hair put off its grey of eld; her helmet grew solid,
erexit galeam clipeique recanduit orbis
et levis excussa micuit rubigine cornus.
Umentes iam noctis equos Lethaeaque Somnus
frena regens tacito volvebat sidera curru.
iam duo divorum proceres, maiorque minorque 215
Theodosii, pacem laturi gentibus ibant,
qui Iovis arcanos monitus mandataque ferrent
fratribus et geminis sancirent foedera regnis:
sic cum praecipites artem vicere procellae
adsiduoque gemens undarum verbere nutat 220
descensura ratis, caeca sub nocte vocati
naufraga Ledaei sustentant vela Lacones.
circulus ut patuit Lunae, secuere meatus
diversos: Italas senior tendebat in oras;
at pater, intrantem Pontum qua Bosphorus artat,
Arcadii thalamis urbique inlapsus Eoae. 226
quem simulac vidit natus (nam clara nitebat
Cynthia), permixto tremuerunt gaudia fletu
complexuque fovens, quos non speraverat, artus
“O mihi post Alpes nunc primum reddite,” dixit, 230
“unde tuis optatus ades? da tangere dextram,
qua gentes cecidere ferae. quis tale removit
praesidium terris? ut te mortalia pridem
implorant longeque pium fortemque requirunt!”
Cui pater in tales rupit suspiria voces: 235
“hoc erat? in fratres medio discordia Mauro
nascitur et mundus germanaque dissidet aula?
upright stood the plumes, the round shield shone once more, and gone was every trace of rust from her wingèd, gleaming spear.
Sleep was now driving the dew-drenched steeds of night, guiding them with the reins of Lethe and carrying round the stars in her silent course, when the elder and the younger Theodosius,[72] chief among the heroes divine, came to bring peace to men. They bore Jove’s secret message and mandate to the two brothers and ratified the treaty between the two empires. So when at dead of night the driving tempest has brought the helmsman’s skill to nought and the sinking ship groans and shudders at the waves’ ceaseless shock, Leda’s Spartan-born sons sustain the foundering bark in answer to the sailors’ prayers. At the rise of the full moon the twain parted. The elder directed his steps towards the coasts of Italy, the younger visited the couch of Arcadius, gliding down to that Eastern city where Bosporus narrows the entrance to the Euxine. As soon as the son saw his father (for the moon was shining brightly), he wept, yet trembled for joy, and embracing that form he had little hoped ever to embrace again, said: “O thou restored now to me for the first time since thy triumphs in the Alps, whence comest thou to thy loving son? Let me touch that hand that has conquered so many barbarian races! Who hath robbed the world of such a defender? How long a while has mankind prayed thine aid, and missed thy goodness and thy might!”
Sighing, the father made answer: “Was it for this? Is a Moor become a cause of discord between two brothers? Does the empire and court of the
[72] Theodosius the younger is, of course, Theodosius I., the Emperor (see Introduction, p. vii). Theodosius the elder was his father. He was an able and trusted general of Valentinian I., who restored quiet in Britain (368-370), defeated the Alamanni (370), and crushed the revolt of Firmus, Gildo’s brother (see line 333 of this poem) in Africa (? 372-374). His death was brought about by Merobaudes, Gratian’s minister (cf. viii. 26-9).
Gildonisne salus tanti sit palma furoris?
scilicet egregius morum magnoque tuendus
et cuius meritis pietas in fratre recedat! 240
invito[73] genitore, vide, civile calebat
discidium; dubio stabant Romana sub ictu;
quis procul Armenius vel quis Maeotide ripa
rex ignotus agit, qui me non iuvit euntem
auxilio? fovere Getae, venere Geloni. 245
solus at hic non puppe data, non milite misso
subsedit fluitante fide. si signa petisset
obvia, detecto summissius hoste dolerem:
restitit in speculis fati turbaque reductus
libravit geminas eventu iudice vires 250
ad rerum momenta cliens seseque daturus
victori; fortuna simul cum mente pependit.
o si non cupidis essem praereptus ab astris,
exemplum sequerer Tulli laniandaque dumis
impia diversis aptarem membra quadrigis. 255
germani nunc usque tui responsa colebat:
en iterum calcat. tali te credere monstro
post patrem fratremque paras? sed magna rependit
inque tuam sortem numerosas transtulit urbes!
ergo fas pretio cedet? mercede placebit 260
proditio? taceo, laesi quod transfuga fratris,
quod levis ingenio. quamvis discrimine summo
proditor adportet suspensa morte salutem
numquam gratus erit. damnamus luce reperta
[73] MSS. in primo; Birt suggests invito, Koch infirmo.
East quarrel with those of the West? Can Gildo’s salvation be fit guerdon for this mad rivalry? Great no doubt are his virtues, great should be the price paid to preserve them and such his merits as to banish affection in a brother. Look you, though I, thy sire, willed it not, civil war raged; the fortunes of Rome stood on a razor’s edge. Was there a distant king of Armenia, an unknown monarch by Maeotis’ shore but sent aid to mine enterprises? The Getae gave me succour, the Geloni came to my assistance. Gildo alone sent not a man, not a ship, but waited the issue in wavering loyalty. Had he sought the confronting host as an open foe my wrath had been less bitter. He stood apart on Fortune’s watchtower and, withdrawn from the throng, weighed this side against that, meaning to let the event decide him, dependent upon the turn things might take and ready to embrace the side of the victor. His fortune hung in the balance as well as his intention. Had I not been hurried to heaven by the impatient stars I would have followed the example of Tullus Hostilius and dragged the impious wretch limb from limb fastened to chariots driven different ways through thorn bushes.[74] Up to this time he has owed obedience to thy brother, now behold he spurns his commands. After thy father’s and thy brother’s fate art thou ready to trust thyself to such a villain? Is thine answer that he maketh great return and hath brought over many cities to thine allegiance? Shall honour, then, give place to utility? Can gain render treachery welcome? I make no mention of his cruel betrayal of thy brother; of his fickle nature; were a traitor to bring safety even when at peril’s height death threatened, never shall he win gratitude. When our life is saved
[74] See note on viii. 401.
perfidiam nec nos patimur committere tali. 265
hoc genus emptori cives cum moenibus offert,
hoc vendit patriam. plerique in tempus abusi
mox odere tamen: tenuit sic Graia Philippus
oppida; Pellaeo libertas concidit auro.
Romani scelerum semper sprevere ministros. 270
noxia pollicitum domino miscere venena
Fabricius regi nudata fraude remisit,
infesto quem Marte petit, bellumque negavit
per famuli patrare nefas, ductosque Camillus
trans murum pueros obsessae reddidit urbi. 275
“Traduntur poenis alii, cum proelia tollunt;
hic manet ut moveat? quod respuit alter in hostem,
suscipis in fratrem? longi pro dedecus aevi!
cui placet, australes Gildo condonat habenas
tantaque mutatos sequitur provincia mores. 280
quaslibet ad partes animus nutaverit anceps,
transfundit secum Libyam refluumque malignus
commodat imperium. Mauri fuit Africa munus.
tollite Massylas fraudes, removete bilingues
insidias et verba soli spirantia virus. 285
ne consanguineis certetur comminus armis,
ne, precor. haec trucibus Thebis, haec digna Mycenis;
in Mauros hoc crimen eat.
“Quid noster iniquum
molitur Stilicho? quando non ille iubenti
paruit? an quisquam nobis devinctior extat? 290
we condemn the treachery nor brook to entrust ourselves to such protection. ’Tis this sort that offers for purchase cities and their inhabitants, that sells its fatherland. Most make use of such for the moment but soon learn to hate them. ’Twas thus that Philip held the cities of Greece; liberty fell before the attack of Macedonian gold. Rome has ever despised the ministers of guilt. Fabricius, discovering the plot, sent back to King Pyrrhus the slave who had promised to mingle deadly poison for his lord; fierce war raged between them, but Fabricius refused to end it by means of the treachery of a slave. Camillus, too, gave back to the beleaguered city the boys brought to his camp from out the walls.
“These were consigned to punishment for seeking to put an end to wars. Is Gildo to live that he may kindle them? Takest thou such measures against thy brother as another would disdain to take against an enemy? O shame for unending ages! Gildo entrusts the governance of the south to whom he will; the great province of Africa obeys a tyrant’s whim. To whichever side his fickle mind inclines, he carries Libya over with him and malignantly subjects it to a rule shifting as the tide. Africa was the gift of the Moor. Away with the trickery of the Massyli, their treacherous wiles and their words that breathe forth the poison of their land. Let not brother wage war on brother, I pray. That were worthy of cruel Thebes and Mycenae; let that accusation be levelled against the Moors.
“What wrong is Stilicho devising? when did he fail in his obedience? than him what more loyal
ut sileam varios mecum quos gesserit actus,
quae vidi post fata, loquar. cum divus abirem,
res incompositas (fateor) tumidasque reliqui.
stringebat vetitos etiamnum exercitus enses
Alpinis odiis, alternaque iurgia victi 295
victoresque dabant. vix haec amentia nostris
excubiis, nedum puero rectore quiesset.
heu quantum timui vobis, quid libera tanti
militis auderet moles, cum patre remoto
ferveret iam laeta novis! dissensus acerbus 300
et gravior consensus erat. tunc ipse paterna
successit pietate mihi tenerumque rudemque
fovit et in veros eduxit principis annos,
Rufinumque tibi, quem tu tremuisse fateris,
depulit. hunc solum memorem solumque fidelem 305
experior. volui si quid, dum vita maneret,
aut visus voluisse, gerit; venerabilis illi
ceu praesens numenque vocor. si tanta recusas,
at soceri reverere faces, at respice fratris
conubium pignusque meae regale Serenae. 310
debueras etiam fraternis obvius ire
hostibus, ille tuis. quae gens, quis Rhenus et Hister
vos opibus iunctos conspirantesque tulisset?
sed tantum permitte, cadat. nil poscimus ultra.
ille licet sese praetentis Syrtibus armet 315
oppositoque Atlante tegat, licet arva referta
anguibus et solis medios obiecerit aestus:
supporter have we? I will not mention the various brave deeds he did while yet with me; of those only I will tell which I saw after my death. When I was raised to heaven disorder—I admit it—and tumult did I leave behind me. The army was still drawing the forbidden sword in that Alpine war, and conquerors and conquered gave alternate cause for dissension. Scarce could this madness have been calmed by my vigilance, much less by a boy’s rule. Ah, how I feared for you what the uncontrolled might of such vast armies might dare, when, your sire removed, there came the fevered delight in change! Dangerous was discord, more dangerous still unanimity. ’Twas then that Stilicho took my place in paternal love for thee, tended thine immature youth, and brought thee to the years and estate of an emperor. ’Twas he drove back Rufinus whom thou didst confess thou fearedst. Gratitude and loyalty I find in him alone. Did I want or seem to want aught, while yet I lived he accomplished it. Now I am dead he worships me as worthy of veneration and an ever present helper. If the thought of his goodness move thee not, at least show respect to thy brother’s father-in-law: bethink thee of Honorius’ marriage, the royal espousal of my niece Serena. Thou oughtest to face thy brother’s foes, he thine. Could any nation, could the combined forces of Rhine and Danube have stood against you twain allied? Enough! bring about but the defeat of Gildo: I ask nought else. Though he entrench himself behind the protecting Syrtes and rely for safety on the intervening ocean; though he think to be defended by reason of his serpent-infested country and the fierce
novi consilium, novi Stilichonis in omnes
aequalem casus animum: penetrabit harenas,
inveniet virtute viam.”
Sic divus et inde 320
sic natus: “iussis, genitor, parebitur ultro.
amplector praecepta libens, nec carior alter
cognato Stilichone mihi. commissa profanus
ille luat; redeat iam tutior Africa fratri.”
Talia dum longo secum sermone retexunt, 325
Hesperiam pervenit avus castumque cubile
ingreditur, Tyrio quo fusus Honorius ostro
carpebat teneros Maria cum coniuge somnos.
adsistit capiti; tunc sic per somnia fatur:
“Tantane devictos tenuit fiducia Mauros, 330
care nepos? iterum post me coniurat in arma
progenies vesana Iubae bellumque resumit
victoris cum stirpe sui? Firmumne iacentem
obliti Libyam nostro sudore receptam
rursus habent? ausus Latio contendere Gildo 335
germani nec fata timet? nunc ire profecto,
nunc vellem notosque senex ostendere vultus:
nonne meam fugiet Maurus cum viderit umbram?
quid dubitas? exsurge toris, invade rebellem,
captivum mihi redde meum. desiste morari. 340
hoc generi fatale tuo: dum sanguis in orbe
noster erit, semper pallebit regia Bocchi.
iungantur spoliis Firmi Gildonis opima;
sun’s mid-day heat, yet well I know Stilicho’s ingenuity—that mind of his equal to any emergency. He will force his way through the desert, his own greatness will lead him.”
Thus spake the dead emperor, whereon thus the son answered: “Right willingly, father, will I fulfil thy commands: ever ready am I to welcome thy behests. None is dearer to me than my kinsman Stilicho. Let the impious Gildo atone for his wrongs, and Africa be restored to my brother still safer than before.”
While father and son thus debated in long converse, Theodosius the grandfather made his way to Italy and entered the chaste bedchamber where on his couch of Tyrian purple Honorius lay in sweet sleep by the side of his wife Maria. At his head he stood and thus spake to him in a dream. “What rash confidence is this, dear grandson, that fills the conquered Moors? Does the mad race descended from Juba, the people whom I subdued, once more conspire to oppose Rome’s power and recommence the war with its conqueror’s grandson? Have they forgotten the defeat of Firmus[75]? Do they think to repossess Libya won back by the sweat of battle? Dares Gildo strive with Rome? Does he not fear his brother’s fate. Fain would I go myself, old though I be, and show him the face he knows but too well. Will not the Moor flee my very shade, should he behold it? Why delayest thou? Up from thy bed; attack the rebel; give me back my prisoner; waste no more time. ’Tis Fate’s gift to thy family. While yet the race of Theodosius treads the earth the palace of Bocchus shall go in fear. Let the spoils of Gildo be added to those of Firmus;
[75] Firmus, brother of Gildo, had, during the reign of Valentinian, risen against the oppressive government of Romanus, count of Africa, and had been defeated by Theodosius the elder.
exornet geminos Maurusia laurea currus:
una domus totiens una de gente triumphet. 345
di bene, quod tantis interlabentibus annis
servati Firmusque mihi fraterque nepoti.”
dixit et adflatus vicino sole refugit.
At iuvenem stimulis inmanibus aemula virtus
exacuit; iam puppe vehi, iam stagna secare 350
fervet et absentes invadere cuspide Mauros.
tum iubet acciri socerum dextramque vocato
conserit et, quae sit potior sententia, quaerit:
“Per somnos mihi, sancte pater, iam saepe futura
panduntur multaeque canunt praesagia noctes. 355
namque procul Libycos venatu cingere saltus
et iuga rimari canibus Gaetula videbar.
maerebat regio saevi vastata leonis
incursu; pecudum strages passimque iuvenci
semineces et adhuc infecta mapalia tabo 360
sparsaque sanguineis pastorum funera campis.
adgredior latebras monstri mirumque relatu
conspicio: dilapsus honos, cervice minaces
defluxere iubae; fractos inglorius armos
supposuit, servile gemens; iniectaque vincla 365
unguibus et subitae collo sonuere catenae.
nunc etiam paribus secum certare tropaeis
hortator me cogit avus. quonam usque remoti
cunctamur? decuit pridem complere biremes
et pelagi superare moras. transmittere primus 370
ipse paro; quaecumque meo gens barbara nutu
stringitur, adveniat: Germania cuncta feratur
let the bays of Mauretania deck chariots twain and one house triumph thus many times over one race. Thanks be to the gods who have interposed so many years between the sacrifice of Firmus to my arms and that of Firmus’ brother to those of my grandson.” He spake, then fled, as he felt the breath of the approaching dawn.
Then emulous courage roused the emperor with insistent goad. He burns to set sail, to cleave the main, to assail with the spear the distant Moors. So he summons his father-in-law[76] and clasping his hand asks what course of action he advises. “Full often, reverend sire, is the future revealed to me in dreams; many a night brings prophecy. Methought I surrounded in hunting the distant glades of Africa and scoured the Gaetulian mountains with my hounds. The district was distressed by reason of the incursions of a ravening lion. On all sides were slaughtered beasts and mangled heifers, and still their homesteads ran red with blood, and corpses of many a shepherd lay weltering in the bloody fields. I approached the beast’s cave and saw a sight wonderful to relate. Gone was that noble form, drooping on the neck the threatening mane; there he crouched, defeated, humbled, with slavish moans; fetters were upon his paws and a chain clanked of a sudden on his neck. Now, too, my grandsire eagerly urges me to rival his triumphs with my own. Why, he asked, did I delay and hesitate so long? Already my ships should have been manned and the sea’s threatened opposition overcome. I myself am ready to cross in the first vessel. Let every foreign nation that is bound beneath my rule come to our aid. Let all Germany be transported and
[76] i.e. Stilicho.
navibus et socia comitentur classe Sygambri.
pallida translatum iam sentiat Africa Rhenum. 374
an patiar tot probra sedens iuvenisque relinquam
quae tenui rexique puer? bis noster ad Alpes
alterius genitor defensum regna cucurrit.
nos praedae faciles insultandique iacemus?”
Finierat. Stilicho contra cui talia reddit:
“adversine tubam princeps dignabere Mauri? 380
auferet ignavus clari solacia leti.
te bellante mori? decernet Honorius inde,
hinc Gildo? prius astra Chaos miscebit Averno.
vindictam mandasse sat est; plus nominis horror
quam tuus ensis aget. minuit praesentia famam. 385
qui stetit aequatur campo, collataque nescit
maiestatem acies. sed quod magis utile factu
atque hosti gravius (sensus adverte) docebo
est illi patribus, sed non et moribus isdem
Mascezel, fugiens qui dira piacula fratris 390
spesque suas vitamque tuo commisit asylo.
hunc ubi temptatis frustra mactare nequivit
insidiis, patrias in pignora contulit iras
et, quos ipse sinu parvos gestaverat, una
occidit iuvenes inhumataque corpora vulgo 395
dispulit et tumulo cognatas arcuit umbras
naturamque simul fratremque hominemque cruentus
exuit et tenuem caesis invidit harenam.
hoc facinus refugo damnavit sole Mycenas
avertitque diem; sceleri sed reddidit Atreus 400
the Sygambri come with allied fleet. Let trembling Africa now have experience of the dwellers on Rhine’s banks. Or shall I sit here and submit to such disgrace? Shall I relinquish, now that I am a man, what I ruled and governed as a boy? Twice my father hurried to the Alps to defend another’s realm. Am I to be an easy prey, an object of scorn?”
He ended and Stilicho thus made answer: “Wilt thou, an emperor, deign to challenge a Moor to fight? Is that coward to have the consolation of death in battle at thy hand? Shall Honorius fight on our side and Gildo on the other? Ere that, chaos shall plunge the stars into Hell. ’Tis enough to command his punishment. Thy name shall strike greater terror into him than thy sword. Presence will minish awe; he who stands in the lists admits equality, and struggling hosts regard not majesty. Listen and I will tell thee something at once more profitable for thyself and of more effect against the enemy. Gildo has a brother of like descent but unlike in character, Mascezel, who, avoiding the evil courses of his brother, has entrusted his hopes and his life to thy keeping. When Gildo, after many vain attempts, found no means to kill Mascezel, he turned his anger from the father to the children and slew those whom himself had nursed as infants in his arms; then cast aside their unburied bodies and refused sepulchre to the shades of those that had been his kin. The bloody tyrant stifled all natural feelings, forgot he was a brother, forgot he was a man, and begrudged the slain a handful of dust. ’Twas a like deed brought its ill repute upon Mycenae, that put the sun to rout and turned back the day. But while Atreus paid back crime for crime and had excuse
crimen et infandas excusat coniuge mensas.
hic odium, non poena fuit. te perdita iura,
te pater ultorem, te nudi pulvere manes,
te pietas polluta rogat; si flentibus aram
et proprium miseris numen statuistis, Athenae, 405
si Pandionias planctu traxere phalanges
Inachides belloque rogos meruere maritis,
si maesto squalore comae lacrimisque senatum
in Numidas pulsus solio commovit Adherbal:
hunc quoque nunc Gildo, tanto quem funere mersit,
hunc doleat venisse ducem seseque minorem 411
supplicibus sciat esse tuis. quem sede fugavit,
hunc praeceps fugiat, fregit quem clade, tremiscat
agnoscatque suum, trahitur dum victima, fratrem.”
Haec ubi sederunt genero, notissima Marti 415
robora, praecipuos electa pube maniplos
disponit portuque rates instaurat Etrusco.
Herculeam suus Alcides Ioviamque cohortem
rex ducit superum, premitur nec signifer ullo
pondere: festinant adeo vexilla moveri. 420
Nervius insequitur meritusque vocabula Felix
dictaque ab Augusto legio nomenque probantes
invicti clipeoque animosi teste Leones.
Dictis ante tamen princeps confirmat ituros
for the bloody banquet in the unfaithfulness of his wife, Gildo’s motive was hatred, not vengeance. Violated rights, the sorrowing father, the unburied dead, the unnatural crime all call upon thee as avenger. If thou, Athens, didst dedicate an altar to the sorrowing and ordain to those that mourn a special deity, if the women of Argos won to their aid the Athenian phalanx by their tears and bought burial for their slain lords at the price of war;[77] if Adherbal, driven from his throne, roused the Senate against the Numidians by the sad appeal of unkempt locks and by his tears, then let Gildo be sorry that now this man also whom he has crushed by so many murders is come into the field against him, and let him learn that he must bow before thy suppliants. Let Gildo flee headlong before him whom he put to flight and fear him whom he o’erwhelmed with the murder of his children. As he is being dragged off to the slaughter let him recognize his brother’s hand.”
When this advice had been accepted by his son-in-law, Stilicho made ready for war the most famous regiments in the army, selecting therefrom special companies of picked men; he further prepared the fleet in the harbours of Etruria. Alcides himself commands the Herculean cohort; the king of the gods leads the Jovian. No standard-bearer feels the weight of his eagle, so readily do the very standards press forward. The Nervian cohort follows and the Felix, well deserving its name, the legion, too, named after Augustus, that well called The Un-conquered, and the brave regiment of the Lion[78] to whose name their shields bear witness.
But before they start the emperor, standing upon a platform of earth, heartens them with his words:
[77] A reference to the support given by Theseus, King of Athens, to Adrastus, King of Argos, when the Thebans had refused to allow the burial of the Argives slain at Thebes; cf. Eur. Supplices.
[78] Orosius (vii. 36. 6) says Mascezel only had 5000 men. The legion may have been leg. viii. Augusta. The other names are those of various numeri (the unit of the post-Diocletianic army).
aggere conspicuus; stat circumfusa iuventus 425
nixa hastis pronasque ferox accommodat aures:
“Gildonem domitura manus, promissa minasque
tempus agi. si quid pro me doluistis, in armis
ostentate mihi; iusto magnoque triumpho
civiles abolete notas; sciat orbis Eous 430
sitque palam Gallos causa, non robore vinci.
nec vos, barbariem quamvis collegerit omnem,
terreat. an Mauri fremitum raucosque repulsus
umbonum et vestros passuri comminus enses?
non contra clipeis tectos gladiisque micantes 435
ibitis: in solis longe fiducia telis.
exarmatus erit, cum missile torserit, hostis.
dextra movet iaculum, praetentat pallia laeva;
cetera nudus eques. sonipes ignarus habenae;
virga regit. non ulla fides, non agminis ordo: 440
arma oneri, fuga praesidio. conubia mille;
non illis generis nexus, non pignora curae:
sed numero languet pietas. haec copia vulgi.
umbratus dux ipse rosis et marcidus ibit
unguentis crudusque cibo titubansque Lyaeo, 445
confectus senio, morbis stuprisque solutus.
excitet incestos turmalis bucina somnos,
imploret citharas cantatricesque choreas
offensus stridore tubae discatque coactus,
quas vigilat Veneri, castris impendere noctes. 450
leaning upon their spears the soldiers throng around him and attune their ready ears to his inspiring voice. “My men, so soon to bring defeat upon Gildo, now is the time to fulfil your promises and make good your threats. If you felt indignation on my behalf, now take up arms and prove it. Wash out the stain of civil war by means of a great and deserved triumph. Let the empire of the East know, let it be plain to all the world, that Gaul can only owe defeat to the badness of a cause, not to her enemies’ strength.[79] Let not Gildo affright you though he have all barbary at his back. Shall Moors stand up against the shock of your clashing shields and the near threat of your swords? You shall not oppose men armed with shields or shining blades. These savages put their trust in javelins hurled from afar. Once he has discharged his missile the enemy will be disarmed. With his right hand he hurls his spear, with his left he holds his cloak before him; no other armour has the horseman. His steed knows not the rein; a whip controls it. Obedience and discipline are unknown in their ranks. Their arms are a burden to them, their salvation lies in flight. Though each has many wives, ties of family bind them not, nor have they any love for their children whose very number causes affection to fail. Such are the troops. The chief will come to battle crowned with roses, drenched with scents, his last feast still undigested; drunken with wine, foredone with eld, enervated with disease and venery. Let the war trumpet rouse him from a bed of incest, let him beg aid of lutes and choirs, for he likes not the clarion’s note, and let him learn (all unwilling) to spend in war nights that he now dedicates to love.
[79] He appeals to the Gallic element of the army to atone for its previous support of Maximus and Eugenius.
“Nonne mori satius, vitae quam ferre pudorem?
nam quae iam regio restat, si dedita Mauris
regibus Illyricis accesserit Africa damnis?
ins Latium, quod tunc Meroë Rubroque solebat
Oceano cingi, Tyrrhena clauditur unda; 455
et cui non Nilus, non intulit India metas,
Romani iam finis erit Trinacria regni.
ite recepturi, praedo quem sustulit, axem
ereptumque Notum; caput insuperabile rerum
aut ruet in vestris aut stabit Roma lacertis. 460
tot mihi debetis populos, tot rura, tot urbes
amissas. uno Libyam defendite bello.
vestros imperium remos et vestra sequatur
carbasa. despectas trans aequora ducite leges.
tertia iam solito cervix mucrone rotetur 465
tandem funereis finem positura tyrannis.”
Omina conveniunt dicto fulvusque Tonantis
armiger a liquida cunctis spectantibus aethra
correptum pedibus curvis innexuit hydrum,
dumque reluctantem morsu partitur obunco, 470
haesit in ungue caput; truncatus decidit anguis.
ilicet auguriis alacres per saxa citati
torrentesque ruunt; nec mons aut silva retardat:
pendula ceu parvis moturae bella colonis
ingenti clangore grues aestiva relinquunt 475
Thracia, cum tepido permutant Strymona Nilo:
ordinibus variis per nubila texitur ales
littera pennarumque notis conscribitur aër.
Ut fluctus tetigere maris, tunc acrior arsit
“Is not death preferable to a life disgraced? If, in addition to the loss of Illyria, Africa is to be surrendered to Moorish kings, what lands still remain to us? The empire of Italy, once bounded by the Nile and the Red Sea, is limited to-day by the sea of Tuscany; shall Sicily now be the most distant province of Roman rule, to which in days of old neither Egypt nor India set an end? Go: win back that southern realm a rebel has reft from me. It depends on your arms whether Rome, the unconquerable mistress of the world, stands or falls. You owe me so many peoples, countries, cities lost. Fight but one battle in defence of Libya. Let empire restored attend on your oars and sails. Give back to Africa the laws of Rome she now disregards. Let history repeat itself, and the sword smite from its trunk the head of this third tyrant[80] and so end at last the series of bloody usurpers.”
An omen confirms his word and before the eyes of all, the tawny bird, armour-bearer of Jove, swoops down from the open sky and seizes a snake in his curved talons; and while the eagle tears his struggling prey with his hooked beak, his claws are embedded in its head. The severed body falls to earth. Straightway the soldiers come hurrying up, crossing rocks and streams in their eagerness at the call of this portent. Neither mountains nor woods delay them. Even as the cranes leave their summer home of Thrace clamorously to join issue in doubtful war with the Pygmies, when they desert the Strymon for warm-watered Nile, the letter[81] traced by the speeding line stands out against the clouds and the heaven is stamped with the figure of their flight.
When they reached the coast still fiercer blazed
[80] The other two being Maximus and Eugenius.
[81] i.e. the Greek Λ.
impetus; adripiunt naves ipsique rudentes 480
expediunt et vela legunt et cornua summis
adsociant malis; quatitur Tyrrhena tumultu
ora nec Alpheae capiunt navalia Pisae:
sic Agamemnoniam vindex cum Graecia classem
solveret, innumeris fervebat vocibus Aulis. 485
non illos strepitus impendentisque procellae
signa nec adventus dubii deterruit Austri.
“vellite” proclamant “socii, iam vellite funem.
per vada Gildonem quamvis adversa petamus.
ad bellum nos trudat hiems per devia ponti. 490
quassatis cupio tellurem figere rostris.
heu nimium segnes, cauta qui mente notatis,
si revolant mergi, graditur si litore cornix.
ora licet maculis adsperserit occiduus sol
lunaque conceptis livescat turgida Cauris 495
et contusa vagos iaculentur sidera crines;
imbribus umescant Haedi nimbosaque Taurum
ducat Hyas totusque fretis descendat Orion:
certa fides caeli, sed maior Honorius auctor;
illius auspiciis inmensa per aequora miles, 500
non Plaustris Arctove regor. contemne Booten,
navita, turbinibus mediis permitte carinas.
si mihi tempestas Libyam ventique negabunt,
Augusti Fortuna dabit.”
Iam classis in altum
provehitur; dextra Ligures, Etruria laeva 505
linquitur et caecis vitatur Corsica saxis.
humanae specie plantae se magna figurat
insula (Sardiniam veteres dixere coloni),
dives ager frugum, Poenos Italosve petenti
their enthusiasm. They seize upon the ships and themselves make ready the hawsers; furl the sails and fix the yards to the masts. Etruria’s shore is shaken with their uproar and Arcadian-founded Pisa cannot contain so great a number of ships. So Aulis rang with countless voices what time avenging Greece loosed the cables of Agamemnon’s fleet. No storm-blast deterred them nor threat of coming tempest nor the presence of the treacherous south wind. “Seize the rope, fellow-soldiers,” they cry, “seize the rope: let us sail against Gildo though the very seas be against us. Let the storm drive us to battle by how crooked so ever a course. Fain would I seize upon that shore though my ships’ beaks be shattered. Cowards ye, who cautiously observe whether or no the sea-gulls fly back or the crow pace the beach. What if clouds fleck the face of the setting sun or a stormy moon wear the halo that betokens hurricane? What if comets wave their spreading tails, or the constellation of the Kids threatens rain, or the cloudy Hyades lead forth the Bull and all Orion sink ’neath the waves? Put your trust in the sky, but put more in Honorius. Beneath his auspices I, his soldier, range the boundless seas nor look to the Plough or the Bear to guide me. Make no account of Boötes, sailor; launch your bark in mid tempest. If winds and storms deny me Libya, my emperor’s fortune will grant it.”
The fleet is launched. They pass Liguria on their right hand, Etruria on their left, avoiding the sunken reefs of Corsica. There lies an island formed like a human foot (Sardinia its former inhabitants called it), an island rich in the produce of its fields, and conveniently situated for them who sail either to
opportuna situ: quae pars vicinior Afris, 510
plana solo, ratibus clemens; quae respicit Arcton,
inmitis, scopulosa, procax subitisque sonora
flatibus; insanos infamat navita montes.
hic hominum pecudumque lues, sic[82] pestifer aër
saevit et exclusis regnant Aquilonibus Austri. 515
Quos ubi luctatis procul effugere carinis,
per diversa ruunt sinuosae litora terrae.
pars adit antiqua ductos Carthagine Sulcos;
partem litoreo complectitur Olbia muro.
urbs Libyam contra Tyrio fundata potenti 520
tenditur in longum Caralis tenuemque per undas
obvia dimittit fracturum flamina collem;
efficitur portus medium mare, tutaque ventis
omnibus ingenti mansuescunt stagna recessu.
hanc omni petiere manu prorisque reductis 525
suspensa Zephyros expectant classe faventes.
[82] Birt, following the MSS., si. Older editions huic … huic. I print sic.
Africa or Italy. The part that faces Africa is flat and affords good anchorage for ships; the northern shore is inhospitable, rock-bound, stormy, and loud with sudden gales. The sailor curses these wild cliffs. Here the pestilence falls on men and beasts, so plague-ridden and deadly is the air, so omnipotent the South wind and the North winds banished.
When their much buffeted vessels had given a wide berth to these dangers, they came to land at different places on the broken coast-line. Some are beached at Sulci, a city founded by Carthage of old. The sea-wall of Olbia shelters others. The city of Caralis over against the coast of Libya, a colony of great Phoenician Carthage, juts out into the sea and extends into the waves, a little promontory that breaks the force of the opposing winds. Thus in the midst a harbour is found and in a huge bay the quiet waters lie safe from every wind. For this harbour they make with every effort, and reversing their vessels they await the favouring breezes of the west wind with fleet at anchor.[83]
[83] This poem was never properly finished; see Introduction, p. xi.
IN EUTROPIUM
LIBER I
(XVIII.)
Semiferos partus metuendaque pignora matri
moenibus et mediis auditum nocte luporum
murmur et attonito pecudes pastore locutas
et lapidum duras hiemes nimboque minacem
sanguineo rubuisse Iovem puteosque cruore 5
mutatos visasque polo concurrere lunas
et geminos soles mirari desinat orbis:
omnia cesserunt eunucho consule monstra.
heu terrae caelique pudor! trabeata per urbes
ostentatur anus titulumque effeminat anni. 10
pandite pontifices Cumanae carmina vatis,
fulmineos sollers Etruria consulat ignes
inmersumque nefas fibris exploret haruspex,
quae nova portendant superi. Nilusne meatu
devius et nostri temptat iam transfuga mundi 15
se Rubro miscere mari? ruptone Niphate
rursum barbaricis Oriens vastabitur armis?
an morbi ventura lues? an nulla colono
responsura seges? quae tantas expiet iras
victima? quo diras iugulo placabimus aras? 20