ingentes generant discrimina magna triumphos. 295
“Quid turpes iam mente fugas, quid Gallica rura
this crisis he showed himself by his courage at once general and seer. “A little patience,” said he; “away with womanly repinings: let us bear with fortitude whatever fate lays upon us. What good do the sailors’ cries do to the storm-driven vessel? Neither waves nor winds will abate their fury for coward tears or useless prayer. Now for the general safety it befits us to use every effort, to struggle with all our strength—to attend to the sails, work the pumps, manage the various ropes, and obey every order of the skilful captain. Because the Getae have broken through, seizing by treachery the hour for striking home, what time Raetia claimed our attention and our regiments were busied with another war—not for that is all hope lost. Marvel indeed I might, if by some new guile, some discovered path, the barbarian ignorantly marched over the unexplored Alps; now, however, the successive defeats of the two tyrants[53] have made the road notorious, nor has the foeman missed the well-known track that was built for him by our civil strife. They have come a well-known way and Roman discord has opened the approach to barbaric war.
“Past generations have known a like fate. Full often, we know, has Italy been attacked—but never without the enemy’s paying dear. With their own blood did our country extinguish the fires lit by the Senones and, once the victim of a German invasion, she soon saw the squalid necks of Teutons and Cimbri loaded with the chains of captivity. Of little value is that glory whose worth has not been augmented by previous hardship; ’tis great dangers that beget great triumphs.
“Do you meditate shameful flight and fix your
[53] Maximus and Eugenius.
respicitis Latioque libet post terga relicto
longinquum profugis Ararim praecingere castris?