livor et ingesto turbavit gaudia luctu:
iamiam suppliciis fessos humilesque serenus
respice. quid tanta dignaris mole clientem?
in brevibus numquam sese probat Aeolus undis, 35
nec capit angustus Boreae certamina collis:
Alpes ille quatit, Rhodopeia culmina lassat.
incubuit numquam caelestis flamma salictis
been too severe; spare a fallen foe. Behold me; I confess my faults and ask pardon for my sin.
Fierce Achilles showed mercy to the shade of Hector, Orestes appeased his mother’s avenging furies, Hercules restored to Priam the cities which he had taken. A king’s overthrow won the pity of Pella’s youthful monarch, who wept, men say, for the death of Darius at a slave’s hand, and consoled his ghost with a lofty mausoleum. To captive Porus Alexander gave back an ampler kingdom. ’Twas thus the founder of our country[74] spared his conquered foes. Thine own nobility demands that thou shouldst follow his example. If it is one of the gods that I have insulted let him send down punishment upon me and sate his anger.