Nec patitur conferre fretum: si terra recedat,
Ionium Aegaeo frangat mare: sic, ubi saeva
Arma ducum dirimens miserando funere Crassus
Assyrias Latio maculavit sanguine Carrhas,
Parthica Romanos solverunt damna furores.
Plus illa vobis acie quam creditis actum est,
Arsacidae: bellum victis civile dedistis.
Lucan, Pharsalia, i. 98-108.
98 Temporis . . . discors = the short-lived concord endured, but it was a jarring (discors) concord.—Haskins.
101 Isthmos, sc. of Corinth: Caesar planned to cut it, and thus to secure a direct route by sea, connecting Italy and the East.