Plac. I wish our fame that swift success may find; But conquests, sir, are easily designed. However soft within themselves they are, To you they will be valiant by despair: For, having once been guilty, well they know, To a revengeful prince they still are so.
Alb. 'Tis true, that, since the senate's succours came, They grow more bold.
Max. That senate's but a name: Or they are pageant princes which they make; That power they give away, they would partake. Two equal powers two different ways will draw, While each may check, and give the other law. True, they secure propriety and peace; But are not fit an empire to increase. When they should aid their prince, the slaves dispute; And fear success should make him absolute. They let foes conquer, to secure the state, And lend a sword, whose edge themselves rebate.
Char. When to increase the gods you late are gone, I'll swiftly chuse to die, or reign alone: But these half kings our courage cannot fright; The thrifty state will bargain ere they fight: Give just so much for every victory, And rather lose a fight than overbuy.
Max. Since all delays are dangerous in war, Your men, Albinus, for assault prepare; Crispinus and Meniphilus, I hear, Two consulars, these Aquileians cheer; By whom they may, if we protract the time, Be taught the courage to defend their crime.
Plac. Put off the assault but only for this day: No loss can come by such a small delay.
Char. We are not sure to-morrow will be ours: Wars have, like love, their favourable hours. Let us use all; for if we lose one day, That white one, in the crowd, may slip away.
Max. Fate's dark recesses we can never find; But fortune, at some hours, to all is kind: The lucky have whole days, which still they chuse; The unlucky have but hours, and those they lose.
Plac. I have consulted one, who reads heaven's doom, And sees, as present, things which are to come. 'Tis that Nigrinus, made by your command A tribune in the new Pannonian band. Him have I seen (on Ister's banks he stood, Where last we wintered), bind the headlong flood In sudden ice; and, where most swift it flows, In crystal nets the wond'ring fishes close. Then, with a moment's thaw, the streams enlarge, And from the mesh the twinkling guests discharge. In a deep vale, or near some ruined wall, He would the ghosts of slaughtered soldiers call; Who slow to wounded bodies did repair, And, loth to enter, shivered in the air; These his dread wand did to short life compel, And forced the fates of battles to foretel.
Max. 'Tis wonderous strange! But, good Placidius, say, What prophecies Nigrinus of this day?