Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars. Lucan

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       To know or not to know; secluded groves

       Your dwelling-place, and forests far remote.

       If what ye sing be true, the shades of men

       Seek not the dismal homes of Erebus

       Or death's pale kingdoms; but the breath of life

       Still rules these bodies in another age —

       Life on this hand and that, and death between.

       Happy the peoples 'neath the Northern Star

       In this their false belief; for them no fear

       Of that which frights all others: they with hands

       And hearts undaunted rush upon the foe

       And scorn to spare the life that shall return.

       Ye too depart who kept the banks of Rhine

       Safe from the foe, and leave the Teuton tribes

       Free at their will to march upon the world.

      Caesar, with strength increased and gathered troops

       New efforts daring, spreads his bands afar

       Through Italy, and fills the neighbouring towns.

       Then empty rumour to well-grounded fear

       Gave strength, and heralding the coming war

       In hundred voices 'midst the people spread.

       One cries in terror, "Swift the squadrons come

       Where Nar with Tiber joins: and where, in meads

       By oxen loved, Mevania spreads her walls,

       Fierce Caesar hurries his barbarian horse.

       Eagles and standards wave above his head,

       And broad the march that sweeps across the land."

       Nor is he pictured truly; greater far

       More fierce and pitiless — from conquered foes

       Advancing; in his rear the peoples march.

       Snatched from their homes between the Rhine and Alps,

       To pillage Rome while Roman chiefs look on.

       Thus each man's panic thought swells rumour's lie:

       They fear the phantoms they themselves create.

       Nor does the terror seize the crowd alone:

       But fled the Fathers, to the Consuls (20) first

       Issuing their hated order, as for war;

       And doubting of their safety, doubting too

       Where lay the peril, through the choking gates,

       Each where he would, rushed all the people forth.

       Thou would'st believe that blazing to the torch

       Were men's abodes, or nodding to their fall.

       So streamed they onwards, frenzied with affright,

       As though in exile only could they find

       Hope for their country. So, when southern blasts

       From Libyan whirlpools drive the boundless main,

       And mast and sail crash down upon a ship

       With ponderous weight, but still the frame is sound,

       Her crew and captain leap into the sea,

       Each making shipwreck for himself. 'Twas thus

       They passed the city gates and fled to war.

       No aged parent now could stay his son;

       Nor wife her spouse, nor did they pray the gods

       To grant the safety of their fatherland.

       None linger on the threshold for a look

       Of their loved city, though perchance the last.

      Ye gods, who lavish priceless gifts on men,

       Nor care to guard them, see victorious Rome

       Teeming with life, chief city of the world,

       With ample walls that all mankind might hold,

       To coming Caesar left an easy prey.

       The Roman soldier, when in foreign lands

       Pressed by the enemy, in narrow trench

       And hurried mound finds guard enough to make

       His slumber safe; but thou, imperial Rome,

       Alone on rumour of advancing foes

       Art left a desert, and thy battlements

       They trust not for one night. Yet for their fear

       This one excuse was left; Pompeius fled.

       Nor found they room for hope; for nature gave

       Unerring portents of worse ills to come.

       The angry gods filled earth and air and sea

       With frequent prodigies; in darkest nights

       Strange constellations sparkled through the gloom:

       The pole was all afire, and torches flew

       Across the depths of heaven; with horrid hair

       A blazing comet stretched from east to west

       And threatened change to kingdoms. From the blue

       Pale lightning flashed, and in the murky air

       The fire took divers shapes; a lance afar

       Would seem to quiver or a misty torch;

       A noiseless thunderbolt from cloudless sky

       Rushed down, and drawing fire in northern parts

       Plunged on the summit of the Alban mount.

       The stars that run their courses in the night

       Shone in full daylight; and the orbed moon,

       Hid by the shade of earth, grew pale and wan.

       The sun himself, when poised in mid career,

       Shrouded СКАЧАТЬ