The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Paradise, Complete. Dante Alighieri

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       Lavinia's spouse, was leader of the flight,

       A hundred years twice told and more, his seat

       At Europe's extreme point, the bird of Jove

       Held, near the mountains, whence he issued first.

       There, under shadow of his sacred plumes

       Swaying the world, till through successive hands

       To mine he came devolv'd. Caesar I was,

       And am Justinian; destin'd by the will

       Of that prime love, whose influence I feel,

       From vain excess to clear th' encumber'd laws.

       Or ere that work engag'd me, I did hold

       Christ's nature merely human, with such faith

       Contented. But the blessed Agapete,

       Who was chief shepherd, he with warning voice

       To the true faith recall'd me. I believ'd

       His words: and what he taught, now plainly see,

       As thou in every contradiction seest

       The true and false oppos'd. Soon as my feet

       Were to the church reclaim'd, to my great task,

       By inspiration of God's grace impell'd,

       I gave me wholly, and consign'd mine arms

       To Belisarius, with whom heaven's right hand

       Was link'd in such conjointment, 't was a sign

       That I should rest. To thy first question thus

       I shape mine answer, which were ended here,

       But that its tendency doth prompt perforce

       To some addition; that thou well, mayst mark

       What reason on each side they have to plead,

       By whom that holiest banner is withstood,

       Both who pretend its power and who oppose.

       "Beginning from that hour, when Pallas died

       To give it rule, behold the valorous deeds

       Have made it worthy reverence. Not unknown

       To thee, how for three hundred years and more

       It dwelt in Alba, up to those fell lists

       Where for its sake were met the rival three;

       Nor aught unknown to thee, which it achiev'd

       Down to the Sabines' wrong to Lucrece' woe,

       With its sev'n kings conqu'ring the nation round;

       Nor all it wrought, by Roman worthies home

       'Gainst Brennus and th' Epirot prince, and hosts

       Of single chiefs, or states in league combin'd

       Of social warfare; hence Torquatus stern,

       And Quintius nam'd of his neglected locks,

       The Decii, and the Fabii hence acquir'd

       Their fame, which I with duteous zeal embalm.

       By it the pride of Arab hordes was quell'd,

       When they led on by Hannibal o'erpass'd

       The Alpine rocks, whence glide thy currents, Po!

       Beneath its guidance, in their prime of days

       Scipio and Pompey triumph'd; and that hill,

       Under whose summit thou didst see the light,

       Rued its stern bearing. After, near the hour,

       When heav'n was minded that o'er all the world

       His own deep calm should brood, to Caesar's hand

       Did Rome consign it; and what then it wrought

       From Var unto the Rhine, saw Isere's flood,

       Saw Loire and Seine, and every vale, that fills

       The torrent Rhone. What after that it wrought,

       When from Ravenna it came forth, and leap'd

       The Rubicon, was of so bold a flight,

       That tongue nor pen may follow it. Tow'rds Spain

       It wheel'd its bands, then tow'rd Dyrrachium smote,

       And on Pharsalia with so fierce a plunge,

       E'en the warm Nile was conscious to the pang;

       Its native shores Antandros, and the streams

       Of Simois revisited, and there

       Where Hector lies; then ill for Ptolemy

       His pennons shook again; lightning thence fell

       On Juba; and the next upon your west,

       At sound of the Pompeian trump, return'd.