WHEN Caesar, following those who bore the head,
First trod the shore accursed, with
Egypt
's fates
His fortunes battled, whether
Rome
should pass
In crimson conquest o'er the guilty land,
Or
Memphis
' arms should ravish from the world
Victor and vanquished: and the warning shade
Of Magnus saved his kinsman from the sword.
By that dread crime assured, his standards borne
Before, he marched upon the Pharian town;
But when the people, jealous of their laws,
Murmured against the fasces, Caesar knew
Their minds were adverse, and that not for him
Was Magnus' murder wrought. And yet with brow
Dissembling fear, intrepid, through the shrines
Of
Egypt
's gods he strode, and round the fane
Of ancient Isis; bearing witness all
To
Macedon
's vigour in the days of old.
Yet did nor gold nor ornament restrain
His hasting steps, nor worship of the gods,
Nor city ramparts: but in greed of gain
He sought the cave dug out amid the tombs.
1
The madman offspring there of Philip lies,
The famed Pellaean robber, Fortune's friend,
Snatched off by fate, in vengeance for the world.
In sacred sepulchre the hero's limbs,
Which should be scattered o'er the earth, repose,
Still spared by Fortune to these tyrant days:
For in a world to freedom once recalled,
All men had mocked the dust of him who set
The baneful lesson that so many lands
Can serve one master.
Macedon
he left
His home obscure; Athena he despised,
The conquest of his sire, and spurred by fate
Through
Asia
rushed with havoc of mankind,
Plunging his sword through peoples; red with blood
Curse of all earth, fell star of evil fate
To every nation! On the outer sea
He launched his fleet to sail the ocean wave:
Nor flame nor flood nor sterile Libyan sands
Stayed back his course, nor Hammon's pathless shoals;
Far to the west, where downward slopes the world
He would have led his armies, and the poles
Had compassed, and had drunk the fount of
Nile
:
But came his latest day; such end alone
Could nature place upon the madman king,
Who jealous in death as when he won the world
His empire with him took, nor left an heir.
Thus every city to the spoiler's hand
Was victim made. Yet in his fall was his
That Eastern nations dreaded more the lance
Of
Macedon
than now the Roman spear.
True that we rule beyond where takes its rise
The burning southern breeze, beyond the homes
Of western winds, and to the northern star;
But towards the rising of the sun, we yield
To him who kept the Arsacids in awe;
And puny
Pella
held as province sure
The
Parthia
fatal to our Roman arms.
Now from the stream Pelusian of the
Nile
,
Was come the boyish king, taming the rage
Of his effeminate people: pledge of peace;
And Caesar safely trod Pellean halls;
When Cleopatra bribed her guard to break
The harbour chains, and borne in little boat
Within the Macedonian palace gates,
Caesar unknowing, entered:
Egypt
's shame;
Unchaste. For as the Spartan queen of yore
By fatal beauty
Argos
urged to strife
And
Ilium
's homes, so Cleopatra roused
Down on the Capitol terror (if to speak
Such word be lawful); mixed with Roman arms
Coward
Canopus
, hoping she might lead
A Pharian triumph, Caesar in her train;
And 'twas in doubt upon Leucadian
4
waves
Whether a woman, not of Roman blood,
Should hold the world in awe. Such lofty thoughts
Seized on her soul upon that night in which
The wanton daughter of Pellean kings
First shared our leaders' couches. Who shall blame
Antonius for the madness of his love,
When Caesar's haughty breast drew in the flame?
Who red with carnage, 'mid the clash of arms,
In palace haunted by Pompeius' shade,
Gave place to love; and in adulterous bed,
Magnus forgotten, from the Queen impure,
To Julia gave a brother: on the bounds
Of furthest
Libya
permitting thus
His foe to gather: while in dalliance base
He waited on his mistress, and to her
Pharos would give; for her would conquer all.
Then Cleopatra, trusting to her charms,
Tearless approached him, though in form of grief;
Her tresses loose as though in sorrow torn,
So best becoming her; and thus began:
'If, mighty Caesar, aught to noble birth
' Be due, give ear. Of Lagian race am I
' Offspring illustrious; from my father's throne
'Cast forth to banishment; unless thy hand
'Restore to me the sceptre: then a Queen
' Falls at thy feet embracing. To our race
' Bright star of justice thou Nor first shall I
' As woman rule the cities of the
Nile
;
' For, neither sex preferring, Pharos bows
'To queenly governance. Of my parted sire
' Read the last words, by which 'tis mine to share
' With equal rights the kingdom and the bed.
'And the boy loves his sister, were he free;
' But his affections and his sword alike
' Pothinus orders. Nor wish I myself
' To wield my father's power; but this my prayer:
' Save from this foul disgrace our royal house,
' Bid that the king shall reign, and from the court
'Remove this hateful varlet, and his arms.
'How swells his bosom for that his the hand
'That shore Pompeius' head! And now he threats
Thee, Caesar, also; which the Fates avert!
Shame on the earth and thee that Magnus' death
Should be Pothinus' triumph or his guilt.'
Her words were nothing to his stubborn ear;
Her face achieved the prayer, her wanton smile,
The long voluptuous night of shame untold:
So did she bribe her judge; so Caesar fell.
107
When she had purchased at so vast a price
Peace from the chief,
5
the joys of such a peace
A feast proclaimed. There in full pomp the Queen
Displayed her luxuries, as yet unknown
To Roman manners. Spacious rose the hall
Like to such fane as this corrupted age
Shall scarcely rear: the lofty ceiling shone
With richest tracery, the beams were bound
In golden coverings; no scant veneer
Lay on its walls, but built in solid blocks
Of marble, gleamed the palace. Agate stood
In sturdy columns, bearing up the roof;
Onyx and porphyry on the spacious floor
Were trodden 'neath the foot; the mighty gates
Of Maroe's ebony throughout were formed,
No mere adornment; ivory clothed the hall,
Studded with emerald spots; upon the doors
Gleamed polished tortoise shells from Indian seas:
And gems of price and yellow jasper shone
On couch and coverlet, whose greater part
Dipped more than once within the vats of
Tyre
Had drunk their juice; and part were feathered gold;
Part crimson dyed, in manner as are passed
Through Pharian leash the threads. There waited slaves
In number as a people, some in ranks
By different blood distinguished, some by age;
This band with Libyan, that with auburn hair
Red so that Caesar on the banks of
Rhine
None such had witnessed; some with features scorched
By torrid suns, their locks in twisted coils
Drawn from their foreheads. Eunuchs too were there,
Unhappy race; and on the other side
Men of full age whose cheeks with growth of hair
Were hardly darkened.
Upon either hand
Lay kings, and Caesar in the midst supreme.
There in her fatal beauty lay the Queen
Thick daubed with unguents, nor with throne content
Nor with her brother spouse; laden she lay
On neck and hair with all the
Red Sea
spoils,
And faint beneath the weight of gems and gold.
Her snowy breast shone through Sidonian lawn
Which woven close by shuttles of the East
The art of
Nile
had loosened. Ivory feet
Bore citron tables brought from woods that wave
6
On Atlas, such as Caesar never saw
When Juba was his captive. Blind in soul
By madness of ambition, thus to fire
By such profusion of her wealth, the mind
Of Caesar armed, her guest in civil war!
Not though he aimed with pitiless hand to grasp
The riches of a world; not though were here
Those ancient leaders of the simple age,
Fabricius or Curius stern of soul,
Or he who, Consul, left in sordid garb
His Tuscan plough, could all their several hopes
Have risen to such spoil. On plates of gold
They piled the banquet sought in earth and air
And from the deepest seas and Nilus' waves,
Through all the world; in craving for display,
No hunger urging. Frequent birds and beasts,
Egypt
's high gods, they placed upon the board:
In crystal goblets water of the
Nile
They handed, and in massive cups of price
Was poured the wine; no juice of Mareot grape,
7
But noble vintage of Falernian growth
Which seasons few in
Meroe
's famous vats
Had mellowed as with age. Upon their brows
Chaplets were placed of roses ever young
With glistening nard entwined; and in their locks
Was cinnamon infused, not yet in air
Its fragrance perished, nor in foreign climes;
And rich amomum from the neighbouring fields.
Thus Caesar learned the booty of a world
To lavish, and his breast was shamed of war
Waged with his son-in-law, from whose defeat
His spoils were meagre, and he longed to find
A cause of battle with the Pharian realm.
When of the banquet and of wine and feast
They wearied and their pleasure found an end,
Caesar drew out in colloquy the night
Thus with Achoreus, on the highest couch
With linen ephod as a priest begirt:
'O thou devoted to all sacred rites,
'Loved by the gods, as proves thy length of days,
'Tell, if thou wilt, whence sprang the Pharian race;
'How lie their lands, the manners of their tribes,
'The form and worship of their deities.
'Expound the sculptures on your ancient fanes:
'Reveal your gods if willing to be known:
'If to th' Athenian sage your fathers taught
'Their mysteries, who worthier than I
' To bear in trust the secrets of the world?
' True, by the rumour of my kinsman's flight
' Here was I drawn; yet also by your fame:
' And even in the midst of war's alarms
' The stars and heavenly spaces have I conned;
'Nor shall Eudoxus' year
8
excel mine own.
' But though such ardour burns within my breast,
' Such zeal to know the truth, yet my chief wish
' To learn the source of your mysterious flood
' Through ages hidden : give me certain hope
' To see the fount of Nile-and civil war
' I quit for ever.' He spake, and then the priest:
194
' The secrets, Caesar, of our mighty sires
9
' Kept from the common people until now
' I hold it right to utter. Some may deem
' That silence on these wonders of the earth
' Were greater piety. But to the gods
' I hold it grateful that their handiwork
' And sacred edicts should be known to men.
' A different power by the primal law,
' Each star possesses:
10
these alone control
' The movement of the sky, with adverse force
' Opposing: while the sun divides the year,
' And day from night, and by his potent rays
' Forbids the stars to pass their stated course.
' The moon by her alternate phases sets
' The varying limits of the sea and shore.
' Neath Saturn's sway the zone of ice and snow
' Has passed; while Mars in lightning's fitful flames
' And winds abounds: beneath high
Jupiter
' Unvexed by storms abides a temperate air;
' And fruitful Venus' star contains the seeds
' Of all things. Ruler of the boundless deep
' The god
11
Cyllenian : whene'er he holds
' That part of heaven where the Lion dwells
' With neighbouring Cancer joined, and Sirius star
' Flames in its fury; where the circular path
' (Which marks the changes of the varying year)
' Gives to hot Cancer and to Capricorn
' Their several stations, under which doth lie
' The fount of
Nile
, he, master of the waves,
' Strikes with his beam the waters. Forth the stream
' Brims from his fount, as Ocean when the moon
' Commands an increase; nor shall curb his flow
' Till night wins back her losses from the sun.
12
' Vain is the ancient faith that Ethiop snows
13
' Send
Nile
abundant forth upon the lands.
' Those mountains know nor northern wind nor star.
' Of this are proof the breezes of the South,
' Fraught with warm vapours, and the people's hue
' Burned dark by suns: and 'tis in time of spring,
' When first are thawed the snows, that ice-fed streams
' In swollen torrents tumble; but the
Nile
' Nor lifts his wave before the Dog star burns;
' Nor seeks again his banks, until the sun
' In equal balance measures night and day.
' Nor are the laws that govern other streams
' Obeyed by Nile. For in the wintry year
'Were he in flood, when distant far the sun,
' His waters lacked their office; but he leaves
' His channel when the summer is at height,
' Tempering the torrid heat of
Egypt
's clime.
' Such is the task of
Nile
; thus in the world
' He finds his purpose, lest exceeding heat
' Consume the lands: and rising thus to meet
' Enkindled Lion, to
Syene
's prayers
' By Cancer burnt gives ear; nor curbs his wave
' Till the slant sun and
Meroe
's lengthening shades
' Proclaim the autumn. Who shall give the cause?
' 'Twas Parent Nature's self which gave command
' Thus for the needs of earth should flow the
Nile
.
' Vain too the fable that the western winds
14
' Control his current, in continuous course
' At stated seasons governing the air;
' Or hurrying from Occident to South
' Clouds without number which in misty folds
' Press on the waters; or by constant blast,
' Forcing his current back whose several mouths
' Burst on the sea;-so, forced by seas and wind,
'Men say, his billows pour upon the land.
' Some speak of hollow caverns, breathing holes
' Deep in the earth, within whose mighty jaws
' Waters in noiseless current underneath
' From northern cold to southern climes are drawn;
'And when hot
Meroe
pants beneath the sun,
' Then, say they, Ganges through the silent depths
' And Padus pass: and from a single fount
' The
Nile
arising not in single streams
' Pours all the rivers forth. And rumour says
' That when the sea which girdles in the world
15
' O'erflows, thence rushes
Nile
, by lengthy course,
' Softening his saltness. More, if it be true
' That ocean feeds the sun and heavenly fires,
' Then Phoebus journeying by the burning Crab
' Sucks from its waters more than air can hold
' Upon his passage-this the cool of night
' Pours on the
Nile
. If, Caesar, 'tis my part
' To judge such difference, 'twould seem that since
' Creation's age has passed, earth's veins by chance
' Some waters hold, and shaken cast them forth:
' But others took when first the globe was formed
' A sure abode; by Him who framed the world
' Fixed with the Universe. And, Roman, thou,
' In thirsting thus to know the source of Nile,
' Dost as the Pharian and Persian kings
' And those of
Macedon
; nor any age
' Refused the secret, but the place prevailed
' Remote by nature. Greatest of the kings
' By Memphis worshipped, Alexander grudged
16
' To Nile its mystery, and to furthest earth
' Sent chosen Ethiops whom the crimson zone
' Stayed in their further march, while flowed his stream
' Warm at their feet. Sesostris
17
westward far
' Reached, to the ends of earth; and necks of kings
' Bent 'neath his chariot yoke: but of the springs
' Which fill your rivers,
Rhone
and Po, he drank,
'Not of the fount of
Nile
. Cambyses king
'In madman quest led forth his host to where
'The long-lived races dwell: then famine struck,
No lying rumour of thy hidden source
'Has e'er made mention; wheresoe'er thou art
'Yet art thou sought, nor yet has nation claimed
'In pride of place thy river as its own.
' Yet shall I tell, so far as has the god,
' Who veils thy fountain, given me to know,
'Thy progress. Daring to upraise thy banks
''Gainst fiery Cancer's heat, thou tak'st thy rise
'Beneath the zenith: straight towards the north
'And mid Bootes flowing; to the couch
'Bending, or to the risings, of the sun
'In sinuous bends alternate; just alike
'To Araby's peoples and to Libyan sands.
Whence art thou come; and with no native stream
Strik'st thou the Ethiop fields. Nor knows the world
'To whom it owes thee. Nature ne'er revealed
'Thy secret origin, removed afar.
'Nor did she wish thee to be seen of men
' While still a tiny rivulet, but preferred
' Their wonder to their knowledge. Where the sun
' Stays at his limit, dost thou rise in flood
' Untimely; such thy right: to other lands
' Bearing thy winter: and by both the poles
' Thou only wanderest. Here men ask thy rise
' And there thine ending.
Meroe
rich in soil
'And tilled by swarthy husbandmen divides
'Thy broad expanse, rejoicing in the leaves
'Of groves of ebony, which though spreading far
'Their branching foliage, by no breadth of shade
'Soften the summer sun-whose rays direct
'Pass from the Lion to the fervid earth.
20
'Next dost thou journey onwards past the realm
'Of burning Phoebus, and the sterile sands,
'With equal volume; now with all thy strength
'Gathered in one, and now in devious streams
'Parting the bank that crumbles at thy touch.
'Then by our kingdom's gates, where
Philae
parts
'Arabian peoples from Egyptian fields
' The sluggish bosom of thy flood recalls
' Thy wandering currents, which through desert wastes
' Flow gently on to where the merchant track
' Divides the
Red Sea
waters from our own.
' Who, gazing,
Nile
, upon thy tranquil flow,
' Could picture how in wild array of foam
' (Where shelves the earth) thy billows shall be plunged
' Down the steep cataracts, in fuming wrath
' That rocks should bar the passage of thy stream
' Free from its source? For whirled on high the spray
' Aims at the stars, and trembles all the air
With rush of waters; and with sounding roar
The foaming mass down from the summit pours
In hoary waves victorious. Next an isle
In all our ancient lore "untrodden" named
Stems firm thy torrent; and the rocks we call
Springs of the river, for that here are marked
The earliest tokens of the coming flood.
With mountain shores now nature hems thee in
And shuts thy waves from
Libya
; in the midst
Hence do thy waters run, till
Memphis
first
Forbids the barrier placed upon thy stream
And gives thee access to the open fields.'
332
Thus did they pass, as though in peace profound,
The nightly watches. But Pothinus' mind,
Once with accursed butchery imbued,
Was frenzied still; since great Pompeius fell
No deed to him was crime; his rabid soul
Th' avenging goddesses and Magnus' shade
Stirred to fresh horrors; and a Pharian hand
No less was worthy, as he deemed, to shed
That blood which Fortune purposed should bedew
The conquered fathers: and the fell revenge
Due to the senate for the civil war
This hireling almost snatched. Avert, ye fates,
Far hence the shame that not by Brutus' hand
This blow be struck! Shall thus the tyrant's fall,
Just at our hands, become a Pharian crime.
Reft of example? To prepare a plan
(Fated to fail) he dares; nor veils in fraud
A plot for murder, but with open war
Attacks th' unconquered chieftain : from his crimes
He gained such courage as to send command
To lop the head of Caesar, and to join
In death the kinsmen chiefs. These words by night
His faithful servants to Achillas bear,
His foul associate, whom the boy had made
Chief of his armies, and who ruled alone
O'er Egypt's land and o'er himself her king:
' Now lay thy limbs upon the sumptuous couch
' And sleep in luxury, for the Queen hath seized
'The palace; nor alone by her betrayed,
' But Caesar's gift, is Pharos. Dost delay
' Nor hasten to the chamber of thy Queen?
' Thou only? Married to the Latian chief,
'The impious sister now her brother weds
' And hurrying from rival spouse to spouse
' Hath Egypt won, and plays the bawd for
Rome
.
' By amorous potions she has won the man:
' Then trust the boy! Yet give him but a night
' In her enfondling arms, and drunk with love
' Thy life and mine he'll barter for a kiss.
' We for his sister's charms by cross and flame
' Shall pay the penalty: nor hope of aid;
' Here stands adulterous Caesar, here the King
' Her spouse: how hope we from so stern a judge
' To gain acquittal? Shall she not condemn
'Those who ne'er sought her favours? By the deed
We dared together and lost, by Magnus' blood
' Which wrought the bond between us, be thou swift
' With hasty tumult to arouse the war:
' Dash in with nightly band, and mar with death
' Their shameless nuptials: on the very bed
With either lover smite the ruthless Queen.
' Nor let the fortunes of the Western chief
' Make pause our enterprise. We share with him
' The glory of his empire o'er the world.
' Pompeius fallen makes us too sublime,
There lies the shore that bids us hope success:
Ask of our power from the polluted wave,
And gaze upon the scanty tomb which holds
Not all Pompeius' ashes. Peer to him
Was he whom now thou fearest. Noble blood,
' True, is not ours: what boots it? Nor are realms
' Nor wealth of peoples given to our command.
'Yet have we risen to a height of power
For deeds of blood, and Fortune to our hands
Attracts her victims. Lo! a nobler now
Lies in our compass, and a second death
Hesperia shall appease; for Caesar's blood,
Shed by these hands, shall give us this, that
Rome
Shall love us, guilty of Pompeius' fall.
Why fear these titles, why this chieftain's strength?
For shorn of these, before your swords he lies
A common soldier. To the civil war
This night shall bring completion, and shall give
To peoples slain fit offerings, and send
That life the world demands beneath the shades.
Rise then in all your hardihood and smite
This Caesar down, and let the Roman youths
Strike for themselves, and
Lagos
for its King.
No do thou tarry: full of wine and feast
Thou'lt fall upon him in the lists of love;
Then dare the venture, and the heavenly gods
Shall grant of Cato's and of Brutus' prayers
To thee fulfilment.'
Nor was Achillas slow
To hear the voice that counselled him to crime.
No sounding clarion summoned, as is wont,
His troops to arms; nor trumpet blare betrayed
Their nightly march: but rapidly he seized
All needed instruments of blood and war.
Of Latian race the most part of his train,
Yet to barbarian customs were their minds
By long forgetfulness of
Rome
debased:
Else had it shamed to serve the Pharian King;
But now his vassal and his minion's word
Compel obedience. Those who serve in camps
Lose faith and love of kin: their pittance earned
21
Makes just the deed: and for their sordid pay,
Not for themselves, they threaten Caesar's life.
Where finds the piteous destiny of the realm
Rome
with herself at peace? The host withdrawn
From dread
Thessalia
raves on Nilus' banks
As all the race of
Rome
. What more had dared,
With Magnus welcomed, the Lagean house?
Each hand must render to the gods their due,
Nor son of
Rome
may cease from civil war;
By Heaven's command our state was rent in twain;
Nor love for husband nor regard for sire
Parted our peoples. 'Twas a slave who stirred
Afresh the conflict, and Achillas grasped
In turn the sword of
Rome
: nay more, had won,
Had not the fates adverse restrained his hand
From Caesar's slaughter.
For the murderous pair
Ripe for their plot were met; the spacious hall
Still busied with the feast. So might have flowed
Into the kingly cups a stream of gore,
And in mid banquet fallen Caesar's head.
Yet did they fear lest in the nightly strife
(The fates permitting) some incautious hand-
So did they trust the sword-might slay the King.
Thus stayed the deed, for in the minds of slaves
The chance of doing Caesar to the death
Might bear postponement: when the day arose
Then should he suffer; and a night of life
Thus by Pothinus was to Caesar given.
434
Now from the Casian rock looked forth the Sun
Flooding the land of
Egypt
with a day
Warm from its earliest dawn, when from the walls
Not wandering in disorder are they seen,
But drawn in close array, as though to meet
A foe opposing; ready to receive
Or give the battle. Caesar, in the town
Placing no trust, within the palace courts
Lay in ignoble hiding place, the gates
Close barred : nor all the kingly rooms possessed,
But in the narrowest portion of the space
He drew his band together. There in arms
They stood, with dread and fury in their souls.
He feared attack, indignant at his fear.
Thus will a noble beast in little cage
Imprisoned, fume, and break upon the bars
His teeth in frenzied wrath; nor more would rage
The flames of
Vulcan
in Sicilian depths
Should
Etna
's top be closed. He who but now
By
Haemus
' mount against Pompeius chief,
Italia
's leaders and the Senate line,
His cause forbidding hope, looked at the fates
He knew were hostile, with unfaltering gaze,
Now fears before the crime of hireling slaves,
And in mid palace trembles at the blow:
He whom nor Scythian nor Alaun had dared
To violate, nor the Moor who aims the dart
Upon his victim slain, to prove his skill.
The Roman world but now did not suffice
To hold him, nor the realms from furthest Ind
To Tyrian Gades. Now, as puny boy,
Or woman, trembling when a town is sacked,
Within the narrow corners of a house
He seeks for safety; on the portals closed
His hope of life: and with uncertain gait
He treads the halls; yet not without the King;
In purpose, Ptolemaeus, that thy life
For his shall give atonement; and to hurl
Thy severed head among the servant throng
Should darts and torches fail. So story tells
The Colchian princess
22
with sword in hand,
And with her brother's neck bared to the blow,
Waited her sire, avenger of his realm
Despoiled, and of her flight. In the imminent risk
Caesar, in hopes of peace, an envoy sent
To the fierce vassals, from their absent lord
Bearing a message, thus : ' At whose command
Wage ye the war?' But not the laws which bind
All nations upon earth, nor sacred rights,
Availed to save or messenger of peace,
Or King's ambassador; or thee from crime
Such as befitted thee, thou land of
Nile
Fruitful in monstrous deeds: not Juba's realm,
Vast though it be, nor
Pontus
, nor the land
Thessalian, nor the arms of Pharnaces,
Nor yet the tracts which chill
Iberus
girds,
Nor Libyan coasts such wickedness have dared,
As thou, and all thy minions. Closer now
War hemmed them in, and weapons in the courts,
Shaking the innermost recesses, fell.
Yet did no ram, fatal with single stroke,
Assail the portal, nor machine of war;
Nor flame they called in aid; but blind of plan
They wander purposeless, in separate bands
Around the circuit, nor at any spot
With strength combined attempt to breach the wall.
The fates forbad, and Fortune from their hands
Held fast the palace as a battlement.
Nor failed they to attack from ships of war
The regal dwelling, where its frontage bold
Made stand apart the waters of the deep :
There, too, was Caesar's all-protecting arm;
For these at point of sword, and those with fire
He forces back, and though besieged he dares
To storm th' assailants: and as lay the ships
Joined rank to rank, bids drop upon their sides
Lamps drenched with reeking tar. Nor slow the fire
To seize the hempen cables and the decks
Oozing with melting pitch; the oarsman's bench
All in one moment, and the topmost yards
Burst into flame: half merged the vessels lay
While swam the foemen, all in arms, the wave;
Nor fell the blaze upon the ships alone,
But seized with writhing tongues the neighbouring homes,
23
And fanned to fury by the Southern breeze
Tempestuous, it leaped from roof to roof;
Not otherwise than on its heavenly track,
Unfed by matter, glides the ball of light,
By air alone aflame.
This pest recalled
Some of the forces to the city's aid
From the besieged halls. Nor Caesar gave
To sleep its season; swifter than all else
To seize the crucial moment of the war.
Quick in the darkest watches of the night
He leaped upon his ships, and Pharos
24
seized,
Gate of the main; an island in the days
Of Proteus seer, now bordering the walls
Of Alexander's city. Thus he gained
A double vantage, for his foes were pent
Within the narrow entrance, which for him
And for his aids gave access to the sea.
Nor longer was Pothinus' doom delayed,
Yet not with cross or flame, nor with the wrath
His crime demanded; nor by savage beasts
Torn, did he suffer; but by Magnus' death,
Alas the shame! he fell; his head by sword
Hacked from his shoulders. Next by frauds prepared
By Ganymede her base attendant, fled
There in the absence of the King she ruled
As of Lagean blood: there at her hands,
The savage minion of the tyrant boy,
Achillas, fell by just avenging sword.
Thus did another victim to thy shade
Atone, Pompeius; but the gods forbid
That this be all thy vengeance! Not the King
Nor all the stock of
Lagos
for thy death
Would make fit sacrifice! So Fortune deemed;
And not till patriot swords shall drink the blood
Of Caesar, Magnus, shalt thou be appeased.
Still, though was slain the author of the strife,
Sank not their rage: with Ganymede for chief
Again they rush to arms; in deeds of fight
Again they conquer. So might that one day
Have witnessed Caesar's fate; so might its fame
Have lived through ages.
As the Roman Chief,
Crushed on the narrow surface of the mole,
Prepared to throw his troops upon the ships,
Sudden upon him the surrounding foes
With all their terrors came. In dense array
Their navy lined the shores, while on the rear
The footmen ceaseless charged. No hope was left,
For flight was not, nor could the brave man's arm
Achieve or safety or a glorious death.
Not now were needed for great Caesar's fall,
Caught in the toils of nature, routed host
Or mighty heaps of slain: his only doubt
To fear or hope for death: while on his brain
Brave Scaeva's image flashed, now vainly sought,
Who on the wall by
Epidamnus
' fields
Earned fame immortal, and with single arm
Drove back Pompeius as he trod the breach.
Civil War. Lucan. ed. Edward Ridley. London. 1905.
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