12
PHARSALIA
Book I
Then in the shades of night he leads the troops
Swifter than Balearic sling or shaft 260
Winged by retreating Parthian, to the walls
Of threatened Rimini, while fled the stars,
Save Lucifer, before the coming sun,
Whose fires were veiled in clouds, by south wind driven,
Or else at heaven's command: and thus drew on
The first dark morning of the civil war.
Now stand the troops within the captured town,
Their standards planted; and the trumpet clang
Rings forth in harsh alarums, giving note
Of impious strife: roused from their sleep the men 270
Rush to the hall and snatch the ancient arms
Long hanging through the years of peace; the shield
With crumbling frame; dark with the tooth of rust
Their swords;[1] and javelins with blunted point.
But when the well-known signs and eagles shone,
And Cæsar towering o'er the throng was seen,
They shook for terror, fear possessed their limbs,
And thoughts unuttered stirred within their souls.
'O miserable those to whom their home
'Denies the peace that all men else enjoy! 280
'Placed as we are beside the Northern bounds
'And scarce a footstep from the restless Gaul,
'We fall the first; would that our lot had been
'Beneath the Eastern sky, or frozen North,
'To lead a wandering life, rather than keep
'The gates of Latium. Brennus sacked the town
'And Hannibal, and all the Teuton hosts.
'For when the fate of Rome is in the scale
'By this path war advances.' Thus they moan
Swifter than Balearic sling or shaft 260
Winged by retreating Parthian, to the walls
Of threatened Rimini, while fled the stars,
Save Lucifer, before the coming sun,
Whose fires were veiled in clouds, by south wind driven,
Or else at heaven's command: and thus drew on
The first dark morning of the civil war.
Now stand the troops within the captured town,
Their standards planted; and the trumpet clang
Rings forth in harsh alarums, giving note
Of impious strife: roused from their sleep the men 270
Rush to the hall and snatch the ancient arms
Long hanging through the years of peace; the shield
With crumbling frame; dark with the tooth of rust
Their swords;[1] and javelins with blunted point.
But when the well-known signs and eagles shone,
And Cæsar towering o'er the throng was seen,
They shook for terror, fear possessed their limbs,
And thoughts unuttered stirred within their souls.
'O miserable those to whom their home
'Denies the peace that all men else enjoy! 280
'Placed as we are beside the Northern bounds
'And scarce a footstep from the restless Gaul,
'We fall the first; would that our lot had been
'Beneath the Eastern sky, or frozen North,
'To lead a wandering life, rather than keep
'The gates of Latium. Brennus sacked the town
'And Hannibal, and all the Teuton hosts.
'For when the fate of Rome is in the scale
'By this path war advances.' Thus they moan
