Book II
THE FLIGHT OF POMPEIUS
37
'Drew from the city; for the surgeon knife
'Which shore the cancerous limbs cut in too deep,
'And shed the life stream from still healthy veins.
'True that the guilty fell, but not before
'All else had perished. Hatred had free course 170
'And anger reigned unbridled by the law.
'The victor's voice spake once; but each man struck
'Just as he wished or willed. The fatal steel
'Urged by the servant laid the master low.
'Sons dripped with gore of sires; and brothers fought
'For the foul trophy of a father slain,
'Or slew each other for the price of blood.
'Men sought the tombs and, mingling with the dead,
'Hoped for escape; the wild beasts' dens were full.
'One strangled died; another from the height 180
'Fell headlong down upon the unpitying earth,
'And from the encrimsoned victor snatched his death:
'One built his funeral pyre and oped his veins,
'And sealed the furnace ere his blood was gone.
'Borne through the trembling town the leaders' heads
'Were piled in middle forum: hence men knew
'Of murders else unpublished. Not on gates
'Of Diomedes,[1] tyrant king of Thrace,
'Nor of Antæus, Libya's giant brood,
'Were hung such horrors; nor in Pisa's hall 190
'Were seen and wept for when the suitors died.
'Decay had touched the features of the slain
'When round the mouldering heap, with trembling steps
'The grief-struck parents sought and stole their dead.
'I, too, the body of my brother slain
'Thought to remove, my victim to the peace
'Which shore the cancerous limbs cut in too deep,
'And shed the life stream from still healthy veins.
'True that the guilty fell, but not before
'All else had perished. Hatred had free course 170
'And anger reigned unbridled by the law.
'The victor's voice spake once; but each man struck
'Just as he wished or willed. The fatal steel
'Urged by the servant laid the master low.
'Sons dripped with gore of sires; and brothers fought
'For the foul trophy of a father slain,
'Or slew each other for the price of blood.
'Men sought the tombs and, mingling with the dead,
'Hoped for escape; the wild beasts' dens were full.
'One strangled died; another from the height 180
'Fell headlong down upon the unpitying earth,
'And from the encrimsoned victor snatched his death:
'One built his funeral pyre and oped his veins,
'And sealed the furnace ere his blood was gone.
'Borne through the trembling town the leaders' heads
'Were piled in middle forum: hence men knew
'Of murders else unpublished. Not on gates
'Of Diomedes,[1] tyrant king of Thrace,
'Nor of Antæus, Libya's giant brood,
'Were hung such horrors; nor in Pisa's hall 190
'Were seen and wept for when the suitors died.
'Decay had touched the features of the slain
'When round the mouldering heap, with trembling steps
'The grief-struck parents sought and stole their dead.
'I, too, the body of my brother slain
'Thought to remove, my victim to the peace
- ↑ Diomedes was said to feed his horses on human flesh. (For Antæus see Book IV., 660.) Œnomaus was king of Pisa in Elis. Those who came to sue for his daughter's hand had to compete with him in a chariot race, and if defeated were put to death.
