Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/95

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The Thracian Sestos. Farther to the east,
With safe and numerous harbors, lies the land
Of Lycia. There realms seek with thy sword;
Against these peoples let Adrastus fight,
And to thy sceptered hand deliver them. 615
Consider that thy father still is king
Within this realm of Thebes. Far better, then,
Than such returns as this will exile seem.
Thou liv'st in exile through another's sin;
But thy return must be through thine alone.
With those brave troops of thine 'twere better far
To seek thee out new realms unstained by crime. 620
Nay, e'en thy brother's self will be thy aid,
And fight for thee. Go, wage such warfare, then,
That, as thou fight'st, thy mother and thy sire
May pray for thy success. For, be assured,
That kingdoms won by crime are heavier far
Than any exile. 625
⁠Now consider well
The woes of war and war's uncertainties:
Though thou dost bring with thee the flower of Greece,
Though far and near thy arméd soldiery
Is spread, still ever in the balance hangs
The fate of war. 'Tis all as Mars decides.
Though two may seem to be unmatched in strength, 630
The sword will make them equal; hope and fear
Are subject to the blind caprice of fate.
Uncertain is the prize of war thou seek'st,
But sure the crime. Suppose that all the gods
Have heard thy prayers; suppose the citizens,
In panic fear, have turned their backs and fled;
The soldiers' bloody corpses hide the plain: 635
Though in such victory thou shouldst exalt
And bear thy murdered brother's spoils away,
Thy victory is but a broken thing.
What sort of warfare, think'st thou, that would be,
In which the victor wins by curséd crime,
And glories in it? Nay, thy brother's self,
Whom thou, unhappy man, dost seek to slay, 640