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and stood before the conqueror. As he asked he kept 340 his dignity unbroken by disaster, and between his former fortune and his fresh misfortunes he behaves entirely as a man defeated but a general yet, and with a breast free from fear he asks for pardon:

'Had the Fates laid me low beneath a degenerate enemy, my strong right hand would not have failed to snatch death. But as it is, my only reason for requesting safety is my belief that you are worthy to grant life, Caesar. Weare not driven by party enthusiasm; we did not go to war to oppose your plans. [n fact, civil war found us already generals and we preserved our loyalty to our former cause, 350 as long as we were able. We do not obstruct the Fates at all: we hand to you the western races, we open up those of the east, and we allow you freedom from fear about the sphere left behind your

back. Neither blood poured out upon the fields nor sword nor wearied hands finished offyour battle: pardon your enemies for this alonc~that you arc victorious. And our request is not large: that you give rest to the weary and allow us to spend unarmed the life you grant. Think ofour troops as lying defeated in the fields, because it is not right to mingle doomed with prosperous armies or for your captives to share 360 in your triumph: this throng has fulfilled its destiny. This we seck-that you do not compel the conquered to conquer

with you.' He ceased; but Caesar favourable and with unclouded face

relents, exempting them from punishment and war-service. As soon as the pact ofproper peace was settled, the soldiers race towards the waters now unguarded, lie down on the banks, and muddy the rivers granted them. For many the continuous drawing ofsudden waters stopped the passage of the air through empty veins, constricted and shut off the breath; and not yet does the burning 370 plague recede, but the craving disease demands water for itself though the guts are already filled with liquid. Soon strength returned to muscles and might to the men. 0 luxury extravagant of resources, never content with what costs little, and ostentatious hunger for foods sought by land and sea, and pride in a lavish table: learn how life can be prolonged at tiny cost

Book FOl4r 73

and how little nature asks. The ailing men are revived not by noble Bacchus bottled under long-forgotten consul, they do not drink from gold or agate, but life returns 380 frorn the sirnple liquid. The river and Ceres arc enough for the people.

HoW unlucky are the men who continue fighting! Next, the troops

abandon weapons to the victor and safe, though with breast disarmed, free from guilt and without worries, they disperse to their own cities. 0 how much they regret, now that they possess the gift of peace, that they ever brandished weapon with effort ofann and suffered thirst and asked the gods for successful wars in vain! Certainly, for those lucky in the battle many doubtful fights remain, so many struggles through the world; though Fortune never falter or waver in successes 390 so often must they conquer, must blood be shed across all lands, and Caesar must be followed through his entire destiny. Happy is the man who has already learned the place where he

must lie when the world's collapse is tottering. No battles summon them when weary, no trumpet-signals break their slumbers safe. Now wives and children not yet grown and lowly homes and their own land welcome them, not settled elsewhere as colonists. From this burden too Fortune relieved them, made them free

from worry-their minds are without uneasy bias: one is the giver oftheir safety, one had been their leader. So they alone 400 are happy, watching civil battles with no prayer.

The Fortune of the war did not remain the same through all the world but dared one blow against Caesar's party. Where the water of the Adriatic Sea beats straggling Salonae and Warm lader runs out towards the gentle Zephyrs, there Antonius, confident in the Curictae's warlike race, Who live on land surrounded by the Adriatic Sea, is blockaded, camped upon on the shore's edge, secure from war's attack if only famine would recede,f: . allUne which storms the safest places. The earth sends up 410

no fodder to feed his horses, blonde Ceres produces no cam; the soldiers had stripped the plain of grass, and When their unhappy teeth had already cropped close the field

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they tore the withered blades from the turfof the camp. As soon as they saw their comrades and general Basilus

on the shore ofland opposite, they sought a new trick for escape across the sea: they do not follow custom and build long keels or lofty sterns, but in a strange line link together timbers strong to carry great bulk. And the craft is supported on evety side by empty barrels

~ tied together in a continuous double line by chains stretched out, upon which planks are sidelong laid; and it docs not carry its crew of rowers exposed to weapons with an open front, but they beat the sea which is enclosed by beams: so it presents a marvel ofsilent movement, neither bearing sails nor lashing water visibly. Then they watch the straits until the tide moves with falling waves and sands are exposed by the ebbing sea. And now the water was receding and shore growing: the craft is launched and carried down, gliding over 430 the sloping deep with its two comrades. Above all three rise lofty towers and storeys, threatening with shaking parapets. Octavius, guardian ofIllyrian waters, did not wish at once to attack the craft and withheld his rapid vessels until his prey grew larger after a successful passage, and now that they have rashly started, he entices them to take

to the water again by peace at sea. So the hunter: until he surrounds the stags, alarmed by the scare and fearing the waft of scented feather, or until he lifts the nets set out on props, he checks the noisy mouth of the swift Molossian dog 44° and tics his Spartan and his Cretan hounds, entrusting the forest only to the dog which picks up traces with its muzzle on the ground and when the prey is found knows not to bark, content to show the lair with quivering leash. And no delay: the hulks are manned, the island is deserted as eagerly they board the rafts, towards night at the time when the last light even now hinders the first darkness.

But Pompey's Cilicians with their skill of old prepare to weave stratagems in the sea: leaving the water's surface empty, in the sea's mid-depth they hang chains 45° and let them drift loosely, and attach them

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to the rocks of the Illyrian cliff. Neither the first raft nor the next was checked, but the third hulk stuck and was drawn by rope towards the cliffs. Hollow rocks hang over the sea and-strange!-their mass stands ever likely to fall and with its forests overshadows the water. To this place the sea often brought ships wrecked by Aquilo and drowned bodies and hides them in blind caves; the hidden sea restored its plunder and when the caverns spewed out the water, the twisted whirlpool's waves 460 surpass in agitation Tauromenian Charybdis. Here the hulk halted, laden with men ofOpitergium; it is surrounded by ships unmoored from every station, and other enemy mass together on the rocks and shore. Vulteius-he was captain of the craft-realized the silent stratagems beneath the sea; in vain he tried with sword to burst the chains, then calls for battle without hope, unsure where he was presenting his rear and where his front to war. Yet in this calamity, valour did all that valour could when caught surprised: there was a battle between 470 the many thousands spread around the captured raft and on board hardly a full cohort, not a lengthy battle, it is true, since night hid with shadow the faltering light and darkness brought on peace.

Then Vulteius with his noble voice guided like this his cohort stunned and dreading their approaching destiny: 'Soldiers, free for no longer than one short night, in this narrow time give thought to your final state. Life which remains is short for no one who f1l1ds in it the time to seek death for himself; and the glory ofdeath is not diminished, men, by advancing to meet a fate close at hand. 480 Since the period ofJife to come is uncertain for everyone, praise of courage is equal whether you reject years you hoped for or cut short a moment ofJife's end, so long as by your own hand you invite the Fates: no one is forced to wish to die. No escape lies open, all around us stand citizens int~nt upon our slaughter: decide on death, then all fear is gone. Desire what is inevitable. Yet we need not fall in warfare's blind cloud, When battle-lines are covered by their own weapons mixed WIth darkness, when bodies lie in crowds upon the plain, 490

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every death is merged in a common account, valour is crushed and vanishes:

but we have been set by the gods in a vessel visible to friends and to the enemy. The sea, the land, the island's highest rocks will provide and give us witnesses, both sides will watch from opposite shores. In our fate, Fortune, you intend some great and memorable example. All the records that loyalty and the soldier's duty observed by the sword have shown throughout the ages, our army could have surpassed. And of course we know that it is not enough for your men to fall 500 on their own swords for you, Caesar; but as men besieged we have no greater pledge to give ofour deep love. Grudging chance has cut off much from our praise because we are not held captive with our elders and our children. Let the enemy know that we are unconquerable warriors, let him fear our courage, frenzied and ready for death, let him rejoice that no more rafts were stuck. They will try to tempt us with pacts and will want to seduce us with dishonourablc life. o I wish that they would promise pardon, bid us hope for safety, so that our unique death would grow in fame, 510

to prevent them thinking we have given up hope when we pierce our guts with the warm sword. By our great valour we must deserve that Caesar calls it a loss and a disaster, to lose a few among so many thousands. Though the Fates bestow retreat and let me go, I would refuse to avoid what is imminent. I have discarded life, my comrades, I am wholly driven by the spurs of coming death: this is an obsession. Only those already touched by fate's nearness may know-the gods conceal it from those destined to live on, to steel them to live-that death is a blessing.' So passion changed and lifted .szo all the minds of the young men. Before their captain's words, all watched with moist eyes the stars in the sky.and dreaded the Bear's turning pole; the same men now, when his advice had entered their courageous

minds, longed for daylight, And at that time ofyear the sky was not slow to tilt the stars into the sea, for the sun was in the sign of Leda, when his light is highest and Cancer near; then a brief night only followed on the heels of the Thessalian arroWS.

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The rise ofday revealed Histrians posted on the rocks and warlike Liburnians on the sea with the Greek fleet. 530 They first suspended war and tried to conquer with pacts, in case the mere delay ofdeath might make life sweeter to the captured men. Determined to die, the soldiers stood with life already renounced, fierce, indifferent to the battle's outcome because the end was promised them by their own hand, and no uproar shook the warriors' resolve, prepared for the worst; and, few in number, they resisted countless hands at once on land and sea; so great is the confidence ofdeath. And when they thought that blood enough had flowed in battle, they turned their frenzy from the enemy. The vessel's captain, 540 Vulteius himself, was first now to demand death with throat laid bare: 'Is there any of my soldiers', he says, 'whose hand is worthy ofmy blood, who can prove his wish to die by sure proof through my wounds?' And before saying any more his guts are pierced already by more than one sword. He commends them all but as he dies he kills with grateful blow the man to whom he owed his flfSt wound. The others fight, and on one side performed the entire crime ofwars. So from Cadmus' seed sprang up the Dircaean cohort and fell by one another's 550 wounds, a dreadful omen for the Theban brothers; \0 in Phasis' plains the Sons ofEarth, created from the unsleeping tooth, filled furrows so vast with kindred blood in a wrath inspired by magic spells, and Medea herself took fright at the first crime committed by her untried herbs. So the soldiers fall, agreed upon a mutual destiny, and in the warriors' deaths death Involves the smallest amount of valour. Equally they kill and fall With fatal wound and though they strike with dying hand It never fails them, 1101' is the wound produced 560 by the sword's deep thrust but the weapon is struck by the breast ~nd the hand attacked by throat. When with bloody destiny, rOthers charge at brothers and son at father

~hey thrust their swords not with shaking ha~d UI With all their weight. The single duty of those who strike

\Vas n .' Ot to stnke a second blow. Now half-dead, they dragged

ht ('lrtl bl' h' , 1m mg guts to t e Wide gangways and poured much gore Inlo the sea. They delight to see the light

78 Book Fot~r

they have despised, with disdainful face to watch their conquerors, to feel death. Now the raft is visibly S70 heaped with bloody slaughter and the conquerors release the bodies to be burnt and their leaders are amazed that to any man a leader can be worth so much. Fame running through all the world spoke ofno craft with a louder voice. Yet even after the example of these warriors, cowardly races will not grasp that to escape slavery by one's own hand is not an arduous act of valour, but tyranny is feared thanks to the sword and liberty is chafed by cruel weapons and they do not know that swords are given to prevent slavery. Death, I wish that you would not remove the fearful from life S80 but that you could be bestowed by valour alone!

Just as fierce as this warfare was that which then blazed up in Libya's fields. For daring Curio unmoors his vessels from the Lilybaean shore, and with Aquilo gently filling the sails he reached the shores of the famous anchorage between Clipea and great Carthage's citadels, half in ruins, and he places his first camp far from the whitened sea, where leisurely Bagrada proce<::ds, the furrower of the dry sand. From there he seeks the hills and crags hollowed out all around which antiquity not falsely calls the kingdom ofAntaeus. 590 In his wish to learn the origins of the ancient name, a primitive inhabitant taught what he had learned through many forefathers:

'After the Giants' birth, Earth not yet exhausted mothered a dreadful offspring in Libyan caves. And not so justly was Typhon his mother's pride or Tityos or fierce Briareus; she was merciful to heaven in not raising Antaeus on the Phlegran fields. With this gift too did Earth enhance her offspring's mighty strength-that his now tired limbs thrive with strength renewed when they touch their mother. 600 This cave was his home: beneath the tall crag he lay hid, they say, and feasted on the lions he had caught; no wild beast's skins used to offer him a bed for sleep, no forest a couch, but lying on the naked earth he regained his strength. The farmers ofLibya's fields perished; men brought to land by the sea perish;

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and for long his valour spurns the Earth's help, not aiding hirnse!fby falling: he was utterly invincible in strength, ~ven when he stayed standing. At last the TUmour of the blood-stained evil spread and summoned to the shores ofLibya 610

great-hearted Alcides, who was ridding land and sea of monsters. He threw down the skin of the lion of Cleonae, Antaeus that of the lion ofLibya; the stranger drenched his limbs with liquid, following the custom of the Olympic wrestling-place; the other, not confident enough in touching his mother with his

feet, poured burning sand on his limbs to hdp him. They linked hands and arms in many a clasp, long tested the other's neck in vain with massive biceps, and each head is held unmoved with forehead rigid; and they are amazed to meet their match. Alcides, not wishing 620 to use all his strength at the contest's start, wore out his opponent, as the frequent gasps and cold sweat from his tired body revealed to him. Then his neck grows weak and trembles, then breast by breast is shoved, then legs totter, struck by hand aslant. Now the victor encircles his opponent's yielding back and crushes his sides and squeezes his waist and by thrusting with his feet spreads wide the thighs and laid his man flat out from head to toe. The dry earth drinks his sweat; his veins are filled with warm blood, 630 his muscles bulged, his entire frame grew tough, and with body restored he loosened Hercules' hold. Alcides stood dazed by such great strength: not in the waters oflnachus, though then inexperienced, dId he fear so the Hydra with her snakes renewed where severed. They clashed as equals, one with the strength ofEarth , the other with his own. Never could his savage stepmother have higher hopes: she sees the hero's limbs and neck drained by exertion, the neck which stayed dry when he supported Olympus. And when again he grappled with the tired limbs, 640 Without waiting for his enemy's force, Antaeus fell voluntarily and rose more mighty with added strength. AU the power of the land pours into his tired frame and Earth labours as her warrior wrestles. 'When at last Alcides realized the help he gained