and were told to found colonies.
(11) See Herodotus, Book VII., 140-143. The
reference is to the
answer given by the
oracle to the Athenians that their
wooden walls would keep them safe; which Themistocles
interpreted as meaning their fleet.
(12) Cicero, on the
contrary, suggests that the reason why the
oracles ceased was this, that men became less credulous.
("De Div.", ii., 57) Lecky, "History of European Morals
from Augustus to Charlemagne", vol. i., p. 368.
(13) This name is one of those given to the Cumaean Sibyl
mentioned at line 210. She was said to have been the
daughter of Apollo.
(14) Probably by the Gauls under Brennus, B.C. 279.
(15) These lines form the Latin motto prefixed to Shelley's poem,
"The Demon of the World".
(16) Referring to the visit of Aeneas to the Sibyl. (Virgil,
"Aeneid", vi., 70, &c.)
(17) Appius was seized with fever as soon as he reached the spot;
and there he died and was buried, thus fulfilling the
oracle.
(18) That is, Nemesis.
(19) Reading "galeam", with Francken; not "glebam".
(20) Labienus left Caesar's ranks after the Rubicon was crossed,
and joined his rival. In his mouth Lucan puts the speech
made at the
oracle of Hammon in Book IX. He was slain at
Munda, B.C. 45.
(21) That is, civilians; no longer soldiers. This one
contemptuous expression is said to have shocked and abashed
the army. (Tacitus, "Annals", I., 42.)
(22) Reading "tenet", with Hosius and Francken; not "timet", as
Haskins. The
prospect of inflicting
punishment attracted,
while the
suffering of it subdued, the mutineers.
(23) Caesar was named Dictator while at Massilia. Entering Rome,
he held the office for eleven days only, but was elected
Consul for the incoming year, B.C. 48, along with Servilius
Isauricus. (Caesar, "De Bello Civili", iii., 1; Merivale,
chapter xvi.)
(24) In the time of the Empire, the degraded Consulship,
preserved only as a name, was frequently transferred
monthly, or even shorter, intervals from one favourite to
another.
(25) Caesar performed the
solemn rites of the great Latin
festival on the Alban Mount during his Dictatorship.
(Compare Book VII., line 471.)
(26) Dyrrhachium was founded by the Corcyreams, with whom the
Homeric Phaeacians have been identified.
(27) Apparently making the Danube
discharge into the Sea of Azov.
See Mr. Heitland's Introduction, p. 53.
(28) At the foot of the Acroceraunian range.
(29) Caesar himself says nothing of this adventure. But it is
mentioned by Dion, Appian and Plutarch ("Caesar", 38). Dean
Merivale thinks the story may have been invented to
introduce the apophthegm used by Caesar to the sailor, "Fear
nothing: you carry Caesar and his fortunes" (lines 662-665).
Mommsen accepts the story, as of an attempt which was only
abandoned because no
mariner could be induced to undertake
it. Lucan colours it with his wildest and most exaggerated
hyperbole.
(30) See Book I., 463.
(31) The ocean current, which, according to Hecataeus, surrounded
the world. But Herodotus of this theory says, "For my part
I know of no river called Ocean, and I think that Homer or
one of the earlier poets invented the name and introduced it
into his poetry." (Book II., 23, and Book IV., 36.) In
"Oceanus" Aeschylus seems to have intended to personify the
great
surroundingstream. ("Prom. Vinc.", lines 291, 308.)
(32) Comp. VI., 615.
(33) Sason is a small island just off the Ceraunian rocks, the
point of which is now called Cape Linguetta, and is nearly
opposite to Brindisi.
(34) Compare "Paradise Lost", VII., 425.
(35) Reading "Teque tuus decepit amor", as preferred by Hosius.
BOOK VI
THE FIGHT NEAR DYRRHACHIUM. SCAEVA'S EXPLOITS. THE WITCH OF
THESSALIA
Now that the chiefs with minds
intent on fight
Had drawn their armies near upon the hills
And all the gods
beheld their chosen pair,
Caesar, the Grecian towns despising, scorned
To reap the glory of successful war
Save at his kinsman's cost. In all his prayers
He seeks that moment, fatal to the world,
When shall be cast the die, to win or lose,
And all his fortune hang upon the throw.
Thrice he drew out his troops, his eagles thrice,
Demanding battle; thus to increase the woe
Of Latium,
prompt as ever: but his foes,
Proof against every art, refused to leave
The
rampart of their camp. Then marching swift
By
hidden path between the
wooded fields
He seeks, and hopes to seize, Dyrrhachium's (1) fort;
But Magnus, speeding by the ocean marge,
First camped on Petra's slopes, a rocky hill
Thus by the natives named. From
thence he keeps
Watch o'er the
fortress of Corinthian birth
Which by its towers alone without a guard
Was safe against a siege. No hand of man
In ancient days built up her lofty wall,
No
hammer rang upon her
massive stones:
Not all the works of war, nor Time himself
Shall
undermine her. Nature's hand has raised
Her adamantine rocks and hedged her in
With bulwarks girded by the foamy main:
And but for one short
bridge of narrow earth
Dyrrhachium were an island. Steep and fierce,
Dreaded of sailors, are the cliffs that bear
Her walls; and tempests, howling from the west,
Toss up the raging main upon the roofs;
And homes and temples tremble at the shock.
Thirsting for battle and with hopes inflamed
Here Caesar hastes, with distant
rampart lines
Seeking
unseen to coop his foe within,
Though spread in
spacious camp upon the hills.
With eagle eye he measures out the land
Meet to be
compassed, nor content with turf
Fit for a hasty mound, he bids his troops
Tear from the quarries many a giant rock:
And spoils the dwellings of the Greeks, and drags
Their walls
asunder for his own. Thus rose
A
mightybarrier which no ram could burst
Nor any
ponderous machine of war.
Mountains are cleft, and level through the hills
The work of Caesar strides: wide yawns the moat,
Forts show their towers rising on the heights,
And in vast
circle forests are
enclosed
And groves and
spacious lands, and beasts of prey,
As in a line of toils. Pompeius lacked