(22) Curio was tribune in B.C. 50. His earlier years are stated
to have been stained with vice.

(23) See Book II., 537.
(24) Preferring the reading "praeripe", with Francken.

(25) Bewick ("Quadrupeds," p. 238) tells the following anecdote
of a tame ichneumon which had never seen a serpent, and to

which he brought a small one. "Its first emotion seemed to
be astonishment mixed with anger; its hair became erect; in

an instant it slipped behind the reptile, and with
remarkable swiftness and agility leaped upon its head,

seized it and crushed it with its teeth."
(26) Reading "arce", not "arte". The word "signifer" seems to

favour the reading I have preferred; and Dean Merivale and
Hosius adopted it.

(27) For the character and career of Curio, see Merivale's
"History of the Roman Empire", chapter xvi. He was of

profligate character, but a friend and pupil of Cicero; at
first a rabid partisan of the oligarchy, he had, about the

period of his tribuneship (B.C. 50-49), become a supporter
of Caesar. How far Gaulish gold was the cause of this

conversion we cannot tell. It is in allusion to this change
that he was termed the prime mover of the civil war. His

arrival in Caesar's camp is described in Book I., line 303.
He became Caesar's chief lieutenant in place of the deserter

Labienus; and, as described in Book III., was sent to
Sardinia and Sicily, whence he expelled the senatorial

forces. His final expedition to Africa, defeat and death,
form the subject of the latter part of this book. Mommsen

describes him as a man of talent, and finds a resemblance
between him and Caesar. (Vol. iv., p. 393.)

BOOK V
THE ORACLE. THE MUTINY. THE STORM

Thus had the smiles of Fortune and her frowns
Brought either chief to Macedonian shores

Still equal to his foe. From cooler skies
Sank Atlas' (1) daughters down, and Haemus' slopes

Were white with winter, and the day drew nigh
Devoted to the god who leads the months,

And marking with new names the book of Rome,
When came the Fathers from their distant posts

By both the Consuls to Epirus called (2)
Ere yet the year was dead: a foreign land

Obscure received the magistrates of Rome,
And heard their high debate. No warlike camp

This; for the Consul's and the Praetor's axe
Proclaimed the Senate-house; and Magnus sat

One among many, and the state was all.
When all were silent, from his lofty seat

Thus Lentulus began, while stern and sad
The Fathers listened: "If your hearts still beat

With Latian blood, and if within your breasts
Still lives your fathers' vigour, look not now

On this strange land that holds us, nor enquire
Your distance from the captured city: yours

This proud assembly, yours the high command
In all that comes. Be this your first decree,

Whose truth all peoples and all kings confess;
Be this the Senate. Let the frozen wain

Demand your presence, or the torrid zone
Wherein the day and night with equal tread

For ever march; still follows in your steps
The central power of Imperial Rome.

When flamed the Capitol with fires of Gaul
When Veii held Camillus, there with him

Was Rome, nor ever though it changed its clime
Your order lost its rights. In Caesar's hands

Are sorrowing houses and deserted homes,
Laws silent for a space, and forums closed

In public fast. His Senate-house beholds
Those Fathers only whom from Rome it drove,

While Rome was full. Of that high order all
Not here, are exiles. (3) Ignorant of war,

Its crimes and bloodshed, through long years of peace,
Ye fled its outburst: now in session all

Are here assembled. See ye how the gods
Weigh down Italia's loss by all the world

Thrown in the other scale? Illyria's wave
Rolls deep upon our foes: in Libyan wastes

Is fallen their Curio, the weightier part (4)
Of Caesar's senate! Lift your standards, then,

Spur on your fates and prove your hopes to heaven.
Let Fortune, smiling, give you courage now

As, when ye fled, your cause. The Consuls' power
Fails with the dying year: not so does yours;

By your commandment for the common weal
Decree Pompeius leader." With applause

They heard his words, and placed their country's fates,
Nor less their own, within the chieftain's hands.

Then did they shower on people and on kings
Honours well earned -- Rhodes, Mistress of the Seas,

Was decked with gifts; Athena, old in fame,
Received her praise, and the rude tribes who dwell

On cold Taygetus; Massilia's sons
Their own Phocaea's freedom; on the chiefs

Of Thracian tribes, fit honours were bestowed.
They order Libya by their high decree

To serve King Juba's sceptre; and, alas!
On Ptolemaeus, of a faithless race

The faithlesssovereign, scandal to the gods,
And shame to Fortune, placed the diadem

Of Pella. Boy! thy sword was only sharp
Against thy people. Ah if that were all!

The fatal gift gave, too, Pompeius' life;
Bereft thy sister of her sire's bequest, (5)

Half of the kingdom; Caesar of a crime.
Then all to arms.

While soldier thus and chief,
In doubtful sort, against their hidden fate

Devised their counsel, Appius (6) alone
Feared for the chances of the war, and sought

Through Phoebus' ancient oracle to break
The silence of the gods and know the end.

Between the western belt and that which bounds (7)
The furthest east, midway Parnassus rears

His double summit: to the Bromian god
And Paean consecrate, to whom conjoined

The Theban band leads up the Delphic feast
On each third year. This mountain, when the sea

Poured o'er the earth her billows, rose alone,
By one high peak scarce master of the waves,

Parting the crest of waters from the stars.
There, to avenge his mother, from her home

Chased by the angered goddess while as yet
She bore him quick within her, Paean came

(When Themis ruled the tripods and the spot) (8)
And with unpractised darts the Python slew.

But when he saw how from the yawning cave
A godlike knowledge breathed, and all the air