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