And with her liberties; but prone to ire;
Crime holding light as though by want compelled:

And great the glory in the minds of men,
Ambition lawful even at point of sword,

To rise above their country: might their law:
Decrees are forced from Senate and from Plebs:

Consul and Tribune break the laws alike:
Bought are the fasces, and the people sell

For gain their favour: bribery's fatal curse
Corrupts the annual contests of the Field.

Then covetous usury rose, and interest
Was greedier ever as the seasons came;

Faith tottered; thousands saw their gain in war.
Caesar has crossed the Alps, his mighty soul

Great tumults pondering and the coming shock.
Now on the marge of Rubicon, he saw,

In face most sorrowful and ghostly guise,
His trembling country's image; huge it seemed

Through mists of night obscure; and hoary hair
Streamed from the lofty front with turrets crowned:

Torn were her locks and naked were her arms.
Then thus, with broken sighs the Vision spake:

"What seek ye, men of Rome? and whither hence
Bear ye my standards? If by right ye come,

My citizens, stay here; these are the bounds;
No further dare." But Caesar's hair was stiff

With horror as he gazed, and ghastly dread
Restrained his footsteps on the further bank.

Then spake he, "Thunderer, who from the rock
Tarpeian seest the wall of mighty Rome;

Gods of my race who watched o'er Troy of old;
Thou Jove of Alba's height, and Vestal fires,

And rites of Romulus erst rapt to heaven,
And God-like Rome; be friendly to my quest.

Not with offence or hostfie arms I come,
Thy Caesar, conqueror by land and sea,

Thy soldier here and wheresoe'er thou wilt:
No other's; his, his only be the guilt

Whose acts make me thy foe.' He gives the word
And bids his standards cross the swollenstream.

So in the wastes of Afric's burning clime
The lion crouches as his foes draw near,

Feeding his wrath the while, his lashing tail
Provokes his fury; stiff upon his neck

Bristles his mane: deep from his gaping jaws
Resounds a muttered growl, and should a lance

Or javelin reach him from the hunter's ring,
Scorning the puny scratch he bounds afield.

From modestfountain blood-red Rubicon
In summer's heat flows on; his pigmy tide

Creeps through the valleys and with slender marge
Divides the Italian peasant from the Gaul.

Then winter gave him strength, and fraught with rain
The third day's crescent moon; while Eastern winds

Thawed from the Alpine slopes the yielding snow.
The cavalry first form across the stream '

To break the torrent's force; the rest with ease
Beneath their shelter gain the further bank.

When Csesar crossed and trod beneath his feet
The soil of Italy's forbidden fields,

"Here," spake he, "peace, here broken laws be left;
Farewell to treaties. Fortune, lead me on;

War is our judge, and in the fates our trust."
Then in the shades of night he leads the troops

Swifter than Balearic sling or shaft
Winged by retreating Parthian, to the walls

Of threatened Rimini, while fled the stars,
Save Lucifer, before the coming sun,

Whose fires were veiled in clouds, by south wind driven,
Or else at heaven's command: and thus drew on

The first dark morning of the civil war.
Now stand the troops within the captured town,

Their standards planted; and the trumpet clang
Rings forth in harsh alarums, giving note

Of impiousstrife: roused from their sleep the men
Rush to the hall and snatch the ancient arms

Long hanging through the years of peace; the shield
With crumbling frame; dark with the tooth of rust

Their swords (10); and javelins with blunted point.
But when the well-known signs and eagles shone,

And Caesar towering o'er the throng was seen,
They shook for terror, fear possessed their limbs,

And thoughts unuttered stirred within their souls.
"O miserable those to whom their home

Denies the peace that all men else enjoy!
Placed as we are beside the Northern bounds

And scarce a footstep from the restless Gaul,
We fall the first; would that our lot had been

Beneath the Eastern sky, or frozen North,
To lead a wandering life, rather than keep

The gates of Latium. Brennus sacked the town
And Hannibal, and all the Teuton hosts.

For when the fate of Rome is in the scale
By this path war advances." Thus they moan

Their fears but speak them not; no sound is heard
Giving their anguishutterance: as when

In depth of winter all the fields are still,
The birds are voiceless and no sound is heard

To break the silence of the central sea.
But when the day had broken through the shades

Of chilly darkness, lo! the torch of war!
For by the hand of Fate is swift dispersed

All Caesar's shame of battle, and his mind
Scarce doubted more; and Fortune toiled to make

His action just and give him cause for arms.
For while Rome doubted and the tongues of men

Spoke of the chiefs who won them rights of yore,
The hostile Senate, in contempt of right,

Drove out the Tribunes. They to Caesar's camp
With Curio hasten, who of venal tongue,

Bold, prompt, persuasive, had been wont to preach
Of Freedom to the people, and to call

Upon the chiefs to lay their weapons down (11).
And when he saw how deeply Caesar mused,

"While from the rostrum I had power," he said,
To call the populace to aid thy cause,

By this my voice against the Senate's will
Was thy command prolonged. But silenced now

Are laws in war: we driven from our homes;
Yet is our exile willing; for thine arms

Shall make us citizens of Rome again.
Strike; for no strength as yet the foe hath gained.

Occasion calls, delay shall mar it soon:
Like risk, like labour, thou hast known before,

But never such reward. Could Gallia hold
Thine armies ten long years ere victory came,

That little nook of earth? One paltry fight
Or twain, fought out by thy resistless hand,