Book 1
With crumbling frame; dark with the tooth of rust
1
Their swords; Marlowe has it: ' ... And swords With ugly teeth of black rust foully scarred.' 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.
' This is the path when Rome's the prize of war.'
Deep in their breasts they breathed the silent moan;
But dared not speak their sorrow nor their fear.
As when in winter all the fields are still,
And birds are voiceless, and no murmured sound
Breaks on the silence of the central sea;
So deep the stillness. But when through the shades
The day had broken, 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 wavered and her patriots' names
Were loud and frequent in the mouths of men,
The Senate angered and in scorn of right In the Senate, Curio had proposed and carried a resolution that Pompeius and Caesar should lay their arms down simultaneously: but this was resisted by the Oligarchal party, who endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to expel Curio from the Senate, and who placed Pompeius in command of the legions at Capua. This was in effect a declaration of war; and Curio, after a last attempt at resistance, left the city, and betook himself to Caesar. (See the close of Book IV.)
Drove out the Tribunes who withstood their will.
To Caesar's troops already on the march
They haste with Curio, who in former days
With bold and venal tongue had dared to speak
For Freedom, and to voice the people's wrongs,
And summon to their side the chiefs in arms.
Who, when he saw that Caesar doubted still,
Spake out; ' So long as I the rostrum held
' By this my voice against the Senate's will
' Was thy command prolonged, and to thy side
