Book 4
Would seem the sweeter, by delay of death
1
Thus granted. But the band devoted stood,
Proud of their promised end, life all forsworn,
And careless of the fight: no jarring note
Opposed their high resolve. In numbers few
'Gainst foemen numberless by land and sea,
They wage the desperate war; then satiate
Turn from the foe. And first demanding death
Volteius bared his throat. ' What youth,' he cries,
' Dares strike me down, and through his captain's wounds
'Attest his love for death? ' Then through his side
Plunge blades uncounted on the moment drawn.
He praises all : but him who struck the first
Grateful, with dying strength, he does to death.
They rush together, and without a foe
Work all the guilt of battle. Thus of yore,
Rose up the glittering Dircaean band
From seed by Cadmus sown, and fought and died,
Dire omen for the brother kings of Thebes.
And so in Phasis' fields the sons of earth,
Born of the sleepless dragon, all inflamed
By magic incantations, with their blood
Deluged the monstrous furrow, while the Queen
Feared at the spells she wrought. Devoted thus
To death, they fall, yet in their death itself
Less valour show than in the fatal wounds
They take and give; for e'en the dying hand
Missed not a blow nor did the stroke alone
Inflict the wound, but rushing on the sword
Their throat or breast received it to the hilt;
And when by fatal chance or sire with son,
Or brothers met, yet with unfaltering weight
Down flashed the pitiless sword: this proved their love,
To give no second blow. Half living now
They dragged their mangled bodies to the side,
Whence flowed into the sea a crimson stream
Of slaughter. 'Twas their pleasure yet to see
The light they scorned; with haughty looks to scan
The faces of their victors, and to feel
The death approaching. But the raft was now
