Book 4
Their hearts by courage stirred, and their good swords
1
Promised the victory. Burdened up the ridge
The soldier climbed, and from the opposing steep
But for his comrade's shield had fallen back;
None had the space to hurl the quivering lance
Upon the foeman: spear and pike made sure
The failing foothold, and the falchion's edge
Hewed out their upward path. But Caesar saw
Ruin impending, and he bade his horse
By circuit to the left, with shielded flank,
Hold back the foe. Thus gained his troops retreat,
For none pressed on them; and the victor chiefs,
Forced to withdrawal, gained the day in vain.
Henceforth the fitful changes of the year
Governed the fates and fashioned out the war.
For stubborn frost still lay upon the land,
And northern winds, controlling all the sky,
Prisoned the rain in clouds; the hills were nipped
With snow unmelted, and the lower plains
By frosts that fled before the rising sun;
And all the land,Meaning Spain, lying further to the west than Italy. there nearer to the sky
That whelms the stars, was hard and arid grown
By suns of winter. But when Titan neared
The Ram, who, backward gazing on the stars,
Bore perished Helle,Phrixus and Helle, the children of Nephele, were to be sacrificed to Zeus; but Nephele rescued them, and they rode away through the air on the Ram with the golden fleece. But Helle fell into the sea, which from her was named the Hellespont. (See Book IX., 1125.) The sun enters Aries about March 20. The Ram is pictured among the constellations with his head averse. and the hours were held
In balance, and the days again prevailed,
The earliest faded moon which in the vault
Hung with uncertain horn, from eastern wind
Received a fiery radiance; whose blast
Forced Boreas back: and breaking on the mists
Within his regions, to the Occident
Drave all that shroud Arabia and the land
Of Ganges; all that or by CaurusSee Book I., 464. borne
Bedim the Orient sky, or rising suns
Permit to gather; pitiless flamed the day
Behind them, while in front the wide expanse
Was driven; nor on mid earth sank the clouds
Though weighed with vapour. North and south alike
Were showerless, for on Calpe's rock alone
All moisture gathered; here at last, forbidden
