Book 6
Now that the chiefs with minds intent on fight
1
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 their fortunes hang upon the throw.
Thrice he drew out his troops, his eagles thrice,
Demanding battle; to the ruin of Rome
Thus prompt as ever: but his kinsman foe,
Proof against every art, refused to leave
The rampart of his camp. Then marching swift
By hidden path between the wooded fields
He seeks, and hopes to seize, Dyrrhachium's Dyrrhachium (Durazzo) was a Corcyraean colony, but the founder was of Corinth, the metropolis of Corcyra. It stood some sixty miles north of the Ceraunian promotory (Book V., 751). About the year 1100 it was stormed and taken by Robert the Guiscard, after furious battles with the troops ofthe Emperor Alexius. It may be observed that, according to Caesar's account, he succeeded in getting between Pompey and Dyrrhachium, 'De Bello Celtico,' III., 41, 42. fort;
But Magnus, swifter speeding by the sea,
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 south,
Toss up the foaming 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
