Book 8
'Since in Emathia's battle-field was lost
1
'The world, so far as Roman, it remains
' To test the faith of peoples of the East
' Who drink of Tigris and Euphrates' stream,
'Secure as yet from Caesar. Be it thine
'Far as the rising of the sun to trace
' The fates that favour Magnus: to the courts
' Of Median palaces, to Scythian steppes;
'And to the son of haughty Arsaces,
'To bear my message, "Hold ye to the faith,
'" Pledged by your priests and by the Thunderer's name
' "Of Latium sworn? Then fill your quivers full,
' "Draw to its fullest span th' Armenian bow;
'" And, Getan archers, wing the fatal shaft.
'" And you, ye Parthians, if when I sought
'"The Caspian gates, and on th' Alaunian tribes
" Fierce, ever-warring, pressed, I suffered you
" In Persian tracts to wander, nor compelled
" To seek for shelter Babylonian walls;
" If beyond Cyrus' kingdom Pompeius seems to have induced the Roman public to believe that he had led his armies to such extreme distances, but he never in fact did so. - Mommsen, vol. iv., p. 147. and the bounds
" Of wide Chaldaea, where from Nysa's top
'"Pours down Hydaspes, and the Ganges stream
' Foams to the ocean, nearer far I stood
'" Than Persia's bounds to Phoebus' rising fires;
'" If by my sufferance, Parthians, you alone
'" Decked not my triumphs, but in equal state
" Sole of all Eastern princes, face to face
" Met Magnus in his pride, nor only once
' Through me were saved; (for after that dread day
" Who but Pompeius soothed the kindling fires
" Of Latium's anger?) - by my service paid
'"Come forth to victory : burst the ancient bounds
' By Macedon's hero set: in Magnus' cause
" March, Parthians, to Rome's conquest. Rome herself
' Prays to be conquered."'
Yet doffed his robe, and swift obeyed, the king
Wrapped in a servant's mantle. If a Prince
For safety play the boor, then happier, sure,
The peasant's lot than lordship of the world.
