Book 9
'Fallen and perished, shalt possess the land.'
1
Such were the words he spake; and soon the fleet
Had dared the angry deep: but Cato's voice
While praising, calmed the youthful chieftain's rage.
Meanwhile, when Magnus' fate was known, the air
Sounded with lamentations which the shore
Re-echoed; never through the ages past,
By history recorded, was it known
That thus a people mourned their ruler's death.
Yet more, when worn with tears, her pallid cheek
Veiled by her loosened tresses, from the ship
Cornelia came, they wept and beat the breast.
Soon as she stood upon the friendly land,
Ill-fated Magnus' spoils, his arms of price,
His gold-embroidered robe, three times of old See line 706.
Displayed to Jove upon the hill, she placed
Upon the mournful fire. Such was for her
The dust of Magnus. And her love so touched
The hearts of all, that soon along the shore
Pyres blazed in memory of Pharsalia's dead.
'Tis thus in winter to depastured fields
By frequent fires th' Apulian herdsman seeks
To render verdant growth; and glow with flame
Garganus' slopes, and Vultur, and the meads
Nought else so gratified, not all the blame
The people dared to heap upon the gods,
For him their hero slain, as these few words
From Cato's noble breast instinct with truth:
'Gone is a citizen who though no peer This passage is described by Lord Macaulay as 'a pure gem of rhetoric without one flaw, and, in my opinion, not very far from historical truth' (Trevelyan's 'Life and Letters,' vol. i., page 432).
'Of those who disciplined the state of yore
In due submission to the bounds of right,
'Yet in this age irreverent of law
'Has played a noble part. Great was his power,
'But freedom safe: when all the plebs was prone
'To be his slaves, he chose the private gown;
'So that the Senate ruled the Roman state,
'Its chief was Cato: nought by right of arms
'He e'er demanded: willing took he gifts
