Kitap 1
And of the spectacle is made a part.
Caesar would represent a naval fight,The naval combats were represented in a place dug on purpose on the banks of the Tiber; it was called Naumachia; and when occasion required the river water was let into it. Tacitus, in his twelfth book, makes mention of a representation of the naval battle of Actium.
For his own honour and for Rome's delight.
From either sea the youths and maidens come,
200
And all the world was then contain'd in Rome!
In this vast concourse, in this choice of game,
What Roman heart but felt a foreign flame!
Once more our prince prepares to make us glad,
And the remaining east to Rome will add.Augustus having put an end to the war in Spain, undertook an expedition into Asia, and began the Parthian war; in which he recovered the ensigns that had been taken from the Romans in the defeat of Crassus, which these verses refer to.
205
Rejoice, ye Roman soldiers, in your urns,
Your ensigns from the Parthians shall return,
And the slain Crassi shall no longer mourn.
A youth is sent those trophies to demand,
Ard bears his father's thunders in his hand;
210
Doubt not th' imperial boy in wars unseen,
In childhood all of Caesar's race are men.
Celestial seeds shoot out before their day,
Prevent their years, and brook no dull delay.
Thus infant Hercules the snakes did press,
215
And in his cradle did his sire confess.
