Kitap 1
' What cottage homes their joys, what fields their fruit
1
' Shall to our veterans yield? Will Magnus say
' That pirates only till the fields aright?
' Unfurl your standards; victory gilds them yet,
' As through those glorious years. Deny our rights!
' He that denies them makes our quarrel just.
' Nay! use the strength that we have made our own.
' No booty seek we, nor imperial power.
' This would-be ruler of subservient Rome
'We force to quit his grasp; and Heaven shall smile
'On those who seek to drag the tyrant down.'
Thus Caesar spake; but doubtful murmurs ran
Throughout the crowd; their household gods and homes
Made pause their minds though long inured to blood:
But fear of Caesar and the pride of war
Drew them to him. Then Laelius, who wore
The well-earned crown for Roman life preserved,
The foremost Captain of the army, spake:
'O greatest leader of the Roman name,
'If thou dost ask it, and the law permits,
'I tell thee all: our just complaint is this,
'That gifted with such strength thou didst refrain
'From using it. Hadst thou no trust in us?
'While the hot life-blood fills these glowing veins,
' While these strong arms avail to hurl the lance,
'Wilt thou in peace endure the Senate's rule?
'Is civil conquest then so base and vile?
'Lead us through Scythian deserts, lead us where
'The inhospitable Syrtes line the shore
'Of Afric's burning sands, or where thou wilt:
'This hand, to leave a conquered world behind,
'Held firm the oar that tamed the Northern Sea
And Rhine's swift torrent foaming to the main.
'To follow thee fate gives me now the power:
'The will was mine before. No citizen
'I count the man 'gainst whom thy trumpets sound.
'By ten campaigns of victory, I swear,
'By all thy triumphs, bid me plunge the sword
'In sire or brother or in pregnant spouse,
By this unwilling hand the deed were done:
