Kitap 4
' Of warlike heroism, of noble faith,
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'Time's annals show! All these shall we surpass.
'True, Caesar, that to fall upon our swords
'For thee is little; yet beleaguered thus,
'With neither sons nor parents at our sides,
'Shorn of the glory that we might have earned,
'We give thee here the only pledge we may.
'Yet let these hostile thousands fear the souls
'That rage for battle and that welcome death,
'And know us for invincible, and joy
'That no more rafts were stayed. They'll offer terms,
'And tempt us with a base unhonoured life.
'Would that, to give that death which shall be ours
'The greater glory, they may bid us hope
'For pardon and for life! lest when our swords
'Are reeking with our hearts'-blood, they may say
'This was despair of living. Great must be
'The prowess of our end, if in the hosts
'That fight his battles, Caesar is to mourn
'This little handful lost. For me, should fate
'Grant us retreat-myself would scorn to shun
'The coming onset. Life I cast away,
'The frenzy of the death that comes apace
'Controls my being. Those whose end is near
'Alone may know the happiness of death;
'Which pitying heaven from all else conceals
'That men may bear to live.'Quoted in Sir T. Browne's 'Religio Medici,' i., 44. 'There be many excellent strains in that Poet wherewith his stoical genius hath liberally supplied him.' His stirring words
Warmed his brave comrades' hearts-they who with fear
And tearful eyes had looked upon the Wain,
Turning his nightly course, now hoped for day,
Such precepts deep within them. Nor delayed
The sky to dip the stars below the main;
For Phoebus in the Twins his chariot drave
At noon near Cancer; and the hours of night That is, night was at its shortest.
Were shortened by the Archer.
Lo! on the rocks the Istrians;On this passage see Dean Merivale's remarks, 'History of the Roman Empire,' chapter xvi. while the sea
Swarmed with the galleys and their Grecian fleet
All armed for fight: but first the war was stayed
And terms proposed: life to the foe they thought
