Kitap 5
' With me the northern and Iberian worlds,
1
' Would flee when led by Magnus. Strong with me
' Was Labienus:Labienus left Caesar's ranks after the Rubicon was crossed, and joined his rival. In his mouth Lucan puts the speech made at the oracle of Hammon in Book IX. He was slain at Munda, B.C. 45. vile deserter now;
' A homeless exile with his chief preferred.
' Nor were your faith more firm if, neither side
'Espoused, you ceased from arms. Who leaves me once,
'Though not to fight against me with the foe,
'Joins not my ranks again. Surely the gods
'Smile on these arms who for so great a war
'Grant me fresh soldiers. From what heavy load
'Fortune relieves me! for the hands which aimed
'At all, to which the world did not suffice,
'I now disarm, and for myself alone
'Reserve the conflict. Quit ye, then, my camp,
'And leave my standards to the grasp of men,
'Coward That is, civilians; no longer soldiers. This one contemptuous expression is said to have shocked and abashed the army. (Tacitus, 'Ann.,' I., 42.) Quirites! But some guilty few
'I keep, not as their captain, but their judge.
'Lie, traitors, prone on earth, stretch out the neck
'And take th' avenging blow. And thou whose strength
'Shall now support me, young and yet untaught,
'Behold the doom and learn to strike and die.'
Such were his words of ire, and all the host
Drew back and trembled at the voice of him
They would depose, as though their very swords
Would from their scabbards leap at his command
Themselves unwilling; but he only feared
Lest hand and blade to satisfy the doom
Might be denied; till they submitting pledged
Their lives and swords alike, beyond his hope.
To strike and sufferReading tenet, with Hosius and Francken; not timet, as Haskins.The prospect of inflicting punishment attracted, while the suffering of it subdued, the mutineers. holds in surest thrall
The heart inured to guilt; and Caesar kept,
By dreadful compact ratified in blood,
Those whom he feared to lose.
In ten days' march Brundusium, and recall
From old Tarentum and from Hydrus lone
His navy, and from Leucas' point remote,
And the Salapian marsh where Sipus lies
By rich Garganus, jutting from the shore
In huge escarpment that divides the waves
