Kitap 9
' Of yore-a victim for the realm he gave.
1
' I saw them pierce our noble father's breast;
' Yet deeming not the petty Pharian prince
' So fell a deed would dare, on Egypt's strand
' I thought great Caesar stood. But worse than all,
' Worse than the wounds which gaped upon his frame
' Struck me with horror to the inmost heart,
' Our murdered father's head, shorn from the trunk
' And borne aloft on javelin; this sight,
' As rumour said, the cruel victor asked
' To feast his eyes, and prove the bloody deed.
' For whether ravenous birds and Pharian dogs
' Have torn his corse asunder, or a fire
' Consumed it, which with stealthy flame arose,
' I know not. For the fates' unjust decree
'Which reft his limbs asunder, I forgive
' The gods: I weep the part preserved by men.'
Thus Sextus spake: but Cnaeus at the tale
Restrained the tear, and for his father's shame
Flamed into fury: ' Launch our navies forth,
' Ye sailors, from the shore, by stalwart arms
' Forced through the deep against opposing winds:
' Captains, lead on: for civil strife ne'er gave
' So great a prize; to lay in earth the limbs
'Of Magnus, and avenge him with the blood
'Of that unmanly tyrant. Shall I spare
Great Alexander's fort, nor sack the shrine
And plunge his body in the tideless marsh?
Nor drag Amasis from the Pyramids,
'And all their ancient kings, to swim the Nile?
'Torn from his tomb, that god of all mankind
'Isis, unburied, shall avenge thy shade;
And veiled Osiris shall I hurl abroad
'And sacred Apis;See Book VIII., line 545. and with these their gods
'I'll light a furnace that shall burn the head
'They held in insult. Thus their land shall pay
'Atonement to the shade of Magnus dead.
No husbandman shall live to till the fields
Nor reap the benefit of brimming Nile.
'Thou only, Father, gods and men alike
