Kitap 9
' Without a despot! Yet to men the prize
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' Were worth the danger. Magnus might have used
' To evil ends your blood; refuse ye now,
' With liberty so near, your country's call?
' Now lives one tyrant only of the three;
' Thus far in favour of the laws have wrought
' The Pharian weapons and the Parthian bow;
' Not you, degenerate! Begone, and spurn
' This gift of Ptolemaeus.That is, liberty, which by the murder of Pompeius they had obtained. Who would think
' Your hands were stained with blood? The foe will deem
' That you upon that dread Thessalian day
' First turned your backs. Then flee in safety, flee!
' By neither battle nor blockade subdued
' Caesar shall give you life! 0 slaves most base,
' Your former master slain, ye seek his heir!
' Why doth it please you not yet more to earn
'Than life and pardon? Bear across the sea
' Metellus' daughter, Magnus' weeping spouse,
' And both his sons; outstrip the Pharian gift.
' Nor spare this head, which, laid before the feet
' Of that detested tyrant, shall deserve
'A full reward. Thus, cowards, shall ye learn
' In that ye followed me how great your gain.
' Quick to your task and purchase thus with blood
'Your claim on Caesar. 'Tis a dastard crime;
' Flight without slaughter!'
The parting vessels. So when bees in swarm
Desert their empty comb, forget the hive,
Ceasing to cling together, and with wings
Untrammelled seek the air, nor slothful light
On thyme to taste its bitterness-then rings
The Phrygian gong-at once they pause aloft
Astonied; and with love of toil resumed
Through all the flowers for their honey store
In ceaseless wanderings search; the shepherd joys,
Sure that th' Hyblaean mead for him has kept
His cottage store, the riches of his home.
Now in the active conduct of the war
Were brought to discipline their minds, untaught
