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96
PHARSALIA
Book IV
Its foliage; hills again emerged to viewAnd 'neath the warmth of day the plains grew firm.When Sicoris kept his banks, the shallop lightOf hoary willow bark they build, which bentOn hides of oxen, bore the weight of manAnd swam the torrent. Thus on sluggish PoVenetians float; and on th' encircling sea[1]Are borne Britannia's nations; and when Nile 150Fills all the land, are Memphis' thirsty reedsShaped into fragile boats that swim his waves.The further bank thus gained, they haste to curveThe fallen forest, and to form the archBy which imperious Sicoris shall be spanned.Yet fearing he might rise in wrath anew,Not on the nearest marge they placed the beams,But in mid-field. Thus the presumptuous streamThey tame with chastisement, parting his floodIn devious channels out; and curb his pride. 160Petreius, when he saw that Cæsar's fatesSwept all before them, left Ilerda's steep,His trust no longer in the Roman world;And sought for strength amid those distant tribes,Who, loving death, rush in upon the foe,[2]And win their conquests at the point of sword.But in the dawn, when Cæsar saw the campStand empty on the hill, 'To arms!' he cried:'Seek not the bridge nor ford: plunge in the stream'And breast the foaming torrent.' Then did hope 170Of coming battle find for them a way
  1. ↑ Fuso: either spacious, outspread; or, poured into the land (referring to the estuaries) as Mr. Haskins prefers; or, poured round the island. Portable leathern skiffs seem to have been in common use in Cæsar's time in the English Channel. These were the rowing boats of the Gauls.(Mommsen, vol. iv., 219.)
  2. ↑ Compare Book I., 519.
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