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4

PHARSALIA

Book I

And far Araxes' stream, and those who know(If any such there be) the birth of NileHad felt our yoke. Then, Rome, upon thyselfWith all the world beneath thee, if thou must,Wage this nefarious war, but not till then.Now view the houses with half-ruined wallsThroughout Italian cities; stone from stoneHas slipped and lies at length; within the homeNo guard is found, and in the ancient streets 30Scarce seen the passer by. The fields in vain,Rugged with brambles and unploughed for years,Ask for the hand of man; for man is not.Nor savage Pyrrhus nor the Punic hordeE'er caused such havoc: to no foe was givenTo strike thus deep; but civil strife aloneDealt the fell wound and left the death behind.^[1]Yet if the fates could find no other wayFor Nero coming, nor the gods with easeGain thrones in heaven; and if the Thunderer 40Prevailed not till the giant's war was done,Complaint is silent. For this boon supremeWelcome, ye gods, be wickedness and crime;Thronged with our dead be dire Pharsalia's fields,Be Punic ghosts avenged by Roman blood;

↑ Mr. Froude in his essay entitled 'Divus Cæsar' hints that these famous lines may have been written in mockery. Probably the five years known as the Golden Era of Nero had passed when they were written: yet the text itself does not aid such a suggestion; and the view generally taken, namely that Lucan was in earnest, appears preferable. There were many who dreamed at the time that the disasters of the Civil War were being compensated by the wealth and prosperity of the empire under Nero; and the assurance of universal peace, then almost realised, which is expressed in lines 69-71, seems inconsistent with the idea that this passage was written in irony. (See Lecky's 'European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne,' vol, i. p. 240, who describes these latter verses as written 'with all the fervour of a Christian poet.' See also Merivale's 'Roman Empire,' chapter liv.)

[1] Mr. Froude in his essay entitled 'Divus Cæsar' hints that these famous lines may have been written in mockery. Probably the five years known as the Golden Era of Nero had passed when they were written: yet the text itself does not aid such a suggestion; and the view generally taken, namely that Lucan was in earnest, appears preferable. There were many who dreamed at the time that the disasters of the Civil War were being compensated by the wealth and prosperity of the empire under Nero; and the assurance of universal peace, then almost realised, which is expressed in lines 69-71, seems inconsistent with the idea that this passage was written in irony. (See Lecky's 'European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne,' vol, i. p. 240, who describes these latter verses as written 'with all the fervour of a Christian poet.' See also Merivale's 'Roman Empire,' chapter liv.)

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