Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/45
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Book I
THE CROSSING OF THE RUBICON
21
'Where Nar with Tiber joins: and where, in meads'By oxen loved, Mevania spreads her walls,'Fierce Cæsar hurries his barbarian horse.'Eagles and standards wave above his head,'And broad the march that sweeps across the land.'Nor is he pictured truly; greater farMore fierce and pitiless—from conquered foesAdvancing; in his rear the peoples march.Snatched from their homes between the Rhine and Alps,To pillage Rome while Roman chiefs look on. 540Thus each man's panic thought swells rumour's lie:They fear the phantoms they themselves create.Nor does the terror seize the crowd alone:But fled the Fathers, to the Consuls[1] firstIssuing their hated order, as for war;And doubting of their safety, doubting tooWhere lay the peril, through the choking gates,Each where he would, rushed all the people forth.Thou would'st believe that blazing to the torchWere men's abodes, or nodding to their fall. 550So streamed they onwards, frenzied with affright,As though in exile only could they findHope for their country. So, when southern blastsFrom Libyan whirlpools drive the boundless main,And mast and sail crash down upon a shipWith ponderous weight, but still the frame is sound,Her crew and captain leap into the sea,Each making shipwreck for himself. 'Twas thusThey passed the city gates and fled to war.No aged parent now could stay his son; 560Nor wife her spouse, nor did they pray the godsTo grant the safety of their fatherland.