Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/49

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Book I
THE CROSSING OF THE RUBICON
25
Each trembling citizen in turn proceeds.The priests, chief guardians of the public faith,With holy sprinkling purge the open spaceThat borders on the wall; in sacred garbFollows the lesser crowd: the Vestals comeBy priestess led with laurel crown bedecked,To whom alone is given the right to see[1]Minerva's effigy that came from Troy.Next come the keepers of the sacred books 660And fate's predictions; who from Almo's brookBring back Cybebe laved; the augur tooTaught to observe sinister flight of birds;And those who serve the banquets to the gods;And Titian brethren; and the priest of Mars,Proud of the buckler that adorns his neck;By him the Flamen, on his noble headThe cap of office. While they tread the pathThat winds around the walls, the aged seerCollects the thunderbolts that fell from heaven, 670And lays them deep in earth, with muttered wordsNaming the spot accursed. Next a steer,Picked for his swelling neck and beauteous form,He leads to the altar, and with slanting knifeSpreads on his brow the meal, and pours the wine.The victim's struggles prove the gods averse;But when the servers press upon his hornsHe bends the knee and yields him to the blow.No crimson torrent issued at the stroke,But from the wound a dark empoisoned stream 680Ebbed slowly downward. Aruns at the sight

    of Jupiter and Minerva had been struck by lightning, and was probably witnessed by Lucan himself. (See Merivale's ‘History of the Roman Empire,' chapter lii.)

  1. ↑ See Book IX., 1178.
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