Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/94

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PHARSALIA
Book III
And all Cilicia's ports, pirate no more,Resound with preparation. Nor the EastRefused the call, where furthest Ganges dares,Alone of rivers, to discharge his streamAgainst the sun opposing; on this shore[1]The Macedonian conqueror stayed his footAnd found the world his victor; here too rolls 270Indus his torrent with Hydaspes joinedYet hardly feels it; here from luscious reedMen draw sweet liquor; here they dye their locksWith tints of saffron, and with coloured gemsBind down their flowing garments; here are they,Who satiate of life and proud to die,Ascend the blazing pyre, and conquering fate,Scorn to live longer; but triumphant giveThe remnant of their days in flame to heaven.[2]Nor fails to join the host a hardy band 280Of Cappadocians, tilling now the soil,Once pirates of the main: nor those who dwellWhere steep Niphates hurls the avalanche,And where on Median Coatra's sidesThe giant forest rises to the sky.And you, Arabians, from your distant homeCame to a world unknown, and wondering sawThe shadows fall no longer to the left.[3]Then fired with ardour for the Roman warOretas came, and far Carmania's chiefs, 290Whose clime lies southward, yet men thence descry
  1. ↑ He did not in fact reach the Ganges, as is well known.
  2. ↑ Perhaps in allusion to the embassy from India to Augustus in B.C. 19, when Zarmanochanus, an Indian sage, declaring that he had lived in happiness and would not risk the chance of a reverse, burnt himself publicly. (Merivale, chapter xxxiv.)
  3. ↑ That is to say, looking towards the west; meaning that they came from the other side of the equator. (See Book IX., 630.)
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