[
124]
"So great a calamity broke the power of the gods
also, and dread in heaven swelled the rout. A host of gentle deities throughout the
world abandon the frenzied earth in loathing, and turn aside from the doomed army of
mankind.
"Peace first of all, with her snow-white arms bruised, hides her vanquished head
beneath her helmet, and leaves the world and turns in flight to the inexorable realm
of Dis. At her side goes humble Faith and Justice with loosened hair, and Concord
weeping with her cloak rent in pieces. But where the hall of Erebus is open and
gapes wide, the dreadful company of Dis
[p. 273] ranges forth, the grim Fury,
and threatening Bellona, Megaera whirling her torches, and Destruction, and
Treachery, and the pale presence of Death. And among them Madness, like a steed
loosed when the reins snap, flings up her bloody head and shields her face, scarred
by a thousand wounds, with a bloodstained helm; her left hand grips her worn martial
shield, heavy with countless spear-points, her right waves a blazing brand and
carries fire through the world.
"Earth felt that the gods were there, the stars were shaken, and swung seeking their
former poise; for the whole palace of the sky broke and tumbled to ruin, And first
Dione
1 champions the
deeds of Caesar, and Pallas joins her side, and the child of Mars,
2 who brandishes his tall spear. "The
sister
3 of Phoebus and the son of Cyllene
4 and the hero of
Tiryns,
5
like to him in all his deeds, receive Pompey the Great.
"The trumpets shook, and Discord with dishevelled hair raised her Stygian head to the
upper sky. Blood had dried on her face, tears ran from her bruised eyes, her teeth
were mailed with a scurf of rust, her tongue was dripping with foulness and her face
beset with snakes, her clothes were torn before her writhen breasts, and she waved a
red torch in her quivering hand. When she had left behind the darkness of Cocytus
and Tartarus, she strode forward to the high ridges of
[p. 275] proud
Apennine, to gaze down thence upon all the earth and all its shores, and the armies
streaming over the whole globe; then these words were wrung from her angry soul: 'To
arms now, ye peoples, while your spirit is hot, to arms, and set your torches to the
heart of cities. He that would hide him shall be lost: let no women halt, nor
children, nor the old who are now wasted with age; let the earth herself quake, and
the shattered houses join the fight. Thou Marcellus,
6 hold fast the law. Thou, Curio,
7 make
the rabble quail. Thou, Lentulus,
8 give brave Mars
no check. And thou, divine Caesar, why art thou a laggard with thine arms? Crash
down the gates, strip towns of their walls and seize their treasure. So Magnus knows
not how to hold the hills of Rome? Let him take the bulwarks of
Epidamnus
9 and dye the bays of Thessaly
10 with the blood of men.' Then all the commands of Discord were fulfilled
upon the earth."
Eumolpus poured out these lines with immense fluency, and at last we came into
Croton. There we refreshed ourselves in a little inn, but on the next day we went to
look for a house of greater pretensions, and fell in with a crowd of
fortune-hunters, who inquired what kind of men we were, and where we had come from.
Then, as arranged by our common council,
[p. 277] a torrent of ready words
burst from us, and they gave easy credence to our account of ourselves and our
country. They at once quarrelled fiercely in their eagerness to heap their own
riches on Eumolpus.
The fortune-hunters all competed to win Eumolpus's favour with presents. . . .