LITMIR.BIZ

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Each trembling citizen in turn proceeds.

       The priests, chief guardians of the public faith,

       With holy sprinkling purge the open space

       That borders on the wall; in sacred garb

       Follows the lesser crowd: the Vestals come

       By priestess led with laurel crown bedecked,

       To whom alone is given the right to see

       Minerva's effigy that came from Troy (27).

       Next come the keepers of the sacred books

       And fate's predictions; who from Almo's brook

       Bring back Cybebe laved; the augur too

       Taught 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 head

       The cap of office. While they tread the path

       That winds around the walls, the aged seer

       Collects the thunderbolts that fell from heaven,

       And lays them deep in earth, with muttered words

       Naming the spot accursed. Next a steer,

       Picked for his swelling neck and beauteous form,

       He leads to the altar, and with slanting knife

       Spreads on his brow the meal, and pours the wine.

       The victim's struggles prove the gods averse;

       But when the servers press upon his horns

      He bends the knee and yields him to the blow.

       No crimson torrent issued at the stroke,

       But from the wound a dark empoisoned stream

       Ebbed slowly downward. Aruns at the sight

       Aghast, upon the entrails of the beast

       Essayed to read the anger of the gods.

       Their very colour terrified the seer;

       Spotted they were and pale, with sable streaks

       Of lukewarm gore bespread; the liver damp

       With foul disease, and on the hostile part

       The angry veins defiant; of the lungs

       The fibre hid, and through the vital parts

       The membrane small; the heart had ceased to throb;

       Blood oozes through the ducts; the caul is split:

       And, fatal omen of impending ill,

       One lobe o'ergrows the other; of the twain

       The one lies flat and sick, the other beats

       And keeps the pulse in rapid strokes astir.

      Disaster's near approach thus learned, he cries —

       "Whate'er may be the purpose of the gods,

       'Tis not for me to tell; this offered beast

       Not Jove possesses, but the gods below.

       We dare not speak our fears, yet fear doth make

       The future worse than fact. May all the gods

       Prosper the tokens, and the sacrifice

       Be void of truth, and Tages (famous seer)

       Have vainly taught these mysteries." Such his words

       Involved, mysterious. Figulus, to whom

       For knowledge of the secret depths of space

       And laws harmonious that guide the stars,

       Memphis could find no peer, then spake at large:

       "Either," he said, "the world and countless orbs

       Throughout the ages wander at their will;

       Or, if the fates control them, ruin huge

       Hangs o'er this city and o'er all mankind.

       Shall Earth yawn open and engulph the towns?

       Shall scorching heat usurp the temperate air

       And fields refuse their timely fruit? The streams

       Flow mixed with poison? In what plague, ye gods,

       In what destruction shall ye wreak your ire?

       Whate'er the truth, the days in which we live

       Shall find a doom for many. Had the star

       Of baleful Saturn, frigid in the height,

       Kindled his lurid fires, the sky had poured

       Its torrents forth as in Deucalion's time,

       And whelmed the world in waters. Or if thou,

       Phoebus, beside the Nemean lion fierce

       Wert driving now thy chariot, flames should seize

       The universe and set the air ablaze.

       These are at peace; but, Mars, why art thou bent

       On kindling thus the Scorpion, his tail

       Portending evil and his claws aflame?

       Deep sunk is kindly Jupiter, and dull

       Sweet Venus' star, and rapid Mercury

       Stays on his course: Mars only holds the sky.

       Why does Orion's sword too brightly shine?

       Why planets leave their paths and through the void

       Thus journey on obscure? 'Tis war that comes,

       Fierce rabid war: the sword shall bear the rule

       Confounding justice; hateful crime usurp

       The name of virtue; and the havoc spread

       Through many a year. But why entreat the gods?

       The end Rome longs for and the final peace

       Comes with a despot. Draw thou out thy chain

       Of lengthening slaughter, and (for such thy fate)

       Make good thy liberty through civil war."

      The frightened people heard, and as they heard

       His words prophetic made them fear the more.

       But worse remained; for as on Pindus' slopes

       Possessed with fury from the Theban god

       Speeds some Bacchante, thus in Roman streets

       Behold a matron run, who, in her trance,

       Relieves her bosom of the god within.

      "Where dost thou snatch me, Paean, to what shore

       Through airy regions borne? I see the snows

       Of Thracian mountains; and Philippi's plains

       Lie broad beneath. But why these battle lines,

       No foe to vanquish — Rome on either hand?

       Again I wander 'neath the rosy hues

       That paint thine eastern skies, where regal Nile

       Meets with his flowing wave the rising tide.

       Known to mine eyes that mutilated trunk

       That lies upon the sand! Across the seas

       By changing whirlpools to the burning climes

       Of Libya borne, again I see the hosts

       From Thracia brought by fate's command. And now

       Thou bear'st me o'er the cloud-compelling Alps

       And Pyrenean summits; next to Rome.

       There in mid-Senate see the closing scene

      

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