vil arms,
Which made thee emperor. Thee (seeing thou, being old,
Must shine a star) shall heaven (whom thou lovest)
Receive with shouts; where thou wilt reign as king,
Or mount the Sun's flame-bearing chariot,
And with bright restless fire compass the earth,
Undaunted though her former guide be chang'd; 50
Nature and every power shall give thee place,
What god it please thee be, or where to sway.
But neither choose the north t'erect thy seat,
Nor yet the adverse reeking[582] southern pole,
Whence thou shouldst view thy Rome with squinting[583] beams.
If any one part of vast heaven thou swayest,
The burden'd axes[584] with thy force will bend:
The midst is best; that place is pure and bright;
There, Caesar, mayst thou shine, and no cloud dim thee.
Then men from war shall bide in league and ease, 60
Peace through the world from Janus' face shall fly,
And bolt the brazen gates with bars of iron.
Thou, Caesar, at this instant art my god;
Thee if I invocate, I shall not need
To crave Apollo's aid or Bacchus' help;
Thy power inspires the Muse that sings this war.
The causes first I purpose to unfold
Of these garboils,[585] whence springs a long discourse;
And what made madding people shake off peace.
The Fates are envious, high seats[586] quickly perish, 70
Under great burdens falls are ever grievous;
Rome was so great it could not bear itself.
So when this world's compounded union breaks,
Time ends, and to old Chaos all things turn,
Confused stars shall meet, celestial fire
Fleet on the floods, the earth shoulder the sea,
Affording it no shore, and Phoebe's wain
Chase Phoebus, and enrag'd affect his place,
And strive to shine by day and full of strife
Dissolve the engines of the broken world. 80
All great things crush themselves; such end the gods
Allot the height of honour; men so strong
By land and sea, no foreign force could ruin.
O Rome, thyself art cause of all these evils,
Thyself thus shiver'd out to three men's shares!
Dire league of partners in a kingdom last not.
O faintly-join'd friends, with ambition blind,
Why join you force to share the world betwixt you?
While th' earth the sea, and air the earth sustains,
While Titan strives against the world's sw