230
Swifter than bullets thrown from Spanish slings,
Or darts which Parthians backward shoot, march'd on;
And then, when Lucifer did shine alone,
And some dim stars, he Ariminum enter'd.
Day rose, and view'd these tumults of the war:
Whether the gods or blustering south were cause
I know not, but the cloudy air did frown.
The soldiers having won the market-place,
There spread the colours with confused noise
Of trumpets' clang, shrill cornets, whistling fifes. 240
The people started; young men left their beds,
And snatch'd arms near their household-gods hung up,
Such as peace yields; worm-eaten leathern targets,
Through which the wood peer'd,[597] headless darts, old swords
With ugly teeth of black rust foully scarr'd.
But seeing white eagles, and Rome's flags well known,
And lofty Caesar in the thickest throng,
They shook for fear, and cold benumb'd their limbs,
And muttering much, thus to themselves complain'd:
"O walls unfortunate, too near to France! 250
Predestinate to ruin! all lands else
Have stable peace: here war's rage first begins;
We bide the first brunt. Safer might we dwell
Under the frosty bear, or parching east,
Waggons or tents, than in this frontier town.
We first sustain'd the uproars of the Gauls
And furious Cimbrians, and of Carthage Moors:
As oft as Rome was sack'd, here gan the spoil."
Thus sighing whisper'd they, and none durst speak,
And show their fear or grief; but as the fields 260
When birds are silent thorough winter's rage,
Or sea far from the land, so all were whist,[598]
Now light had quite dissolv'd the misty night,
And Caesar's mind unsettled musing stood;
But gods and fortune pricked him to this war,
Infringing all excuse of modest shame,
And labouring to approve[599] his quarrel good.
The angry senate, urging Gracchus'[600] deeds,
From doubtful Rome wrongly expell'd the tribunes
That cross'd them: both which now approach'd the camp, 270
And with them Curio, sometime tribune too,
One that was fee'd for Caesar, and whose tongue
Could tune the people to the nobles' mind.[601]
"Caesar," said he, "while eloquence prevail'd,
And I might plead and draw the commons' minds
To favour thee, against the senate's will,
Five years I l