Project Gutenberg's Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars, by Lucan

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Title: Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars

Author: Lucan

Posting Date: October 8, 2008 [EBook #602]
Release Date: July, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PHARSALIA; DRAMATIC EPISODES ***

Produced by Douglas B. Killings

Pharsalia

(aka "The Civil War")

by

Lucan

(Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) A.D. 39-A.D. 65

Originally written in Latin, approximately A.D. 61-65, by the
Roman poet Lucan, and probably left unfinished upon his death in
A.D. 65. Although the work has been generally known through most
of history as the "Pharsalia", modern scholarship tends to agree
that this was not Lucan's choice for a title.

This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by
Douglas B. Killings (DeTroyes@AOL.COM), May 1996.

BOOK I

THE CROSSING OF THE RUBICON

Wars worse than civil on Emathian (1) plains,
And crime let loose we sing; how Rome's high race
Plunged in her vitals her victorious sword;
Armies akin embattled, with the force
Of all the shaken earth bent on the fray;
And burst asunder, to the common guilt,
A kingdom's compact; eagle with eagle met,
Standard to standard, spear opposed to spear.

Whence, citizens, this rage, this boundless lust
To sate barbarians with the blood of Rome?
Did not the shade of Crassus, wandering still, (2)
Cry for his vengeance? Could ye not have spoiled,
To deck your trophies, haughty Babylon?
Why wage campaigns that send no laurels home?
What lands, what oceans might have been the prize
Of all the blood thus shed in civil strife!
Where Titan rises, where night hides the stars,
'Neath southern noons all quivering with heat,
Or where keen frost that never yields to spring
In icy fetters binds the Scythian main:
Long since barbarians by the Eastern sea
And far Araxes' stream, and those who know
(If any such there be) the birth of Nile
Had felt our yoke. Then, Rome, upon thyself
With all the world beneath thee, if thou must,
Wage this nefarious war, but not till then.

Now view the houses with half-ruined walls
Through