r death again; yet could not die
Till mystic herb and magic chant prevailed.
For nature's law, once used, had power no more
To slay the corpse and set the spirit free.
With plenteous wood she builds the funeral pyre
To which the dead man comes: then as the flames
Seized on his form outstretched, the youth and witch
Together sought the camp; and as the dawn
Now streaked the heavens, by the hag's command
The day was stayed till Sextus reached his tent,
And mist and darkness veiled his safe return.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Dyrrhachium (or Epidamnus) was a Corcyraean colony, but its
founder was of Corinth, the metropolis of Corcyra. It stood
some sixty miles north of the Ceraunian promontory (Book V.,
747). About the year 1100 it was stormed and taken by
Robert the Guiscard, after furious battles with the troops
of the Emperor Alexius. Its modern name is Durazzo. It may
be observed that, according to Caesar's account, he
succeeded in getting between Pompey and Dyrrhachium, B.C. 3,
41, 42.
(2) C. del Faro, the N.E. point of Sicily.
(3) The shores of Kent.
(4) Aricia was situated on the Via Appia, about sixteen miles
from Rome. There was a temple of Diana close to it, among
some woods on a small lake. Aricia was Horace's first
halting place on his journey to Brundisium ("Satires", i.
5). As to Diana, see Book I., line 501.
(5) An island in the Bay of Puteoli.
(6) Typhon, the hundred-headed giant, was buried under Mount
Etna.
(7) This was Scaeva's name.
(8) The vinewood staff was the badge of the centurion's office.
(9) This giant, like Typhon, was buried under Mount Etna.
(10) Juba and Petreius killed each other after the battle of
Thepsus to avoid falling into Caesar's hands. See Book IV.,
line 5.
(11) So Cicero: "Shall I, who have been called saviour of the
city and father of my country, bring into it an army of
Getae Armenians and Colchians?" ("Ep. ad Atticum," ix., 10.)
(12) See Book VIII., line 3.
(13) Protesilaus, from this place, first landed at Troy.
(14) Thamyris challenged the Muses to a musical contest, and
being vanquished, was by them deprived of sight.
(15) The arrows given to Philoctetes by Hercules as a reward for
kindling his funeral pyre.
(16) This is the Pelasgic, not the historical, Argos.
(17) Book I., line 632; Book VII., line 904. Agave was a
daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Penth
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