Crushed on the narrow surface of the mole,
Prepared to throw his troops upon the ships,
Sudden upon him the surrounding foes
With all their terrors came. In dense array
Their navy lined the shores, while on the rear
The footmen ceaseless charged. No hope was left,
For flight was not, nor could the brave man's arm
Achieve or safety or a glorious death.
Not now were needed for great Caesar's fall,
Caught in the toils of nature, routed host
Or mighty heaps of slain: his only doubt
To fear or hope for death: while on his brain
Brave Scaeva's image flashed, now vainly sought,
Who on the wall by Epidamnus' fields
Earned fame immortal, and with single arm
Drove back Pompeius as he trod the breach....

ENDNOTES:

(1) The body of Alexander was embalmed, and the mummy placed in
a glass case. The sarcophagus which enclosed them is stated
to be now in the British Museum.
(2) See Book III., 268.
(3) The kettledrum used in the worship of Isis. (See Book VIII,
line 974.)
(4) At the Battle of Actium. The island of Leucas, close to the
promontory of Actium, is always named by Lucan when he
refers to this battle. (See also Virgil, "Aeneid", viii.,
677.)
(5) Between Cleopatra and her brother.
(6) See Book IX., 507.
(7) Yet the Mareot grape was greatly celebrated. (See Professor
Rawlinson's note to Herodotus. ii., 18.)
(8) The calendar introduced by Caesar, in B.C. 45, was founded
on the Egyptian or solar year. (See Herodotus, ii., 4.)
Eudoxus seems to have dealt with this year and to have
corrected it. He is probably alluded to by Virgil,
"Eclogue" iii., 41.
(9) Herodotus was less fortunate. For he says "Concerning the
nature of the river I was not able to gain any information
either from the priests or others." (ii., 19.)
(10) It was supposed that the Sun and Moon and the planets
(Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus) were points
which restrained the motion of the sky in its revolution.
(See Book VI., 576.)
(11) Mercury. (See Book IX., 777.)
(12) That is, at the autumnal equinox. The priest states that
the planet Mercury causes the rise of the Nile. The passage
is difficult to follow; but the idea would seem to be that
this god, who controlled the rise and fall of the waves of
the sea, also when he was placed directly over the Nile
caused the rise of that river.
(13) So also Herodotus, Book ii