879]

Julius Caesar is assassinated in the Senate-house, and by the
intercession of Venus, his ancestor, he is changed into a star. The
Poet concludes his work with a compliment to Augustus, and a promise
of immortality to himself.

And still, he came a stranger to our temples; Caesar is a Deity in his
own city; whom, {alike} distinguished both in war and peace, wars ending
with triumphs, his government at home, and the rapid glory of his
exploits, did not more {tend to} change into a new planet, and a star
with brilliant train, than did his own progeny. For of {all} the acts of
Caesar, there is not one more ennobling than that he was the father of
this {our Caesar}. Was it, forsooth, a greater thing to have conquered
the Britons surrounded by the ocean, and to have steered his victorious
ships along the seven-mouthed streams of the Nile that bears the
papyrus, and to have added to the people of Quirinus the rebellious
Numidians[83] and the Cinyphian Juba, and Pontus[84] proud of the fame
of Mithridates, and to have deserved many a triumph, {and} to have
enjoyed some, than it was to have been the father of a personage so
great, under whose tutelage over the world, you, ye Gods above, have
shewn excessive care for the human race? That he {then} might not be
sprung from mortal seed, {'twas fit that Julius} should be made a
Divinity. When the resplendent mother of AEneas was sensible of this; and
{when} she saw that a sad death was in preparation for the Pontiff, and
that the arms of the conspirators were brandished; she turned pale, and
said to each of the Deities, as she met them:--

"Behold, on how vast a scale treason is plotted against me, and with how
great perfidy that life is sought, which alone remains for me from the
Dardanian Iuelus. Shall I alone be everlastingly harassed by justified
anxieties? I, whom one while the Calydonian lance of the son of Tydeus
is wounding, {and} at another time the walls of Troy, defended in vain,
are grieving? I, who have seen my son driven about in protracted
wanderings, tossed on the ocean, entering the abodes of the departed,
and waging war with Turnus; or, if we confess the truth, with Juno
rather? {But}, why am I now calling to mind the ancient misfortunes of
my own offspring? Present apprehensions do not allow me to remember
things of former days. Against me, you behold how the impious swords are
{now} being whetted. Avert them, I entreat; hinder this crime, and do