ve
marked them in my mind; I will repeat them, that thou mayst not still be
ignorant of the future. He (on whose account, Cytherea, thou art {thus}
anxious), has completed his time, those years being ended which he owed
to the earth. Thou, with his son, who, as the heir to his glory, will
bear the burden of government devolving {on him}, wilt cause him, as a
Deity, to reach the heavens, and to be worshipped in temples; and he, as
a most valiant avenger of his murdered parent, will have us to aid him
in his battles. The conquered walls of Mutina,[86] besieged under his
auspices, shall sue for peace; Pharsalia shall be sensible of him, and
Philippi,[87] again drenched with Emathian gore; and the name {of one
renowned as} Great, shall be subdued in the Sicilian waves; the Egyptian
dame too, the wife[88] of the Roman general, shall fall, vainly trusting
in that alliance; and in vain shall she threaten, that our own Capitol
shall be obedient to her Canopus.[89] Why should I recount to thee the
regions of barbarism, {and} nations situate in either ocean? Whatever
the habitable world contains, shall be his; the sea, too, shall be
subject to him. Peace being granted to the earth, he will turn his
attention to civil rights, and, as a most upright legislator, he will
enact laws. After his own example, too, will he regulate manners; and,
looking forward to the days of future time, and of his coming posterity,
he will order the offspring born of his hallowed wife[90] to assume both
his own name and his cares. Nor shall he, until as an aged man he shall
have equalled {his glories with} like years,[91] arrive at the abodes of
heaven and his kindred stars. Meanwhile, change this soul, snatched from
the murdered body, into a beam of light, that eternally the Deified
Julius may look down from his lofty abode upon our Capitol and Forum."

Hardly had he uttered these words, when the genial Venus, perceived by
none, stood in the very midst of the Senate-house, and snatched the
soul, just liberated {from the body}, away from the limbs of her own
Caesar, and, not suffering it to dissolve in air, she bore it amid the
stars of heaven. And as she bore it, she perceived it assume a {train
of} light and become inflamed; and she dropped it from her bosom. Above
the moon it takes its flight, and, as a star, it glitters, carrying a
flaming train with a lengthened track; and, as he beholds the
illustrious deeds of his son, he confesses that they are s