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little cage Imprisoned, fume, and break upon the bars His teeth in frenzied wrath; nor more would rage The flames of Vulcan in Sicilian depths Should Etna's top be closed. He who but now By Haemus' mount against Pompeius chief, Italia's leaders and the Senate line, His cause forbidding hope, looked at the fates He knew were hostile, with unfaltering gaze, Now fears before the crime of hireling slaves, And in mid palace trembles at the blow: He whom nor Scythian nor Alaun (22) had dared To violate, nor the Moor who aims the dart Upon his victim slain, to prove his skill. The Roman world but now did not suffice To hold him, nor the realms from furthest Ind To Tyrian Gades. Now, as puny boy, Or woman, trembling when a town is sacked, Within the narrow corners of a house He seeks for safety; on the portals closed His hope of life; and with uncertain gait He treads the hails; yet not without the King; In purpose, Ptolemaeus, that thy life For his shall give atonement; and to hurl Thy severed head among the servant throng Should darts and torches fail. So story tells The Colchian princess (23) with sword in hand, And with her brother's neck bared to the blow, Waited her sire, avenger of his realm Despoiled, and of her flight. In the imminent risk Caesar, in hopes of peace, an envoy sent To the fierce vassals, from their absent lord Bearing a message, thus: "At whose command Wage ye the war?" But not the laws which bind All nations upon earth, nor sacred rights, Availed to save or messenger of peace, Or King's ambassador; or thee from crime Such as befitted thee, thou land of Nile Fruitful in monstrous deeds: not Juba's realm Vast though it be, nor Pontus, nor the land Thessalian, nor the arms of Pharnaces, Nor yet the tracts which chill Iberus girds, Nor Libyan coasts such wickedness have dared, As thou, with all thy luxuries. Closer now War hemmed them in, and weapons in the courts, Shaking the innermost recesses, fell. Yet did no ram, fatal with single stroke, Assail the portal, nor machine of war; Nor flame they called in aid; but blind of plan They wander purposeless, in separate bands Around the circuit, nor at any spot With strength combined attempt to breach the wall. The fates forbad, and Fortune from their hands Held fast the palace as a battlement. Nor failed they to attack from ships of war The regal dwelling, where its frontage bold Made stand apart the waters of the deep: There, too, wa
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