No garlands gay the chearful portal crown'd,
Nor woolly fillets wove the pofts around;
No genial bed, with rich embroidery grac'd,
On ivory steps in lofty state was plac'd;
No hymeneal torch preceding fhone,
No matron put the towery frontlet on,
Nor bade her feet the facred threshold fhun.
No yellow veil was loosely thrown, to hide
The rifing blushes of the trembling bride;
No glittering zone her flowing garments bound,
Nor sparkling gems her neck encompass'd round;
No filken scarf, nor decent winding lawn,
Was o'er her naked arms and fhoulders drawn :
But, as fhe was, in funeral attire,
With all the fadnefs forrow could inspire,
With eyes dejected, with a joyless face,
She met her husband's, like a fon's embrace.
No Sabine mirth provokes the bridegroom's ears,
Nor fprightly wit the glad affembly chears.
No friends, not ev'n their children grace the feaft, 565 Brutus attends, their only nuptial guest:
He stands a witnefs of the filent rite,
And fees the melancholy pair unite.
Nor he, the chief, his facred visage chear'd,
Nor fmooth'd his matted locks, or horrid beard; 570
Nor deigns his heart one thought of joy to know,
But met his Martia with the fame ftern brow.
(For when he faw the fatal factions arm,
The coming war, and Rome's impending harm;
Regardless quite of every other care,
Unhorn he left his loose neglected hair;
Rude hung the hoary honours of his head,
And a foul growth his mournful cheeks o'erspread.
No ftings of private hate his peace infest,
Nor partial favour grew upon his breast;
But, fafe from prejudice, he kept his mind
Free, and at leifure to lament mankind.)
Nor could his former love's returning fire,
The warmth of one connubial wish inspire,
But ftrongly he withstood the just desire.
These were the ftricter manners of the man,
And this the ftubborn courfe in which they ran;
The golden mean unchanging to pursue,
Conftant to keep the purpos'd end in view;
Religiously to follow nature's laws,
And die with pleasure in his country's cause,
To think he was not for himself defign'd,
But born to be of use to all mankind.
To him 'twas feafting, hunger to reprefs;
And home-fpun garments were his coftly dress:
No marble pillars rear'd his roof on high,
'Twas warm, and kept him from the winter sky:
He fought no end of marriage, but increase,
Nor with'd a pleafure, but his country's peace:
That took up all the tendereft parts of life,
His country was his children and his wife.
From juftice' righteous lore he never fwerv'd,
But rigidly his honefty preferv'd.
On univerial good his thoughts were bent,
Nor knew what gain, or self-affection meant;
And while his benefits the public share,
Cato was always laft in Cato's care.
Meantime, the trembling troops, by Pompey led,
Hafty to Phrygian Capua were fled.
Refolvin, here to fix the moving war,
He calls his fcatter'd legions from afar;
Here he decrees the daring foe to wait,
And prove at once the great event of fate;
Where Apennine's delightful fhades arise,
And lift Hefperia lofty to the skies.
Between the higher and inferior sea,
The long-extended mountain takes his way;
Pifa and Ancon bound his floping fides,
Wash'd by the Tyrrhene and Dalmatic tides;
Rich in the treasure of his watery stores,
A thousand living fprings and ftreams he pours,
And feeks the different feas by different shores.
From his left falls Cruftumium's rapid flood,
And fwift Metaurus red with Punic blood;
There gentle Sapis with Ifaurus joins,
And Sena there the Senones confines;
Rough Aufidus the meeting ocean braves,
And lashes on the lazy Adria's waves;
Hence vaft Eridanus with matchlefs force,
Prince of the streams, directs his regal courfe;
Proud with the spoils of fields and woods he flows,
And drains Hefperia's rivers as he goes.
His facred banks, in ancient tales renown'd,
Firft by the fpreading poplar's fhade were crown'd;
When the fun s fiery fteeds forfook their way,
And downward drew to earth the burning day:
When every flood and ample lake was dry,
The Po alone his channel could fupply.
Hither rafh Phaeton was headlong driven,
And in these waters quench'd the flames of heaven. 640 Nor wealthy Nile a fuller stream contains,
Though wide he fpreads o'er Ægypt's flatter plains; Nor Ifter rolls a larger torrent down,
Sought he the fea with waters all his own;
And heave the blended river on his way.
But meeting floods to him their homage pay,
Thefe from the left; while from the right, there come The Rutuba and Tiber dear to Rome;
Thence files Vulturnus' fwift-defcending flood,
And Sarnus hid beneath his mifty cloud;
Thence Lyris, whom the Vestin fountains aid,
Winds to the fea through close Marica's fhade;
Thence Siler through Salernian pastures falls,
And shallow Macra creeps by Luna's walls.
Bordering on Gaul the loftiest ridges rise,
And the low Alps from cloudy heights defpife;
Thence his long back the fruitful mountain bows,
Beneath the Umbrian and the Sabine plows;
The race primæval, natives all of old,
His woody rocks within their circuit hold;
Far as Hefperia's utmost limits país,
The hilly father runs his mighty mass;
Where Juno rears her high Lacinian fane,
And Scylla's raging dogs moleft the main.
Once, farther yet ('tis faid) his way he took,
Till through his fide the feas confpiring broke;
And still we fee on fair Sicilia's fands
Where, part of Apennine, Pelorus ftands.
But Cæfar for deftruction eager burns,
Free paffages and bloodless ways he scorns;
In fierce conflicting fields his arms delight,
He joys to be oppos'd, to prove his might,
Refiftless through the widening breach to go,
To burft the gate, to lay the bulwark low,
To burn the villages, to waste the plains,
And maffacre the poor laborious fwains.
Abhorring law, he chooses to offend,
And blushes to be thought his country's friend.
The Latian cities now, with busy care,
As various they inclin'd, for arms prepare.
Though doom'd before the war's firft rage to yield,
Trenches they dig, and ruin`d walls rebuild;
Huge ftone and darts their lofty towers fupply,
And guarded bulwarks menace from on high.
To Pompey's part the proner people lean,
Though Cæfar's ftronger terrors stand between.
So when the blafts of founding Aufter blow,
The waves obedient to his empire flow;
And though the ftormy god fierce Eurus frees,
And fends him rushing cross the swelling feas;
Spite of his force, the billows yet retain
Their former course, and that way roll the main;
The lighter clouds with Eurus driving fweep,
While Aufter ftill commands the watery deep.
Still fear too fare o'er vulgar minds prevails,
And faith before fuccefsful fortune fails.
Etruria vainly trufts in Libo's aid,
And Umbria by Thermus is betray'd;
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