Such towns, fuch fortreffes, fuch hoftile force,
Swept in the torrent of one rapid course;
Such trains of long fuccefs attending still,
And Rome herself abandon'd to his will;
Rome, the contending party's nobleft prize,
To every with but Cæfar's might suffice.
But he with empire fir'd and vast defires,
To all, and nothing less than all, aspires;
He reckons not the past, while aught remain'd
Great to be done, or mighty to be gain'd.
Though Italy obey his wide command,
Though Pompey linger on the farthest strand,
He grieves to think they tread one common land;
His heart difdains to brook a rival power,
Ev'n on the utmoft margin of the fhore;
Nor would he leave, or earth, or ocean free ;
The foe he drives from lands, he bars from fea.
With moles the opening flood he would restrain,
Would block the port, and intercept the main ;
But deep devouring feas his toil deride,
The plunging quarries fink beneath the tide,
And yielding fands the rocky fragments hide.
Thus, if huge Gaurus headlong fhould be thrown,
In fathomlefs Avernus' deep to drown;
Or if from fair Sicilia's diftant strand,
Eryx uprooted by fome giant hand,
If, ponderous with his rocks, the mountain vaft,
Amidst the wide gean fhould be caft;
The rolling waves o'er either mafs would flow,
each be loft within the depths below.
When no firm bafis for his work he found,
But ftill it fail'd in ocean's faithless ground,
Huge trees and barks in maffy chains he bound.
For planks and beams he ravages the wood,
And the tough boom extends across the flood.
Such was the road by haughty Xerxes made,
When o'er the Hellefpont his bridge he laid.
Vaft was the task, and daring the design,
Europe and Afia's distant shores to join,
And make the world's divided parts combine.
Proudly he pass'd the flood tumultuous o'er,
Fearless of waves that beat, and winds that roar :
Then spread his fails, and bid the land obey,
And through mid Athos find his fleet a way.
Like him bold Cæfar yok'd the swelling tide,
Like him the boisterous elements defy'd;
This floating bank the straitening entrance bound,
And rifing turrets trembled on the mound.
But anxious cares revolve in Pompey's breast,
The new furrounding shores his thoughts moleft; 1055
Secret he meditates the means, to free
And spread the war wide-ranging o'er the fea.
Oft driving on the work with well-fill'd fails,
The cordage stretching with the freshening gales,
Ships with a thundering shock the mole divide, 1060
And through the watery beach fecurely glide.
Huge engines oft by night their vengeance pour,
And dreadful fhoot from far a fiery shower;
Through the black shade the darting flame descends,
And kindling o'er the wooden wall extends.
At length arriv'd with the revolving night,
The chofen hour appointed for his flight :
He bids his friends prevent the seaman's roar,
And still the deafening clamours on the shore;
No trumpets may the watch by hours renew,
Nor founding fignals call aboard the crew.
The heavenly Maid her course had almost run,
And Libra waited on the rifing fun;
When hufh'd in filence deep they leave the land:
No loud-mouth'd voices call with hoarfe command,
To heave the flooky anchors from the fand.
Lowly the careful master's orders past,
To brace the yards, and rear the lofty maft;
Silent they spread the fails, and cables haul,
Nor to their mates for aid tumultuous call.
The chief himself to fortune breath'd a prayer,
At length to take him to her kinder care;
That fwiftly he might pafs the liquid deep,
And lofe the land which the forbad to keep.
Hardly the boon his niggard fate allow'd,
Unwillingly the murmuring feas were plow'd;
The foamy furrows roar'd beneath his prow,
And founding to the fhore alarm'd the foe.
Straight through the town their swift purfuit they fped,
(For wide her gates the faithlefs city spread)
Along the winding port they took their way,
But griev'd to find the fleet had gain'd the sea,
Cæfar with rage the leffening fails defcries,
And thinks the conqueft mean, though Pompey flies. 1094
A narrow pass the horned mole divides,
Narrow as that where Euripus' ftrong tides
Beat on Euboean Chalcis' rocky fides:
Here two tall fhips become the victor's prey :
Juft in the ftrait they ftuck; the foes belay;
The crooked grappling's fteely hold they cast,
Then drag them to the hoftile fhore with hafte.
Here civil flaughter firft the fea profanes,
And purple Nereus blufh'd in guilty stains.
The reft purfue their courfe before the wind,
Thefe of the rear-moft only left behind.
So when the Pagafæan Argo bore
The Grecian heroes, to the Colchian fhore ;
Earth her Cyanean iflands floating fent,
The bold adventurers paffage to prevent;
But the fam'd bark a fragment only loft,
While fwiftly o'er the dangerous gulf the croft:
Thundering the mountains met, and shook the main,
But move no more, fince that attempt was vain.
Now through night's fhade the early dawning broke,
And changing fkies the coming fun bespoke;
As yet the morn was drest in dusky white,
Nor purpled o'er the eaft with ruddy light;
At length the Pleiads fading beams gave way,
And dull Bootes languish'd into day;
Each larger ftar withdrew his fainting head,
And Lucifer from stronger Phœbus fled ;
When Pompey, from Hefperia's hoftile shore
Efcaping, for the azure Offin bore.
O hero, happy once, once ftil'd the Great!
What turns prevail in thy uncertain fate!
How art thou chang'd fince fovereign of the main,
Thy natives cover'd o'er the liquid plain !
When the fierce pirates fled before thy prow,
Where-ever waves could waft, or winds could blow!
But fortune is grown weary of thee now.
With thee, thy fons, and tender wife, prepare
The toils of war and banishment to bear;
And holy houshold-gods thy forrows fhare.
And yet a mighty exile shalt thou go,
While nations follow to partake thy woe.
Far lies the land in which thou art decreed,
Unjustly, by a villain's hand to bleed.
Nor think the gods a death so distant doom,
To rob thy afhes of an urn in Rome;
But fortune favourably remov'd the crime,
And forc'd the guilt on Egypt's curfed clime;
The pitying powers to Italy were good,
And fav'd her from the ftain of Pompey's blood.
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