What rolling years, what ages, can repay The multitudes thy wars have swept away! 1195 Though tombs and urns their numerous ftore fhould fpread, And long antiquity yield all her dead;" Thy guilty plains more flaughter'd Romans hold, No fwain thy spectre-haunted plain should know, All defolate should lie thy land and waste, But the great gods forbid our partial hate 1215 LUCAN'S LUCAN'S PHARSALIA. BOOK VIII. THE ARGUMENT. From Pharfalia, Pompey flies, first to Lariffa, and after to the fea-fhore; where he embarks upon a fmail veffel for Lefbos. There, after a melancholy meeting with Cornelia, and his refufal of the Mitylenians invitations, he embarks with his wife for the coaft of Afia. In the way thither he is joined by his fon Sextus, and feveral perfons of distinction, who had fled likewife from the late battle; and among the reft by Deiotarus, king of Gallo-Græcia. To him he recommends the foliciting of fupplies from the king of Parthia, and the reft of his allies in Afia. After coafting Cilicia for fome time, he comes at length to a little town called Syedra or Syedre, where great part of the fenate meet him. With thefe, he deliberates upon the prefent circumftances of the commonwealth, and propofes either Mauritania, Ægypt, or Parthia, as the proper places where he may hope to be received, and from whofe kings he may expect affiftance. In his own opinion he inclines to the Parthians; but this Lentulus, in a long oration, oppofes very warmly; and, in confideration of young Ptolemy's perfonal obligations to Pompey, prefers Egypt. This advice is generally approved and followed, and Pompey fets fail accordingly for Ægypt. Upon his arrival on that coaft, the king calls a council, where at the inftigation of Pothinus, a villainous minifter, it is refolved to take his life; and the execution of this order is committed to the care of Achillas, formerly the king's governor, and then general i general of the army. He, with Septimius, a renegado Roman foldier, who had formerly ferved under Pompey, upon fome frivolous pretences, perfuades him to quit his fhip, and come into their boat; where, as they make towards the fhore, he trea -cherously murders him, in the fight of his wife, his fon, and the rest of his fleet. His head is cut off, and his body thrown into the fea. The head is fixed upon a fpear, and carried to Ptolemy; who, after he had feen it, commands it to be embalmed. In the fucceeding night, one Cordus, who had been a follower of Pompey, finds the trunk floating near the fhore, brings it to land with fome difficulty; and, with a few planks that remained from a fhipwrecked veffel, burns it. The melancholy defcription of this mean funeral, with the poet's invective against the gods, and fortune, for their unworthy treatment of fo great a man, concludes this book. Now through the vale, by great Alcides made, And the sweet maze of Tempe's pleasing shade, Chearless, thy flying chief renew'd his speed, s And fears the whispers of each murmuring breeze. re And, though he flies, believes himself still great;. And rates his own, as he would Cæfar's head. Where Where-e'er his fear explores untrodden ways, And galls him with the thoughts of what he was. His Pontic and piratic wars he mourns, While ftung with fecret fhame and anxious care he burns. Thus age to forrows oft the great betrays, When lofs of empire comes with length of days. Life and enjoyment ftill one end shall have, The good, that lafts not, was in vain beftow'd, Now to thofe fhores the hapless Pompey came, 15 20 30 35 40 Receiv'd Receiv'd the mighty mafter of the main, Whofe spreading navies hide the liquid plain. 45 50 55 60 Thick beats her heart, as every prow draws near, And dreads the fortunes of her lord to hear. 65 At length, behold! the fatal bark is come! 70 Rude |