306 armato quotiens tutae custode tenentur
et Pomptina palus et Gallinaria pinus,
sic inde huc omnes tamquam ad uiuaria currunt.
qua fornace graues, qua non incude catenae?
maximus in uinclis ferri modus, ut timeas ne
Hither from bogs, from rocks, and caves pursued,
(The Pontine marsh, and Gallinarian wood,)
The dark assassins flock, as to their home,
And fill with dire alarms the streets of Rome.
Such countless multitudes our peace annoy,
That bolts and shackles every forge employ
And cause so wide a waste, the country fears
A want of ore for mattocks, rakes, and shares.
O! happy were our sires, estranged from crimes;
And happy, happy, were the good old times,
Which saw, beneath their kings, their tribunes’ reign,
One cell the nation’s criminals contain!
Much could I add, more reasons could I cite,
If time were ours, to justify my flight;
But see! the impatient team is moving on,
The sun declining; and I must be gone:
Long since, the driver murmur’d at my stay,
And jerk’d his whip, to beckon me away.
Farewell, my friend! with this embrace we part:
Cherish my memory ever in your heart;
And when, from crowds and business, you repair,
To breathe at your Aquinum, freer air,
Fail not to draw me from my loved retreat,
To Elvine Ceres, and Diana’s seat:—
For your bleak hills my Cumae I’ll resign,
And (if you blush not at such aid as mine)
Come well equipp’d, to wage, in angry rhymes,
Fierce war, with you, on follies and on crimes.
311 uomer deficiat, ne marra et sarcula desint.
felices proauorum atauos, felicia dicas
saecula quae quondam sub regibus atque tribunis
uiderunt uno contentam carcere Romam.
his alias poteram et pluris subnectere causas,
316 sed iumenta uocant et sol inclinat. eundum est;
nam mihi commota iamdudum mulio uirga
adnuit. ergo uale nostri memor, et quotiens te
Roma tuo refici properantem reddet Aquino,
me quoque ad Heluinam Cererem uestramque Dianam
321 conuerte a Cumis. saturarum ego, ni pudet illas,
auditor gelidos ueniam caligatus in agros.'
Previous