75

Nor on thy towers depend, nor rampart's height,
Nor truft their fafety with thee for a night.
Yet one excuse abfolv'd the panic dread;

910

The vulgar justly fear'd when Pompey fled.
And, left fweet hope might mitigate their woes,
And expectation better times disclose,

On every breaft prefaging terror fate,

915

920

And threaten'd plain some yet more dismal fate.
The gods declare their menaces around,
Earth, air, and feas, in prodigies abound;
Then ftars, unknown before, appear'd to burn,
And foreign flames about the pole to turn;
Unusual fires by night were feen to fly,
And dart obliquely through the gloomy sky.
Then horrid comets fhook their fatal hair, I
And bade proud royalty for change prepare:
Now dart fwift lightnings through the azure clear,
And meteors now in various forms appear:
Some like the javelin fhoot extended long,
While fome like spreading lamps in heaven are hung.
And though no gathering clouds the day control,
Through fkies ferene portentous thunders roll;
Fierce blafting bolts from northern regions come, 930
And aim their vengeance at imperial Rome.
The ftars, that twinkled in the lonely night,

925

Now lift their bolder head in day's broad light.
The moon, in all her brother's beams array'd,
Was blotted by the earth's approaching fhade:

935

The fun himself, in his meridian race,
In fable darkness veil'd his brighter face;

The

The trembling world beheld his fading ray,
And mourn'd despairing for the lofs of day.

Such was he feen, when backward to the east

940

He fled, abhorring dire Thyeftes' feaft.

Sicilian Ætna then was heard to roar,

While Mulciber let loose his fiery store;

Nor rofe the flames, but with a downward tide

Taw'rds Italy their burning torrent guide;

945

Charybdis' dogs howl doleful o'er the flood,

And all her whirling waves run red with blood;

The Vestal fire upon the altar dy'd,

And o'er the facrifice the flames divide;

The parting points with double ftreams afcend,

950

To fhew the Latian feftivals must end:

955

Such from the Theban brethren's pile arose,
Signal of impious and immortal foes.
With openings faft the gaping earth gave way.
And in her inmost womb receiv'd the day.
The fwelling feas o'er lofty mountains flow,
And nodding Alps fhook off their ancient fnow.
Then wept the demi-gods of mortal birth,
And fweating Lares trembled on the hearth.
In temples then, recording stories tell,
Untouch'd the facred gifts and garlands fell.
Then birds obfcene, with inaufpicious flight,
And screamings dire, prophan'd the hallow'd light.
The falvage kind forfook the defert wood,
And in the streets difclos'd their horrid brood.
Then speaking beasts with human founds were heard,
And monftrous births the teeming mothers fcar'd.

960

965

Among

Among the croud, religious fears difperfe
The faws of Sibyls, and foreboding verse.
Bellona's priests, a barbarous frantic train,
Whofe mangled arms a thousand wounds difdain,
Tofs their wild locks, and, with a dismal yell,
The wrathful gods and coming woes foretel.
Lamenting ghofts amidst their ashes mourn,
And groanings echo from the marble urn.
The rattling clank of arms is heard around,
And voices loud in lonely woods refound.
Grim fpectres every-where affright the eye,
Approaching glare, and pafs with horror by..
A fury fierce about the city walks,

Hell-born, and horrible of fize, fhe ftalks
A flaming pine fhe brandishes in air,

970

275

989

And hiffing loud up-rise her fnaky hair:

Where-e'er her round accurft the monster takes,

The pale inhabitant his houfe forfakes.

985

Such to Lycurgus was the phantom feen,

Such the dire vifions of the Theban queen;
Such, at his cruel stepmother's command,

Before Alcides, did Megæra ftand:

With dread, till then unknown, the hero fhook,
Though he had dar'd on hell's grim king to look.
Amid the deepest filence of the night,

Shrill-founding clarions animate the fight;
The fhouts of meeting armies feem to rise,

And the loud battle shakes the gloomy fkies.
Dead Sylla in the Martian field afcends,
And mischiefs mighty as his own portends.

999

995

Near

Near Anio's ftream old Marius rears his head;

The hinds beheld his grifly form, and fled.

The state thus threaten'd, by old cuftom taught, 1000 For counsel to the Tuscan prophets fought :

Of these the chief for learning fam'd, and age,
Aruns by name, a venerable fage,

At Luna liv'd; none better could descry

What bodes the lightning's journey through the sky; 1005 Prefaging veins and fibres well he knew,

1010:

And omens read aright, from every wing that flew.
Firft he commands to burn the monftrous breed,
Sprung from mix'd fpecies, and difcordant feed ;
Forbidden and accurfed births, which come
Where nature's laws defign'd a barren womb.
Next, the remaining trembling tribes he calls,
To pass with folemn rites about their walls,
In holy march to vifit all around,
And with luftrations purge the utmost bound.
The fovereign priests the long proceffion lead,
Inferior orders in the train fucceed,
Aray'd all duly in the Gabine weed.

There the chafte head of Vefta's choir appears,
A facred fillet binds her reverend hairs;
To her, in fole preeminence, is due,
Phrygian Minerva's awful fhrine to view.
Next the fifteen in order pafs along,
Who guard the fatal Sibyls' fecret fong:
To Almon's stream Cybele's form they bear,
And wash the goddess each returning year.
The Titian brotherhood, the Augurs band,
Obferving flights on the left lucky hand;

1015

}

1020

T025

The

The feven ordain'd Jove's holy feaft to deck;
The Salii blithe, with bucklers on the neck;
All marching in their order juft appear:
And last the generous Flamens close the rear.

10301

While thefe through ways uncouth, and tiresome ground,
Patient perform their long laborious round,

Aruns collects the marks of heaven's dread flame
In earth he hides them with religious hand,
Murmurs a prayer, then gives the place a name,
And bids the fix'd Bidental hallow'd stand.
Next from the herd a chofen male is fought,
And soon before the ready altar brought.
And now the feer the facrifice began,
The pouring wine upon the victim ran;
The mingled meal upon his brow was plac'd;
The crooked knife the deftin'd line had trac'd;
When with reluctant rage th' impatient beast
The rites unpleafing to the God confeft.
At length compell'd his ftubborn head to bow,
Vanquish'd he yields him to the fatal blow
The gufhing veins no chearful crimson pour,
But stain with poisonous black the facred floor.
The paler prophet ftood with horror ftruck;
Then with a hafty hand the entrails took,
And fought the angry gods again; but there
Prognoftics worse, and fadder figns, appear;
The pallid guts with spots were marbled o'er,
With thin cold ferum ftain'd, and livid gore;
The liver wet with putrid ftreams he spy'd,
And veins that threaten'd on the hoftile fide:

1040

1045

1050

1055

Part