Then, following the head of Pompey, Caesar first

Touched land and trod those doleful sands, and fortune struggled

To decide the fates of general and of guilty

Egypt, whether Lagus’ realm fall to the Romans

Of conquered and of conqueror. Your shade succeeded,

Magnus, kept your father in law from more bloodshed −

Lest all Romans after you might love the Nile.

To Paraetonium then, safe in the bond made by this

There he heard a discord in the people’s murmurs,

Grievance that the Roman laws and fasces banished

Theirs. He sensed a dubious intent, and feared

It was not for his sake that Magnus perished. Face

Abodes and temples of the ancient deity,

Revealing Macedon’s historic strength. Unmoved

By beauty, neither gold nor sacred cults, not city

Walls, he eagerly descended to a cave

Pellaean Phillip, blessed in plundering, lies there,

Cut off by fate as vengeance for the world. They placed

In holy shrine those limbs that should be spread throughout

The globe. And fortune spared his shade; that fateful reign

The world, this tomb had been a mockery, a useless

Object lesson that one man should claim so many

Lands − far past his Macedon’s extent, his proper

Haunts, despising Athens, conquered by his father.

Of Asia, he created ruin with his blade

And routed nations with his sword. He fouled streams then

Unknown: with Persian blood Euphrates; Ganges with

The blood of Indians. A curse of evil on the

Constellation bringing ill to peoples. He had

Thought to place his navy on the ocean, on

The outer sea. Not heat, not waves not barren Libya,

Not the Ammon of the Syrtes stopped him. He would

Both poles, drunk from sources of the Nile. His last

Day came – for only nature could end him and his

Mad reign. The strength with which he grasped the world entirely –

In his greed he took that with him: no remaining

To a cruel division. In the Babylon

He owned he died, still held in awe by Parthians.

For shame! The east feared long spears near them more than now

They fear our javelins. Though we may rule beneath

West, the blazing south wind at our backs, yet we

Shall yield to Parthia dominion in the east.

Yet that same Parthia, ill-starred for Crassi, was a

Province little Alexander held with ease.

The people’s anger, and as hostage safeguards Caesar

In Pellaean halls. With him a modest bireme

Carried Cleopatra, who had bribed the watchmen

To unbolt chains guarding Pharis. She, unknown

The shame of Egypt, fatal fury to the Latins,

To the Romans’ cost unchaste. As much as did

That fatal Spartan face bring ruin on the homes

Of Ilium and Argos so much Cleopatra

Dare to say so, she appalled the capitol,

From peaceful Canopus forced an attack on Roman

Flags − a Caesar was her captive − and would lead

Egyptian triumph. Doubtful was the outcome on

Ruled the world. That night made her thus proud which first

Mixed with our Roman general an incestuous Pharic

Female. Who would not forgive you, Antony,

A mad amour, when even Caesar’s hardened breast

Hall filled with the ghost of Magnus, drenched in blood

Of Thessalian slaughter. Greeting lust as an

Adulterer he mixed illicit couches with

War’s business. Getting children out of marriage? Shame!

From an obscene mother. And he suffered fleeing

Factions to regroup at Libya’s farthest borders,

Spending abject time on his Egyptian lover.

Rather would he give her Pharaohs than be victor

To her beauty, Cleopatra came to him,

Adorned in simulated sadness such as might

Become her − hair done as if torn and loose – and, thus

Prepared, she spoke: “O mighty Caesar. If there be

Exiled long, denied her father’s scepter. If

Your hand would but restore my former state, a queen

Falls to embrace your feet. You are the tranquil star

Of our peoples. I will not be the first woman

As to sex in Egypt, queens are suffered. Read my

Father's last words. He gave me to rule in common

Right of marriage with my brother. That boy loves

His sister were he free. Pothinus' rule now holds

Or claim paternal rights. Free our home from such

Great guilt and shame. Take from an underling his deadly

Arms and bid a king to reign. What swollen thoughts

This house slave entertains with Magnus’ head cut off!

Enough dishonor, Caesar, both the world’s and yours, that

This Pothinus should be known for Pompey’s murder.”

Vainly had she tried the stubborn ears of Caesar,

But her looks aid prayer; her wanton face persuades him.

A general’s peace obtained, bought by these wondrous gifts,

They feasted, joyful over such great things. With flourish

Cleopatra showed her luxury − not Rome’s

As yet. This place the image of a temple such as

Richly paneled, beams encased in solid gold.

Not in its farthest reaches did that house, encrusted,

Gleam with marble only: agate, purpled lapis

Everywhere; the hall was floored in onyx. Here

Meroe Ebony in place of common wood −

Support, not mere decor. In ivory the rooms

Were clothed, the doors inlaid by hand with Indian tortoise

Shell; among their markings scattered emeralds.

The furniture. The covers shone, most steeped a long time

In the Tyrian juice and took their stain in two pots.

One part, gold embroidered, glittered; one a fiery

Red, for Pharian custom mixes woven threads.

Many, some distinct in race and some in age;

The hair of Libyan hue in most, but some so gold that

Caesar said there were none such in Rhenish fields.

Some sun burnt, curly hair receding from their foreheads.

Were there. Across stood stronger lads, though hardly any

Cheeks were darkened yet with down. There kings reclined,

Though Caesar still more powerful. And, having painted

Thoroughly that fatal beauty, discontented

With her Red Sea prizes, Cleopatra carried

Riches on her neck and hair and labored under

All these ornaments. Her white breasts shine through Sidon

Fabric, for, the shuttle having woven them,

And now they placed white tusks cut into circles, taken

From the woods of Atlas, tables such as never

Came to Caesar’s sight, not even having captured

Iuba. O ambition’s blaze, insane and blind:

Your wealth, incense the mind of your armed guest? Allow

He was not thinking to seek riches by foul war,

By ruin of the world. Place former generals there,

The Fabrici or solemn Curii, the names

His plain Etruscan plough sat here? Will he not choose

So great a triumph for his country? Dainties served

On gold arrived − what land, what air, what sea and Nile

Can give, what luxury aflame with crazed ambition

Fowls so many, beasts were offered – all the gods

Of Egypt. Crystal brought the Nile into their hands,

Gem studded cups their wine, and not the Mareotis

Grape, but proud Falernius, which Meroe, coaxing

In only years. They put on woven wreaths with flowering

Balsam, never fading rose, and often on their

Moistened hair poured cinnamon that had not yet

Worn out its odor or the waft of foreign lands.

Instructed Caesar how to waste spoils of the world

And now to feel ashamed he had waged war against

A kinsman with no wealth. He wished now cause for conflict

With the Pharian peoples.

After feasting and

Then Caesar thought to lengthen night in long discourse.

Addressing Achoreus graciously, in linen

Clad, upon the highest couch: “O sage, concerned

With things devout, and as your age suggests, not stinted

Where the site. And show the customs of its folk,

Rites sacred to its gods. Whatever is inscribed

On ancient holy places, show; reveal gods willing

To be known and if your ancestors passed on

What guest more fit to hear these things, more tutored in

The world? It's true, reports about my son in law

Led me to your Egyptian cities; but your fame did

Too. In war I had time still for starry skies,

Eudoxus. As great courage lives within my breast,

So love of truth; there is no thing I would prefer

To know than sources of that stream, for ages lying

Hidden, head unknown. If I had reasonable

When he had finished sacred Achoreus spoke thus:

“Duty bids me, Caesar, to relate the secrets

Our great forebears kept, unknown as yet to those

Profane. For others, piety is to be silent

Dwellers that I enter on this task to teach

Our sacred law to other nations. Primal order

In this world gave powers to each galaxy

That guides the heavens, running counter to the sky.

And with strong rays turns back the stars, delays their restless

Courses with a halt. The changing moon dispatches

Oceanus’ wife to land. But frigid ice

And the circumference of snow are Saturn’s. Mars

Air not ever whirling. And the fecund Venus

Owns the seeds of all that is. The arbiter

Of mighty waves is Mercury, and when that portion

Of the sky receives him where the crab and lion

That transforms all passing years holds Capricorn

And Cancer, under which Nile’s mouth now hides; and when

The lord of waters strikes with overarching fire,

Then Nile, its rising freed, goes forth − as Oceanus

Not draw upon its source until we have received

The summer hours from the sun. So, vain is our

Ancestors’ belief that Ethiopian snow

Supplies the Nile, by which it rises in our fields.

The very color of the people shows this, burned up

By the sun and vapors of the hot south wind.

Then too, all rising streams soever rush down when

Ice melts. At spring’s approach they swell, at snow’s

Nor fills its river banks until equality

Of day and night by Libra’s power. Thus indeed

It knows no law of other waters; nor does winter

Swell it when, the sun remote, a stream lacks purpose.

It comes mid summer. Under torrid blows, lest fire

Waste our lands, Nile comes upon the earth and swells

Against the lion’s burning face; the crab while scorching

Asawan implored that coming, land not freed

Meroe lengthens shadows. Then what cause is there

To know? Our parent nature so commands the Nile

To run, and so the world requires. Falsely too

Antiquity ascribes these floods to the west wind

Long upon the air. It either is supposed

To carry western clouds across the south and bring

Rain as they pass, or else so many western waters

Beat the shores of fractured Nile continually

Turned in course and swells on plains. Some think that there

Are tunnels in the earth, large cavities of mingled

Caves where waters deep within pass quietly

From frigid arctic to the center, that when Phoebus

From Ganges and the Padus, led beneath a silent

World. Then all the rivers stream forth in one font

Onto the Nile, which carries them in separate streams.

One rumor is that Nile in violence breaks out from

Its salinity in lengthy courses. We

May think too that the ocean feeds both sun and sky;

For when it touches Cancer’s warm embrace the sun

Compels it, raising more than air can dissipate.

If it is right for me to settle such a quarrel,

Caesar – think some rivers after earth’s creation

Spewed out from lands’ fractured veins not by god’s action,

While the others came, as all things else, in their own

Of things subjects to certain law. This urge of yours

To know the Nile, O Roman, Persians, Pharians,

And kings of Macedon too had; all wished to pass

That knowledge to the future. And yet nature still

Whom Memphis honors, Alexander, jealous of

The Nile, sent chosen ones away to Ethiopian

Hinterlands, the reddening zone of burnt up sky;

Yet they saw Nile still warm. Sesostris came to earth’s

The necks of kings, yet he drank your streams Rhone and Padus,

Sooner than Nile’s source. The eastern lunatic

Cambyses came up to the long lived people − short

Of food he fed on slaughter of his men – but he

About your rising none dares tell. Wherever seen

You are explored, and yet no people owns the glory

That Nile joyfully is theirs. I will reveal

Your waters, Nile, so far as the divinity

Where your banks dare reach toward the burning crab.

Your waters go straight north amidst Bootes then, and

Winding in your course you turn now east now west,

Now favoring the Arabs, now the Libyan sands.

With different stream you fill the Ethiopian plains,

And no land on the globe knows who to thank for you.

To none has nature shown your secret font nor let

You, Nile, be seen by peoples in your early course.

Your sources than discover them. It is your rule

To swell upon the solstice and, although the winter

Is no more, to rise and bring a winter of

Your own. You only are allowed to wander through

Where your waters finish. Widely with divided

Waters the black farmers of rich Meroe are

Embraced, rejoicing in their ebony. But they,

Though trees in leaf aplenty, have no shade to ease

Then you pass the tracts of Phoebus, suffering

No loss of water, and you measure out long sterile

Sands − now all your force collected in one stream,

Now wandering and scattering your banks with ease.

Back where Philae, gateway to the realm, divides

The Arab peoples from Egyptian country. Soon

With gentle flow you cut through desert trade routes which

Divide the red sea from our own. So calmly drifting

Streams? But when a roughened path obstructs your flow

Or sudden waterfall, or else incensed that any

Rocks obstruct your waters, never hampered, then

Your spume provokes the stars. And with great roaring from the

Waves. Here Abatus, a mighty land so called

By our revered antiquity, first feels the thrusting

Tumult, and its crags were therefore thought the source

Because these first give sign apparent of new rising.

Courses; they keep Libya from you, Nile. Between

Them, lying in a deep ravine the stream goes,

Gentleness recovered. Memphis first bestows

On you its plains and open country, placing neither

Thus, as if

In safety, peace secure, they drew the midnight out.

But mad Pothinus’ mind, imbued still with that sacred

Slaughter, was not empty of the urge to evil.

Magnus murdered, he thought nothing now a sin;

Gave him new deeds of rage. He hopes to drench his vile

Hand in that blood which fortune has intended for

The conquered senators − and punishment for civil

War, the senate’s vengeance here was almost given

Neck should be severed Brutus absent, and that justice

For the Roman tyrant be a Pharic crime,

Example lost. His vain audacity would unmake

Fate, preparing murder not by secret cunning

General. Crime lent so much boldness that he ordered

Caesar’s neck struck – Magnus, to unite your kin

With you. These words he had his faithful slaves deliver

To Achillas, partner in the death of Pompey,

In charge of all his troops, bestowed the sword against

Himself as well in ceding power. “Now,” he said,

“On your soft bed do you court slumber? Cleopatra

Has usurped the house, our Egypt both betrayed

To your mistress’ room? A sinful sister married

To her brother; married also to the Latin

General. Running back and forth between her husbands

She has Egypt and wins Rome. With potions she

If you trust in that boy; if just one night she joins

With him and once with heart incestuous enduring

Her embrace he grasps an obscene love and calls it

Piety, my head and yours − perhaps for just

We will pay with cross and flame. No hope on either

Side. Here husband-king, here Caesar paramour.

And we, I do confess, the criminals by such

A savage judgment. Which of us with whom she has

The evil we together did - and for no profit -

By our pact struck in the blood of Magnus, come!

With sudden onrush rise to war; embrace the night and

Let us quench the marriage torch in death and in her

With her husband - why, no matter which. Let daring

Not be hindered by the Roman general's fortune.

We now share the glory that sustains and forces

Him upon the world, for Magnus has exalted

Consult polluted rivers; what may we not do.

Do you not see the grave of Pompey, shallow and not

Covering his limbs? The man you fear was but

His equal. What if we are not of famous blood?

Fated for great crimes. Into our hands has fortune

Placed them. See, there comes a nobler victim. With a

Second slaughter let us please the Latins. Caesar’s

Throat slit offers this to me: that Romans should

At names or at a general’s army? Leaving that

Aside, he will be found a common soldier only.

This night will end civil war, propitiate

The people, and send to the shades a head that owes

Let the Lagean youth perform this for their king,

The Romans for themselves. Forget delay. Wine drenched

And fully feasted, primed with lust, thus will you find him.

Dare. The hopes of Catos and of Bruti will be

Slow to be persuaded in this evil. Not

Aloud, as custom is in mobilizing, he gave

Signal to the camps. No blaze of trumpet roused

His troops. Most of the crowd were Latin common folk,

In a corrupted army - that they served beneath

A slave commanded by a servant. These had been

Disgraced attending even Egypt’s king. There was

No faith or honor in those following that camp;

Is where the pay is most. They go at Caesar’s throat

Not for themselves. O righteousness! When has our Roman

Might not found a wretched fate in civil war?

Removed from Thessaly, the army rages on

What more could the house of Lagus dare? In truth

Each hand does what the gods' command, no Roman has

The right to rest. Thus does it please the gods to shred

Rome's body. People don’t incline to son or to

Now Achillas leads a Roman faction. And if

Fate wont bend their hands from Caesar’s blood that party

Triumphs. Present both, both ready. Hall, distracted

With the feast, lay open to all plots. The regal

Might have held his head. Except they feared the tumult

Of a hectic night assault, lest fate in all

The killing let some hand misguided, Ptolomey,

Dispatch you. So much trusting their own swords they did not

High deed, they thought it loss redeemable to let

The hour pass of Caesar’s murder. Saved to pay

The price in open day, one little night was given

To the general. Caesar lived – delay a gift

Looked down from Casia’s rock and sent the day to Egypt,

Heating likewise with its dawn, when from the walls

An army could be seen, not scattered squads, no stragglers;

Facing full ahead and rushing to endure

And sheltered by the locked hall doors, was forced to take

A shameful refuge. Hemmed in and the palace not

Entirely his, he gathered all his force in one

Small part, their spirits moved by anger and by fear.

A noble beast put in a narrow cage will roar

And break his frantic teeth from biting on the bars.

Nor otherwise would you rage, Mulcibar, with all

Your flame in the Sicilian caves, if any blocked

The crags of Thessalian Haemus and who feared

Not all the gathered nobles of Hesperia,

The army of the senate, Pompey’s generalship,

But who assured himself unjust success, he now was

A house is overwhelmed by spears; Alanian

Or Parthian would never have attempted him nor

Yet the Moor who toys with bound up strangers, He to

Whom the space of all Rome's world was not enough,

He, as if a helpless boy or woman when

The city falls, sought safety in a house. He places

Hope for life on bolted doors and, wandering,

Surveys the rooms. But not without the king; he brings

And consolation.Lacking spears or fire, he would,

Ptolomey, repulse those house slaves with your head.

So once, they say, in Colchis a barbarian

In fear of vengeance, flying from the king, awaited

Desperation of affairs now forced the general

To attempt a peace. A royal courtier

Was sent to chide these savage house slaves from an absent

King and learn who moved this warfare. But those valued

Of sacred pacts. That spokesman for the king and peace

Are to be numbered, Egypt, guilty of so many,

In your crimes. Not Thessaly, or Iuba’s ample

Realm, not Pontus and Pharnaces evil standards,

Have dared such crimes, nor yet barbarian Syrtis, as your

Cowardice has done. From everywhere war presses,

In the house spears fall, the household gods are quaking.

But they have no ram to batter down the door

Of war. Nor is the task assigned to flames, but troops

Devoid of leadership go round the giant house,

And nowhere does a force attack with all its men.

The fates forbid, and fortune acts in place of walls.

Of that grand house projects assertively into

The flood. But Caesar, everywhere defending, held these

Off with sword and those with fire. Such his foresight

That surrounded he took on the work of siege.

The crowded sails of ships − that fire was not slow

Among the flaxen ropes, planks smeared with wax. He ordered

Sailors’ benches and their highest halyards all

Be set alight. Not only decks, but rooftops near

The sea now grabbed that fire, pouring smoke. And south

Winds fed the havoc, flame whipped into cyclone ran

Along the roofs, a motion such as comet streaking

Burns with air alone. This ruin called away the

Army for some time from that surrounded palace.

Caesar lost no time in sleep; amid the fray

And in blind night he quickly leapt aboard his ships,

Seizing moments. Then he captured Pharos, which guards

Access to the sea. It stood an island of the

Ocean in the time of Proteus the seer,

But it now abuts the walls of Pella. That gave

Hostile forays by denying water access

While assuring Caesar freedom of the seas.

Nor was retribution for Pothinus longer

Stayed, but not as anger would require, not with

His head was rudely severed by a sword; he died

The death of Magnus. Arsinoe then defected

To the foes of Caesar, stealing off with tricks that

Ganymedes had prepared, her servant. Offspring

A king; Achillas, the abhorrent house slave of the

The tyrant she ran through most justly with her sword.

Another victim, Magnus, given to your shade,

Yet fortune thinks that not enough. Far be it that

Is insufficient penalty, not all the kings

Of Lagus are. Until the nation’s swords have come

To Caesar’s vitals Magnus will be unrevenged.

Removal of its author did not end the fury,

Pursuing Mars they fought in many battles. It might

Well have been that this day, Caesar’s crisis, had been

Handed down to fame and to the ages. In the

Fortress' meager space, arms close packed while the Latin

He is enclosed with all the fearfulness of battle.

Here thick ranks of ship bespread the shoreline, there the

Infantry attacks behind him; no path to

Survival, neither flight nor courage. Hardly hope

Or huge piles of slaughtered men was Caesar to be

Conquered − with no blood at all, but captured through

Mere hazard of the place. He paused: to fear death or to

Choose it? In that crush of troops he caught perhaps

Praise on Epidamnos' plains. There Magnus trod

Upon the walls, defenses down, and you denied him.