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A07324
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A continuation of Lucan's historicall poem till the death of Iulius Cæsar by TM
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May, Thomas, 1595-1650.; Lucan, 39-65. Pharsalia.; Cockson, Thomas, engraver.
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1630
(1630)
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STC 17711; ESTC S108891
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70,154
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154
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the Fates or prize My worthlesse prayers at so high a rate As to haue power to change at all the State Of Caesar's great resolues on which depend All nations Fates and all the Starres attend If by their prayers fraile Mortalitie Should hope to alter what the gods decree 'T were a proud pietie I le rather lose My suit and checke my loue than interpose It so and rather to my selfe deny The happinesse of Caesar's company Than loue it with so great presumption As for mine owne delights to hinder one Of his resolues yet pardon mighty Lord If to mine owne desires I doe afford One place in loue cannot Great Caesar thriue In these his warres if Cleopatra liue Neere to his person Can it ouerthrow His fortune to procure my safetie so There 's no retreat in all the world for me So safe as thy victorious Campe will be But I am pleas'd to stay at thy command In Aegypt still and still suppose this land Within Great Caesar's reach whose powerfull hands From siluer Ganges to the Baetick sands From Pole to Pole extend their conquering force No distances of place can long diuorce Vs two if Caesar in his loue can be As speedy as in warre and victory And march as farre to finde his friends as foes This pledge which I within my selfe inclose Assures my longing minde against delay That Caesar long will not protract his stay Then with a kisse he bad the Queene adieu And wing'd with haste into Armenia flew Swifter than lightning or the Southern wind Along through Libya's yeelding aire to finde Pharnaces out whom he past thought oretooke Neere Zela walls and vanquish'd with a looke Soone beat he left behinde him nought at all That might deserue a mention but his fall Nor can there ought of this short warre be said But Caesar g came and saw and vanquished How much did Pompey's honour suffer there When Caesar's troops beheld that nations feare And saw how easie 't was to conquer them How vndeseru'd did his great triumph seeme Ore Pontus and Armenia More was lost Than poore Pharnaces Crowne and feeble host The fame of Pompey was orethrowne that day When Caesar boasting could finde cause to say Oh Pompey happie thou that by defeat Of these base nations got'st the name of Great Whilest I subduing the fierce Ganles deseru'd No name enioy'd no triumph had'st thou seru'd Beyond the frozen Alpes or past the bound Of Rhenes swift streame the big-bon'd Germans found A difference twixt our acts thou then had'st seene Our Ciuill warres perchance had neuer beene Yet ere that he from thence to Affrick passe Though haste important vrge him in the place A stately Trophee he erects to show To future times Pharnaces ouerthrow Not farre from that proud Trophee which before Great Mithridates for his Conquest ore Triarius had erected that this story Might quite eclipse old Mithridates glory Or please his Manes that the field there wonne Tooke punishment of his vnnaturall sonne But greater warres call Caesar thence away Scipio not farre from Adrumetum lay With all the power of Rome but did not h now Since Winters fury rag'd expect a foe For Phaebus lampe to our Horizon low The shortest dayes and coldest did bestow From Capricorne cold Winter glaz'd the floods And purâ—'d with frost the fields and naked woods But Caesar's heart admitting no delay Whose speedy march no season ere could stay When he his third Dictatorship at Rome Had tane and thence to Sicily was come Lest any time should to his fame be lost Euen then the Seas from Lilybaeum crost And sailing by the Libyan shores espies Great Carthages halfe-ruin'd edifice And Clupe as fatall station passes by With griefe remembring how vnhappily Bold Curio there did with his legions land A wofull prey to Juba's barbarous band Then from this ominous place he sailes away Westward along and leauing Vriâ—a Where Cato then in Garrison did lie Cato the soule of Roman libertie Who from that Towne must shortly take a name And leaue the Towne in lieu eternall fame At Adâ—umetum lands vpon which coast Scipio encampes with all his Roman hoast Annotations to the second Booke a Dion relates it thus Caesar hauing subdued Aegypt would not subiect it as a Prouince to the people of Rome but bestowed it wholly vpon Cleopatra for whose sake he bad made the whole warre in Aegypt yet fearing lest the Aegyptians vnder the reigne of a woman would rebell againe and that he might perchance alienate the hearts of the Romans from himselfe by reason of this and the familiaritie which he was knowne to haue wâ—th Cleopatra he gaue her in marriage to her younger brother and confirmed the Kingdome to them both which was indeed but a show for Cleopatra wholly possessed the power her husband being a childe therefore vnder a pretext of marriage by which she should ioyne with her brother in the Kingdome she both reigned alone and enioâ—ed the bed of Caesar Dion lib. 42. b This Caesario both Dion and Plutarch report to be the sonne of Iulius Caesar by Cleopatra when after the Alexandrian warre and before his expedition against King Pharnaces he stayed in Aegypt according to Dion nine moneths after the victory of Augustus Caesar against Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra this Caesario being sent away for safetie into Aethiopia saith Dion was intercepted in the iourney and slaine by Caesar's command the reasons that moued Augustus to this cruelty were partly the Counsell according to Plutarch of Arius the Philosopher his Tutor who told him it was not sâ—fe to suffer too many Caesars partly the remembrance of what Antonius had done who before had commended this Caesario to the old Souldiers aduising them rather to honour the true and naturall sonne of Iulius Caesar than Octauius who was but an adopted heire c Scipio was chosen Generall of all the Roman forces in Affrica that meant to continue the warre against Caesar partly by reason of his dignitie and partly by an absurd persuasion saith Dion that no Scipio in Affrick could be vnfortunate which thing when Caesar perceiued might encourage the enemie and disharten his Souldiers he tooke along with him a certaine obscure man descended of the raâ—e of the Scipios and of that name but his surname was Salatto and with him to thwart the other superstitious feare he landed at Adrumetum before the enemie expected him it being then an vnseâ—sonable time of yeare Dio. lib. 43. d Varus so long had gouerned those Countries and was so puffed vp by the victory of â—uba saith Dion that he contended with Scipio himselfe for the chiefe command but by the authoritie of Cato it was swayed on Scipio's side Cato when all the Souldiers offered to him the chiefe command or at least to be ioyned Generall with Scipio refused both accounting it iust that he which by the lawes had attained the highest dignitie should haue now the greatest command but hee himselfe had neuer attained to so much dignitie in
to the Hunters proues Juba return'd and ioyn'd with Scipio With all their forces to Vzzita goe Now the whole warre was met Vzzita's walls Beheld the Campes of both Romes Generalls Thrice there did Scipio his whole strength display Thrice Caesar set his battells in array Eager of fight and thrice prouok'd his foe To triall of the day but Scipio Would not th' aduantage of the place forsake Nor did the Destinies intend to make Vzzita guiltie of so great a staine Which did for Thapsus fat all fields remaine Whither dislodging from his Campe by night When Scipio could not be prouok'd to fight With prosperous Omen Caesar marches on There then Virgilius lay in Garrison Faithfull to Scipio and the Senates side The place by Nature strongly fortifi'd Scipio and Iuba follow though the aire Gaue sad presages of the future warre The Earth and Skies the like his mourning face The Sunne with clouds obscured in whose place Ruine portending Comets did display Their blazing Lampes and made a dismall day And lightning through th' vncertaine aire gaue light More full of horrour than the shades of night The Thunders voyce was heard there where the aire From clouds was free and th' horrid noise of warre From thence resounded Helmes of Brasse did sweat Some Piles and Swords did melt nor could they get By strength their heauy Standards from the ground Which swarmes of Bees orespread a hollow sound Of Lions sadly murmuring was heard About the Campe the Mountaines all appear'd To moue which did about Vzzita stand And from the farthest part of Libyan land The Mauritanian Atlas seem'd to shake His skie-supporting top Birds seem'd to take Vnusuall flights sad entrailes did appeare And fill'd the sacrificing Priests with feare Nor meane the gods when these portents they show To teach fraile mortalls to preuent the woe But feare it onely The vnhappie troops To Thapsus march distraught twixt feares and hopes Where this great warre shall shortly finde an end On which so many ruines doe depend The Libyan Thapsus a Sea-bordering Towne An I le almost by situation Is by that Sea which Affrick doth diuide From Sicily enuiron'd at one side The other side a spatious fenne oreflowes Guarding that part from all approach of foes Betwixt the Sea and that great fenne doth stand The onely passage to the Towne by land A little Isthmos which although not wide A standing lake doth in the mid'st diuide And makes two narrow passages of one Within these straits not farre from Thapsus Towne Caesar is enter'd now with all his troops And with strong workes and deepe-digg'd trenches stops All meanes of sallies from the Towne that might Perchance infest his armies rere in fight Scipio encamp'd there where the Isthmos ends Within the continent with speed intends To draw a trench downe to the shore and so Within that necke of land shut vp the foe But till the worke be perfected to hide What he intends or battell to abide In faire array he marshalls all his bands Himselfe with his Italian legions stands In the mid-battell Iuba's legions Mixt of so many seuerall Nations Make the right battell on the left doth stand Stout Labienus with a warlike band Of Gaules which he had from Brundusium led And German troops which from Pharsalia fled Old foes to Caesar thither Varus brings His Libyan cohorts but before both wings The mighty Elephants are plac'd to fright The foes first on-set and by them the light Numidian horse and Mauritanian too Behinde the beasts the light-arm'd Souldiers goe His poison'd Quiuer the blacke Mibian beares The strong Mazacians their well-brandish'd Speares Of aime as sure as Parthian Shafts by these With crooked Swords the Adyrmachides But seeing Caesar's army in array And now not likely to protract the day Thus Scipio speakes True Romans if a cause So iust so great as to this battell drawes Your farre-engaged hands could need at all Any incitements from a Generall The wrongs of Rome the foes impietie Afford too large too sad a scope for me To play the Oratour and though the fall Of our sad State and Lawes in generall Should not affect your mindes cast but an eye Vpon those blood stain'd fields of Thessaly Thinke on Pharsalia's slaughter and learne there What each man suffers in particular Beside the publike losse let euery ghost Of friend or kinsman that that day was lost Yet vnreueng'd excite your valour now On vs the gods and Fortune here bestow A iuster cause than there for Caesar's guilt Was not so great before that blood was spilt Nor could that honour Souldiers haue beene gain'd In Thessaly that may be here obtain'd By Caesar's fall now his esteeme is more Although his strength no greater than before And we are bound to Fortune who in this On equall hazard sets a greater price Nor need you feare that she should now forsake Her Romes defence whom she has toil'd to make Head of the World so long because you saw Caesar subdu'd Rome in Pharsalia The date of Pompey's fortune was expir'd His many triumphs which her fauour tir'd So long had lasted as it had beene thought Had Caesar fall'n when that great field was fought Not Romes but Pompey's fortune had preuail'd And Rome then onely her long fauour fail'd As loth a priuate man should thinke her his And she depriu'd of publike sacrifice But thinke not Romans the rebellious Fate Of one proud man shall still out-weigh the State Nor does the anger of the gods appeare If this good Omen we may trust that here On Affricks Sun-burnt face you meet the foe Vnder the conduct of a Scipio I need not boast what euery Nation knowes With what triumphant Fate the Scipio's In Affrick haue aduanc'd Romes power and fame How well her Fortune pleas'd her in that name And what forbids vs hope the like since we As lawfully are armed here and he Whom now our loyall valour copes withall As great a foe to Rome as Hannibal Into your hands the gods haue put their doome Nought but your vertue can restore to Rome Her Lawes and banish'd Citizens againe For banished are you and must remaine For euer so vnlesse you conquer here He that would see his natiue land his neere And dearest pledges by the Sword must now Redeeme them all in Caesar's ouerthrow Their spirits were rowzed and the Roman troops Inflam'd with loue of fight and fill'd with hopes No lesse did Iuba's barbarous Nations With rude and different acclamations Desire a signall and precipitate With eagernesse their owne vnhappie Fate Caesar perceiuing that the gods gaue way To his desire and now the wish'd for day Of fight was come aduances and thus cheeres With confidence his forward Souldiers The time is come braue Souldiers that must crowne And guerdon all the seruice you haue done That must conclude the labours of the Sword And maugre enuy to your heads afford All those triumphant Bayes which hitherto Haue beene deferr'd deseru'd so long agoe For conquer'd Gallia Brittaine