Series 1 > Grameid: an heroic poem descriptive of the campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689, and other pieces

38
PANURGI PHILOCABALLI
t1"21
LIBER SECUNDUS.
CIVILIS rerum Dominam discordia Romam
Quae fines terris, famamque aequavit Olympo,
Perdidit, et fortes bella intestina Quirites
Fregerunt; toto dominataque moenia mundo
In se versa ruunt, Romae et civilibus armis
Gloria magna perit, cui nunquam barbarus ensis,
Parthorum missae nec post sua terga sagittae,
Tantam adeo stragem, nec vulnera tanta dedere
Infelix Trebia, aut Poenorum gloria Cannae,
Quam nimis infames civili sanguine Campi
Aematii, et sparsi Romana caede Philippi.
Corruit bine mundi imperium, ceciditque superbi
Romulidae decus, et rerum pulcherrima Roma.
Haud aliam saevos convellere fata Britannos
Invenere viam, quos non domuere potentes
Ausonii, aut Latiae populator Vandalus orae.
Pallida Tisiphone, caecos discordibus iris
Saxonidum furians animos, jam perdere gentem
Promeritam parat, et patrio prosternere ferro.
Proh pudor ! hostiles bello domuisse catervas !
Et pepulisse acies Romani Caesaris ! ut nunc
BY civil strife fell Rome, the mistress of the world, whose limits
were the limits of the earth, whose glory rivalled Olympus.
Intestine wars broke down the bold Romans. The world sub¬
dued, they turn upon each other, and the great glory of Rome
perishes in civil broils. Not Barbarian sword or Parthian dart,
not Trebia nor Cannae, the boast of Carthage, made such havoc,
or inflicted such grievous wounds, as Pharsalia, red with the blood
of fellow-countrymen, or Philippi, covered with Roman carnage.
Thus fell the world-empire and the glory of Rome; and thus,
too, the Fates seek the ruin of the brave Britons, whom neither
Rome, nor the Vandal, Rome’s despoiler, could ever subdue. Pale
Tisiphone, darkening their minds with discordant passion, prepares
the overthrow of the guilty Saxon race with the civil sword. Oh
shame ! to have conquered in battle and expelled from our coasts