No More Learning

Seest thou
how the twin plumes straighten on his crest, and his father's own
emblazonment already marks him for upper air? Behold, O son! by his
augury shall Rome the renowned fill earth with her empire and heaven
with her pride, and gird about seven fortresses with her single wall,
prosperous mother of men; even as our lady of Berecyntus rides in her
chariot turret-crowned through the Phrygian cities, glad in the gods she
hath borne, clasping an hundred of her children's children, all
habitants of heaven, all dwellers on the upper heights. Hither now bend
thy twin-eyed gaze; behold this people, the Romans that are thine. Here
is Caesar and all Iulus' posterity that shall arise under the mighty
cope of heaven. Here is he, he of whose promise once and again thou
hearest, Caesar Augustus, a god's son, who shall again establish the
ages of gold in Latium over the fields that once were Saturn's realm,
and carry his empire afar to Garamant and Indian, to the land that lies
beyond our stars, beyond the sun's yearlong ways, where Atlas the
sky-bearer wheels on his shoulder the glittering star-spangled pole.
Before his coming even now the kingdoms of the Caspian shudder at
oracular answers, and the Maeotic land and the mouths of sevenfold Nile
flutter in alarm. Nor indeed did Alcides traverse such spaces of earth,
though he pierced the brazen-footed deer, or though he stilled the
Erymanthian woodlands and made Lerna tremble at his bow: nor he who
sways his team with reins of vine, Liber the conqueror, when he drives
his tigers from Nysa's lofty crest. And do we yet hesitate to give
valour scope in deeds, or shrink in fear from setting foot on Ausonian
land? Ah, and who is he apart, marked out with sprays of olive, offering
sacrifice? I know the locks and hoary chin of the king of Rome who shall
establish the infant city in his [811-843]laws, sent from little Cures'
sterile land to the majesty of empire. To him Tullus shall next succeed,
who shall break the peace of his country and stir to arms men rusted
from war and armies now disused to triumphs; and hard on him
over-vaunting Ancus follows, even now too elate in popular breath. Wilt
thou see also the Tarquin kings, and the haughty soul of Brutus the
Avenger, and the fasces regained? He shall first receive a consul's
power and the merciless axes, and when his children would stir fresh
war, the father, for fair freedom's sake, shall summon them to doom.
Unhappy!
yet howsoever posterity shall take the deed, love of country
and limitless passion for honour shall prevail. Nay, behold apart the
Decii and the Drusi, Torquatus with his cruel axe, and Camillus
returning with the standards. Yonder souls likewise, whom thou
discernest gleaming in equal arms, at one now, while shut in Night, ah
me! what mutual war, what battle-lines and bloodshed shall they arouse,
so they attain the light of the living! father-in-law descending from
the Alpine barriers and the fortress of the Dweller Alone, son-in-law
facing him with the embattled East. Nay, O my children, harden not your
hearts to such warfare, neither turn upon her own heart the mastering
might of your country; and thou, be thou first to forgive, who drawest
thy descent from heaven; cast down the weapons from thy hand, O blood of
mine. . . . He shall drive his conquering chariot to the Capitoline
height triumphant over Corinth, glorious in Achaean slaughter. He shall
uproot Argos and Agamemnonian Mycenae, and the Aeacid's own heir, the
seed of Achilles mighty in arms, avenging his ancestors in Troy and
Minerva's polluted temple. Who might leave thee, lordly Cato, or thee,
Cossus, to silence? who the Gracchan family, or these two sons of the
Scipios, a double thunderbolt of war, Libya's bale? and Fabricius potent
in poverty, or [844-875]thee, Serranus, sowing in the furrow? Whither
whirl you me all breathless, O Fabii? thou art he, the most mighty, the
one man whose lingering retrieves our State.