MASTER NEGATIVE NO 91-80044-1 MICROFILMED 1 99 1 COLLTvlBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARmS/NEVV YORK 44 as part oi' the Foundaiioii5 orWcsicrn CivilizatiiHi Presenaiion Project NATIONAL '1 Funded bv the FX)R nil:: ilFMANITIES •^ 1^ r Reproducliuns niav not be made without permission from Columbia University Librar}' COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States — Title 17, United States Code — concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions ol copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgemerd, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: AUSONIUS, DECIMUS MAGNUS TITLE: MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS PLA CE : LONDON DATE: [C1914?] COT ■ M!5!\ IJNTVin^SIT^' LIBRARIES i'RliSl:K\'AT10N DI-PAR'i'MEN i iUBI lOC^RAnilC MKROrORM T ARGET Master Negative # fUr^^^y !■ A^ : ^ 'iii • ,-- F'ihnt'd Txi'-'iiui fiiblingr.iplui. Remrd f-r- i''«*^^ww^ ^ Restrictions on Use: ^ilkv? , Mosella* Liig* 1915 AusoniuB ,^:ecimus ''»■ nus The MoBolla o.r Deciinue '.'ajy.au /a., r." a-. Treuis- latod by F.a, Flint* rLondon, lv.:i-i!,VAA press, ^ 1915?3 p. 16 iA!j# (The i)oet:J^ tr-.rA-r: AtiAri series, no . 6 } « Caption title* . ' . __ L 2!^R1 t u —J [si 'i i V,' • ; )A t A J-ILM SlZi-: -' ' _.„'^_y^'- IMAGi- r'LACF.Mi'N 1: !A llA IB IIB DATli FILMHD: /' FILMED BY; RFSl' ARc;} i i'i:Hi !. ,\ . :•■ "V .L ™ ]< ! 1 ■) i K ' IK i\ K A T ! 1 ■): H IMTFAF'^ 'VV>. P- AIIM Asaoeiatioii for Infdmiation and Image Management 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 12 3 4 iiiilmiliiiil iiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiil "T T T I M I M I I Inches 1 5 6 iiiliiiiliin ii m 8 1.0 i.i 1.25 k^ 9 null T 10 m hm 28 1^ 2.5 136 1 3.2 If 1'' 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.4 1.6 11 li 12 13 i 5 14 I 15 mm I ^n, , 1^ «frf« >""» » ^ '\^ .%, 7 MflNUFfiCTURED TO flllM STRNDflRDS BY RPPLIED IMRGE, INC. *'Wii 4l-t » \ «=■*!. - j . ./ H*-. -fX^;" •'/ - w V # ?, . BTVxu.O) 3 LIBRARY •ir The poets* Translation Series. No. 6. 6d. net. nDRi ^p~" 1 HP Hi nKt 1 m i^ »9 f »l f K' V /'I 1.% THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS Thanslated by F. S. Flint - rr. • „= Moed.r ^ C7, Qratian in ?r'i:sorr;erd "t^ Zdtu.^^hte,'h:^ng immediately ^;wt'rhTs Tourt Christianity i?^^!^^^^^^^;^^ n1 him to celebrate Valent.nian Valen. the coemp , rfcn «v''"fr^:^Ttourrnr(:rre'i&^^ pf* feme -* .,'«X"^,: ,;^3„ at a'tSre when fhe seat of rRoman Em^p^^^-^^^at" Trev^ on the M.elle, . h. _m.st IndTerm-a^^ Thi^^U hTfiH'nHsh -Nation, it appears, U ^^(^21b THE MOSELLA OF DECTMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS THAD crossed the dark flood of the swift Nava (Xalie), and admired the new walls added to ancient Yincuni (Biugen), where, long ago, (jaul suffered a defeat equal to that of ihe Romans at Cannae, and where the troops of the dead lie in the fields unwept and unhonoured. Thence, enter- ing a lonely path through a deserted wooded coun- try, where can be seen no trace of human cultiva- tion, T pass by arid Dumnlssus, with thirsty lands on all sides, and Tabernae (Berncastel) watered by a perpetual founlain, and the fields once laid out by Sarmatian settlers. At length, near the boundaries of the Belgae, I come in sight of Xoiomagum (Neumagen), the renowned camp of divine Con- stantinus. In these plains the air is purer, and Phoebus, now cloudless, opens glittering Olympus with his untroubled light. The heavens are no longer shut out by a green gloom and to be sought in the tangle of intertwining branches; and the free air of bright day does not begrudge to the beholder a clear radiance and a dazzling sky. Everything moved me in this charming scene by its resemblance to the splendour of shining Burdigala (Bordeaux), my native land : the tops of the villas standing out above the overhanging banks, the hills green with vines, and the pleasant waters of the Mosella flowing beneath with a muted murmur. 2 'J r ^7 ^^X'^ THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS Hail ! river praised both by fields and settlers, , to which the Belgae ov.'e ramparts considered worthy by the emperors, river whose slopes are planted with vines yielding a perfumed wine, most green river, whose banks are covered with grasses ! Navi- gable like the sea, your waters are borne down like a river's ; by your glassy deeps you resemble a lake ; by your rippling stream you niaj' be likened to a brook; and by the purity of the drinking-water you supply you surpass the cold springs : you alone have all the excellencies of spring and stream and river and lake and of the sea that by its ebb and flow makes a double path. Your peaceful waters glide by without suffering either the roar of the wind or the conflict of hidden rocks. You are not driven by whirling rapids to hasten your course; you have no islands rising in mid-stream to stay your waters, and, dividing them and turning them aside, to rob >ou of the honour of a well-deserved name. Fate has given j-ou two waterways : one when you flow down with a favourable current and the swift oars strike and churn the waters, and the other when the sailors, towing their barge along the banks without stopping, strain on the mast-ropes with which they are yoked. How often have you wondered at the reverse current in your stream and have thought its natural flow perhaps more sluggish because of it. You do not sow your banks with marsh-weeds, nor lazily overflow yo^r shores with filthy mire; a THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS man may approach dry-shod to the edge of your waters Go now and inorust a smooth soil with Phrygian iniay ; spread out a phiin of marble in your panelled halls: for mv part, despising those things which wealth and fortune give, I will admire the works of nature, which are unheeded by spendthrifts, who, rejoicing in ruin, run riot into beggary. Here the Avet shores are covered by firm sand, in winch the feet leave no imprint of their form. Through your smooth surface can be seen your transparent depths; river, you have no secrets: as the sweet air lies open to the clear gaze, and the still winds otter no hindrance to the eyes through space, so, our sight reachino' into the intimate recesses of the river, we behold, "far down, its sunken life; and, as the stream flows gently by, the inmost heart of its silent depths lies open to us, and in the blue light of the clear, o-liding waters are revealed scattered forms : here, the sand is furrowed, ridged by the light waves; and there, the water-grasses tremble, bending over the green bottom; underneath the waters of their birth, the quivering plants sutt'er the movement of the stream; the pebbles shine, and then hide; and the oravel serves as a foil to the green moss. All alon- the coast of the Britons of Caledonia may be seen the like, when the ebb-tide leaves bare the OTeen seaweed, the red coral and the white pearls, seeds of the shells, the delight of men; and these, P THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS beneath the rich waves, resemble the necklaces of our finery. In the same way, beneath the happy waters of the peaceful Mosella, the weeds by their dift'erent colour show up the pebbles mingled with them. The slippery shoals of fishes at play among them- selves tire the attentive eyes with their continual maze. But how many species there are swimming in slanting paths, and what armies of them pass up the stream, their names, and the number of the children of this great race, I must not say : he to whom fell the care of the second lot and the guardianship of the sea-trident does not allow it. Xaiad, dweller of the river-banks, describe to me the hosts of the scaly tribes, speak to me of these hordes of fishes swimming in the liquid bed of the blue river. The scaly bullhead shines in the grass-covered sand; its flesh is very tender, and is closely set with bones; it will not keep more than six hours for the table. Then there is the trout, wdiose back is starred with purple spots; the loach, which has no pointed spine to harm w^ith, and the light grayling, baffling the eyes with its swift passage. And you, O barbel, after being tossed in the narrow mouths of the crooked Saravus (Saar), where its six branches chafe against the rocky piles of a bridge, when you slipped into the more famous river, you were freer and enjoyed a wide range for your wanderings THE MOSELLxY OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS You taste better in your worst years ; and it falls to you of all breathing creatures to be praised m age. Nor must I pass vou over, salmon, whose flesh i^'leams scarlet: the sudden lashes of your broad tail are borne up in ripples from the bottom to the surface of the stream, and your hidden strokes are betrayed in the calm waters. Your breast is clad in an armour of scales; your head is smooth : and you are a fit dish for feasts where choice is dife- cult ; you will bear a long wait without going bad ; the spots on your head mark you out : and your prodigious belly shakes and quivers with the weight of your fat sides. And you who, in Illyna, m the waters of the double-named Hister (Danube), are cauo-ht by vour track of floating foam, burbot, you visit our river, so that the wide Mosella may not be defrauded of such a far-famed guest. With what colours has nature painted you! Black spots cover the upper part of your back, each surrounded by a yellow half-circle; your slippery body is dyed a\lark blue colour : up to the middle, you are fat; thence to the end of your tail, you have a dry^ rough skin. Nor shall I be silent about you O per^h, delight of the table, fresh-water fi^^^^ ^^^rthy of the sea-fish, alone fit to compare with the red mullet ; for you are not insipid to the taste ; the parts of your firm body are in united segments separated bv'bones. This fish, too, with the laughable Latin name, the Lucius (pike), the pond-dweller and 6 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS violent enemy of the plaintive frogs, haunts the pools dark with sedge. Never chosen for table use, it is boiled in smoky cookshops that reek with its fetid steam. Who does not know tlie green tench, the comfort of the vulgar, and the bleak, the prey of children's hooks, and the shad, that hisses on the fire, a favourite dish of the people? And you who of two species are neither and both, who are not yet salmon and no longer trout, and who, holding place between the two, salmon-trout, are caught at an intermediate age? You also must be mentioned among the river-armies, O gudgeon, who are no larger than two thumbless hands, but very fat and round, and bigger with your egg-laden belly. gudgeon, you liave counterfeited the hanging beard of the barbel. You, now, shall be celebrated, great silurus, sea animal : your body seems smeared with Attic oil ; I think of you as the dolpliin of the river : so grandly do you glide through the water, and, in the shallows or the river's weeds, you move with difficulty and weariness the curves of your long body. But when you urge your quiet way in the stream, the green banks, the blue crowd of fishes, tlie clear waters Avonder at you : the surging waters swell in their bed, and the last waves lap at the river's edge. So in the deep Atlantic the whale is sometimes driven by the wind or its own motion towards the shore; the sea is thrust aside, great waves rise up, and the neighbouring hills fear to 7 THE XIOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS seem smnllev l.eonuse of them. But this oentle whale ot our Mosellu, far from brinoing. rum, adds but the more lionour to the river. But we have looked long' euout-h at the water- ways and tlie plidin- shoals of fishes; we have counted their mauy bands long enough. Let tlie spectacle ot the vines show us otlier splendours, and the gifts of Bacchus entice our wandering eyes to where a lofty peak in a long raug>' of steep lulls and rocks, and sunny ridges with their folds and windings mount up. clad with vines, into a natural amphitheatre. Thus a ripe viiitag^ covers Mount Gaiirus and the Ehodope, and the I'angaeus gleams with its grapes; tiius the hill of Ismarus grows green above the sea of Thrace ; thus my vineyards paint the golden Garumna (Garonne). Indeed, the margin of the river is joined by the green vine to the liighest ridges ot the lulls tha ^^i-etc-h far as the eve can see. The labourers happy at then work 'and the hastening husbandmen make all speed, now on the hiahest summit, now on the roUiu"' sides ot the hill, striving with clownish shouts^ The traveller on the road by the river- side and the boatman on the waters sing out alnise to the backward vine-dressers : the io<-'<'<- /''^.f.^;".'; ino- woods, and the hollow river resoun.l with then """"isC are nion alone cleliohted by these scenes : Ixerc I am willing- to believe, rural Satyrs and 8 v> THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS Xaiades with sea-green eyes run together on the banks when a glad wantonness drives on the goat- looted Tans, and they jump about in the stream, and, beating tlie surface with wayward blows, frighten their trembling sisters beneath the waters. Offen, too, the river-nymph, Tanope, after having stolen grapes from the'hill-slopes, hides among the friendlv (Ireades from the leclierous Fauns, the village-deities. And it is said that, when the golden sun stops in middle course, the Satyrs and their gleaming sister-partners perform choral dances by Tlie river which tliey share, the violent heat aft'ord- ing houis free from the chance of meeting men. Then, leaping into the river Avhich is theirs, the ^'yluphs play, and thrusting the Satyrs beneath the waters, escape from the hands of these inexpert swimmers, who, ever at fault, grasp at slippery limbs, and, instead of bodies, clasp the clear waves. But of these tilings witnessed by none and unknown to sight of men let me be permitted to say no more than this, and let respect cover and hide the mysteries entrusted to the river. But we may openly enjoy the spectacle when the blue-grey liver reflects tlie shadowing hill, and the waters seem to put on leaves and to be planted with vines. What is this colour of the stream when Hesperus drives before him the shadows (jf evening, and fills the Mosella with a green mountain! The hillsides all float tremulously in the ripples, and the distant THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSOXIUS vine-branches quiver, and the orapes swell in the clear waters. The boatman, the sport of an illusion, counts the green vine-stems : the boatman who. in his skift* hollowed from the trunk ot a tree, floats in mid-stream where the image of the hill mingles with the river and the river joins the boundaries of the shades. How pleasant, too, is the sight of the games when the oar-driven boats race one another in the middle of the river, making many curves, and skimming the vegetation growing up again on the green banks in the mown meadows ! The nimble masters dance on bow and stern; and, while you watch these bands of young men at play on the river, the day passes; yoii prefer their games to your more serious affairs ; and a new pleasure drives away old cares. On games such as these in the sea of Cumae, Bacchus, wandering along the vineclad tops of sulphureous Gaurus or through the vineyards of smoking Vesuvius, looks down, when Venus, overjoyed with the triumphs of Augustus at Actium, has ordered the wanton Cupids to mimic the fierce battles which the fleets of the Nile and the liatin triremes waged under the walls of Leucas, dedicated to Apollo. Such, too, are the games in which the boats of Euboea repeat on the roaring Avernus the manoeuvres that led to the defeat of Pompey oft Mvlas: the shocks and fighting of these ships being a harmless jest, an imitation battle held in sight of 10 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS Sicilian Pelorus, and reflected as a green image in the blue sea. X like joyous aspect is given to these lively young men by their youth, the river and the painted prows of their boats. When the sun, high overhead, bathes the sailors with light and heat, he reproduces their forms in the crystal depths, showino' a foreshortened image of their figures upside ''down. And as their quick movements are multiplied right and left, as in the change of oars thev take their turns at the work, the stream throws back the wet image of other sailors. The young boatmen take pleasure in their reflexion, and admire these deceitful shapes formed in the river. In the same wav, when a foster-mother first brings her dear nursling to the dazzling splendour of a far- shining mirror, in which she may be shown her neatlv arranged hair, the laughing child enjoys the new oame, and thinks she is looking at the likeness of a "sister ; she kisses the glittering, unresponsive metal, or attempts to touch the pms she sees fixed; or strives to pull the curls dangling over the fore- head of her image. Thus the young boatnien, watching the play of their reflexions enjoy these shapes that hover between the true and the talse But whpre the bank permits of easy access to the river, a crowd of destructive peop e seeks m tiie depths the fishes, ill-defended, alas! m their watery hiding-places. One, dragging his dripping nets far off in mid-stream, sweeps tbe shoals of fishes into THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS Lis knotted toils. Another where ^j^^/iver glides by in quiet volume, controls net^s that float with cork markers. Another still, having cast his hooks : ir "d with deadly bait leans from the rocks over the w'lters and watches the arching curve ot the end o his flexible rod. Immediately the wandering crowd of fishes, unconscious of snares, has attacked he hooks with gaping jaws, the gasping hrc>ats feel deep down too late the wound from the hidden poinf. Bv their struggles the fishes are betrayed ; ?nd the shaking rod answers to the sharp ierks of the auivering line. Without delay the dexterous bov snTtche^ up his rod and strikes; his prey whistles Tan Clique curve through the air ^^-^ ^^^^^ to the shock as the breeze resounds and the \vina Ms!es\S li^ air when whips are cracked. The dank bootv writhes on the dry rocks, earing the dJ^^lv beams of the light of day. In its river- he fish preserved its strength ; but panting m our I?r it consumes its life HnReringly l^^^^J^^^ body is now shaken only by nerveless tlnobs, the linZ tail -ives its last quivers; the .laws remain ope • and^he gills, breathing out their dying Kii yield airthe air they i^^^-l^J/" ^^^^^ Thus too, when the air plays on the fiie in the 4i tl V the woollen valve working m the cayitv of e Wchen bellows receives f "^^ -P^^^f ^^^ 7 alternately opening and ^b^^t^^^^^'^^^^^^ fhTmni However, T have seen fishes quivering on the point 12 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUb of death collect their strength, and, leaping sud- denly into the air, plunge headlong into the river beneath, masters once more of the waters they had thought to have lost for ever. And the unthinking bov, enraged at this loss, rushes down from the rocks, and foolishly tries to recapture them by swimming after them. Thus Glaucus of Anthedon a fisher in the seas of Boeotia, after having tasted the deadly grasses of Circe, took of the herbs eaten by dying' fishes, and, jumping into the Carpathian Sea,^becanie a new dweller therein. He who was mio'htv with hook and net, the explorer of the secret pla'ces\)f Nereus, he who used to sweep the waters of the sea-goddess, Tethys, now floated among the bands of fishes which were once his prey. Such are the scenes along the blue course of the Mosella looked down upon by the villas that cling to the summits of the rocks overhanging the wander- ino- river, which passes between them with its wind- ing curves and separates them ; on both sides country houses adorn the banks. . p Who now admires the sea of Sestos, the waters ot Helle, daughter of Xephele, or the strait of tlie youth of Abvdos? AVho admires that sea (the Bos- phorus) covered with a bridge of boats the work ot a great king (Darius), from the Chalcedonian shore where the waters of a strait prevent the lands ot Europe and of Asia from coming together? Here are no wild furies of the sea, no cruel battles ot the THE MOSELLA OB^ DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSOXIUS winds. Here vou may carry on speech from one bank to the other, and, speaking in turns, exchange conversation. Tliese pleasant shores mino-le the greeting oi" voices, voices and almost liands: the words resounding on both sides are repeated by the echoes that meet in the middle of the river. In describing these innumerable splendours and scenes, who cTui do justice to the architectural beauties of each of these estates? The winged Cretan, Daedalus, the builder of the temple at Cumae, who was overcome by a father's sorrow when trying to work in gold the fall of Icarus, would not despise these works; nor the Athenian, Philo ; nor he who, praised by the enemy themselves (Archi- medes), protracted' the noble struggles of the Syra- cusan war. Perhaps these masterpieces of human labour were designed by the seven architects cele- brated in the tenth volume of Yarro ; here has flourished the art of famous :Metagenis, and has been seen the hand of F.phesus, and Ictinus, who placed in the citadel of Minerva an owl smeared with a magic dve, which attracts all kinds of birds and kills them' with a look. Here, perhaps, has been the architect of the palace of the Ptolemaei. Hinochares, whose four walls, rising to their pointed summit, form a pyramid consuming its own shadow. He, having once been ordered to commemorate the bonds of an incestuous love, suspended the image of Arsinoe in air in the temple at Pharos. For the 14 I THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS influence of a blue loadstone in the arch of the roof, attracting the young woman by means of an iron hair, lifted herefrom the ground. • It is worthv of belief that these artists or their equals traced out on the soil of the Belgae the plan of these houses, and built these villas, the orna- ments of the river. One of them is high up on a mass of rocks; another is placed on a jutting point of the bank; a third is withdrawn, and claims as its own a small bay of the river. Still another, on a hill overlooking a long stretch of the river, has an uninterrupted view over the cultivated heids and the wild heaths, and the happy man who from this house contemplates the country enjoys it as i* .J^ were his own. Moreover, the house which is built on a low-lving soil in meadows overflowed by the river has a' compensation for the natural advantages of the high hill in the lofty roof which it thrusts threateninglv into the air, displaying pro^dly V^ hio-h tower, like Pharos in the country of Memphis To'' this other house belongs the right to take all fish caught in the weirs between the rocks, whose cultivated plateaux lie open to the sun Another villa, placed on the summits of the hills, beholds onlv through a thick mist the river flowing below. Sh'ill I recall all those mansions standing m the green meadows, all those roofs resting on innu- merable columns? Or the baths built on the river- bonk. which steam when Vulcan, deep down m their 15 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS burnino- bowels, breathes tlie rolling flames into the channels of the white-washed walls,, and collects the imprisoned vapour to belch it forth ? I have seen ])athers, wearied with much sweating in the bath, disdain the basins and the cool tanks to enjoy the running water, and, soon refreshed by the river, beat the cold waves in the deliglit of swimming. If a stranger were to come here from the Cumaean coast, he would believe that the country had been endowed with a smaller l^aiae, so great is its beauty and attractive its charm; and the pleasure it gives leads to no extravagance. But when shall I cease to sing of your blue-grey waters, or to recall, O Mosella, that you are com- parable to the sea, since innumerable rivers flow into you by ditterent mouths all along your coursed Although "they could turn aside, yet they hurry to lose their name in you. For the Sura (Sauer), swollen by the Promea (Pruem) and the Xemesa (Xims), not unworthily liastens to pour its waters into yours; the Sura, Vhich thus presents to you the rivers it has intercepted, deems it a nobler thing to be mingled with you than to find its way to Father Ocean by a niouth of its own which none would know. The rapid Celbis (Kyll) and the Erubris (Ruwer), celebrated for its marble, press on to be the first to touch you with their attendant waters ; the Celbis is renowned for its fishes ; and the other river, w^hich twists the millstones in a 16 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS headlong whirl, and drags the whirring saws through the smooth marble, hears a perpetual noise from both its banks. I pass over the lit le Lesura (Lieser) and the slight Drahonus (Ihron) ; nor shall I notice the miserable Salmona (Salm) ; the Saravus (Saar), a navigable river with a sonorous mass ot water, has long been calling to me with all its charms. This river leads its waters afar until it pours them wearilv into the Mosella beneath the walls of one of the palaces of Augustus. ISot less important is the happy Alisontm (Elz), which, o-lidino- silentlv between fat meadows, laps at its fertile'^ banks. ^ A thousand others, each according to its haste, prove their desire to become yours. Such are the character and ambition ot these hurrving waters. If, divine Mosella, Smyrna or renowned Mantua had given you your poet, the Simois, which was celebrated on the Ilion shores, would give wav to vou, and Tiber would not dare to prefer its honours to yours. Forgive me, 1 ) powerful Rome! Let envy, I pray be hounded hence! And Xemesis, O name unknown to the Latin tongue, protect the present seat of the Empire and Eome, its mother! i ^,, t Hail Mosella, great mother of harvests and men! ISToble princes, voung men trained m war and an eloquence rivalling that of the orators of Lfium are vour glories. Moreover, nature has granted to your children good manners, a happy wit, and a THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS smiling brow. Eome is not alone in its display of ancient Catos; and Aristides, the honour of old Athens, is not the only man reputed for his observ- ance of justice and equity. But why do I, like one who, having given the rein to his horses, is carried too far, weaken your praise bv excess, overcome by my affection for you ? Lay down the Ivre, Muse; its strings are sounding with the end of my song. A time will come when I shall soothe mv cares in the studies of an in- glorious leisure, and shall cherish the sunny hours of my decay : then I shall gain honour from the nobility of ^this subject, singing the deeds of the Belgae, man by man, and their customs, handed down from father to son, which are their especial glory. The Pierian maids will weave me pleasant poems of fine thread; they will cross the weft with a daintv warp; purple, too, will be given to our spindles\ Who, then, will be left unsung? I will commemorate the peaceful husbandmen, those learned in law, the eloquent pleaders, eminent pro- tectors of defendants; those whom the Curia of the toAvns has seen, as the supreme leaders of their fellow- citizens, forming their own Senate; those whose eloquence, renowned in the schools for young men who wear the praetexta, has raised them to the fame of old Quintilian; those who have administered their own towns, and have adorned a bench unsullied with blood and cruel axes; those who, as lieutenants of 18 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS the prefects, have governed the peoples of Italy and the Northern Britons; and, finally, that man who administered Eome, the capital of the world its people and its senators. Although equal to the first, he was not first in name ; but Fortune at length hastens to repair her error, and, making good the rewards he has scarcely tasted, she will raise him to the summit of true honour, which will be passed on to his noble descendants. But now let the work- already begun be finished, and the praise of the men deferred ; let us sing the fertile river and its happy course through the green countryside ; let us conse- crate it to the waters of the Rhine. Open now, O Rhine, your blue folds and your brio-ht green robe; measure a space large enough for'this new river, which will fill jou with its sis- terly waters. Nor are its waters its only gitt, tor it has passed by the walls of; the city of Augustus (Treves) and has seen the .lomt triumphs of lather and son, after they had beaten the enemy on the Nicer (Neckar), at Lupodunum, and at the Mister s source,^ which is unknown to the annals of Latium. The letter crowned with laurels announcing the successful end of the war has just arrived ; the Mosella will bring you others and sti 1 others. Con- tinue now together, and push back the dark sea with your double current. O most lovely Rhine, do not fear that you will seem overshadowed, lour ouest should awaken no jealousy. mistress ot an '^ 19 THE MOSELLA OF DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSOXIUS eternal name, adopt your sister; your renown is secure. Rich in waters, rich in Xymplis, your bed. prodi ■^ v^'^ ^^^ This book is due two weeks from the last date stamped ^elow, and if not returned at or before that time a fine of ?ive cents a day will be incurred .*.- „. ,. •> ;.* ■/■ if", - .** ^n. * .n / \ ./ / \ 1 •#■*:! :>/ / ■^ ..? "-^.. «, :#■ ^^-^^ , .- ■.t€ ~ . f. % f-V ^^fc- ,^^ i-f- "..-'jR..* ft.