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LAYS 
 
 ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-HOW. 
 1846. 
 
London : 
 
 Printed by A. Spottiswoode, 
 
 N e w- Street- Squ are. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 That what is called the history of the Kings 
 and early Consuls of Rome is to a great ex- 
 tent fabulous, few scholars have, since the 
 time of Beaufort, ventured to deny. It is cer- 
 tain that, more than three hundred and sixty 
 years after the date ordinarily assigned for the 
 foundation of the city, the public records were, 
 with scarcely an exception, destroyed by the 
 Gauls. It is certain that the oldest annals of 
 the commonwealth were compiled more than a 
 century and a half after the destruction of the 
 records. It is certain, therefore, that the great 
 Latin writers of the Augustan age did not 
 possess those materials, without which a trust- 
 worthy account of the infancy of the republic 
 could not possibly be framed. Those writers 
 own, indeed, that the chronicles to which they 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 had access were filled with battles that were 
 never fought, and Consuls that were never 
 inaugurated ; and we have abundant proof that, 
 in these chronicles, events of the greatest im- 
 portance, such as the issue of the war with 
 Porsena, and the issue of the war with Brennus, 
 were grossly misrepresented. Under these cir- 
 cumstances a wise man will look with great 
 suspicion on the legend which has come down 
 to us. He will, perhaps, be inclined to regard 
 the princes who are said to have founded the 
 civil and religious institutions of Rome, the son 
 of Mars, and the husband of Egeria, as mere 
 mythological personages, of the same class with 
 Perseus and Ixion. As he draws nearer and 
 nearer to the confines of authentic history, he 
 will become less and less hard of belief. He 
 will admit that the most important parts of the 
 narrative have some foundation in truth. But 
 he will distrust almost all the details, not only 
 because they seldom rest on any solid evidence, 
 but also because he will constantly detect in 
 them, even when they are within the limits of 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 physical possibility, that peculiar character, more 
 easily understood than denned, which distin- 
 guishes the creations of the imagination from 
 the realities of the world in which we live. 
 
 The early history of Rome is indeed far more 
 poetical than any thing else in Latin literature. 
 The loves of the Vestal and the God of War, the 
 cradle laid among the reeds of Tiber, the fig- 
 tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin, the re- 
 cognition, the fratricide, the rape of the Sabines, 
 the death of Tarpeia, the fall of Hostus Hostilius, 
 the struggle of Mettus Curtius through the 
 marsh, the women rushing with torn raiment and 
 dishevelled hair between their fathers and their 
 husbands, the nightly meetings of Numa and the 
 Nymph by the well in the sacred grove, the fight 
 of the three Romans and the three Albans, the 
 purchase of the Sibylline books, the crime of 
 Tullia, the simulated madness of Brutus, the 
 ambiguous reply of the Delphian oracle to the 
 Tarquins, the wrongs of Lucretia, the heroic 
 actions of Horatius Codes, of Scsevola, and of 
 Clcelia, the battle of Regillus won by the aid of 
 
b PREFACE. 
 
 Castor and Pollux, the defence of Cremera, the 
 touching story of Coriolanus, the still more 
 touching story of Virginia, the wild legend about 
 the draining of the Alban lake, the combat 
 between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul, 
 are among the many instances which will at once 
 suggest themselves to every reader. 
 
 In the narrative of Livy, who was a man of 
 fine imagination, these stories retain much of 
 their genuine character. Nor could even the 
 tasteless Dionysius distort and mutilate them 
 into mere prose. The poetry shines, in spite of 
 him, through the dreary pedantry of his eleven 
 books. It is discernible in the most tedious and 
 in the most superficial modern works on the 
 early times of Rome. It enlivens the dulness of 
 the Universal History, and gives a charm to the 
 most meagre abridgments of Goldsmith. 
 
 Even in the age of Plutarch there were dis- 
 cerning men who rejected the popular account 
 of the foundation of Rome, because that account 
 appeared to them to have the air, not of a history, 
 but of a romance or a drama. Plutarch, who was 
 
PREFACE. i 
 
 displeased at their incredulity, had nothing better 
 to say in reply to their arguments than that 
 chance sometimes turns poet, and produces trains 
 of events not to be distinguished from the most 
 elaborate plots which are constructed by art.* 
 But though the existence of a poetical element 
 in the early history of the Great City was de- 
 tected so many ages ago, the first critic who 
 distinctly saw from what source that poetical 
 element had been derived was James Perizonius, 
 one of the most acute and learned antiquaries of 
 the seventeenth century. His theory, which, in 
 his own days, attracted little or no notice, was 
 revived in the present generation by Niebuhr, a 
 man who would have been the first writer of his 
 time, if his talent for communicating truths had 
 
 * "Y7T0TTT0V fiev ivioiQ iarl to SpafiariKov ical TrXafffiarddtQ' ov 
 del Sk airiGTEiv, rfjv tvx*\v opuvrag, o'Iojv Troii]fia.ru)v Srjfiiovpyog 
 son. — Plut Rom. viii. This remarkable passage has been more 
 grossly misinterpreted than any other in the Greek language, 
 where the sense was so obvious. The Latin version of Cruserius, 
 the French version of Amyot, the old English version by several 
 hands, and the later English version by Langhorne, are all equally 
 destitute of every trace of the meaning of the original. None of 
 the translators saw even that -Koirwia is a poem. They all render 
 it an event. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 borne any proportion to his talent for investi- 
 gating them. It has been adopted by several 
 eminent scholars of our own country, parti- 
 cularly by the Bishop of St. David's, by Pro- 
 fessor Maiden, and by the lamented Arnold. It 
 appears to be now generally received by men 
 conversant with classical antiquity; and indeed 
 it rests on such strong proofs, both internal and 
 external, that it will not be easily subverted. 
 A popular exposition of this theory, and of the 
 evidence by which it is supported, may not be 
 without interest even for readers who are un- 
 acquainted with the ancient languages. 
 
 The Latin literature which has come down to 
 us is of later date than the commencement of 
 the second Punic war, and consists almost ex- 
 clusively of works fashioned on Greek models. 
 The Latin metres, heroic, elegiac, lyric, and 
 dramatic, are of Greek origin. The best Latin 
 epic poetry is the feeble echo of the Iliad and 
 Odyssey. The best Latin eclogues are imitations 
 of Theocritus. The plan of the most finished 
 didactic poem in the Latin tongue was taken 
 
PREFACE, » 
 
 from Hesiod. The Latin tragedies are bad 
 copies of the master-pieces of Sophocles and 
 Euripides. The Latin comedies are free trans- 
 lations from Demophilus, Menander, and Apollo- 
 dorus. The Latin philosophy was borrowed, 
 without alteration, from the Portico and the 
 Academy ; and the great Latin orators constantly 
 proposed to themselves as patterns the speeches 
 of Demosthenes and Lysias. 
 
 But there was an earlier Latin literature, a 
 literature truly Latin, which has wholly perished, 
 which had, indeed, almost wholly perished long 
 before those whom we are in the habit of regarding 
 as the greatest Latin writers were born. That 
 literature abounded with metrical romances, 
 such as are found in every country where there 
 is much curiosity and intelligence, but little 
 reading and writing. All human beings, not 
 utterly savage, long for some information about 
 past times, and are delighted by narratives which 
 present pictures to the eye of the mind. But 
 it is only in very enlightened communities that 
 books are readily accessible. Metrical com- 
 
10 PEEFACE. 
 
 position, therefore, which, in a highly civilised 
 nation, is a mere luxury, is, in nations imper- 
 fectly civilised, almost a necessary of life, and 
 is valued less on account of the pleasure which it 
 gives to the ear, than on account of the help which 
 it gives to the memory. A man who can invent 
 or embellish an interesting story, and put it into 
 a form which others may easily retain in their 
 recollection, will always be highly esteemed by 
 a people eager for amusement and information, 
 but destitute of libraries. Such is the origin 
 of ballad-poetry, a species of composition which 
 scarcely ever fails to spring up and nourish in 
 every society, at a certain point in the progress 
 towards refinement. Tacitus informs us that 
 songs were the only memorials of the past which 
 the ancient Germans possessed. We learn from 
 Lucan and from Ammianus Marcellinus that the 
 brave actions of the ancient Gauls were com- 
 memorated in the verses of Bards. During many 
 ages, and through many revolutions, minstrelsy 
 retained its influence over both the Teutonic 
 and the Celtic race. The vengeance exacted by 
 
PEEFACE. 1 1 
 
 the spouse of Attila for the murder of Siegfried 
 was celebrated in rhymes, of which Germany 
 is still justly proud. The exploits of Athel- 
 stane were commemorated by the Anglo-Saxons, 
 and those of Canute by the Danes, in rude 
 poems, of which a few fragments have come 
 down to us. The chants of the Welsh harpers 
 preserved, through ages of darkness, a faint and 
 doubtful memory of Arthur. In the Highlands 
 of Scotland may still be gleaned some relics 
 of the old songs about Cuthullin and Fingal. 
 The long struggle of the Servians against the 
 Ottoman power was recorded in lays full of 
 martial spirit. We learn from Herrera that, 
 when a Peruvian Inca died, men of skill were 
 appointed to celebrate him in verses, which all 
 the people learned by heart, and sang in public 
 on days of festival. The feats of Kurroglou, 
 the great freebooter of Turkistan, recounted in 
 ballads composed by himself, are known in every 
 village of Northern Persia. Captain Beechey 
 heard the bards of the Sandwich Islands recite 
 the heroic achievements of Tamehameha, the most 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 illustrious of their kings. Mungo Park found in 
 the heart of Africa a class of singing men, the 
 only annalists of their rude tribes, and heard 
 them tell the story of the victory which Darnel, 
 the negro prince of the Jaloffs, won over Ab- 
 dulkader, the Mussulman tyrant of Foota Torra. 
 This species of poetry attained a high degree 
 of excellence among the Castilians, before they 
 began to copy Tuscan patterns. It attained 
 a still higher degree of excellence among the 
 English and the Lowland Scotch, during the 
 fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. 
 But it reached its full perfection in ancient 
 Greece; for there can be no doubt that the 
 great Homeric poems are generically ballads, 
 though widely distinguished from all other bal- 
 lads, and, indeed, from almost all other human 
 compositions, by transcendent merit. 
 
 As it is agreeable to general experience that, 
 at a certain stage in the progress of society, bal- 
 lad-poetry should flourish, so is it also agreeable 
 to general experience that, at a subsequent stage 
 in the progress of society, ballad-poetry should 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 be undervalued and neglected. Knowledge ad- 
 vances: mariners change: great foreign models 
 of composition are studied and imitated. The 
 phraseology of the old minstrels becomes obso- 
 lete. Their versification, which, having received 
 its laws only from the ear, abounds in irregu- 
 larities, seems licentious and uncouth. Their 
 simplicity appears beggarly when compared with 
 the quaint forms and gaudy colouring of such 
 artists as Cowley and Gongora. The ancient 
 lays, unjustly despised by the learned and polite, 
 linger for a time in the memory of the vulgar, 
 and are at length too often irretrievably lost. 
 We cannot wonder that the ballads of Rome 
 should have altogether disappeared, when we re- 
 member how very narrowly, in spite of the in- 
 vention of printing, those of our own country 
 and those of Spain escaped the same fate. There 
 is, indeed, little doubt that oblivion covers many 
 English songs equal to any that were published 
 by Bishop Percy, and many Spanish songs as 
 good as the best of those which have been so 
 happily translated by Mr. Lockhart. Eighty 
 
14 PREFACE. 
 
 years ago England possessed only one tattered 
 copy of Cliilde Waters and Sir Cauline, and 
 Spain only one tattered copy of the noble poem 
 of the Cid. The snuff of a candle, or a mis- 
 chievous dog, might in a moment have deprived 
 the world for ever of any of those fine compo- 
 sitions. Sir Walter Scott, who united to the 
 fire of a great poet the minute curiosity and pa- 
 tient diligence of a great antiquary, was but 
 just in time to save the precious relics of the 
 Minstrelsy of the Border. In Germany, the lay 
 of the Nibelungs had been long utterly forgotten 
 when, in the eighteenth century, it was, for the 
 first time, printed from a manuscript in the old 
 library of a noble family. In truth, the only 
 people who, through their whole passage from 
 simplicity to the highest civilisation, never for a 
 moment ceased to love and admire their old bal- 
 lads, were the Greeks. 
 
 That the early Romans should have had bal- 
 lad-poetry, and that this poetry should have 
 perished, is, therefore, not strange. It would, on 
 the contrary, have been strange if these things 
 
PREFACE. 15 
 
 had not come to pass ; and we should be justified 
 in pronouncing them highly probable, even if we 
 had no direct evidence on the subject. But we 
 have direct evidence of unquestionable authority. 
 Ennius, who flourished in the time of the 
 Second Punic War, was regarded in the Augus- 
 tan age as the father of Latin poetry. He was, in 
 truth, the father of the second school of Latin 
 poetry, the only school of which the works have 
 descended to us. But from Ennius himself we 
 learn that there were poets who stood to him 
 in the same relation in which the author of the 
 romance of Count Alarcos stood to Garcilaso, or 
 the author of the " Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode " 
 to Lord Surrey. Ennius speaks of verses which 
 the Fauns and the Bards were wont to chant in 
 the old time, when none had yet studied the 
 graces of speech, when none had yet climbed the 
 peaks sacred to the Goddesses of Grecian song. 
 " Where," Cicero mournfully asks, ' ; are those 
 old verses now?"* 
 
 * " Quid ? Nostri veteres versus ubi sunt ? 
 
 ' Quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant, 
 
16 PREFACE. 
 
 Contemporary with Ennius was Quintus Fa- 
 bius Pictor, the earliest of the Roman annalists. 
 His account of the infancy and youth of Romu- 
 lus and Remus has been preserved by Dionysius, 
 and contains a very remarkable reference to the 
 ancient Latin poetry. Fabius says that, in his 
 time, his countrymen were still in the habit of 
 singing ballads about the Twins. " Even in the 
 hut of Faustulus," — so these old lays appear to 
 have run, — "the children of Rhea and Mars were, 
 in port and in spirit, not like unto swineherds or 
 
 Cum neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superarat, 
 
 Nee dicti studiosus erat.' " 
 
 Cic. in Bruto, cap. xviii. 
 The Muses, it should be observed, are Greek divinities. The 
 Italian Goddesses of verse were the Camcenaa. At a later period, the 
 appellations were used indiscriminately ; but in the age of Ennius 
 there was probably a distinction. In the epitaph of Nasvius, who 
 was the representative of the old Italian school of poetry, the Ca- 
 moenae, not the Muses, are represented as grieving for the loss of 
 their votary. The " Musarum scopuli " are evidently the peaks of 
 Parnassus. 
 
 Scaliger, in a note on Varro (De Lingua Latina, lib. vi.), sug- 
 gests, with great ingenuity, that the Fauns, who were represented 
 by the superstition of later ages as a race of monsters, half gods 
 and half brutes, may really have been a" class of men who exercised 
 in Latium, at a very remote period, the same functions which be- 
 longed to the Magians in Persia and to the Bards in Gaul. 
 
PREFACE. 17 
 
 cowherds, but such that men might well guess 
 them to be of the blood of Kings and Gods." * 
 
 * Ok $e avSpioOevrtg yivovrai, Kara re a&ojaiv ixoprprjg /cat (ppovrj/ia- 
 rog ojkov, ov cvotyoptolg /cai f3ovKo\oig eoiKoreg, ciW o'iovq av rig 
 d^ahaue rovg ti; fiaffiktiov re <pvvrag yevovg, Kai citto Saipovuiv arropcig 
 yevscrOai vofxiZojikvovg, wg iv rolg varpioig vjivoic into 'Pojfiaiojv en ical 
 vvv aoerai. — Dion. Hal. i. 79. This passage has sometimes been 
 cited as if Dionysius had been speaking in his own person, and 
 had, Greek as he was, been so industrious or so fortunate as to 
 discover some valuable remains of that early Latin poetry which 
 the greatest Latin writers of his age regretted as hopelessly lost. 
 Such a supposition is highly improbable ; and indeed it seems clear 
 from the context that Dionysius, as Reiske and other editors evi- 
 dently thought, was merely quoting from Fabius Pictor. The 
 whole passage has the air of an extract from an ancient chronicle, 
 and is introduced by the words, Koivrog /xiv $a£wg, u JliKrwp Xtyofxe- 
 vog, rfjos ypcupit. 
 
 Another argument may be urged which seems to deserve con- 
 sideration. The author of the passage in question mentions a 
 thatched hut which, in his time, stood between the summit of 
 Mount Palatine and the Circus. This hut, he says, was built by 
 Romulus, and was constantly kept in repair at the public charge, 
 but never in any respect embellished. Now, in the age of Dionysius 
 there certainly was at Rome a thatched hut, said to have been that 
 of Romulus. But this hut, as we learn from Vitruvius, stood, not 
 near the Circus, but in the Capitol. (Vit. ii. 1.) If, therefore, we 
 iinderstand Dionysius to speak in his own person, we can reconcile 
 his statement with that of Vitruvius only by supposing that there 
 were at Rome, in the Augustan age, two thatched huts, both be- 
 lieved to have been built by Romulus, and both carefully repaired, 
 and held in high honour. The objections to such a supposition 
 seem to be strong. Neither Dionysius nor Vitruvius speaks of 
 more than one such hut. Dio Cassius informs us that twice, during 
 the long administration of Augustus, the hut of Romulus caught 
 
18 PREFACE. 
 
 Cato the Censor, who also lived in the days of 
 the Second Punic War, mentioned this lost lite- 
 rature in his lost work on the antiquities of his 
 country. Many ages, he said, before his time, 
 
 fire, (xlviii. 43. liv. 29.) Had there been two such huts, would he 
 not have told us of which he spoke ? An English historian would 
 hardly give an account of a fire at Queen's College without saying 
 whether it was at Queen's College, Oxford, or at Queen's College, 
 Cambridge. Marcus Seneca, Macrobius, and Conon, a Greek 
 writer from whom Photius has made large extracts, mention only 
 one hut of Romulus, that in the Capitol. (M. Seneca, Contr. i. 6. ; 
 Macrobius, Sat. i. 15. ; Photius, Bill. 186.) Ovid, Livy, Petronius, 
 Valerius Maximus, Lucius Seneca, and St. Jerome, mention only 
 one hut of Romulus, without specifying the site. {Ovid, Fasti, hi. 
 183.; Liv. v. 53. ; Petronius, Fragm.; Vol. Max.'w. 4.; L. Seneca, 
 Consolatio ad Helviam ; D. Hieron. ad Paulinianum de Didymo.) 
 
 The whole difficulty is removed, if we suppose that Dionysius 
 was merely quoting Fabius Pictor. Nothing is more probable 
 than that the cabin, which in the time of Fabius stood near the 
 Circus, might, long before the age of Augustus, have been trans- 
 ported to the Capitol, as the place fittest, by reason both of its 
 safety and of its sanctity, to contain so precious a relic. 
 
 The language of Plutarch confirms this hypothesis. He de- 
 scribes, with great precision, the spot where Romulus dwelt, on the 
 slope of Mount Palatine leading to the Circus ; but he says not a 
 word implying that the dwelling was still to be seen there. Indeed, 
 his expressions imply that it was no longer there. The evidence 
 of Solinus is still more to the point. He, like Plutarch, describes 
 the spot where Romulus had resided, and says expressly that the hut 
 had been there, but that in his time it was there no longer. The 
 site, it is certain, was well remembered ; and probably retained its 
 old name, as Charing Cross and the Haymarket have done. This 
 is probably the explanation of the words, " casa Romuli," in Victor's 
 description of the Tenth Region of Rome, under Valentinian. 
 
PREFACE. 19 
 
 there were ballads in praise of illustrious men ; 
 and these ballads it was the fashion for the guests 
 at banquets to sing in turn while the piper 
 played. " Would," exclaims Cicero, " that we 
 still had the old ballads of which Cato speaks ! " * 
 Valerius Maximus gives us exactly similar in- 
 formation, without mentioning his authority, and 
 observes that the ancient Roman ballads were 
 probably of more benefit to the young than all 
 the lectures of the Athenian schools, and that to 
 the influence of the national poetry were to be 
 ascribed the virtues of such men as Camillus and 
 Fabricius. f 
 
 * Cicero refers twice to this important passage in Cato's Anti- 
 quities : — " Gravissimus auctor in ' Originibus ' dixit Cato, morem 
 apud rnajores hunc epularum fuisse, ut deinceps, qui accubarent, 
 canerent ad tibiam clarorum Yirorum laudes atque virtutes. Ex quo 
 perspicuum est, et cantus turn fuisse rescriptos vocum sonis, et 
 carmina." — Tusc. Qucest. iv. 2. Again : " Utinam exstarent ilia 
 carmina, quae, multis sasculis ante suam astatem, in epulis esse can- 
 titata a singulis convivis de clarorum virorum laudibus, in ' Origi- 
 nibus' scriptum reliquit Cato." — Brutus, cap. xix, 
 
 f " Majores natu in conviviis ad tibias egregia superiorum opera 
 carmine comprebensa pangebant, quo ad ea imitanda juventutem 
 alacriorem redderent. . . . Quas Atbenas, quam scbolam, quas 
 alienigena studia huic domesticas disciplina? prastulerim ? Inde 
 oriebantur Camilli, Scipiones, Fabricii, Marcelli, Fabii." — Vol. 
 Max. ii. 1. 
 
20 PREFACE. 
 
 Varro, whose authority on all questions con- 
 nected with the antiquities of his country is 
 entitled to the greatest respect, tells us that at 
 banquets it was once the fashion for boys to sing, 
 sometimes with and sometimes without instru- 
 mental music, ancient ballads in praise of men 
 of former times. These young performers, he 
 observes, were of unblemished character, a cir- 
 cumstance which he probably mentioned because, 
 among the Greeks, and indeed in his time among 
 the Romans also, the morals of singing boys 
 were in no high repute. * 
 
 The testimony of Horace, though given inci- 
 dentally, confirms the statements of Cato, Va- 
 lerius Maximus, and Varro. The poet predicts 
 that, under the peaceful administration of Au- 
 gustus, the Romans will, over their full goblets, 
 sing to the pipe, after the fashion of their fathers, 
 the deeds of brave captains, and the ancient 
 legends touching the origin of the city, f 
 
 * " In conviviis pueri modesti ut cantarent carmina antiqua, in 
 quibus laudes erant majoruni, et assa voce, et cum tibicine." 
 Nonius, Assa voce pro sola. 
 
 f " Nosque et profestis lucibus et sacris, 
 
 Inter jocosi munera Liberi, 
 
PREFACE. 21 
 
 The proposition, then, that Rome had ballad- 
 poetry is not merely in itself highly probable, 
 but is fully proved by direct evidence of the 
 greatest weight. 
 
 This proposition being established, it becomes 
 easy to understand why the early history of the 
 city is unlike almost every thing else in Latin 
 literature, native where almost every thing else 
 is borrowed, imaginative where almost every 
 thing else is prosaic. We can scarcely hesitate to 
 pronounce that the magnificent, pathetic, and 
 truly national legends, which present so striking 
 a contrast to all that surrounds them, are broken 
 and defaced fragments of that early poetry which, 
 even in the age of Cato the Censor, had become 
 antiquated, and of which Tully had never heard 
 a line. 
 
 That this poetry should have been suffered to 
 
 Cum prole matronisque nostris, 
 Rite Deos prius apprecati, 
 Virtute functos, moke i trum, duces, 
 Lydis remixto carmine tibiis, 
 
 Trojamque, et Anchisen, et almse 
 Progeniem Veneris canemus." 
 
 Carm. iv. 15. 
 
22 PREFACE. 
 
 perish will not appear strange when we consider 
 how complete was the triumph of the Greek 
 genius over the public mind of Italy. It is pro- 
 bable that, at an early period, Homer, Archi- 
 lochus, and Herodotus, furnished some hints 
 to the Latin minstrels*: but it was not till 
 after the war with Pyrrhus that the poetry of 
 Rome began to put off its old Ausonian character. 
 The transformation was soon consummated. The 
 conquered, says Horace, led captive the con- 
 querors. It was precisely at the time at which 
 the Roman people rose to unrivalled political as- 
 cendency that they stooped to pass under the 
 intellectual yoke. It was precisely at the time 
 at which the sceptre departed from Greece that 
 the empire of her language and of her arts be- 
 came universal and despotic. The revolution 
 indeed was not effected without a struggle. 
 Nsevius seems to have been the last of the ancient 
 line of poets. Ennius was the founder of a new 
 dynasty. Nsevius celebrated the First Punic War 
 
 * See the Preface to the Lay of the Battle of Regillus. 
 
PKEFACE. 23 
 
 in Saturnian verse, the old national verse of 
 Italy.* Ennius sang the Second Punic War in 
 
 * Cicero speaks highly in more than one place of this poem of 
 !N"sevius ; Ennius sneered at it, and stole from it. 
 
 As to the Saturnian measure, see Hermann's Elementa Doctrinse 
 Metricse, iii. 9. 
 
 The Saturnian line, according to the grammarians, consisted of 
 two parts. The first was a catalectic dimeter iambic ; the second 
 was composed of three trochees. But the license taken by the 
 early Latin poets seems to have been almost boundless. The most 
 perfect Saturnian line which has been preserved was the work, not 
 of a professional artist, but of an amateur : 
 
 " Dabunt malum Metelli N sevio poetae." 
 
 There has been much difference of opinion among learned men 
 respecting the history of this measure. That it is the same with a 
 Greek measure used by Archilochus is indisputable. (Bentley, Pha- 
 laris, xi.) But in spite of the authority of Terentianus Maurus, 
 and of the still higher authority of Bentley, we may venture to 
 doubt whether the coincidence was not fortuitous. We constantly 
 find the same rude and simple numbers in different countries, under 
 circumstances which make it impossible to suspect that there has 
 been imitation on either side. Bishop Heber heard the children of 
 a village in Bengal singing " Kadha, Badha," to the tune of " My 
 boy Billy." Neither the Castilian nor the German minstrels of the 
 middle ages owed anything to Paros or to ancient Borne. Yet both 
 the poem of the Cid and the poem of the Nibelungs contain many 
 Saturnian verses ; as, — 
 
 " Estas nuevas a mio Cid eran venidas." 
 " A mi lo dicen ; a ti dan las orejadas." 
 
 " Man mohte michel wunder von Sifride sagen." 
 " Wa ich den Kiinic vinde daz sol man mir sagen." 
 
24 PEEFACE. 
 
 numbers borrowed from the Iliad. The elder 
 poet, in the epitaph which he wrote for himself, 
 
 Indeed, there cannot be a more perfect Saturnian line than one 
 which is sung in every English nursery — 
 
 " The queen was in her parlour eating bread and honey ;" 
 yet the author of this line, we may be assured, borrowed nothing 
 from either Nasvius or Archilochus. 
 
 On the other hand, it is by no means improbable that, two or 
 three hundred years before the time of Ennius, some Latin minstrel 
 may have visited Sybaris or Cortona, may have heard some verses 
 of Archilochus sung, may have been pleased with the metre, and 
 may have introduced it at Rome. Thus much is certain, that the 
 Saturnian measure, if not a native of Italy, was at least so early 
 and so completely naturalised there that its foreign origin was 
 forgotten. 
 
 Bentley says, indeed, that the Saturnian measure was first 
 brought from Greece into Italy by Namus. But this is merely 
 obiter dictum, to use a phrase common in our courts of law, and 
 would not have been deliberately maintained by that incom- 
 parable critic, whose memory is held in reverence by all lovers 
 of learning. The arguments which might be brought against 
 Bentley's assertion — for it is mere assertion, supported by no 
 evidence — are innumerable. A few will suffice. 
 
 1. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Ennius. 
 Ennius sneered at Nasvius for writing on the First Punic War 
 in verses such as the old Italian bards used before Greek litera- 
 ture had been studied. Now the poem of Nsevius was in Satur- 
 nian verse. Is it possible that Ennius could have used such 
 expressions, if the Saturnian verse had been just imported from 
 Greece for the first time ? 
 
 2. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Horace. 
 " When Greece," says Horace, " introduced her arts into our un- 
 civilised country, those rugged Saturnian numbers passed away." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 25 
 
 and which is a fine specimen of the early Roman 
 diction and versification, plaintively boasted that 
 the Latin language had died with him.* Thus 
 what to Horace appeared to be the first faint 
 dawn of Roman literature appeared to Naevius 
 to be its hopeless setting. In truth, one litera- 
 ture was setting, and another dawning. 
 
 The victory of the foreign taste was decisive : 
 
 Would Horace have said this, if the Saturnian numbers had been 
 imported from Greece just before the hexameter ? 
 
 3. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Festus and 
 of Aurelius Victor, both of whom positively say that the most 
 ancient prophecies attributed to the Fauns were in Saturnian verse. 
 
 4. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Teren- 
 tianus Maurus, to whom he has himself appealed. Terentianus 
 Maurus does indeed say that the Saturnian measure, though be- 
 lieved by the Romans from a very early period (" credidit vetus- 
 tas ") to be of Italian invention, was really borrowed from the 
 Greeks. But Terentianus Maurus does not say that it was first 
 borrowed by Nasvius. Nay, the expressions used by Terentianus 
 Maurus clearly imply the contrary : for how could the Romans 
 have believed, from a very early period, that this measure was the 
 indigenous production of Latium, if it was really brought over 
 from Greece in an age of intelligence and liberal curiosity, — m 
 the age which gave birth to Ennius, Plautus, Cato the Censor, and 
 other distinguished writers ? If Bentley's assertion were correct, 
 there could have been no more doubt at Rome about the Greek 
 origin of the Saturnian measure than about the Greek origin of 
 hexameters or Sapphics. 
 
 * Aulus Gellius, Nodes Atticce, i. 24. 
 D 
 
26 PEEFACE. 
 
 and indeed we can hardly blame the Komans for 
 turning away with contempt from the rude lays 
 which had delighted their fathers, and giving their 
 whole admiration to the immortal productions 
 of Greece. The national romances, neglected by 
 the great and the refined whose education had 
 been finished at Rhodes or Athens, continued, it 
 may be supposed, during some generations, to 
 delight the vulgar. While Virgil, in hexameters 
 of exquisite modulation, described the sports of 
 rustics, those rustics were still singing their wild 
 Saturnian ballads.* It is not improbable that, 
 at the time when Cicero lamented the irreparable 
 loss of the poems mentioned by Cato, a search 
 among the nooks of the Apennines, as active as the 
 search which Sir Walter Scott made among the 
 descendants of the mosstroopers of Liddesdale, 
 might have brought to light many fine remains 
 of ancient minstrelsy. No such search was made. 
 The Latin ballads perished for ever. Yet dis- 
 cerning critics have thought that they could still 
 perceive in the early history of Rome numerous 
 
 * See Servius, in Georg. ii. 385. 
 
PREFACE. 27 
 
 fragments of this lost poetry, as the traveller on 
 classic ground sometimes finds, built into the 
 heavy wall of a fort or convent, a pillar rich with 
 acanthus leaves, or a frieze where the Amazons 
 and Bacchanals seem to live. The theatres and 
 temples of the Greek and the Roman were de- 
 graded into the quarries of the Turk and the 
 Goth. Even so did the ancient Saturnian poetry 
 become the quarry in which a crowd of orators 
 and annalists found the materials for their prose. 
 It is not difficult to trace the process by which 
 the old songs were transmuted into the form 
 which they now wear. Funeral panegyric and 
 chronicle appear to have been the intermediate 
 links which connected the lost ballads with the 
 histories now extant. From a very early period 
 it was the usage that an oration should be pro- 
 nounced over the remains of a noble Roman. 
 The orator, as we learn from Polybius, was ex- 
 pected, on such an occasion, to recapitulate all 
 the services which the ancestors of the deceased 
 had, from the earliest time, rendered to the com- 
 monwealth. There can be little doubt that the 
 
28 PREFACE. 
 
 speaker on whom this duty was imposed would 
 make use of all the stories suited to his purpose 
 which were to be found in the popular lays. 
 There can be as little doubt that the family of an 
 eminent man would preserve a copy of the speech 
 which had been pronounced over his corpse. 
 The compilers of the early chronicles would have 
 recourse to these speeches; and the great his- 
 torians of a later period would have recourse to 
 the chronicles. 
 
 It may be worth while to select a particular 
 story, and to trace its probable progress through 
 these stages. The description of the migration 
 of the Fabian house to Cremera is one of the 
 finest of the many fine passages which lie thick 
 in the earlier books of Livy. The Consul, clad 
 in his military garb, stands in the vestibule of his 
 house, marshalling his clan, three hundred and 
 six fighting men, all of the same proud patri- 
 cian blood, all worthy to be attended by the 
 fasces, and to command the legions. A sad and 
 anxious retinue of friends accompanies the ad- 
 venturers through the streets ; but the voice of 
 
PREFACE. 29 
 
 lamentation is drowned by the shouts of ad- 
 miring thousands. As the procession passes the 
 Capitol, prayers and vows are poured forth, but 
 in vain. The devoted band, leaving Janus on 
 the right, marches to its doom through the Gate 
 of Evil Luck. After achieving high deeds of 
 valour against overwhelming numbers, all perish 
 save one child, the stock from which the great 
 Fabian race was destined again to spring, for the 
 safety and glory of the commonwealth. That this 
 fine romance, the details of which are so full of 
 poetical truth, and so utterly destitute of all show 
 of historical truth, came originally from some lay 
 which had often been sung with great applause 
 at banquets, is in the highest degree probable. 
 Nor is it difficult to imagine a mode in which the 
 transmission might have taken place. The cele- 
 brated Quintus Fabius Maximus, who died about 
 twenty years before the First Punic War, and 
 more than forty years before Ennius was born, 
 is said to have been interred with extraordinary 
 pomp. In the eulogy pronounced over his body 
 all the great exploits of his ancestors were 
 
30 PREFACE. 
 
 doubtless recounted and exaggerated. If there 
 were then extant songs which gave a vivid and 
 touching description of an event, the saddest and 
 the most glorious in the long history of the 
 Fabian house, nothing could be more natural 
 than that the panegyrist should borrow from such 
 songs their finest touches, in order to adorn his 
 speech. A few generations later the songs would 
 perhaps be forgotten, or remembered only by 
 shepherds and vine-dressers. But the speech 
 would certainly be preserved in the archives of 
 the Fabian nobles. Fabius Pictor would be well 
 acquainted with a document so interesting to his 
 personal feelings, and would insert large extracts 
 from it in his rude chronicle. That chronicle, 
 as we know, was the oldest to which Livy had 
 access. Livy would at a glance distinguish the 
 bold strokes of the forgotten poet from the dull 
 and feeble narrative by which they were sur- 
 rounded, would retouch them with a delicate and 
 powerful pencil, and would make them im- 
 mortal. 
 
 That this might happen at Rome can scarcely 
 
PKEFACE. 31 
 
 be doubted; for something very like this has 
 happened in several countries, and, among others, 
 in our own. Perhaps the theory of Perizonius 
 cannot be better illustrated than by showing 
 that what he supposes to have taken place in 
 ancient times has, beyond all doubt, taken place 
 in modern times. 
 
 " History," says Hume with the utmost gra- 
 vity, " has preserved some instances of Edgar's 
 amours, from which, as from a specimen, we may 
 form a conjecture of the rest." He then tells 
 very agreeably the stories of Elfleda and Elfrida ; 
 two stories which have a most suspicious air of 
 romance, and which, indeed, greatly resemble, in 
 their general character, some of the legends of 
 early Rome. He cites, as his authority for these 
 two tales, the chronicle of William of Malmes- 
 bury, who lived in the time of King Stephen. 
 The great majority of readers suppose that the 
 device by which Elfleda was substituted for her 
 young mistress, the artifice by which Athelwold 
 obtained the hand of Elfrida, the detection of 
 that artifice, the hunting party, and the ven- 
 
32 PREFACE. 
 
 geance of the amorous king, are things about 
 which there is no more doubt than about the ex- 
 ecution of Anne Boleyn, or the slitting of Sir 
 John Coventry's nose. But when we turn to 
 William of Malmesbury, we find that Hume, in 
 his eagerness to relate these pleasant fables, has 
 overlooked one very important circumstance. 
 William does indeed tell both the stories ; but he 
 gives us distinct notice that he does not warrant 
 their truth, and that they rest on no better au- 
 thority than that of ballads.* 
 
 Such is the way in which these two well- 
 known tales have been handed down. They 
 originally appeared in a poetical form. They 
 found their way from ballads into an old chro- 
 nicle. The ballads perished; the chronicle re- 
 mained. A great historian, some centuries after 
 the ballads had been altogether forgotten, con- 
 sulted the chronicle. He was struck by the 
 
 * " Infamias quas post dicam magis resperserunt cantilena?." 
 Edgar appears to have been most mercilessly treated in the Anglo- 
 Saxon ballads. He was the favourite of the monks ; and the monks 
 and minstrels were at deadly feud. 
 
PREFACE. 33 
 
 lively colouring of these ancient fictions: he 
 transferred them to his pages ; and thus we find 
 inserted, as unquestionable facts, in a narrative 
 which is likely to last as long as the English 
 tongue, the inventions of some minstrel whose 
 works were probably never committed to writ- 
 ing, whose name is buried in oblivion, and whose 
 dialect has become obsolete. It must, then, be 
 admitted to be possible, or rather highly pro- 
 bable, that the stories of Romulus and Remus, 
 and of the Horatii and Curiatii, may have had a 
 similar origin. 
 
 Castilian literature will furnish us with an- 
 other parallel case. Mariana, the, classical his- 
 torian of Spain, tells the story of the ill-starred 
 marriage which the King Don Alonso brought 
 about between the heirs of Carrion and the 
 two daughters of the Cid. The Cid bestowed 
 a princely dower on his sons in law. But the 
 young men were base and proud, cowardly and 
 cruel. They were tried in danger, and found 
 wanting. They fled before the Moors, and 
 once, when a lion broke out of his den, they ran 
 
 E 
 
34 PREFACE. 
 
 and crouched in an unseemly hiding place. 
 They knew that they were despised, and took 
 counsel how they might be avenged. They 
 parted from their father in law with many signs 
 of love, and set forth on a journey with Dona 
 Elvira and Dona Sol. In a solitary place the 
 bridegrooms seized their brides, stripped them, 
 scourged them, and departed, leaving them for 
 dead. But one of the house of Bivar, suspecting 
 foul play, had followed them in disguise. The 
 ladies were brought back safe to the house of 
 their father. Complaint was made to the king. 
 It was adjudged by the Cortes that the dower 
 given by the Cicl should be returned, and that 
 the heirs of Carrion together with one of their 
 kindred should do battle against three knights 
 of the party of the Cid. The guilty youths 
 would have declined the combat ; but all their 
 shifts were vain. They were vanquished in 
 the lists, and for ever disgraced, while their in- 
 jured wives were sought in marriage by great 
 princes.* 
 
 * Mariana, lib. x. can. 4. 
 
PREFACE. 35 
 
 Some Spanish writers have laboured to show, 
 by an examination of dates and circumstances, 
 that this story is untrue. Such confutation was 
 surely not needed ; for the narrative is on the 
 face of it a romance. How it found its way into 
 Mariana's history is quite clear. He acknow- 
 ledges his obligations to the ancient chronicles ; 
 and had doubtless before him the " Cronica del 
 famoso Cavallero Cid Ruy Diez Campeador," 
 which had been printed as early as the year 1552. 
 He little suspected that all the most striking 
 passages in this chronicle were copied from a 
 poem of the twelfth century, a poem of which 
 the language and versification had long been 
 obsolete, but which glowed with no common 
 portion of the fire of the Iliad. Yet such was 
 the fact. More than a century and a half after 
 the death of Mariana, this venerable ballad, of 
 which one imperfect copy on parchment, four 
 hundred years old, had been preserved at Bivar, 
 was for the first time printed. Then it was 
 found that every interesting circumstance of the 
 story of the heirs of Carrion was derived by 
 
36 PREFACE. 
 
 the eloquent Jesuit from a song of which he 
 had never heard, and which was composed by 
 a minstrel whose very name had long been for- 
 gotten.* 
 
 Such, or nearly such, appears to have been 
 the process by which the lost ballad-poetry of 
 Rome was transformed into history. To reverse 
 that process, to transform some portions of early 
 Roman history back into the poetry out of 
 which they were made, is the object of this work. 
 
 In the following poems the author speaks, not 
 in his own person, but in the persons of ancient 
 minstrels who know only what a Roman citizen, 
 born three or four hundred years before the 
 Christian sera, may be supposed to have known, 
 and who are in nowise above the passions and 
 prejudices of their age and nation. To these 
 imaginary poets must be ascribed some blunders 
 which are so obvious that it is unnecessary to 
 
 * See the account which Sanchez gives of the Bivar manuscript 
 in the first volume of the Coleccion de Poesias Castellanas anterior es 
 al Sigh XV. Part of the story of the lords of Carrion, in the 
 poem of the Cid, has been translated by Mr. Frere in a manner 
 above all praise. 
 
PREFACE. 37 
 
 point them out. The real blunder would have 
 been to represent these old poets as deeply versed 
 in general history, and studious of chronological 
 accuracy. To them must also be attributed 
 the illiberal sneers at the Greeks, the furious 
 party spirit, the contempt for the arts of 
 peace, the love of war for its own sake, the 
 ungenerous exultation over the vanquished, 
 which the reader will sometimes observe. To 
 portray a Roman of the age of Camillus or 
 Curius as superior to national antipathies, as 
 mourning over the devastation and slaughter by 
 which empire and triumphs were to be won, as 
 looking on human suffering with the sympathy of 
 Howard, or as treating conquered enemies with 
 the delicacy of the Black Prince, would be to 
 violate all dramatic propriety. The old Romans 
 had some great virtues, — fortitude, temperance, 
 veracity, spirit to resist oppression, respect for 
 legitimate authority, fidelity in the observing of 
 contracts, disinterestedness, ardent patriotism; 
 but Christian charity and chivalrous generosity 
 were alike unknown to them. 
 
38 PREFACE. 
 
 It would have been obviously improper to mi- 
 mic the manner of any particular age or country. 
 Something has been borrowed, however, from our 
 own old ballads, and more from Sir Walter Scott, 
 the great restorer of our ballad-poetry. To the 
 Iliad still greater obligations are due ; and those 
 obligations have been contracted with the less 
 hesitation, because there is reason to believe that 
 some of the old Latin minstrels really had recourse 
 to that inexhaustible store of poetical images. 
 
 It would have been easy to swell this little 
 volume to a very considerable bulk, by append- 
 ing notes filled with quotations ; but to a 
 learned reader such notes are not necessary; 
 for an unlearned reader they would have little 
 interest; and the judgment passed both by the 
 learned and by the unlearned on a work of the 
 imagination will always depend much more on 
 the general character and spirit of such a work 
 than on minute details. 
 
HORATIUS. 
 
H R A T I U S. 
 
 There can be little doubt that among those 
 parts of early Roman history which had a poeti- 
 cal origin was the legend of Horatius Codes. 
 We have several versions of the story, and 
 these versions differ from each other in points 
 of no small importance. Polybius, there is 
 reason to believe, heard the tale recited over the 
 remains of some Consul or Praetor descended 
 from the old Horatian patricians ; for he evi- 
 dently introduces it as a specimen of the nar- 
 ratives with which the Romans were in the 
 habit of embellishing their funeral oratory. It 
 is remarkable that, according to his description, 
 Horatius defended the bridge alone, and perished 
 
42 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 in the waters. According to the chronicles 
 which Livy and Dionysius followed, Horatius 
 had two companions, swam safe to shore, and 
 was loaded with honours and rewards. 
 ^ These discrepancies are easily explained. Our 
 own literature, indeed, will furnish an exact 
 parallel to what may have taken place at Rome. 
 It is highly probable that the memory of the war 
 of Porsena was preserved by compositions much 
 resembling the two ballads which stand first in 
 the Relics of Ancient English Poetry. In both 
 those ballads the English, commanded by the 
 Percy, fight with the Scots, commanded by the 
 Douglas. In one of the ballads the Douglas is 
 killed by a nameless English archer, and the 
 Percy by a Scottish spearman: in the other, 
 the Percy slays the Douglas in single combat, 
 and is himself made prisoner. In the former, 
 Sir Hugh Montgomery is shot through the heart 
 by a Northumbrian bowman : in the latter he is 
 taken, and exchanged for the Percy. Yet both 
 the ballads relate to the same event, and that 
 an event which probably took place within the 
 
HORATIUS. 43 
 
 memory of persons who were alive when both the 
 ballads were made. One of the minstrels says : 
 
 " Old men that knowen the grounde well yenoughe 
 Call it the battell of Otterburn : 
 At Otterburn began this spurne 
 Upon a monnyn day. 
 Ther was the dougghte Doglas slean : 
 The Perse never went away." 
 
 The other poet sums up the event in the follow- 
 ing lines : 
 
 " Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne 
 
 Bytwene the nyghte and the day : 
 Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyfe, 
 And the Percy was lede away." 
 
 It is by no means unlikely that there were two 
 old Roman lays about the defence of the bridge ; 
 and that, while the story which Livy has trans- 
 mitted to us was preferred by the multitude, 
 the other, which ascribed the whole glory to 
 Horatius alone, may have been the favourite 
 with the Horatian house. 
 
 The following ballad is supposed to have been 
 
44 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 made about a hundred and twenty years after 
 the war which it celebrates, and just before the 
 taking of Koine by the Gauls. The author 
 seems to have been an honest citizen, proud of 
 the military glory of his country, sick of the 
 disputes of factions, and much given to pining 
 after good old times which had never really 
 existed. The allusion, however, to the partial 
 manner in which the public lands were allotted 
 could proceed only from a plebeian; and the 
 allusion to the fraudulent sale of spoils marks 
 the date of the poem, and shows that the poet 
 shared in the general discontent with which the 
 proceedings of Camillus, after the taking of Veii, 
 were regarded. 
 
 The penultimate syllable of the name Porsena 
 has been shortened in spite of the authority 
 of Niebuhr, who pronounces, without assigning 
 any ground for his opinion, that Martial was 
 guilty of a decided blunder in the line, 
 
 " Hanc spectare manum Porsena non potuit." 
 
 It is not easy to understand how any modern 
 scholar, whatever his attainments may be, — and 
 
IIORATIUS. 45 
 
 those of Niebuhr were undoubtedly immense, — 
 can venture to pronounce that Martial did not 
 know the quantity of a word which he must have 
 uttered and heard uttered a hundred times before 
 he left school. Niebuhr seems also to have for- 
 gotten that Martial has fellow culprits to keep 
 him in countenance. Horace has committed the 
 same decided blunder ; for he gives us, as a pure 
 iambic line, 
 
 " Minacis aut Etrusca Porsenas manus." 
 Silius Italicus has repeatedly offended in the 
 same way, as when he says, 
 
 " Cernitur effugiens ardentem Porsena dextram : " 
 and again, 
 
 " Clusinum vulgus, cum, Porsena magne, jubebas." 
 A modern writer may be content to err in such 
 company. 
 
 Niebuhr's supposition that each of the three 
 defenders of the bridge was the representative 
 of one of the three patrician tribes is both in- 
 genious and probable, and has been adopted in 
 the following poem. 
 
HORATIUS. 
 
 A LAY MACE ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE CITY 
 CCCLX. 
 
 1. 
 
 Lars Porsena of Clusium 
 
 By the Nine Gods he swore 
 That the great house of Tarquin 
 
 Should suffer wrong no more. 
 By the Nine Gods he swore it, 
 
 And named a try sting day, 
 And bade his messengers ride forth. 
 East and west and south and north, 
 
 To summon his array. 
 
 East and west and south and north 
 The messengers ride fast, 
 
 And tower and town and cottage 
 Have heard the trumpet's blast. 
 
48 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Shame on the false Etruscan 
 Who lingers in his home, 
 
 When Porsena of Clusium 
 Is on the march for Rome, 
 
 The horsemen and the footmen 
 
 Are pouring in amain 
 From many a stately market-place ; 
 
 From many a fruitful plain ; 
 From many a lonely hamlet, 
 
 Which, hid by beech and pine, 
 Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest 
 
 Of purple Apennine ; 
 
 4. 
 
 From lordly Volaterra?, 
 
 Where scowls the far-famed hold 
 Piled by the hands of giants 
 
 For godlike kings of old ; 
 From seagirt Populonia, 
 
 Whose sentinels descry 
 Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops 
 
 Fringing the southern "ky ; 
 
HORATIUS. 49 
 
 From the proud mart of Pisae, 
 
 Queen of the western waves, 
 Where ride Massilia's triremes 
 
 Heavy with fair-haired slaves ; 
 From where sweet Clanis wanders 
 
 Through corn and vines and flowers ; 
 From where Cortona lifts to heaven 
 
 Her diadem of towers. 
 
 6. 
 
 Tall are the oaks whose acorns 
 
 Drop in dark Auser's rill ; 
 Fat are the stags that champ the boughs 
 
 Of the Ciminian hill ; 
 Beyond all streams Clitumnus 
 
 Is to the herdsman dear ; 
 Best of all pools the fowler loves 
 
 The great Volsinian mere. 
 
 7. 
 
 But now no stroke of woodman 
 
 Is heard by Auser's rill ; 
 No hunter tracks the stag's green path 
 
 Up the Ciminian hill ; 
 
 G 
 
50 LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME, 
 
 Unwatched along Clitumnus 
 Grazes the milk-white steer ; 
 
 Unharmed the water fowl may dip 
 In the Volsinian mere. 
 
 The harvests of Arretium, 
 
 This year, old men shall reap ; 
 This year,, young boys in Umbro 
 
 Shall plunge the struggling sheep ; 
 And in the vats of Luna, 
 
 This year, the must shall foam 
 Round the white feet of laughing girls, 
 
 Whose sires have marched to Rome. 
 
 There be thirty chosen prophets, 
 
 The wisest of the land, 
 Who alway by Lars Porsena 
 
 Both morn anc evening stand : 
 Evening and morn the Thirty 
 
 Have turned the verses o'er, 
 Traced from the right on linen white 
 
 By mighty seers of yore. 
 
HORATIUS. 51 
 
 10. 
 
 And with one voice the Thirty- 
 Have their glad answer given : 
 
 " Go forth, go forth, Lars Porsena ; 
 Go forth, beloved of Heaven ; 
 
 Go, and return in glory 
 To Clusium's royal dome ; 
 
 And hang round Nurseia's altars 
 The golden shields of Rome." 
 
 11. 
 
 And now hath every city 
 
 Sent up her tale of men ; 
 The foot are fourscore thousand, 
 
 The horse are thousands ten. 
 Before the gates of Sutrium 
 
 Is met the great array. 
 A proud man was Lars Porsena 
 
 Upon the trysting day. 
 
 i 12. 
 
 For all the Etruscan armies 
 
 Were ranged beneath his eye, 
 And many a banished Roman, 
 
 And many a stout ally ; 
 
52 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 And with a mighty following 
 
 To join the muster came 
 The Tusculan Mamilius, 
 
 Prince of the Latian name. 
 
 13. 
 
 But by the yellow Tiber 
 
 Was tumult and affright : 
 From all the spacious champaign 
 
 To Rome men took their flight. 
 A mile around the city, 
 
 The throng stopped up the ways ; 
 A fearful sight it was to see 
 
 Through two long nights and days, 
 
 14. 
 
 For aged folk on crutches, 
 
 And women great with child, 
 And mothers sobbing over babes 
 
 That clung to them and smiled, 
 And sick men borne in litters 
 
 High on the necks of slaves, 
 And troops of sun-burned husbandmen 
 
 With reaping-hooks and staves. 
 
HORATIUS. 53 
 
 15. 
 
 And droves of mules and asses 
 
 Laden with skins of wine, 
 And endless flocks of goats and sheep, 
 
 And endless herds of kine, 
 And endless trains of waggons 
 
 That creaked beneath the weight 
 Of corn-sacks and of household goods, 
 
 Choked every roaring gate. 
 
 16. 
 
 Now, from the rock Tarpeian, 
 
 Could the wan burghers spy 
 The line of blazing villages 
 
 Red in the midnight sky. 
 The Fathers of the City, 
 
 They sat all night and day, 
 For every hour some horseman came 
 
 With tidings of dismay. 
 
 17. 
 
 To eastward and to westward 
 Have spread the Tuscan bands ; 
 
 Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecote 
 In Crustumerium stands. 
 
54 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Verbenna down to Ostia 
 Hath wasted all the plain ; 
 
 Astur hath stormed Janiculum, 
 And the stout guards are slain. 
 
 18. 
 
 I wis, in all the Senate, 
 
 There was no heart so bold, 
 But sore it ached, and fast it beat, 
 
 When that ill news was told. 
 Forthwith up rose the Consul, 
 
 Up rose the Fathers all ; 
 In haste they girded up their gowns, 
 
 And hied them to the wall. 
 
 19. 
 
 They held a council standing 
 
 Before the River-Gate ; 
 Short time was there, ye well may guess, 
 
 For musing or debate. 
 Out spake the Consul roundly : 
 
 " The bridge must straight go down ; 
 For, since Janiculum is lost, 
 
 Nought else can save the town." 
 
HORATIUS. 55 
 
 20. 
 
 Just then a scout came flying, 
 
 All wild with haste and fear : 
 " To arms ! to arms ! Sir Consul ; 
 
 Lars Porsena is here." 
 On the low hills to westward 
 
 The Consul fixed his eye, 
 And saw the swarthy storm of dust 
 
 Rise fast along the sky. 
 
 21. 
 
 And nearer fast and nearer 
 
 Doth the red whirlwind come ; 
 And louder still and still more loud, 
 From underneath that rolling cloud, 
 Is heard the trumpet's war-note proud, 
 
 The trampling, and the hum. 
 And plainly and more plainly 
 
 Now through the gloom appears, 
 Far to left and far to right, 
 In broken gleams of dark-blue light, 
 The long array of helmets bright, 
 
 The long array of spears. 
 
56 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 22. 
 And plainly and more plainly, 
 
 Above that glimmering line, 
 Now might ye see the banners 
 
 Of twelve fair cities shine ; 
 But the banner of proud Clusium 
 
 Was highest of them all, 
 The terror of the Umbrian, 
 
 The terror of the Gaul. 
 
 23. 
 And plainly and more plainly 
 
 Now might the burghers know, 
 By port and vest, by horse and crest, 
 
 Each warlike Lucumo. 
 There Cilnius of Arretium 
 
 On his fleet roan was seen ; 
 And Astur of the four-fold shield, 
 Girt with the brand none else may wield, 
 Tolumnius with the belt of gold, 
 And dark Verbenna from the hold 
 
 By reedy Thrasymene. 
 
 24. 
 Fast by the royal standard, 
 O'erlookinff all the war, 
 
HORATIUS. 57 
 
 Lars Porsena of Clusium 
 
 Sate in his ivory car. 
 By the right wheel rode Mamilius, 
 
 Prince of the Latian name ; 
 And by the left false Sextus. 
 
 That wrought the deed of shame. 
 
 25. 
 But when the face of Sextus 
 
 Was seen among the foes, 
 A yell that rent the firmament 
 
 From all the town arose. 
 On the house-tops was no woman 
 
 But spat towards him and hissed ; 
 No child but screamed out curses, 
 
 And shook its little fist. 
 
 26. 
 But the Consul's brow was sad, 
 
 And the Consul's speech was low, 
 And darkly looked he at the wall, 
 
 And darkly at the foe. 
 " Their van will be upon us 
 
 Before the bridge goes down ; 
 And if they once may win the bridge, 
 
 What hope to save the town ? " 
 
58 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME, 
 
 27. 
 Then out spake brave Horatius, 
 
 The Captain of the gate : 
 " To every man upon this earth 
 
 Death cometh soon or late. 
 And how can man die better 
 
 Than facing fearful odds, 
 For the ashes of his fathers 
 
 And the temples of his Gods, 
 
 28. 
 " And for the tender mother 
 Who dandled him to rest, 
 And for the wife who nurses 
 
 His baby at her breast, 
 And for the holy maidens 
 
 Who feed the eternal flame, 
 To save them from false Sextus 
 That wrought the deed of shame ? 
 
 29. 
 Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, 
 
 With all the speed ye may ; 
 I, with two more to help me, 
 
 Will hold the foe in play. 
 
 1^ 
 
HORATIUS. 59 
 
 In yon strait path a thousand 
 May well be stopped by three. 
 
 Now who will stand on either hand, 
 And keep the bridge with me ? " 
 
 30. 
 
 Then out spake Spurius Lartius ; 
 
 A Ramnian proud was he : 
 " Lo, I will stand at thy right hand, 
 
 And keep the bridge with thee." 
 And out spake strong Herminius ; 
 
 Of Titian blood was he : 
 " I will abide on thy left side, 
 
 And keep the bridge with thee." 
 
 31. 
 
 " Horatius," quoth the Consul, 
 
 " As thou say est, so let it be." 
 And straight against that great array 
 Forth went the dauntless Three. 
 ''/ For Romans in Rome's quarrel 
 Spared neither land nor gold, 
 Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
60 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 32. 
 Then none was for a party ; 
 
 Then all were for the state ; 
 Then the great man helped the poor, 
 
 And the poor man loved the great : 
 Then lands were fairly portioned ; 
 
 Then spoils were fairly sold : 
 The Romans were like brothers 
 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
 33. 
 Now Roman is to Roman 
 
 More hateful than a foe, 
 And the Tribunes beard the high, 
 
 And the Fathers grind the low. 
 As we wax hot in faction, 
 
 In battle we wax cold : 
 Wherefore men fight not as they fought 
 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
 34. 
 Now while the Three were tightening 
 
 Their harness on their backs, 
 The Consul was the foremost man 
 
 To take in hand an axe : 
 
HORATIUS. 61 
 
 And Fathers mixed with Commons 
 
 Seized hatchet, bar, and crow, 
 And smote upon the planks above, 
 
 And loosed the props below. 
 
 35. 
 Meanwhile the Tuscan army, 
 
 Right glorious to behold, 
 
 h. 
 Came flashing back the noonday light, 
 
 Rank behind rank, like surges bright 
 
 Of a broad sea of gold. 
 Four hundred trumpets sounded 
 
 A peal of warlike glee, 
 As that great host, with measured tread, 
 And spears advanced, and ensigns spread, 
 Rolled slowly towards the bridge's head, 
 
 Where stood the dauntless Three. 
 
 36. 
 The Three stood calm and silent 
 
 And looked upon the foes, 
 And a great shout of laughter 
 
 From all the vanguard rose : 
 And forth three chiefs came spurring 
 
 Before that deep array ; 
 
62 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 To earth they sprang, their swords they drew, 
 And lifted high their shields, and flew 
 To win the narrow way ; 
 
 37. 
 Aunus from green Tifernum, 
 
 Lord of the Hill of Vines ; 
 And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves 
 
 Sicken in Ilva's mines ; 
 And Picus, long to Clusium 
 
 Vassal in peace and war, 
 Who led to fight his Umbrian powers 
 From that grey crag where, girt with towers, 
 The fortress of Nequinum lowers 
 
 O'er the pale waves of Nar. 
 
 38. 
 Stout Lartius hurled down Aunus 
 
 Into the stream beneath : 
 Herminius struck at Seius, 
 
 And clove him to the teeth : 
 At Picus brave Horatius 
 
 Darted one fiery thrust ; 
 And the proud Umbrian's gilded arms 
 
 Clashed in the bloody dust. 
 
HORATIUS. 63 
 
 39. 
 
 Then Ocnus of Falerii 
 
 Rushed on the Roman Three ; 
 And Lausulus of Urgo, 
 
 The rover of the sea ; 
 And Aruns of Volsinium, 
 
 Who slew the great wild boar, 
 The great wild boar that had his den 
 Amidst the reeds of Cosa's fen, 
 And wasted fields, and slaughtered men, 
 
 Along Albinia's shore, 
 
 40. 
 
 Herminius smote down Aruns : 
 
 Lartius laid Ocnus low : 
 Right to the heart of Lausulus 
 
 Horatius sent a blow. 
 " Lie there," he cried, "fell pirate ! 
 
 No more, aghast and pale, 
 From Ostia's walls the crowd shall mark 
 The track of thy destroying bark. 
 No more Campania's hinds shall fly 
 To woods and caverns Avhen they spy 
 
 Thy thrice accursed sail." 
 
64 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 41. 
 But now no sound of laughter 
 
 Was heard amongst the foes, 
 A wild and wrathful clamour 
 
 From all the vanguard rose, 
 Six spears' lengths from the entrance 
 
 Halted that deep array, 
 And for a space no man came forth 
 
 To win the narrow way. 
 
 42. 
 
 But hark ! the cry is Astur : 
 
 And lo ! the ranks divide ; 
 And the great Lord of Luna 
 
 Comes with his stately stride. 
 Upon his ample shoulders 
 
 Clangs loud the four -fold shield, 
 And in his hand he shakes the brand 
 
 Which none but he can wield. 
 
 43. 
 
 He smiled on those bold Romans 
 A smile serene and high ; 
 
 He eyed the flinching Tuscans, 
 And scorn was in his eye. 
 
HORATIUS. 65 
 
 Quoth he, " The she-wolf's litter 
 
 Stand savagely at bay : 
 But will ye dare to follow, 
 
 If Astur clears the way ? " 
 
 44. 
 
 Then, whirling up his broadsword 
 
 With both hands to the height, 
 He rushed against Horatius, 
 
 And smote with all his might. 
 With shield and blade Horatius 
 
 Eight deftly turned the blow. 
 The blow, though turned, came yet too nigh ; 
 It missed his helm, but gashed his thigh : 
 The Tuscans raised a joyful cry 
 
 To see the red blood flow. 
 
 45. 
 
 He reeled, and on Herminius 
 
 He leaned one breathing-space ; 
 Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds, 
 
 Sprang right at Astur's face. 
 Through teeth, and skull, and helmet, 
 
 So fierce a thrust he sped, 
 
6Q LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME. 
 
 The good sword stood a hand-breadth out 
 Behind the Tuscan's head, 
 
 46. 
 And the great Lord of Luna 
 
 Fell at that deadly stroke, 
 As falls on Mount Alvernus 
 
 A thunder-smitten oak. 
 Far o'er the crashing forest 
 
 The giant arms lie spread ; 
 And the pale augurs, muttering low, 
 
 Gaze on the blasted head. 
 
 47. 
 On Astur's throat Horatius 
 
 Right firmly pressed his heel, 
 And thrice and four times tugged amain, 
 Ere he wrenched out the steel. 
 ' " And see," he cried, " the welcome, 
 Fair guests, that waits you here ! 
 What noble Lucumo comes next 
 To taste our Roman cheer ? " 
 
 48. 
 But at his haughty challenge 
 A sullen murmur ran, 
 
IIORATIUS. 67 
 
 Mingled of wrath, and shame, and dread, 
 
 Along that glittering van. 
 There lacked not men of prowess, 
 
 Nor men of lordly race ; 
 For all Etruria's noblest 
 
 Were round the fatal place. 
 
 49. 
 But all Etruria's noblest 
 
 Felt their hearts sink to see 
 On the earth the bloody corpses, 
 
 In the path the dauntless Three : 
 And, from the ghastly entrance 
 
 "Where those bold Romans stood, 
 All shrank, like boys who unaware, 
 Ranging the woods to start a hare, 
 Come to the mouth of the dark lair 
 Where, growling low, a fierce old bear 
 
 Lies amidst bones and blood. 
 
 50. 
 Was none who would be foremost 
 
 To lead such dire attack ; 
 But those behind cried " Forward ! " 
 
 And those before cried " Back I " 
 
68 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 And backward now and forward 
 
 Wavers the deep array ; 
 And on the tossing sea of steel, 
 To and fro the standards reel ; 
 And the victorious trumpet-peal 
 
 Dies fitfully away. 
 
 51. 
 
 Yet one man for one moment 
 
 Strode out before the crowd; 
 Well known was he to all the Three, 
 
 And they gave him greeting loud. 
 " Now welcome, welcome, Sextus ! 
 
 Now welcome to thy home ! 
 Why dost thou stay, and turn away ? 
 
 Here lies the road to Rome." 
 
 52. 
 Thrice looked he at the city ; 
 
 Thrice looked he at the dead ; 
 And thrice came on in fury, 
 
 And thrice turned back in dread : 
 And, white with fear and hatred, 
 
 Scowled at the narrow way 
 Where, wallowing in a pool of blood, 
 
 The bravest Tuscans lay. 
 
HORATIUS. 69 
 
 53. 
 But meanwhile axe and lever 
 
 Have manfully been .plied ; 
 And now the bridge hangs tottering 
 
 Above the boiling tide. 
 " Come back, come back, Horatius ! " 
 
 Loud cried the Fathers all. 
 " Back, Lartius ! back, Herminius ! 
 
 Back, ere the ruin fall ! " 
 
 54. 
 
 Back darted Spurius Lartius ; 
 
 Herminius darted back : 
 And, as they passed, beneath their feet 
 
 They felt the timbers crack. 
 But when they turned their faces, 
 
 And on the farther shore 
 Saw brave Horatius stand alone, 
 
 They would have crossed once more. 
 
 55. 
 But with a crash like thunder 
 
 Fell every loosened beam, 
 And, like a dam, the mighty wreck 
 
 Lay right athwart the stream : 
 
70 LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME. 
 
 And a long shout of triumph 
 Rose from the walls of Rome, 
 
 As to the highest turret-tops 
 Was splashed the yellow foam. 
 
 56. 
 And, like a horse unbroken 
 
 When first he feels the rein, 
 The furious river struggled hard, 
 
 And tossed his tawny mane ; 
 And burst the curb, and bounded, 
 
 Rejoicing to be free ; 
 And whirling down, in fierce career, 
 Battlement, and plank, and pier, 
 
 Rushed headlong to the sea. 
 
 57. 
 Alone stood brave Horatius, 
 
 But constant still in mind ; 
 Thrice thirty thousand foes before, 
 
 And the broad flood behind. 
 " Down with him ! " cried false Sextus, 
 
 With a smile on his pale face. 
 " Now yield thee," cried Lars Porsena, 
 
 " Now yield thee to our grace." 
 
 
HORATIUS. 71 
 
 58. 
 Round turned he, as not deigning 
 
 Those craven ranks to see ; 
 Nought spake he to Lars Porsena, 
 
 To Sextus nought spake he ; 
 But he saw on Palatinus 
 
 The white porch of his home ; 
 And he spake to the noble river 
 
 That rolls by the towers of Rome, 
 
 59, 
 " Oh, Tiber ! father Tiber ! 
 
 To whom the Romans pray, 
 A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, 
 
 Take thou in charge this day ! " 
 So he spake, and speaking sheathed 
 
 The good sword by his side, 
 And with his harness on his back, 
 
 Plunged headlong in the tide. 
 
 60. 
 No sound of joy or sorrow 
 Was heard from either bank ; 
 
72 LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME. 
 
 But friends and foes in dumb surprise, 
 With parted lips and straining eyes, 
 
 Stood gazing where he sank ; 
 And when above the surges 
 
 They saw, his crest appear, 
 All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, 
 And even the ranks of Tuscany 
 
 Could scarce forbear to cheer. 
 
 61. 
 
 But fiercely ran the current, 
 
 Swollen high by months of rain : 
 And fast his blood was flowing ; 
 
 And he was sore in pain, 
 And heavy with his armour, 
 
 And spent with changing blows : 
 And oft they thought him sinking, 
 
 But still again he rose. 
 
 62. 
 
 Never, I ween, did swimmer, 
 
 In such an evil case, 
 Struggle through such a raging flood 
 
 Safe to the landing place : 
 
HORATIILS. 
 
 But his limbs were borne up bravely 
 
 By the brave heart within, 
 And our good father Tiber 
 
 Bare bravely up his chin. ( 1 ) 
 
 63. 
 
 " Curse on him ! " quoth false Sextus ; 
 
 " Will not the villain drown ? 
 But for this stay, ere close of day 
 
 We should have sacked the town ! " 
 " Heaven help him !" quoth liars Porsena, 
 
 " And bring him safe to shore ; 
 For such a gallant feat of arms 
 
 Was never seen before." 
 
 64. 
 
 And now he feels the bottom ; 
 
 Now on dry earth he stands ; 
 Now round him throng the Fathers 
 
 To press his gory hands ; 
 And now with shouts and clapping, 
 
 And noise of weeping loud, 
 He enters through the River-Gate, 
 
 Borne by the joyous crowd. 
 
 K 
 
74 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 65. 
 They gave him of the corn-land, 
 
 That was of public right, 
 As much as two strong oxen 
 
 Could plough from morn till night ; 
 And they made a molten image, 
 
 And set it up on high, 
 And there it stands unto this day 
 
 To witness if I lie. 
 
 66. 
 It stands in the Comitium, 
 
 Plain for all folk to see ; 
 Horatius in his harness, 
 
 Halting upon one knee : 
 And underneath is written, 
 
 In letters all of gold, 
 How valiantly he kept the bridge 
 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
 67. 
 And still his name sounds stirring 
 
 Unto the men of Rome, 
 As the trumpet-blast that cries to them 
 
 To charge the Volscian home ; 
 
HORATIUS. 75 
 
 And wives still pray to Juno 
 
 For boys with hearts as bold 
 As his who kept the bridge so well 
 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
 68. 
 
 And in the nights of winter, 
 
 When the cold north winds blow, 
 And the long howling of the wolves 
 
 Is heard amidst the snow ; 
 When round the lonely cottage 
 
 Roars loud the tempest's din, 
 And the good logs of Algidus 
 
 Roar louder yet within ; 
 
 69. 
 
 When the oldest cask is opened, 
 
 And the largest lamp is lit, 
 When the chestnuts glow in the embers, 
 
 And the kid turns on the spit ; 
 When young and old in circle 
 
 Around the firebrands close ; 
 When the girls are weaving baskets, 
 
 And the lads are shaping bows ; 
 
76 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 70. 
 
 When the go-oilman mends his armour, 
 
 And trims his helmet's plume ; 
 When the goodwife's shuttle merrily 
 
 Goes flashing through the loom ; 
 With weeping and with laughter 
 
 Still is the story told, 
 How well Horatius kept the bridge 
 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
 (1) Note to Stanza 62. 
 
 " Our ladye bare upp her chinne." 
 
 Ballad of Childe Waters, 
 
 " Never heavier man and horse 
 Stemmed a midnight torrent's force ; 
 
 ****** 
 
 Yet, through good heart and our Lady's grace, 
 At length he gained the landing place." 
 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel, I. 
 
THE 
 
 BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 
 
THE 
 
 BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 
 
 The following poem is supposed to have been pro- 
 duced about ninety years after the lay of Horatius. 
 Some persons mentioned in the lay of Horatius 
 make their appearance again, and some appella- 
 tions and epithets used in the lay of Horatius 
 have been purposely repeated : for, in an age of 
 ballad-poetry, it scarcely ever fails to happen, 
 that certain phrases come to be appropriated 
 to certain men and things, and are regularly 
 applied to those men and things by every min- 
 strel. Thus we find, both in the Homeric poems 
 and in Hesiod, |3nj 'Hpaxhyelr), 7rspix7^6rog 'A[x<f>i- 
 yu7j£t£, SidxTopog 'Apysitpourrjg, £7TTa7ruXo£ ©tjStj, 
 'EAsvtjs hex yuxoixoio. Thus, too, in our own 
 
80 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. 
 
 national songs, Douglas is almost always the 
 doughty Douglas: England is merry England: 
 all the gold is red; and all the ladies are gay. 
 
 The principal distinction between the lay of 
 Horatius and the lay of the Lake Kegillus is 
 that the former is meant to be purely Roman, 
 while the latter, though national in its general 
 spirit, has a slight tincture of Greek learning 
 and of Greek superstition. The story of the 
 Tarquins, as it has come down to us, appears 
 to have been compiled from the works of several 
 popular poets ; and one, at least, of those poets 
 appears to have visited the Greek colonies in 
 Italy, if not Greece itself, and to have had some 
 acquaintance with the works of Homer and Hero- 
 dotus. Many of the most striking adventures of 
 the house of Tarquin, before Lucretia makes her 
 appearance, have a Greek character. The Tar- 
 quins themselves are represented as Corinthian 
 nobles of the great house of the BacchiadaB, driven 
 from their country by the tyranny of that Cyp- 
 selus, the tale of whose strange escape Herodotus 
 has related with incomparable simplicity and live- 
 
BATTLE OP THE LAKE REGILLUS. 81 
 
 liness.* Livy and Dionysius tell us that, when 
 Tarquin the Proud was asked what was the best 
 mode of governing a conquered city, he replied 
 only by beating down with his staff all the tallest 
 poppies in his garden, f This is exactly what 
 Herodotus, in the passage to which reference 
 has already been made, relates of the counsel 
 given to Periander, the son of Cypselus. The 
 stratagem by which the town of Gabii is brought 
 under the power of the Tarquins is, again, ob- 
 viously copied from Herodotus. J The embassy 
 of the young Tarquins to the oracle at Delphi is 
 just such a story as would be told by a poet whose 
 head was full of the Greek mythology ; and the 
 ambiguous answer returned by Apollo is in the 
 exact style of the prophecies which, according 
 to Herodotus, lured Croesus to destruction. 
 Then the character of the narrative changes. 
 From the first mention of Lucretia to the retreat 
 of Porsena nothing seems to be borrowed from 
 
 * Herodotus, v. 92. Livy, i. 34. Dionysius, iii. 46. 
 t Livy, i. 54. Dionysius, iv. 56. 
 | Herodotus, iii. 154. Livy, i. 53. 
 
82 LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME. 
 
 foreign sources. The villany of Sextus, the 
 suicide of his victim, the revolution, the death of 
 the sons of Brutus, the defence of the bridge, 
 Mucius burning his hand*, Cloelia swimming 
 through Tiber, seem to be all strictly Koman. 
 But when we have done with the Tuscan war, 
 and enter upon the war with the Latines, 
 we are again struck by the Greek air of the 
 story. The Battle of the Lake Kegillus is in 
 all respects a Homeric battle, except that 
 the combatants ride astride on their horses, 
 instead of driving chariots. The mass of fight- 
 ing men is hardly mentioned. The leaders single 
 each other out, and engage hand to hand. The 
 great object of the warriors on both sides is, as 
 in the Iliad, to obtain possession of the spoils 
 and bodies of the slain; and several circum- 
 stances are related which forcibly remind us of 
 the great slaughter round the corpses of Sar- 
 pedon and Patroclus. 
 
 * M. de Pouilly attempted, a hundred and twenty years ago, to 
 prove that the story of Mucius was of Greek origin ; but he was 
 signally confuted by the Abbe Sallier. See the Memoires de 
 VAcademie des Inscriptions, vi. 27. 66. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 00 
 
 But there is one circumstance which de- 
 serves especial notice. Both the war of Troy 
 and the war of Regillus were caused by the 
 licentious passions of young princes, who were 
 therefore peculiarly bound not to be sparing of 
 their own persons in the day of battle. Now 
 the conduct of Sextus at Regillus, as de- 
 scribed by Livy, so exactly resembles that of 
 Paris, as described at the beginning of the third 
 book of the Iliad, that it is difficult to believe 
 the resemblance accidental. Paris appears be- 
 fore the Trojan ranks, defying the bravest Greek 
 to encounter him : 
 
 Tpaicrlv fisv irpoyuayt'C^v 'AXs^avSpos OsosiSrjs, 
 
 'Apyslcov irpoKaXi^STO Travras aplcrrovs, 
 
 dvrtSiov /jia^saacrOat hv alvfj hrjiorrjTL. 
 
 Livy introduces Sextus in a similar manner; 
 " Ferocem juvenem Tarquinium, ostentantem 
 se in prima exsulum acie." Menelaus rushes to 
 meet Paris. A Roman noble, eager for ven- 
 geance, spurs his horse towards Sextus. Both 
 the guilty princes are instantly terror-stricken : 
 
84 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Tov S' a)? ovv evorjaav ' ' AXs^avSpos OsoslBtjs 
 
 h irpofjud^oicTi, (pavsvra, icaT£Tr\r)<yr} <bl\ov rjrop' 
 
 tity S' irdpcov sis sOvos sya^sro Kr)p akssivcov. 
 
 " Tarquinius," says Livy, " retro in agmen 
 suorum infenso cessit hosti." If this be a for- 
 tuitous coincidence, it is one of the most extra- 
 ordinary in literature. 
 
 In the following poem, therefore, images and 
 incidents have been borrowed, not merely with- 
 out scruple, but on principle, from the incom- 
 parable battle-pieces of Homer. 
 
 The popular belief at Eome, from an early 
 period, seems to have been that the event of the 
 great day of Regillus was decided by super- 
 natural agency. Castor and Pollux, it was said, 
 had fought, armed and mounted, at the head of 
 the legions of the commonwealth, and had after- 
 wards carried the news of the victory with in- 
 credible speed to the city. The well in the 
 Forum at which they had alighted was pointed 
 out. Near the well rose their ancient temple. 
 A great festival was kept to their honour on the 
 Ides of Quintilis, supposed to be the anniversary 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 85 
 
 of the battle ; and on that day sumptuous sacri- 
 fices were offered to them at the public charge. 
 One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was 
 regarded during many ages with superstitious 
 awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's 
 hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and 
 this mark was believed to have been made by 
 one of the celestial chargers. 
 
 How the legend originated cannot now be 
 ascertained : but we may easily imagine several 
 ways in which it might have originated : nor 
 is it at all necessary to suppose, with Julius 
 Frontinus, that two young men were dressed up 
 by the Dictator to personate the sons of Leda. It 
 is probable that Livy is correct when he says that 
 the Roman general, in the hour of peril, vowed a 
 temple to Castor. If so, nothing could be more 
 natural than that the multitude should ascribe the 
 victory to the favour of the Twin Gods. When 
 such was the prevailing sentiment, any man who 
 chose to declare that, in the midst of the con- 
 fusion and slaughter, he had seen two godlike 
 forms on white horses scattering the Latines, 
 
86 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 would find ready credence. We know, indeed, 
 that, in modern times, a very similar story actu- 
 ally found credence among a people much more 
 civilised than the Eomans of the fifth century 
 before Christ. A chaplain of Cortes, writing 
 about thirty years after the conquest of Mexico, 
 in an age of printing-presses, libraries, univer- 
 sities, scholars, logicians, jurists, and statesmen, 
 had the face to assert that, in one engage- 
 ment against the Indians, St. James had ap- 
 peared on a grey horse at the head of the 
 Castilian adventurers. Many of those adven- 
 turers were living when this lie was printed. 
 One of them, honest Bernal Diaz, wrote an 
 account of the expedition. He had the evi- 
 dence of his own senses against the chaplain's 
 legend; but he seems to have distrusted even 
 the evidence of his own senses. He says that he 
 was in the battle, and that he saw a grey horse 
 with a man on his back, but that the man was, 
 to his thinking, Francesco de Morla, and not the 
 ever-blessed apostle St. James. " Nevertheless," 
 he adds, " it may be that the person on the grey 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 87 
 
 horse was the glorious apostle St. James, and 
 that I, sinner that I am, was unworthy to see 
 him." The Romans of the age of Cincinnatus 
 were probably quite as credulous as the Spanish 
 subjects of Charles the Fifth. It is therefore 
 conceivable that the appearance of Castor and 
 Pollux may have become an article of faith 
 before the generation which had fought at 
 Eegillus had passed away. Nor could any thing 
 be more natural than that the poets of the next 
 age should embellish this story, and make the 
 celestial horsemen bear the tidings of victory to 
 Rome. 
 
 Many years after the temple of the Twin Gods 
 had been built in the Forum, an important addi- 
 tion was made to the ceremonial by which the 
 state annually testified its gratitude for their 
 protection. Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius 
 were elected Censors at a momentous crisis. It 
 had become absolutely necessary that the classi- 
 fication of the citizens should be revised. On 
 that classification depended the distribution of 
 political power. Party-spirit ran high ; and the 
 
bb LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. 
 
 republic seemed to be in danger of falling under 
 the dominion either of a narrow oligarchy or of 
 an ignorant and headstrong rabble. Under 
 such circumstances, the most illustrious patrician 
 and the most illustrious plebeian of the age were 
 intrusted with the office of arbitrating between 
 the angry factions; and they performed their 
 arduous task to the satisfaction of all honest and 
 reasonable men. 
 
 One of their reforms was a remodelling of the 
 equestrian order; and, having effected this re- 
 form, they determined to give to their work a 
 sanction derived from religion. In the chivalrous 
 societies of modern times, societies which have 
 much more than may at first sight appear in 
 common with the equestrian order of Rome, it 
 has been usual to invoke the special protection 
 of some Saint, and to observe his day with 
 peculiar solemnity. Thus the Companions of 
 the Garter wear the image of St. George 
 depending from their collars, and meet, on 
 great occasions, in St. George's Chapel. Thus, 
 when Louis the Fourteenth instituted a new 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE IlEGILLUS. 89 
 
 order of chivalry for the rewarding of military 
 merit, he commended it to the favour of his own 
 glorified ancestor and patron, and decreed that 
 all the members of the fraternity should meet at 
 the royal palace on the Feast of St. Louis, should 
 attend the king to chapel, should hear mass, 
 and should subsequently hold their great annual 
 assembly. There is a considerable resemblance 
 between this rule of the order of St. Louis and 
 the rule which Fabius and Decius made respect- 
 ing the Roman knights. It was ordained that a 
 grand muster and inspection of the equestrian 
 body should be part of the ceremonial performed, 
 on the anniversary of the battle of Regillus, in 
 honour of Castor and Pollux, the two equestrian 
 Gods. All the knights, clad in purple and 
 crowned with olive, were to meet at a temple 
 of Mars in the suburbs. Thence they were to 
 ride in state to the Forum, where the temple 
 of the Twins stood. This pageant was, during 
 several centuries, considered as one of the most 
 splendid sights of Rome. In the time of Dio- 
 nysius the cavalcade sometimes consisted of five 
 
90 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 thousand horsemen, all persons of fair repute 
 and easy fortune.* 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Censors who 
 instituted this august ceremony acted in concert 
 with the Pontiffs to whom, by the constitution 
 of Rome, the superintendence of the public wor- 
 ship belonged ; and it is probable that those high 
 religious functionaries were, as usual, fortunate 
 enough to find in their books or traditions some 
 warrant for the innovation. 
 
 The following poem is supposed to have been 
 made for this great occasion. Songs, we know, 
 were chanted at the religious festivals of Rome 
 from an early period, indeed from so early a 
 period that some of the sacred verses were 
 popularly ascribed to JNTuma, and were utterly 
 unintelligible in the age of Augustus. In the 
 Second Punic War a great feast was held in 
 honour of Juno, and a song was sung in her 
 
 * See Livy, ix. 46. Val. Max. ii. 2. Aurel. Vict. De Viris 
 Mustribus, 32. Dionysius, vi. 13. Plin. Hist. Nat. xv. 5. See 
 also the singularly ingenious chapter in Niebuhr's posthumous 
 volume, Die Censur des Q, Fabius und P. Decius, 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 91 
 
 praise. This song was extant when Livy wrote ; 
 and, though exceedingly rugged and uncouth, 
 seemed to him not wholly destitute of merit.* A 
 song, as we learn from Horace, was part of the 
 established ritual at the great Secular Jubilee. f 
 It is therefore likely that the Censors and Pontiffs, 
 when they had resolved to add a grand proces- 
 sion of knights to the other solemnities annually 
 performed on the Ides of Quintilis, would call in 
 the aid of a poet. Such a poet would naturally 
 take for his subject the battle of Regillus, the 
 appearance of the Twin Gods, and the institution 
 of their festival. He would find abundant ma- 
 terials in the ballads of his predecessors ; and he 
 would make free use of the scanty stock of Greek 
 learning which he had himself acquired. He 
 would probably introduce some wise and holy 
 Pontiff enjoining the magnificent ceremonial 
 which, after a long interval, had at length been 
 adopted. If the poem succeeded, many persons 
 would commit it to memory. Parts of it would 
 
 * Livy, xxvii. 37. f Hor. Carmen Seculare. 
 
92 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 be sung to the pipe at banquets. It would be 
 peculiarly interesting to the great Posthumian 
 House, which numbered among its many images 
 that of the Dictator Aulus, the hero of Regillus. 
 The orator who, in the following generation, 
 pronounced the funeral panegyric over the re- 
 mains of Lucius Posthumius Megellus, thrice 
 Consul, would borrow largely from the lay; 
 and thus some passages, much disfigured, would 
 probably find their way into the chronicles which 
 were afterwards in the hands of Dionysius and 
 Livy. 
 
 Antiquaries differ widely as to the situation 
 of the field of battle. The opinion of those 
 who suppose that the armies met near Cornu- 
 felle, between Frascati and the Monte Porzio, 
 is at least plausible, and has been followed in 
 the poem. 
 
 As to the details of the battle, it has not been 
 thought desirable to adhere minutely to the 
 accounts which have come down to us. Those 
 accounts, indeed, differ widely from each other, 
 and, in all probability, differ as widely from the 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. 93 
 
 ancient poem from which they were originally 
 derived. 
 
 It is unnecessary to point out the obvious 
 imitations of the Iliad, which have been pur- 
 posely introduced. 
 
THE 
 
 BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 
 
 A LAY SUNG AT THE FEAST OF CASTOR AND POLLUX ON THE IDES 
 OF QUINTIL1S, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLI. 
 
 1. 
 
 Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note ! 
 
 Ho, lictors, clear the way ! 
 The Knights will ride, in all their pride. 
 
 Along the streets to-day. 
 To-day the doors and windows 
 
 Are hung with garlands all, 
 From Castor in the Forum, 
 
 To Mars without the wall. 
 Each Knight is robed in purple, 
 
 With olive each is crown'd ; 
 A gallant war-horse under each 
 
 Paws haughtily the ground. 
 While flows the Yellow River, 
 
 While stands the Sacred Hill, 
 The proud Ides of Quintilis 
 
 Shall have such honour still 
 
96 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. 
 
 Gay are the Martian Kalends : 
 
 December's Nones are gay : 
 But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides, 
 
 Shall be Rome's whitest day. 
 
 2. 
 
 Unto the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 We keep this solemn feast. 
 Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Came spurring from the east. 
 They came o'er wild Parthenius 
 
 Tossing in waves of pine, 
 O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam, 
 
 O'er purple Apennine, 
 From where with flutes and dances 
 
 Their ancient mansion rings, 
 In lordly Lacedasmon, 
 
 The City of two kings, 
 To where, by Lake Regillus, 
 
 Under the Porcian height, 
 All in the lands of Tusculum, 
 
 Was fought the glorious fight. 
 
 3. 
 Now on the place of slaughter 
 Are cots and sheepfolds seen, 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 97 
 
 And rows of vines, and fields of wheat, 
 
 And apple-orchards green : 
 The swine crush the big acorns 
 
 That fall from Corne's oaks. 
 Upon the turf by the Fair Fount 
 
 The reaper's pottage smokes. 
 The fisher baits his angle ; 
 
 The hunter twangs his bow ; 
 Little they think on those strong limbs 
 
 That moulder deep below. 
 Little they think how sternly 
 
 That day the trumpets pealed ; 
 How in the slippery swamp of blood 
 
 Warrior and war-horse reeled ; 
 How wolves came with fierce gallop, 
 
 And crows on eager wings, 
 To tear the flesh of captains, 
 
 And peck the eyes of kings ; 
 How thick the dead lay scattered 
 
 Under the Porcian height ; 
 How through the gates of Tusculum 
 
 Raved the wild stream of flight ; 
 And how the Lake Regillus 
 
 Bubbled with crimson foam, 
 
 N 
 
98 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 What time the Thirty Cities 
 Came forth to war with Rome. 
 
 4. 
 But, Roman, when thou standest 
 
 Upon that holy ground, 
 Look thou with heed on the dark rock 
 
 That girds the dark lake round. 
 So shalt thou see a hoof-mark 
 
 Stamped deep into the flint : 
 It was no hoof of mortal steed 
 
 That made so strange a dint : 
 There to the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Vow thou thy vows, and pray 
 That they, in tempest and in fight, 
 
 Will keep thy head alway. 
 
 5. 
 Since last the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Of mortal eyes were seen, 
 Have years gone by an hundred 
 
 And fourscore and thirteen. 
 That summer a Virginius 
 
 Was Consul first in place ; 
 The second was stout Aulus, 
 
 Of the Posthumian race. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. 99 
 
 The Herald of the Latines 
 
 From Gabii came in state : 
 The Herald of the Latines 
 
 Passed through Rome's Eastern Gate : 
 The Herald of the Latines 
 
 Did in our Forum stand ; 
 And there he did his office, 
 
 A sceptre in his hand. 
 
 6. 
 " Hear, Senators and people 
 
 Of the good town of Rome : 
 The Thirty Cities charge you 
 
 To bring the Tarquins home : 
 And if ye still be stubborn, 
 
 To work the Tarquins wrong, 
 The Thirty Cities warn you, 
 
 Look that your walls be strong." 
 
 Then spake the Consul Aulus, 
 He spake a bitter jest : 
 
 " Once the jays sent a message 
 Unto the eagle's nest : — 
 
100 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Now yield thou up thine eyrie 
 
 Unto the carrion-kite, 
 Or come forth valiantly, and face 
 
 The jays in deadly fight. — 
 Forth looked in wrath the eagle ; 
 
 And carrion-kite and jay, 
 Soon as they saw his beak and claw. 
 
 Fled screaming far away." 
 
 The Herald of the Latines 
 
 Hath hied him back in state : 
 The Fathers of the City 
 
 Are met in high debate. 
 Then spake the elder Consul, 
 
 An ancient man and wise : 
 " Now hearken, Conscript Fathers, 
 
 To that which I advise. 
 In seasons of great peril 
 
 'Tis good that one bear sway ; 
 Then choose we a Dictator, 
 
 Whom all men shall obey. 
 Camerium knows how deeply 
 
 The sword of Aulus bites ; 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. iOl 
 
 And all our city calls him 
 
 The man of seventy fights. 
 Then let him be Dictator 
 
 For six months and no more, 
 And have a Master of the Knights, 
 
 And axes twenty -four." 
 
 9. 
 
 So Aulus was Dictator, 
 
 The man of seventy fights ; 
 He made vEbutius Elva 
 
 His Master of the Knights. 
 On the third morn thereafter, 
 
 At dawning of the day, 
 Did Aulus and iEbutius 
 
 Set forth with their array. 
 Sempronius Atratinus 
 
 Was left in charge at home 
 With boys, and with grey-headed men, 
 
 To keep the walls of Rome. 
 Hard by the Lake Segillus 
 
 Our camp was pitched at night ; 
 Eastward a mile the Latines lay, 
 
 Under the Porcian height. 
 
102 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Far over hill and valley 
 
 Their mighty host was spread ; 
 
 And with their thousand watch-fires 
 The midnight sky was red. 
 
 10. 
 
 Up rose the golden morning 
 
 Over the Porcian height, 
 The proud Ides of Quintilis 
 
 Marked evermore with white. 
 Not without secret trouble 
 
 Our bravest saw the foes, 
 For girt by threescore thousand spears, 
 
 The thirty standards rose. 
 From every warlike city 
 
 That boasts the Latian name, 
 Foredoomed to dogs and vultures, 
 
 That gallant army came ; 
 From Setia's purple vineyards, 
 
 From Norba's ancient wall, 
 From the white streets of Tusculum, 
 
 The proudest town of all ; 
 From where the Witch's Fortress 
 
 O'erhangs the dark-blue seas, 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. 103 
 
 From the still glassy hike that sleeps 
 
 Beneath Aricia's trees — 
 Those trees in whose dim shadow 
 
 The ghastly priest doth reign, 
 The priest who slew the slayer, 
 
 And shall himself be slain ; — 
 From the drear banks of Ufens, 
 
 Where flights of marsh-fowl play, 
 And buffaloes lie wallowing 
 
 Through the hot summer's day ; 
 From the gigantic watch-towers, 
 
 JSTo work of earthly men, 
 Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlook 
 
 The never-ending fen ; 
 From the Laurentian jungle, 
 
 The wild hog's reedy home ; 
 From the green steeps whence Anio leaps 
 
 In floods of snow-white foam. 
 
 11. 
 
 Aricia, Cora, Norba, 
 Velitraa, with the might 
 
 Of Setia and of Tusculum, 
 
 Were marshalled on their right ; 
 
104 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Their leader was Mamilius, 
 
 Prince of the Latian name ; 
 Upon his head a helmet 
 
 Of red gold shone like flame : 
 High on a gallant charger 
 
 Of dark-grey hue he rode ; 
 Over his gilded armour 
 
 A vest of purple flowed, 
 Woven in the land of sunrise 
 
 By Syria's dark-brow eel daughters, 
 And by the sails of Carthage brought 
 
 Far o'er the southern waters. 
 
 12. 
 
 Lavinium and Laurentum 
 
 Had on the left their post, 
 With all the banners of the marsh, 
 
 And banners of the coast. 
 Their leader was false Sextus, 
 
 That wrought the deed of shame : 
 With restless pace and haggard face, 
 
 To his last field he came. 
 Men said he saw strange visions, 
 
 Which none beside might see ; 
 And that strange sounds were in his ears, 
 
 Which none might hear but he. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 105 
 
 A woman fair and stately, 
 
 But pale as are the dead, 
 Oft through the watches of the night 
 
 Sate spinning by his bed. 
 And as she plied the distaff, 
 
 In a sweet voice and low, 
 She sang of great old houses, 
 
 And fights fought long ago. 
 So spun she, and so sang she, 
 
 Until the east was grey ; 
 Then pointed to her bleeding breast, 
 
 And shrieked, and fled away. 
 
 13. 
 
 But in the centre thickest 
 
 Were ranged the shields of foes, 
 And from the centre loudest 
 
 The cry of battle rose, 
 There Tibur marched and Pedum 
 
 Beneath proud Tarquin's rule, 
 And Ferentinum of the rock, 
 
 And Gabii of the pool. 
 There rode the Volscian succours : 
 
 There, in a dark stern ring, 
 
106 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 The Roman exiles gathered close 
 
 Around the ancient king. 
 Though white as Mount Soracte, 
 
 When winter nights are long, 
 His beard flowed down o'er mail and belt^ 
 
 His heart and hand were strong : 
 Under his hoary eyebrows 
 
 Still flashed forth quenchless rage : 
 And, if the lance shook in his gripe, 
 
 'Twas more with hate than age. 
 Close at his side was Titus 
 
 On an Apulian steed, 
 Titus, the youngest Tarquin, 
 
 Too a;ood for such a breed, 
 
 14. 
 
 Now on each side the leaders 
 
 Gave signal for the charge ; 
 And on each side the footmen 
 
 Strode on with lance and targe ; 
 And on each side the horsemen 
 
 Struck their spurs deep in gore, 
 And front to front the armies 
 
 Met with a mighty roar : 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 107 
 
 And under that great battle 
 
 The earth with blood was red ; 
 And, like the Pomptine fog at morn, 
 
 The dust hung overhead ; 
 And louder still and louder, 
 
 Rose from the darkened field 
 The braying of the war-horns, 
 
 The clang of sword and shield. 
 The rush of squadrons sweeping! 1 
 
 Like whirlwinds o'er the plain. 
 The shouting of the slayers, 
 
 And screeching of the slain. 
 
 15. 
 
 False Sextus rode out foremost : 
 
 His look was high and bold; 
 His corslet was of bison's hide, 
 
 Plated with steel and gold. 
 As glares the famished eagle 
 
 From the Digentian rock, 
 On a choice lamb that bounds alone 
 
 Before Bandusia's flock, 
 Herminius glared on Sextus, 
 
 And came with eagle speed ; 
 
308 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. 
 
 Herniinius on black Auster, 
 
 Brave champion on brave steed ; 
 In his right hand the broadsword 
 
 That kept the bridge so well, 
 And on his helm the crown he won 
 
 When proud Fideme fell. 
 Woe to the maid whose lover 
 
 Shall cross his path to-day ! 
 False Sextus saw, and trembled, 
 
 And turned, and fled away. 
 As turns, as flies, the woodman 
 
 In the Calabrian brake, 
 When through the reeds gleams the round eye 
 
 Of that fell painted snake ; 
 So turned, so fled, false Sextus, 
 
 And hid him in the rear, 
 Behind the dark Lavinian ranks, 
 
 Bristling with crest and spear. 
 
 16. 
 
 Then far to north .ZEbutius, 
 
 The Master of the Knights, 
 Gave Tubero of Norba 
 
 To feed the Porcian kites. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. 109 
 
 Next under those red horse-hoofs 
 
 Flaccus of Setia lay ; 
 Better had he been pruning 
 
 Among his elms that day. 
 Mamilius saw the slaughter, 
 
 And tossed his golden crest, 
 And towards the Master of the Knights 
 
 Through the thick battle pressed. 
 -ZEbutius smote Mamilius 
 
 So fiercely on the shield, 
 That the great lord of Tusculum 
 
 Well nigh rolled on the field. 
 Mamilius smote .ZEbutius, 
 
 With a good aim and true, 
 Just where the neck and shoulder join, 
 
 And pierced him through and through ; 
 And brave iEbutius Elva 
 
 Fell swooning to the ground : 
 But a thick wall of bucklers 
 
 Encompassed him around. 
 His clients from the battle 
 
 Bare him some little space ; 
 And filled a helm from the dark lake, 
 
 And bathed his brow and face : 
 
110 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 And when at last he opened 
 
 His swimming eyes to light, 
 Men say, the earliest word he spake 
 
 Was, " Friends, how goes the fight ? " 
 
 17. 
 
 But meanwhile in the centre 
 
 Great deeds of arms were wrought ; 
 There Aulus the Dictator, 
 
 And there Valerius fought. 
 Aulus, with his good broadsword, 
 
 A bloody passage cleared 
 To where, amidst the thickest foes, 
 
 He saw the long white beard. 
 Flat lighted that good broadsword 
 
 Upon proud Tarquin's head. 
 He dropped the lance : he dropped the reins : 
 
 He fell as fall the dead. 
 Down Aulus springs to slay him, 
 
 With eyes like coals of fire ; 
 But faster Titus hath sprung down, 
 
 And hath bestrode his sire. 
 Latian captains, Roman knights, 
 
 Fast down to earth they spring, 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REG1LLUS. Ill 
 
 And hand to hand they fight on foot 
 
 Around the ancient king. 
 First Titus gave tall Casso 
 
 A death wound in the face ; 
 Tall Caeso was the bravest man 
 
 Of the brave Fabian race : 
 Aulus slew Rex of Gabii, 
 
 The priest of Juno's shrine : 
 Valerius smote down Julius, 
 
 Of Rome's great Julian line ; 
 Julius, who left his mansion 
 
 High on the Velian hill, 
 And through all turns of weal and woe 
 
 Followed proud Tarquin still. 
 Now right across proud Tarquin 
 
 A corpse was Julius laid ; 
 And Titus groaned with rage and grief, 
 
 And at Valerius made. 
 Valerius struck at Titus, 
 
 And lopped off half his crest ; 
 But Titus stabbed Valerius 
 
 A span deep in the breast. 
 Like a mast snapped by the tempest, 
 
 Valerius reeled and fell, 
 
112 LAY- H ASCIK8T BOMB 
 
 Ah :- me for the good house 
 
 That loves the people well ! 
 Then shfcuted loud the Lav 
 
 An 1 witttj one rush they bore 
 Ehe -:~^J^ig1|forcLans backward 
 
 Three knees" f earth and more : 
 And up tie* to«kf>roud Tarrjuin. 
 
 Laid wn'y shield. 
 And : m 3tz .:._ f ... -.. 
 
 StiU e • -. from the field. 
 
 18. 
 
 But fiercer grew the righting 
 
 Around "Valerius d 
 F 3 -• Titus dragged him by the foot, 
 
 And Aulas by the head. 
 
 •• On. Larine=. .n I ".quoth 'L. 
 
 •• v :r how the rebel- Sy 
 •• Bomans, 3tasd firm ! ~ quoth Aulus. 
 
 ••" And win this fight or die ! 
 They must not give Valerius 
 
 1 3 raven and to kite ; 
 For aye Valerius loathed the wrong 
 
 And aye nphe] " the dght : 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 113 
 
 And for your wives and babies 
 
 In the front rank he fell. 
 Now play the men for the good house 
 
 That loves the people well !" 
 
 19. 
 Then tenfold round the body 
 
 The roar of battle rose, 
 Like the roar of a burning forest, 
 
 When a strong northwind blows. 
 Now backward, and now forward, 
 
 Rocked furiously the fray, 
 Till none could see Valerius, 
 
 And none wist where he lay. 
 For shivered arms and ensigns 
 
 Were heaped there in a mound, 
 And corpses stiff, and dying men 
 
 That writhed and gnawed the ground ; 
 And wounded horses kicking, 
 
 And snorting purple foam : 
 Right well did such a couch befit 
 
 A Consular of Rome. 
 
 20. 
 But north looked the Dictator ; 
 North looked he long and hard ; 
 P 
 
114 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, 
 
 And spake to Cams Cossus, 
 The Captain of his Guard : 
 
 " Caius, of all the Romans 
 Thou hast the keenest sight ; 
 
 Say, what through yonder storm of dust 
 Comes from the Latian right ? " 
 
 21. 
 
 Then answered Caius Cossus : 
 
 " I see an evil sight ; 
 The banner of proud Tusculum 
 
 Comes from the Latian right ', 
 I see the plumed horsemen ; 
 
 And far before the rest 
 I see the dark-grey charger, 
 
 I see the purple vest ; 
 I see the golden helmet 
 
 That shines far off like flame ; 
 So ever rides Mamilius, 
 
 Prince of the Latian name." 
 
 22. 
 
 " Now hearken, Caius Cossus : 
 Spring on thy horse's back ; 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 115 
 
 Ride as the wolves of Apennine 
 
 Were all upon thy track ! 
 Haste to our southward battle ; 
 
 And never draw thy rein 
 Until thou find Herminius, 
 
 And bid him come amain." 
 
 23. 
 
 So Aulus spake, and turned him 
 
 Again to that fierce strife ; 
 4nd Caius Cossus mounted, 
 
 And rode for death and life. 
 Loud clanged beneath his horse-hoofs 
 
 The helmets of the dead, 
 And many a curdling pool of blood 
 
 Splashed him from heel to head. 
 So came he far to southward, 
 
 Where fought the Roman host, 
 Against the banners of the marsh 
 
 And banners of the coast. 
 Like corn before the sickle 
 
 The stout Lavinians fell, 
 Beneath the edge of the true sword 
 
 That kept the bridge so well. 
 
116 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 24. 
 
 " Herminius ! Aulus greets thee ; 
 
 He bids thee come with speed, 
 To help our central battle ; 
 
 For sore is there our need. 
 There wars the youngest Tarquin, 
 
 And there the Crest of Flame, 
 The Tusculan Mamilius, 
 
 Prince of the Latian name. 
 Valerius hath fallen fighting 
 
 In front of our array ; 
 And Aulus of the seventy fields 
 
 Alone upholds the day." 
 
 25. 
 
 Herminius beat his bosom ; 
 
 But never a word he spake. 
 He clapped his hand on Auster's mane ; 
 
 He gave the reins a shake, 
 Away, away, went Auster, 
 
 Like an arrow from the bow : 
 Black Auster was the fleetest steed 
 
 From Aufidus to Po. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 117 
 
 26. 
 Right glad were all the Romans 
 
 Who, in that hour of dread, 
 Against great odds bare up the war 
 
 Around Valerius dead, 
 When from the south the cheering 
 
 Rose with a mighty swell ; 
 " Herminius comes, Herminius, 
 
 Who kept the bridge so well ! " 
 
 27. 
 Mamilius spied Herminius, 
 
 And dashed across the way. 
 " Herminius ! I have sought thee 
 
 Through many a bloody day. 
 One of us two, Herminius, 
 
 Shall never more go home. 
 I will lay on for Tusculum, 
 
 And lay thou on for Rome ! " 
 
 28. 
 All round them paused the battle, 
 
 While met in mortal fray 
 The Roman and the Tusculan, 
 
 The horses black and grey. 
 
118 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Herminius smote Mamilius 
 
 Through breast-plate and through breast 
 And fast flowed out the purple blood 
 
 Over the purple vest. 
 Mamilius smote Herminius 
 
 Through head-piece and through head ; 
 And side by side those chiefs of pride 
 
 Together fell down dead. 
 Down fell they dead together 
 
 In a great lake of gore ; 
 And still stood all who saw them fall 
 
 While men might count a score. 
 
 29. 
 Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning, 
 
 The dark-grey charger fled : 
 He burst through ranks of fighting men ; 
 
 He sprang o'er heaps of dead. 
 His bridle far out-streaming, 
 
 His flanks all blood and foam, 
 He sought the southern mountains, 
 
 The mountains of his home. 
 The pass was steep and rugged, 
 
 The wolves they howled and whined ; 
 But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass, 
 
 And he left the wolves behind. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 119 
 
 Through many a startled hamlet 
 
 Thundered his flying feet : 
 He rushed through the gate of Tusculum, 
 
 He rushed up the long white street ; 
 He rushed by tower and temple, 
 
 And paused not from his race 
 Till he stood before his master's door 
 
 In the stately market-place. 
 And straightway round him gathered 
 
 A pale and trembling crowd, 
 And when they knew him, cries of rage 
 
 Brake forth, and wailing loud : 
 And women rent their tresses 
 
 For their great prince's fall ; 
 And old men girt on their old swords, 
 
 And went to man the wall. 
 
 30. 
 
 But, like a graven image, 
 Black Auster kept his place, 
 
 And ever wistfully he looked 
 Into his master's face. 
 
 The raven-mane that daily, 
 With pats and fond caresses, 
 
120 LAYS OF ANCIENT SOME. 
 
 The young Herminia washed and combed, 
 
 And twined in even tresses, 
 And decked with coloured ribands 
 
 From her own gay attire, 
 Hung sadly o'er her father's corpse 
 
 In carnage and in mire. 
 Forth with a shout sprang Titus, 
 
 And seized black Auster's rein. 
 Then Aulus sware a fearful oath, 
 
 And ran at him amain. 
 " The furies of thy brother 
 
 With me and mine abide, 
 If one of your accursed house 
 
 Upon black Auster ride ! " 
 As on an Alpine watch-tower 
 
 From heaven comes down the flame, 
 Full on the neck of Titus 
 
 The blade of Aulus came : 
 And out the red blood spouted, 
 
 In a wide arch and tall, 
 As spouts a fountain in the court 
 
 Of some rich Capuan's hall. 
 The knees of all the Latines 
 
 Were loosened with dismay 
 When dead, on dead Herminius, 
 
 The bravest Tarquin lay. 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 12 1 
 31. 
 
 And Aulus the Dictator 
 
 Stroked Auster's raven mane, 
 With heed he looked unto the girths. 
 
 With heed unto the rein. 
 " Now bear me well, black Auster, 
 
 Into yon thick array ; 
 And thou and I will have revenge 
 
 For thy good lord this day." 
 
 32. 
 
 So spake he ; and was buckling 
 
 Tighter black Auster's band, 
 When he was aware of a princely pair 
 
 That rode at his right hand. 
 So like they were, no mortal 
 
 Might one from other know : 
 White as snow their armour was : 
 
 Their steeds were white as snow. 
 Never on earthly anvil 
 
 Did such rare armour gleam ; 
 And never did such gallant steeds 
 
 Drink of an earthly stream. 
 Q 
 
122 LAYS OF ANCIENT HOME. 
 
 33. 
 
 And all who saAv them trembled* 
 
 And pale grew every cheek ; 
 And Aulus the Dictator 
 
 Scarce gathered voice to speak. 
 " Say by what name men call you ? 
 
 What city is your home ? 
 And wherefore ride ye in such guise 
 
 Before the ranks of Home ? " 
 
 34. 
 
 " By many names men call us ; 
 
 In many lands we dwell : 
 Well Samothracia knows us ; 
 
 Cyrene knows us well. 
 Our house in gay Tarentum 
 
 Is hung each morn with flowers : 
 High o'er the masts of Syracuse 
 
 Our marble portal towers ; 
 But by the proud Eurotas 
 
 Is our dear native home ; 
 And for the right we come to fight 
 
 Before the ranks of Rome." 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 123 
 
 35. 
 
 So answered those strange horsemen, 
 
 And each couched low his spear ; 
 And forthwith all the ranks of Rome 
 
 Were bold, and of good cheer : 
 And on the thirty armies 
 
 Came wonder and affright, 
 And Ardea wavered on the left, 
 
 And Cora on the right. 
 " Rome to the charge ! " cried Aulus ; 
 
 " The foe begins to yield ! 
 Charge for the hearth of Vesta ! 
 
 Charge for the Golden Shield ! 
 Let no man stop to plunder, 
 
 But slay, and slay, and slay ; 
 The Grods who live for ever 
 
 Are on our side to-day." 
 
 36. 
 
 Then the fierce trumpet-flourish 
 
 From earth to heaven arose, 
 The kites know well the long stern swell 
 
 That bids the Romans close. 
 
124 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Then the good sword of Aulus 
 
 Was lifted up to slay : 
 Then, like a crag down Apennine, 
 
 Rushed Auster through the fray. 
 But under those strange horsemen 
 
 Still thicker lay the slain ; 
 And after those strange horses 
 
 Black Auster toiled in vain. 
 Behind them Rome's long battle 
 
 Came rolling on the foe, 
 Ensigns dancing wild above, 
 
 Blades all in line below. 
 So comes the Po in flood-time 
 
 Upon the Celtic plain : 
 So comes the squall, blacker than night, 
 
 Upon the Adrian main. 
 Now, by our Sire Quirinus, 
 
 It was a goodly sight 
 To see the thirty standards 
 
 Swept down the tide of flight. 
 So flies the spray of Adria 
 
 When the black squall doth blow ; 
 So corn-sheaves in the flood-time 
 
 Spin down the whirling Po, 
 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 125 
 
 False Sextus to the mountains 
 
 Turned first his horse's head ; 
 And fast fled Ferentinum, 
 
 And fast Lanuvium fled. 
 The horsemen of Nomentum 
 
 Spurred hard out of the fray ; 
 The footmen of Velitrae 
 
 Threw shield and spear away. 
 And underfoot was trampled, 
 
 Amidst the mud and gore, 
 The banner of proud Tusculum, 
 
 That never stooped before : 
 And down went Flavius Faustus, 
 
 Who led his stately ranks 
 From where the apple blossoms wave 
 
 On Anio's echoing banks, 
 And Tullus of Arpinum, 
 
 Chief of the Volscian aids, 
 And Metius with the long fair curls, 
 
 The love of Anxur's maids, 
 And the white head of Vulso, 
 
 The great Arician seer, 
 And Nepos of Laurentum, 
 
 The hunter of the deer ; 
 
126 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 And in the back false Sextus 
 
 Felt the good Roman steel, 
 And wriggling in the dust he died, 
 
 Like a worm beneath the wheel 
 And fliers and pursuers 
 
 Were mingled in a mass ; 
 And far away the battle 
 
 Went roaring through the pass. 
 
 37. 
 
 Sempronius Atratinus 
 
 Sate in the Eastern Gate, 
 Beside him were three Fathers, 
 
 Each in his chair of state ; 
 Fabius, whose nine stout grandsons 
 
 That day were in the field, 
 And Manlius, eldest of the Twelve 
 
 Who keep the Golden Shield ; 
 And Sergius, the High Pontiff, 
 
 For wisdom far renowned ; 
 In all Etruria's colleges 
 
 Was no such Pontiff found. 
 And all around the portal, 
 
 And high above the wall, 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 127 
 
 Stood a great throng of people, 
 
 But sad and silent all ; 
 Young lads, and stooping elders 
 
 That might not bear the mail, 
 Matrons with lips that quivered, 
 
 And maids with faces pale. 
 Since the first gleam of day-light, 
 
 Sempronius had not ceased 
 To listen for the rushing 
 
 Of horse-hoofs from the east. 
 The mist of eve was rising, 
 
 The sun was hastening down, 
 When he was aware of a princely pair 
 
 Fast pricking towards the town. 
 So like they were, man never 
 
 Saw twins so like before ; 
 Red with gore their armour was, 
 
 Their steeds were red with gore. 
 
 38. 
 
 Hail to the great Asylum ! 
 
 Hail to the hill-tops 
 
 s seven 
 
 Hail to the fire that burns for aye, 
 And the shield that fell from heaven ! 
 
128 LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME. 
 
 This day, by Lake Regillus, 
 
 Under the Porcian height, 
 All in the lands of Tusculum 
 
 Was fought a glorious fight. 
 To-morrow your Dictator 
 
 Shall bring in triumph home 
 The spoils of thirty cities 
 
 To deck the shrines of Rome ! " 
 
 39, 
 
 Then burst from that great concourse 
 
 A shout that shook the towers, 
 And some ran north, and some ran south, 
 
 Crying, " The day is ours ! " 
 But on rode these strange horsemen, 
 
 With slow and lordly pace ; 
 And none who saw their bearing 
 
 Durst ask their name or race. 
 On rode they to the Forum, 
 
 While laurel-boughs and flowers, 
 From house-tops and from windows, 
 
 Fell on their crests in showers. 
 When they drew nigh to Vesta, 
 
 They vaulted down amain, 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 129 
 
 And washed their horses in the well 
 
 That springs by Vesta's fane. 
 And straight again they mounted, 
 
 And rode to Vesta's door; 
 Then, like a blast, away they passed, 
 
 And no man saw them more. 
 
 40. 
 
 And all the people trembled, 
 
 And pale grew every cheek ; 
 And Sergius the High Pontiff 
 
 Alone found voice to speak : 
 " The Gods who live for ever 
 
 Have fought for Rome to-day ! 
 These be the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 To whom the Dorians pray. 
 Back comes the Chief in triumph, 
 
 Who, in the hour of fight, 
 Hath seen the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 In harness on his right. 
 Safe comes the ship to haven, 
 
 Through billows and through gales, 
 If once the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Sit shining on the sails. 
 E 
 
130 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Wherefore they washed their horses 
 
 In Vesta's holy well, 
 Wherefore they rode to Vesta's door 3 
 
 I know, but may not tell. 
 Here, hard by Vesta's temple, 
 
 Build we a stately dome 
 Unto the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Who fought so well for Rome. 
 And when the months returning 
 
 Bring back this day of fight, 
 The proud Ides of Quintilis, 
 
 Marked evermore with white, 
 Unto the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Let all the people throng, 
 With chaplets and Avith offerings, 
 
 With music and with song ; 
 And let the doors and windows 
 
 Be hung with garlands all, 
 And let the Knights be summoned 
 
 To Mars without the wall : 
 Thence let them ride in purple 
 
 With joyous trumpet-sound, 
 Each mounted on his war-horse, 
 
 And each with olive crowned ; 
 
BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 131 
 
 And pass in solemn order 
 
 Before the sacred dome, 
 Where dwell the Great Twin Brethren 
 
 Who fought so well for Rome." 
 
VIRGINIA. 
 
VIRGINIA. 
 
 A collection consisting exclusively of war- 
 songs would give an imperfect, or rather an 
 erroneous, notion of the spirit of the old Latin 
 ballads. The Patricians, during more than a 
 century after the expulsion of the Kings, held 
 all the high military commands. A Plebeian, 
 even though, like Lucius Siccius, he were distin- 
 guished by his valour and knowledge of war, 
 could serve only in subordinate posts. A min- 
 strel, therefore, who wished to celebrate the early 
 triumphs of his country, could hardly take any 
 but Patricians for his heroes. The warriors 
 who are mentioned in the two preceding lays, 
 Horatius, Lartius, Herminius, Aulus Posthumius, 
 iEbutius Elva, Sempronius Atratinus, Valerius 
 Poplicola, were all members of the dominant 
 
136 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 order ; and a poet who was singing their praises, 
 whatever his own political opinions might be, 
 would naturally abstain from insulting the class 
 to which they belonged, and from reflecting on 
 the system which had placed such men at the 
 head of the legions of the Commonwealth. 
 
 But there was a class of compositions in which 
 the great families were by no means so cour- 
 teously treated. No parts of early Roman his- 
 tory are richer with poetical colouring than those 
 which relate to the long contest between the pri- 
 vileged houses and the commonalty. The popu- 
 lation of Rome was, from a very early period, 
 divided into hereditary castes, which, indeed, 
 readily united to repel foreign enemies, but 
 which regarded each other, during many years, 
 with bitter animosity. Between those castes 
 there was a barrier hardly less strong than that 
 which, at Venice, parted the members of the 
 Great Council from their countrymen. In some 
 respects, indeed, the line which separated an 
 Icilius or a Duilius from a Posthuinius or a Fabius 
 was even more deeply marked than that which 
 
VIRGINIA. 137 
 
 separated the rower of a gondola from a Conta- 
 rini or a Morosini. At Venice the distinction 
 was merely civil. At Rome it was both civil and 
 religious. Among the grievances under which 
 the Plebeians suffered, three were felt as pecu- 
 liarly severe. They were excluded from the 
 highest magistracies; they were excluded from 
 all share in the public lands; and they were 
 ground down to the dust by partial and bar- 
 barous legislation touching pecuniary contracts. 
 The ruling class in Rome was a monied class; 
 and it made and administered the laws with 
 a view solely to its own interest. Thus the 
 relation between lender and borrower was mixed 
 up with the relation between sovereign and 
 subject. The great men held a large portion of 
 the community in dependence by means of ad- 
 vances at enormous usury. The law of debt, 
 framed by creditors, and for the protection 
 of creditors, was the most horrible that has 
 ever been known among men. The liberty, 
 and even the life, of the insolvent were at the 
 mercy of the Patrician money-lenders. Children 
 
138 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 often became slaves in consequence of the mis- 
 fortunes of their parents. The debtor was 
 imprisoned, not in a public gaol under the care 
 of impartial public functionaries, but in a private 
 workhouse belonging to the creditor. Frightful 
 stories were told respecting these dungeons. It 
 was said that torture and brutal violation were 
 common ; that tight stocks, heavy chains, scanty 
 measures of food, were used to punish wretches 
 guilty of nothing but poverty ; and that brave sol- 
 diers, whose breasts were covered with honour- 
 able scars, were often marked still more deeply 
 on the back by the scourges of high-born usurers. 
 The Plebeians were, however, not wholly with- 
 out constitutional rights. From an early period 
 they had been admitted to some share of political 
 power. They were enrolled in the centuries, and 
 were allowed a share, considerable though not 
 proportioned to their numerical strength, in the 
 disposal of those high dignities from which they 
 were themselves excluded. Thus their position 
 bore some resemblance to that of the Irish Catho- 
 lics during the interval between the year 1792 
 
VIRGINIA. 139 
 
 and the year 1829. The Plebeians had also the 
 privilege of annually appointing officers, named 
 Tribunes, who had no active share in the govern- 
 ment of the Commonwealth, but who, by degrees, 
 acquired a power which made them formidable 
 even to the ablest and most resolute Consuls 
 and Dictators. The person of the Tribune was 
 inviolable ; and, though he could directly effect 
 little, he could obstruct every thing. 
 
 During more than a century after the institu- 
 tion of the Tribuneship, the Commons struggled 
 manfully for the removal of the grievances under 
 which they laboured ; and, in spite of many 
 checks and reverses, succeeded in wringing con- 
 cession after concession from the stubborn aris- 
 tocracy. At length, in the year of the city 378, 
 both parties mustered their whole strength for 
 their last and most desperate conflict. The 
 popular and active Tribune, Caius Licinius, pro- 
 posed the three memorable laws which are called 
 by his name, and which were intended to redress 
 the three great evils of which the Plebeians com- 
 plained. He was supported, with eminent ability 
 
140 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 and firmness, by his colleague, Lucius Sextius. 
 The struggle appears to have been the fiercest 
 that ever in any community terminated without 
 an appeal to arms. If such a contest had 
 raged in any Greek city, the streets would have 
 run with blood. But, even in the paroxysms of 
 faction, the Eoman retained his gravity, his re- 
 spect for law, and his tenderness for the lives of 
 his fellow-citizens. Year after year Licinius and 
 Sextius were re-elected Tribunes. Year after 
 year, if the narrative which has come down to us 
 is to be trusted, they continued to exert, to the 
 full extent, their power of stopping the whole 
 machine of government. No curule magistrates 
 could be chosen; no military muster could be 
 held. We know too little of the state of Rome 
 in those days to be able to conjecture how, 
 during that long anarchy, the peace was kept, and 
 ordinary justice administered between man and 
 man. The animosity of both parties rose to the 
 greatest height. The excitement, we may well 
 suppose, would have been peculiarly intense at the 
 annual election of Tribunes. On such occasions 
 
VIRGINIA. 141 
 
 there can be little doubt that the great families 
 did all that could be done, by threats and ca- 
 resses, to break the union of the Plebeians. That 
 union, however, proved indissoluble. At length 
 the good cause triumphed. The Licinian laws 
 were carried. Lucius Sextius was the first 
 Plebeian Consul, Caius Licinius the third. 
 
 The results of this great change were singu- 
 larly happy and glorious. Two centuries of 
 prosperity, harmony, and victory followed the 
 reconciliation of the orders. Men who remem- 
 bered Eome engaged in waging petty wars 
 almost within sight of the Capitol lived to see 
 her the mistress of Italy. While the disabilities 
 of the Plebeians continued, she was scarcely able 
 to maintain her ground against the Yolscians 
 and Hernicans. When those disabilities were 
 removed, she rapidly became more than a match 
 for Carthage and Macedon. 
 
 During the great Licinian contest the Plebeian 
 poets were, doubtless, not silent. Even in mo- 
 dern times songs have been by no means with- 
 out influence on public affairs ; and we may 
 
142 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 therefore infer, that, in a society where printing 
 was unknown, and where books were rare, a 
 pathetic or humorous party-ballad must have 
 produced effects such as we can but faintly con- 
 ceive. It is certain that satirical poems were 
 common at Rome from a very early period. 
 The rustics, who lived at a distance from the 
 seat of government, and took little part in the 
 strife of factions, gave vent to their petty local 
 animosities in coarse Fescennine verse. The 
 lampoons of the city were doubtless of a higher 
 order; and their sting was early felt by the 
 nobility. For in the Twelve Tables, long be- 
 fore the time of the Licinian laws, a severe 
 punishment was denounced against the citizen 
 who should compose or recite verses reflecting 
 on another.* Satire is, indeed, the only sort 
 of composition in which the Latin poets, whose 
 works have come down to us, were not mere 
 
 * Cicero justly infers from this law that there had been early 
 Latin poets whose works had been lost before his time. " Quam- 
 quam id quidem etiam xii tabulse declarant, condi jam turn solitum 
 esse carmen, quod ne liceret fieri ad alterius injuriam lege sanxe- 
 runt." — Tusc. iv. 2. 
 
VIRGINIA. 143 
 
 imitators of foreign models; and it is therefore 
 the only sort of composition in which they 
 have never been rivalled. It was not, like their 
 tragedy, their comedy, their epic and lyric 
 poetry, a hothouse plant which, in return for 
 assiduous and skilful culture, gave only scanty 
 and sickly fruits. It was hardy, and full of sap ; 
 and in all the various juices which it yielded 
 might be distinguished the flavour of the Au- 
 sonian soil. " Satire," said Quintilian, with just 
 pride, "is all our own." It sprang, in truth, 
 naturally from the constitution of the Roman 
 government and from the spirit of the Roman 
 people ; and, though it submitted to metrical rules 
 derived from Greece, it retained to the last its 
 essentially Roman character. Lucilius was the 
 earliest satirist whose works were held in esteem 
 under the Caesars. But, many years before 
 Lucilius was born, Nsevius had been flung 
 into a dungeon, and guarded there with cir- 
 cumstances of unusual rigour till the Tribunes 
 interfered in his behalf, on account of the 
 bitter lines in which he had attacked the great 
 
144 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Csecilian family.* The genius and spirit of 
 the Eoman satirists survived the liberties of their 
 country, and were not extinguished by the cruel 
 despotism of the Julian and Flavian Emperors. 
 The great poet who told the story of Domitian's 
 turbot was the legitimate successor of those 
 forgotten minstrels whose songs animated the 
 factions of the infant Republic. 
 
 Those minstrels, as Niebuhr has remarked, 
 appear to have generally taken the popular side. 
 We can hardly be mistaken in supposing that, at 
 the great crisis of the civil conflict, they employed 
 themselves in versifying all the most powerful 
 and virulent speeches of the Tribunes, and in 
 heaping abuse on the chiefs of the aristocracy. 
 Every personal defect, every domestic scandal, 
 every tradition dishonourable to a noble house, 
 would be sought out, brought into notice, and 
 exaggerated. The illustrious head of the aristo- 
 cratical party, Marcus Furius Camillus, might 
 perhaps be, in some measure, protected by his 
 
 * Plautus, Miles Gloriosus. Aulus Gellius, iii. 3. 
 
VIRGINIA. 145 
 
 venerable age and by the memory of his great 
 services to the State. But Appius Claudius 
 Crassus enjoyed no such immunity. He was de- 
 scended from a long line of ancestors distinguished 
 by their haughty demeanour, and by the inflexi- 
 bility with which they had withstood all the de- 
 mands of the Plebeian order. While the political 
 conduct and the deportment of the Claudian 
 nobles drew upon them the fiercest public hatred, 
 they were wanting, if any credit is due to the 
 early history of Kome, in a class of qualities which, 
 in a military Commonwealth, is sufficient to cover 
 a multitude of offences. Several of them appear 
 to have been eloquent, versed in civil business, 
 and learned after the fashion of their age ; but 
 in war they were not distinguished by skill or 
 valour. Some of them, as if conscious where 
 their weakness lay, had, when filling the highest 
 magistracies, taken internal administration as 
 their department of public business, and left the 
 military command to their colleagues.* One of 
 
 * In the years of the city 260, 304, and 330. 
 T 
 
146 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 them had been intrusted with an army, and had 
 failed ignominiously.* None of them had been 
 honoured with a triumph. None of them had 
 achieved any martial exploit, such as those by 
 which Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Titus 
 Quinctius Capitolinus, Aulus Cornelius Cossus, 
 and, above all, the great Camillus, had extorted 
 the reluctant esteem of the multitude. During 
 the Licinian conflict, Appius Claudius Crassus 
 signalised himself by the ability and severity 
 with which he harangued against the two great 
 agitators. He would naturally, therefore, be the 
 favourite mark of the Plebeian satirists ; nor 
 would they have been at a loss to find a point 
 on which he was open to attack. 
 
 His grandfather, called, like himself, Appius 
 Claudius, had left a name as much detested as 
 that of Sextus Tarquinius. This elder Appius 
 had been Consul more than seventy years before 
 the introduction of the Licinian laws. By avail- 
 ing himself of a singular crisis in public feeling, 
 
 * In the year of the city 282. 
 
VIRGINIA. 147 
 
 he had obtained the consent of the Commons to 
 the abolition of the Tribuneship, and had been 
 the chief of that Council of Ten to which the 
 whole direction of the State had been committed. 
 In a few months his administration had become 
 universally odious. It had been swept away by 
 an irresistible outbreak of popular fury ; and its 
 memory was still held in abhorrence by the whole 
 city. The immediate cause of the downfall of 
 this execrable government was said to have been 
 an attempt made by Appius Claudius on the 
 chastity of a beautiful young girl of humble 
 birth. The story ran, that the Decemvir, unable 
 to succeed by bribes and solicitations, resorted 
 to an outrageous act of tyranny. A vile de- 
 pendent of the Claudian house laid claim to the 
 damsel as his slave. The cause was brought 
 before the tribunal of Appius. The wicked 
 magistrate, in defiance of the clearest proofs, 
 gave judgment for the claimant. But the girl's 
 father, a brave soldier, saved her from servitude 
 and dishonour by stabbing her to the heart in 
 the sight of the whole Forum. That blow was 
 
148 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 the signal for a general explosion. Camp and 
 city rose at once; the Ten were pulled down; 
 the Tribuneship was re-established ; and Appius 
 escaped the hands of the executioner only by a 
 voluntary death. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that a story so ad- 
 mirably adapted to the purposes both of the poet 
 and of the demagogue would be eagerly seized 
 upon by minstrels burning with hatred against 
 the Patrician order, against the Claudian house, 
 and especially against the grandson and name- 
 sake of the infamous Decemvir. 
 
 In order that the reader may judge fairly of 
 these fragments of the lay of Virginia, he must 
 imagine himself a Plebeian who has just voted for 
 the re-election of Sextius and Licinius. All the 
 power of the Patricians has been exerted to throw 
 out the two great champions of the Commons . 
 Every Posthumius, iEmilius, and Cornelius has 
 used his influence to the utmost. Debtors 
 have been let out of the workhouses on condition 
 of voting against the men of the people ; clients 
 have been posted to hiss and interrupt the fa- 
 
VIRGINIA, 149 
 
 vourite candidates ; Appius Claudius Crassus has 
 spoken with more than his usual eloquence and 
 asperity : all has been in vain ; Licinius and 
 Sextius have a fifth time carried all the tribes ; 
 work is suspended ; the booths are closed ; the 
 Plebeians bear on their shoulders the two cham- 
 pions of liberty through the Forum. Just at this 
 moment it is announced that a popular poet, a 
 zealous adherent of the Tribunes, has made a new 
 song which will cut the Claudian family to the 
 heart. The crowd gathers round him, and calls 
 on him to recite it. He takes his stand on the 
 spot where, according to tradition, Virginia, 
 more than seventy years ago, was seized by the 
 pandar of Appius, and he begins his story. 
 
VIRGINIA. 
 
 FRAGMENTS OF A LAY SUNG IN THE FORUM ON THE DAY WHEREON LUCIUS 
 SEXTIUS SEXT1NUS LATERANUS AND CAIUS LICINIUS CALVUS STOLO WERE 
 ELECTED TRIBUNES OF THE COMMONS THE FIFTH TIME, IN THE YEAR OF THE 
 CITY CCCLXXXII. 
 
 Ye good men of the Commons, with loving hearts and true, 
 
 Who stand by the bold Tribunes, that still have stood by you, 
 
 Come, make a circle round me, and mark my tale with care, 
 
 A tale of what Rome once hath borne, of what Rome yet may bear. 
 
 This is no Grecian fable, of fountains running wine, 
 
 Of maids with snaky tresses, or sailors turned to swine. 
 
 Here, in this very Forum, under the noonday sun, 
 
 In sight of all the people, the bloody deed was done. 
 
 Old men still creep among us who saw that fearful day, 
 
 Just seventy years and seven ago, when the wicked Ten bare sway. 
 
 Of all the wicked Ten still the names are held accursed, 
 And of all the wicked Ten Appius Claudius was the worst. 
 He stalked along the Forum like King Tarquin in his pride : 
 Twelve axes waited on him, six marching on a side ; 
 
152 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 The townsmen shrank to right and left, and eyed askance with fear 
 His lowering brow, his curling mouth which alway seemed to sneer: 
 That brow of hate, that mouth of scorn, marks all the kindred still ; 
 For never was there Claudius yet but wished the Commons ill : 
 Nor lacks he fit attendance ; for close behind his heels, 
 With outstretched chin and crouching pace, the client Marcus 
 
 steals, 
 His loins girt up to run with speed, be the errand what it may, 
 And the smile flickering on his cheek, for aught his lord may say. 
 Such varlets pimp and jest for hire among the lying Greeks : 
 Such varlets still are paid to hoot when brave Licinius speaks. 
 Where'er ye shed the honey, the buzzing flies will crowd ; 
 Where'er ye fling the carrion, the raven's croak is loud ; 
 Where'er down Tiber garbage floats, the greedy pike ye see ; 
 And wheresoe'er such lord is found, such client still will be. 
 
 Just then, as through one cloudless chink in a black stormy sky 
 Shines out the dewy morning-star, a fair young girl came by. 
 With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm, 
 Home she went bounding from the school, nor dreamed of shame 
 
 or harm ; 
 And past those dreaded axes she innocently ran, 
 With bright, frank brow that had not learned to blush at gaze of 
 
 man; 
 And up the Sacred Street she turned, and, as she danced along, 
 She warbled gaily to herself lines of the good old song, 
 
VIRGINIA. 153 
 
 How for a sport the princes came spurring from the camp, 
 And found Lucrece, combing the fleece, under the midnight lamp. 
 The maiden sang as sings the lark, when up he darts his flight, 
 From his nest in the green April corn, to meet the morning 
 
 light; 
 And Appius heard her sweet young voice, and saw her sweet 
 
 young face, 
 
 And loved her with the accursed love of his accursed race, 
 And all along the Forum, and up the Sacred Street, 
 His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet. 
 
 Over the Alban mountains the light of morning broke ; 
 From all the roofs of the Seven Hills curled the thin wreaths of 
 
 smoke : 
 The city-gates were opened ; the Forum, all alive, 
 With buyers and with sellers was humming like a hive : 
 Blithely on brass and timber the craftsman's stroke was ringing, 
 And blithely o'er her panniers the market-girl was singing, 
 And blithely young Virginia came smiling from her home : 
 Ah ! woe for young Virginia, the sweetest maid in Rome ! 
 With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm, 
 Forth she went bounding to the school, nor dreamed of shame or 
 
 harm. 
 She crossed the Forum shining with stalls in alleys gay, 
 And just had reached the very spot whereon I stand this day, 
 
154 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 When up the varlet Marcus came ; not such as when erewhile 
 He crouched behind his patron's heels with the true client smile : 
 He came with lowering forehead, swollen features, and clenched fist, 
 And strode across Virginia's path, and caught her by the wrist. 
 Hard strove the frighted maiden, and screamed with look aghast ; 
 And at her scream from right and left the folk came running 
 
 fast ; 
 The money-changer Crispus, with his thin silver hairs, 
 And Hanno from the stately booth glittering with Punic wares, 
 And the strong smith Murama, grasping a half-forged brand, 
 And Volero the flesher, his cleaver in his hand. 
 All came in wrath and wonder ; for all knew that fair child ; 
 And, as she passed them twice a day, all kissed their hands and 
 
 smiled ; 
 And the strong smith Murasna gave Marcus such a blow, 
 The caitiff reeled three paces back, and let the maiden go. 
 Yet glared he fiercely round him, and growled in harsh, fell tone, 
 {S She 's mine, and I will have her : I seek but for mine own : 
 She is my slave, born in my house, and stolen away and sold, 
 The year of the sore sickness, ere she was twelve hours old. 
 'Twas in the sad September, the month of wail and fright, 
 Two augurs were borne forth that morn; the Consul died ere 
 
 night. 
 I wait on Appius Claudius ; I waited on his sire : 
 Let him who works the client wrong beware the patron's ire ! " 
 
VIRGINIA. 155 
 
 So spake the varlet Marcus ; and dread and silence came 
 On all the people at the sound of the great Claudian name. 
 For then there was no Tribune to speak the word of might, 
 Which makes the rich man tremble, and guards the poor man's 
 
 right. 
 There was no brave Licinius, no honest Sextius then ; 
 But all the city, in great fear, obeyed the wicked Ten. 
 Yet ere the varlet Marcus again might seize the maid, 
 Who clung tight to Murama's skirt, and sobbed, and shrieked for 
 
 aid, 
 Forth through the throng of gazers the young Icilius pressed, 
 And stamped his foot, and rent his gown, and smote upon his 
 
 breast, 
 And sprang upon that column, by many a minstrel sung, 
 Whereon three mouldering helmets, three rusting swords, are hung, 
 And beckoned to the people, and in bold voice and clear 
 Poured thick and fast the burning words which tyrants quake to 
 
 hear. 
 
 " Now, by your children's cradles, now, by your fathers' graves, 
 l I I I 
 
 Be men to-day, Quirites, or be for ever slaves ! 
 
 For this did Servius give us laws ? For this did Lucrece bleed ? 
 
 For this was the great vengeance wrought on Tarquin's evil seed ? 
 
 For this did those false sons make red the axes of their sire ? 
 
 For this did Sca3vola's right hand hiss in the Tuscan fire ? 
 
156 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Shall the vile fox-earth awe the race that stormed the lion's den ? 
 Shall we, who could not brook one lord, crouch to the wicked 
 
 Ten? 
 Oh for that ancient spirit which curbed the Senate's will ! 
 Oh for the tents which in old time whitened the Sacred Hill ! 
 In those brave days our fathers stood firmly side by side ; 
 They faced the Marcian fury ; they tamed the Fabian pride : 
 They drove the fiercest Quinctius an outcast forth from Rome ; 
 They sent the haughtiest Claudius with shivered fasces home. 
 But what their care bequeathed us our madness flung away : 
 All the ripe fruit of threescore years was blighted in a day. 
 Exult, ye proud Patricians ! The hard-fought fight is o'er. 
 We strove for honours — 'twas in vain : for freedom — 'tis no 
 
 more. 
 No crier to the polling summons the eager throng ; 
 No Tribune breathes the word of might that guards the weak from 
 
 wrong. 
 Our very hearts, that were so high, sink down beneath your will. 
 Riches, and lands, and power, and state — ye have them: — keep 
 
 them still. 
 Still keep the holy fillets ; still keep the purple gown, 
 The axes, and the curule chair, the car, and laurel crown : 
 Still press us for your cohorts, and, when the fight is done, 
 Still fill your garners from the soil which our good swords have 
 
 won. 
 
VIRGINIA. 157 
 
 Still, like a spreading ulcer, which leech-craft may not cure, 
 
 Let your foul usance eat away the substance of the poor. 
 
 Still let your haggard debtors bear all their fathers bore : 
 
 Still let your dens of torment be noisome as of yore ; 
 
 No fire when Tiber freezes ; no air in dog-star heat ; 
 
 And store of rods for free-born backs, and holes for free-born feet, 
 
 Heap heavier still the fetters ; bar closer still the grate ; 
 
 Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate. 
 
 But, by the Shades beneath us, and by the Gods above, 
 
 Add not unto your cruel hate your yet more cruel love ! 
 
 Have ye not graceful ladies, whose spotless lineage springs 
 
 From Consuls, and High Pontiffs, and ancient Alban kings ? 
 
 Ladies, who deign not on our paths to set their tender feet, 
 
 Who from their cars look down with scorn upon the wondering 
 
 street, 
 Who in Corinthian mirrors their own proud smiles behold, 
 And breathe of Capuan odours, and shine with Spanish gold ? 
 Then leave the poor Plebeian his single tie to life — 
 The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, and of wife, 
 The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vexed soul endures, 
 The kiss, in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yours. 
 Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride ; 
 Still let the bridegroom's arms infold an unpolluted bride. 
 Spare lis the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame, 
 That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to flame. 
 
158 LAYS OF ANCIENT HOME. 
 
 Lest, when our latest hope is fled, ye taste of our despair, 
 And learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched 
 dare." 
 
 Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside, 
 To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide, 
 Close to yon low dark archway, where, in a crimson flood, 
 Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood. 
 Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down : 
 Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown. 
 And then his eyes grew very dim, and his throat began to swell, 
 And in a hoarse, changed voice he spake, " Farewell, sweet child ! 
 
 Farewell ! 
 Oh ! how I loved my darling ! Though stern I sometimes be, 
 To thee, thou know'st, I was not so. Who could be so to thee ? 
 And how my darling loved me ! How glad she was to hear 
 My footstep on the threshold when I came back last year ! 
 And how she danced with pleasure to see my civic crown, 
 And took my sword, and hung it up, and brought me forth my 
 
 gown! 
 Now, all those things are over — yes, all thy pretty ways, 
 Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays ; 
 And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I return, 
 Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon his urn. 
 
VIRGINIA. 159 
 
 The house that was the happiest within the Roman walls, 
 The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's marble halls, 
 Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom, 
 And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tomb. 
 The time is come. See how he points his eager hand this way ! 
 See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's upon the prey ! 
 With all his wit, he little deems, that, spurned, betrayed, bereft, 
 Thy father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left. 
 He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still can save 
 Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portion of the slave ; 
 Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and blow — 
 Foul outrage which thou know'st not, which thou shalt never 
 
 know. 
 Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more 
 
 kiss ; 
 And now, mine own dear little girl, there is no way but this." 
 With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side, 
 And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died. 
 
 Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath ; 
 And through the crowded Forum was stillness as of death ; 
 And in another moment brake forth from one and all 
 A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall. 
 Some with averted faces shrieking fled home amain ; 
 Some ran to call a leech ; and some ran to lift the slain : 
 
1G0 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Some felt her lips and little wrist, if life might there be found ; 
 And some tore up their garments fast, and strove to stanch the 
 
 wound. 
 In vain they ran, and felt, and stanched ; for never truer blow 
 That good right arm had dealt in fight against a Volscian foe. 
 
 When Appius Claudius saw that deed, he shuddered and sank 
 
 down, 
 And hid his face some little space with the corner of his gown, 
 Till, with white lips and bloodshot eyes, Virginius tottered nigh, 
 And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife on high. 
 " Oh ! dwellers in the nether gloom, avengers of the slain, 
 By this dear blood I cry to you, do right between us twain ; 
 And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt by me and mine, 
 Deal you by Appius Claudius and all the Claudian line ! " 
 So spake the slayer of his child, and turned, and went his way ; 
 But first he cast one haggard glance to where the body lay, 
 And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan, and then, with steadfast 
 
 feet, 
 Strode right across the market-place unto the Sacred Street. 
 
 Then up sprang Appius Claudius : " Stop him; alive or dead ! 
 Ten thousand pounds of copper to the man who brings his head." 
 He looked upon his clients ; but none would work his will. 
 He looked upon his lictors ; but they trembled, and stood still. 
 
VIRGINIA. 161 
 
 And, as Virginius through the press his way in silence cleft, 
 Ever the mighty multitude fell back to right and left. 
 And he hath passed in safety unto his woeful home, 
 And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in 
 Rome. 
 
 By this the flood of people was swollen from every side, 
 And streets and porches round were filled with that o'erflowing tide ; 
 And close around the body gathered a little train 
 Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain. 
 They brought a bier, and hung it with many a cypress crown, 
 And gently they uplifted her, and gently laid her down. 
 The face of Appius Claudius wore the Claudian scowl and sneer, 
 And in the Claudian note he cried, " What doth this rabble here ? 
 Have they no crafts to mind at home, that hitherward they stray ? 
 Ho ! lictors, clear the market-place, and fetch the corpse away ! " 
 Till then the voice of pity and fury was not loud ; 
 But a deep sullen murmur wandered among the crowd, 
 Like the moaning noise that goes before the whirlwind on the 
 
 deep, 
 Or the growl of a fierce watch-dog but half aroused from sleep. 
 But when the lictors at that word, tall yeomen all and strong, 
 Each with his axe and sheaf of twigs, went down into the throng, 
 Those old men say, who saw that day of sorrow and of sin, 
 That in the Roman Forum was never such a din. 
 
 x 
 
162 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 The wailing, hooting, cursing, the howls of grief and hate, 
 
 Were heard beyond the Pincian Hill, beyond the Latin Gate. 
 
 But close around the body, where stood the little train 
 
 Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain, 
 
 No cries were there, but teeth set fast, low whispers, and black 
 
 frowns, 
 And breaking up of benches, and girding up of gowns. 
 'Twas well the lictors might not pierce to where the maiden lay, 
 Else surely had they been all twelve torn limb from limb that day. 
 Right glad they were to struggle back, blood streaming from 
 
 their heads, 
 With axes all in splinters, and raiment all in shreds. 
 Then Appius Claudius gnawed his lip, and the blood left his 
 
 cheek ; 
 And thrice he beckoned with his hand, and thrice he strove to 
 
 And thrice the tossing Forum set up a frightful yell ; 
 
 " See, see, thou dog ! what thou hast done ; and hide thy shame in 
 
 hell! 
 Thou that would'st make our maidens slaves must first make slaves 
 
 of men. 
 Tribunes ! Hurrah for Tribunes ! Down with the wicked Ten ! " 
 And straightway, thick as hailstones, came whizzing through the 
 
 air 
 Pebbles, and bricks, and potsherds, all round the curule chair : 
 
VIRGINIA. 163 
 
 And upon Appius Claudius great fear and trembling came ; 
 For never was a Claudius yet brave against aught but shame. 
 Though the great houses love us not, we own, to do them right, 
 That the great houses, all save one, have borne them well in 
 
 fight, 
 Still Caius of Corioli, his triumphs, and his wrongs, 
 His vengeance, and his mercy, live in our camp-fire songs. 
 Beneath the yoke of Furius oft have Gaul and Tuscan bowed ; 
 And Rome may bear the pride of him of whom herself is proud. 
 But evermore a Claudius shrinks from a stricken field, 
 And changes colour like a maid at sight of sword and shield. 
 The Claudian triumphs all were won within the city-towers ; 
 The Claudian yoke was never pressed on any necks but ours. 
 A Cossus, like a wild cat, springs ever at the face ; 
 A Fabius rushes like a boar against the shouting chase ; 
 But the vile Claudian litter, raging with currish spite, 
 Still yelps and snaps at those who run, still runs from those who 
 
 smite. 
 So now 't was seen of Appius. When stones began to fly, 
 He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his 
 
 thigh. 
 " Band clients, honest lictors, stand by me in this fray ! 
 Must I be torn in pieces ? Home, home, the nearest way ! " 
 While yet he spake, and looked around with a bewildered stare, 
 Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair ; 
 
164 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 And fourscore clients on the left, and fourscore on the right, 
 Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for 
 
 fight. 
 But, though without or staff or sword, so furious was the throng, 
 That scarce the train with might and main could bring their lord 
 
 along. 
 Twelve times the crowd made at him ; five times they seized his 
 
 gown ; 
 Small chance was his to rise again, if once they got him down : 
 And sharper came the pelting ; and evermore the yell — 
 " Tribunes ! we will have Tribunes ! " — rose with a louder swell: 
 And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tattered sail 
 When raves the Adriatic beneath an eastern gale, 
 When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume, 
 And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom. 
 One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear ; 
 And ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and 
 
 fear. 
 His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride, 
 Now, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to 
 
 side ; 
 And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door, 
 His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore. 
 As Appius Claudius was that day, so may his grandson be. 
 God send Rome one such other sight, and send me there to see ! 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to remind any 
 reader that, according to the popular tradition, 
 Romulus, after he had slain his grand-uncle 
 Amulius, and restored his grandfather Numitor, 
 determined to quit Alba, the hereditary domain 
 of the Sylvian princes, and to found a new city. 
 The Gods, it was added, vouchsafed the clearest 
 signs of the favour with which they regarded the 
 enterprise, and of the high destinies reserved for 
 the young colony. 
 
 This event was likely to be a favourite theme 
 of the old Latin minstrels. They would naturally 
 attribute the project of Romulus to some 
 divine intimation of the power and prosperity 
 which it was decreed that his city should attain. 
 They would probably introduce seers foretelling 
 
168 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 the victories of unborn Consuls and Dictators, and 
 the last great victory would generally occupy the 
 most conspicuous place in the prediction. There 
 is nothing strange in the supposition that the 
 poet who was employed to celebrate the first 
 great triumph of the Romans over the Greeks 
 might throw his song of exultation into this 
 form. 
 
 The occasion was one likely to excite the 
 strongest feelings of national pride. A great 
 outrage had been followed by a great retribution. 
 Seven years before this time, Lucius Posthumius 
 Megellus, who sprang from one of the noblest 
 houses of Rome, and had been thrice Consul, was 
 sent ambassador to Tarentum, with charge to 
 demand reparation for grievous injuries. The 
 Tarentines gave him audience in their theatre, 
 where he addressed them in such Greek as he 
 could command, which, we may well believe, was 
 not exactly such as Cineas would have spoken. 
 An exquisite sense of the ridiculous belonged 
 to the Greek character ; and closely connected 
 with this faculty was a strong propensity to 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS, 1G9 
 
 flippancy and impertinence. When Posthumius 
 placed an accent wrong, his hearers burst into a 
 laugh. When he remonstrated, they hooted him, 
 and called him barbarian ; and at length hissed 
 him off the stage as if he had been a bad actor. 
 As the grave Roman retired, a buffoon, who, 
 from his constant drunkenness, was nicknamed 
 the Pint-pot, came up with gestures of the 
 grossest indecency, and bespattered the sena- 
 torial gown with tilth. Posthumius turned round 
 to the multitude, and held up the gown, as if 
 appealing to the universal law of nations. The 
 sight only increased the insolence of the Taren- 
 tines. They clapped their hands, and set up a 
 shout of lausrhter which shook the theatre. " Men 
 
 o 
 
 of Tarentum," said Posthumius, " it will take not 
 a little blood to wash this gown." * 
 
 Rome, in consequence of this insult, declared 
 war against the Tarentines. The Tarentines 
 sought for allies beyond the Ionian Sea. Pyrrhus, 
 king of Epirus, came to their help with a large 
 
 * Dion. Hal. De Legationitras. 
 Y 
 
170 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 army ; and, for the first time, the two great 
 nations of antiquity were fairly matched against 
 each other. 
 
 The fame of Greece in arms, as well as in arts, 
 was then at the height. Half a century earlier, 
 the career of Alexander had excited the admira- 
 tion and terror of all nations from the Ganges to 
 the Pillars of Hercules. Royal houses, founded 
 by Macedonian captains, still reigned at An- 
 tioch and Alexandria. That barbarian warriors, 
 led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched 
 battle against Greek valour guided by Greek 
 science, seemed as incredible as it would now 
 seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in 
 the open plain, put to flight an equal number 
 of the best English troops. The Tarentines 
 were convinced that their countrymen were 
 irresistible in war ; and this conviction had em- 
 boldened them to treat with the grossest indig- 
 nity one whom they regarded as the representa- 
 tive of an inferior race. Of the Greek generals 
 then living, Pyrrhus was indisputably the first. 
 Among the troops who were trained in the Greek 
 
THE PEOPHECY OF CAPYS. 171 
 
 discipline, his Epirotes ranked high. His expedi- 
 tion to Italy was a turning-point in the history of 
 the world. He found there a people who, far in- 
 ferior to the Athenians and Corinthians in the fine 
 arts, in the speculative sciences, and in all the 
 refinements of life, were the best soldiers on the 
 face of the earth. Their arms, their gradations 
 of rank, their order of battle, their method of in- 
 trenchment, were all of Latian origin, and had 
 all been gradually brought near to perfection, 
 not by the study of foreign models, but by the 
 genius and experience of many generations of 
 great native commanders. The first words which 
 broke from the king, when his practised eye had 
 surveyed the Roman encampment, were full of 
 meaning : — " These barbarians," he said, " have 
 nothing barbarous in their military arrange- 
 ments." He was at first victorious ; for his 
 own talents were superior to those of the cap- 
 tains who were opposed to him ; and the Romans 
 were not prepared for the onset of the elephants 
 of the East, which were then for the first time 
 seen in Italy — moving mountains, with long 
 
172 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 snakes for hands.* But the victories of the Epi- 
 rotes were fiercely disputed, dearly purchased, 
 and altogether unprofitable. At length, Manius 
 Curius Dentatus, who had in his first consulship 
 won two triumphs, was again placed at the head 
 of the Roman Commonwealth, and sent to en- 
 counter the invaders. A great battle was fought 
 near Beneventum. Pyrrhus was completely de- 
 feated. He repassed the sea; and the world 
 learned with amazement, that a people had been 
 discovered, who, in fair fighting, were superior 
 to the best troops that had been drilled on the 
 system of Parmenio and Antigonus. 
 
 The conquerors had a good right to exult in 
 their success ; for their glory was all their own. 
 They had not learned from their enemy how to 
 conquer him. It was with their own national 
 arms, and in their own national battle-array, that 
 they had overcome weapons and tactics long 
 believed to be invincible. The pilum and the 
 broadsword had vanquished the Macedonian 
 
 * Anguimanus is the old Latin epithet for an elephant. Lu- 
 cretius, ii. 538. v. 1302. 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 173 
 
 spear. The legion had broken the Macedonian 
 phalanx. Even the elephants, when the surprise 
 produced by their first appearance was over, 
 could cause no disorder in the steady yet flexible 
 battalions of Rome. 
 
 It is said by Floras, and may easily be be- 
 lieved, that the triumph far surpassed in mag- 
 nificence any that Rome had previously seen. 
 The only spoils which Papirius Cursor and Fa- 
 bius Maximus could exhibit were flocks and 
 herds, waggons of rude structure, and heaps of 
 spears and helmets. But now, for the first time, 
 the riches of Asia and the arts of Greece adorned 
 a Roman pageant. Plate, fine stuffs, costly furni- 
 ture, rare animals, exquisite paintings and sculp- 
 tures, formed part of the procession. At the ban- 
 quet would be assembled a crowd of warriors and 
 statesmen, among whom Manius Curius Dentatus 
 would take the highest room. Caius Fabricius 
 Luscinus, then, after two Consulships and two 
 triumphs, Censor of the Commonwealth, would 
 doubtless occupy a place of honour at the board. 
 In situations less conspicuous probably lay some 
 
174 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 of those who were, a few years later, the terror of 
 Carthage ; Cains Duilius, the founder of the ma- 
 ritime greatness of his country; Marcus Atilius 
 Regulus, who owed to defeat a renown far higher 
 than that which he had derived from his vic- 
 tories; and Caius Lutatius Catulus, who, while 
 suffering from a grievous wound, fought the 
 great battle of the iEgates, and brought the first 
 Punic war to a triumphant close. It is impos- 
 sible to recount the names of these eminent 
 citizens, without reflecting that they were all, 
 without exception, Plebeians, and would, but for 
 the ever-memorable struggle maintained by Caius 
 Licinius and Lucius Sextius, have been doomed 
 to hide in obscurity, or to waste in civil broils, 
 the capacity and energy which prevailed against 
 Pyrrhus and Hamilcar. 
 
 On such a day we may suppose that the pa- 
 triotic enthusiasm of a Latin poet would vent itself 
 in reiterated shouts of Io triumphe, such as were 
 uttered by Horace on a far less exciting occasion, 
 and in boasts resembling those which Virgil, 
 
THE PROPHECY OP CAPYS. 175 
 
 two hundred and fifty years later, put into the 
 mouth of Anchises. The superiority of some 
 foreign nations, and especially of the Greeks, in 
 the lazy arts of peace, would be admitted with 
 disdainful candour ; but pre-eminence in all the 
 qualities which fit a people to subdue and govern 
 mankind would be claimed for the Romans. 
 
 The following lay belongs to the latest age of 
 Latin ballad-poetry. NaBvius and Livius Andro- 
 nicus were probably among the children whose 
 mothers held them up to see the chariot of 
 Curius go by. The minstrel who sang on that 
 day might possibly have lived to read the 
 first hexameters of Ennius, and to see the first 
 comedies of Plautus. His poem, as might be 
 expected, shows a much wider acquaintance 
 with the geography, manners, and productions 
 of remote nations, than would have been found 
 in compositions of the age of Camillus. But 
 he troubles himself little about dates; and 
 having heard travellers talk with admiration of 
 the Colossus of Rhodes, and of the structures 
 
176 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 and gardens with which the Macedonian kings 
 of Syria had embellished their residence on the 
 banks of the Orontes, he has never thought of 
 inquiring whether these things existed in the age 
 of Romulus. 
 
THE PROPHECY OE CAPYS. 
 
 A LAY SUNG AT THE BANQUET IN THE CAPITOL, ON THE DAY 
 WHEREON MAN1US CURIUS DENTATUS, A SECOND TIME CONSUL, 
 TRIUMPHED OVER KING PYRRHUS AND THE TARENTINES, IN 
 THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLXXIX, 
 
 1. 
 
 Now slain is King Amulius, 
 
 Of the great Sylvian line, 
 Who reigned in Alba Longa, 
 
 On the throne of Aventine. 
 Slain is the Pontiff Camers, 
 
 Who spake the words of doom 
 " The children to the Tiber, 
 
 The mother to the tomb." 
 
 In Alba's lake no fisher 
 His net to-day is flinging : 
 
 On the dark rind of Alba's oaks 
 To-day no axe is ringing : 
 
 7, 
 
178 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 The yoke hangs o'er the manger : 
 The scythe lies in the hay : 
 
 Through all the Alban villages 
 No work is done to-day. 
 
 3. 
 
 And every Alban burgher 
 
 Hath donned his whitest gown ; 
 And every head in Alba 
 
 Weareth a poplar crown ; 
 And every Alban door-post 
 
 With boughs and flowers is gay : 
 For to-day the dead are living ; 
 
 The lost are found to-day. 
 
 4. 
 
 They were doomed by a bloody king : 
 
 They were doomed by a lying priest: 
 They were cast on the raging flood : 
 
 They were tracked by the raging beast 
 Raging beast and raging flood 
 
 Alike have spared the prey ; 
 And to-day the dead are living ; 
 
 The lost are found to-day. 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 179 
 
 The troubled river knew them, 
 
 And smoothed his yellow foam, 
 And gently rocked the cradle 
 
 That bore the fate of Rome. 
 The ravening she-wolf knew them, 
 
 And licked them o'er and o'er, 
 And gave them of her own fierce milk, 
 
 Rich with raw flesh and gore. 
 Twenty winters, twenty springs, 
 
 Since then have rolled away ; 
 And to-day the dead are living : 
 
 The lost are found to-day. 
 
 6. 
 
 Blithe it was to see the twins, 
 
 Right goodly youths and tall, 
 Marching from Alba Longa 
 
 To their old grandsire's hall. 
 Along their path fresh garlands 
 
 Are hung from tree to tree ; 
 Before them stride the pipers, 
 
 Piping a note of glee. 
 
180 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 On the right goes Romulus, 
 
 With arms to the elbows red, 
 And in his hand a broadsword, 
 
 And on the blade a head — 
 A head in an iron helmet, 
 
 With horse-hair hanging down, 
 A shaggy head, a swarthy head, 
 
 Fixed in a ghastly frown — 
 The head of King Amulius 
 
 Of the great Sylvian line, 
 Who reigned in Alba Longa, 
 
 On the throne of Aventine. 
 
 On the left side goes Remus, 
 
 With wrists and fingers red, 
 And in his hand a boar-spear, 
 
 And on the point a head — 
 A wrinkled head and aged, 
 
 With silver beard and hair, 
 And holy fillets round it, 
 
 Such as the pontiffs wear— 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 181 
 
 The head of ancient Camers, 
 
 Who spake the words of doom : 
 " The children to the Tiber ; 
 
 The mother to the tomb." 
 
 9. 
 
 Two and two behind the twins 
 
 Their trusty comrades go, 
 Four and forty valiant men. 
 
 With club, and axe, and bow. 
 On each side every hamlet 
 
 Pours forth its joyous crowd, 
 Shouting lads and baying dogs, 
 
 And children laughing loud, 
 And old men weeping fondly 
 
 As Rhea's boys go by, 
 And maids who shriek to see the heads, 
 
 Yet, shrieking, press more nigh. 
 
 10. 
 
 So they marched along the lake ; 
 
 They marched by fold and stall, 
 By corn-field and by vineyard, 
 
 Unto the old man's hall. 
 
182 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 11. 
 In the hall-gate sate Capys, 
 
 Capys, the sightless seer ; 
 From head to foot he trembled 
 
 As Romulus drew near. 
 And up stood stiff his thin white hair, 
 
 And his blind eyes flashed fire : 
 " Hail ! foster child of the wonderous nurse ! 
 
 Hail ! son of the wonderous sire ! 
 
 12. 
 " But thou — what dost thou here 
 
 In the old man's peaceful hall ? 
 What doth the eagle in the coop, 
 
 The bison in the stall ? 
 Our corn fills many a garner ; 
 
 Our vines clasp many a tree ; 
 Our flocks are white on many a hill ; 
 
 But these are not for thee. 
 
 13. 
 " For thee no treasure ripens 
 
 In the Tartessian mine : 
 For thee no ship brings precious bales 
 
 Across the Libyan brine : 
 
THE PEOPHECY OF CAPYS. 183 
 
 Thou shalt not drink from amber ; 
 
 Thou shalt not rest on down ; 
 Arabia shall not steep thy locks, 
 
 Nor Sidon tinge thy gOAvn. 
 
 14. 
 
 " Leave gold and myrrh and jewels, 
 
 Rich table and soft bed, 
 To them who of man's seed are born, 
 
 Whom woman's milk hath fed. 
 Thou wast not made for lucre, 
 
 For pleasure, nor for rest ; 
 Thou, that art sprung from the War-god's loins, 
 
 And hast tugged at the she-wolf's breast. 
 
 15. 
 
 " From sunrise unto sunset 
 
 All earth shall hear thy fame : 
 A glorious city thou shalt build, 
 
 And name it by thy name : 
 And there, unquenched through ages, 
 
 Like Vesta's sacred fire, 
 Shall live the spirit of thy nurse, 
 
 The spirit of thy sire. 
 
184 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 16. 
 " The ox toils through the furrow, 
 
 Obedient to the goad ; 
 The patient ass, up flinty paths, 
 
 Plods with his weary load : 
 With whine and bound the spaniel 
 
 His master's whistle hears ; 
 And the sheep yields her patiently 
 
 To the loud clashing shears. 
 
 17. 
 
 " But thy nurse will hear no master, 
 
 Thy nurse will bear no load ; 
 And woe to them that shear her, 
 
 And woe to them that goad ! 
 When all the pack, loud baying, 
 
 Her bloody lair surrounds, 
 She dies in silence, biting hard, 
 
 Amidst the dying hounds. 
 
 18. 
 " Pomona loves the orchard ; 
 
 And Liber loves the vine ; 
 And Pales loves the straw-built shed 
 
 Warm with the breath of kine ; 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 185 
 
 And Venus loves the whispers 
 
 Of plighted youth and maid, 
 In April's ivory moonlight 
 
 Beneath the chestnut shade. 
 
 19. 
 
 " But thy father loves the clashing 
 
 Of broadsword and of shield : 
 He loves to drink the steam that reeks 
 
 From the fresh battle-field : 
 He smiles a smile more dreadful 
 
 Than his own dreadful frown, 
 When he sees the thick black cloud of smoke 
 
 Go up from the conquered town. 
 
 20. 
 
 " And such as is the War-god, 
 
 The author of thy line, 
 And such as she who suckled thee, 
 
 Even such be thou and thine. 
 Leave to the soft Campanian 
 
 His baths and his perfumes ; 
 Leave to the sordid race of Tyre 
 
 Their dyeing-vats and looms: 
 
 A A 
 
186 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Leave to the sons of Carthage 
 
 The rudder and the oar : 
 Leave to the Greek his marble Nymphs 
 
 And scrolls of wordy lore. 
 
 21. 
 
 " Thine, Roman, is the pilum : 
 
 Roman, the sword is thine, 
 The even trench, the bristling mound, 
 
 The legion's ordered line ; 
 And thine the wheels of triumph, 
 
 Which with their laurelled train 
 Move slowly up the shouting streets 
 
 To Jove's eternal fane. 
 
 22. 
 
 " Beneath thy yoke the Volscian 
 
 Shall vail his lofty brow : 
 Soft Capua's curled revellers 
 
 Before thy chairs shall bow : 
 The Lucumoes of Arnus 
 
 Shall quake thy rods to see ; 
 And the proud Samnite's heart of steel 
 
 Shall yield to only thee. 
 
THE PKOPHECY OF CAPYS. 187 
 
 23. 
 " The Gaul shall come against thee 
 
 From the land of snow and night : 
 Thou shalt give his fair-haired armies 
 
 To the raven and the kite. 
 
 24. 
 " The Greek shall come against thee, 
 
 The conqueror of the East. 
 Beside him stalks to battle 
 
 The huge earth-shaking beast, 
 The beast on whom the castle 
 
 With all its guards doth stand, 
 The beast who hath between his eyes 
 
 The serpent for a hand. 
 First inarch the bold Epirotes, 
 
 Wedged close with shield and spear; 
 And the ranks of false Tarentum 
 
 25. 
 " The ranks of false Tarentum 
 
 Like hunted sheep shall fly : 
 In vain the bold Epirotes 
 
 Shall round their standards die : 
 
188 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 And Apennine's grey vultures 
 
 Shall have a noble feast 
 On the fat and the eyes 
 
 Of the huge earth-shaking beast. 
 
 26. 
 
 " Hurrah ! for the good weapons 
 
 That keep the War-god's land. 
 Hurrah ! for Rome's stout pilum 
 
 In a stout Roman hand. 
 Hurrah ! for Rome's short broadsword, 
 
 That through the thick array 
 Of levelled spears and serried shields 
 
 Hews deep its gory way. 
 
 27. 
 
 " Hurrah ! for the great triumph 
 
 That stretches many a mile. 
 Hurrah ! for the wan captives 
 
 That pass in endless file. 
 Ho ! bold Epirotes, whither 
 
 Hath the Red King ta'en flight ? 
 Ho ! dogs of false Tarentum, 
 
 Is not the gown washed white ? 
 
THE PKOPHECY OE CAPYS. 189 
 
 28. 
 
 " Hurrah ! for the great triumph 
 
 That stretches many a mile. 
 Hurrah ! for the rich dye of Tyre, 
 
 And the fine web of Nile, 
 The helmets gay with plumage 
 
 Torn from the pheasant's wings, 
 The belts set thick with starry gems 
 
 That shone on Indian kings, 
 The urns of massy silver, 
 
 The goblets rough with gold, 
 The many-coloured tablets bright 
 
 With loves arid wars of old, 
 The stone that breathes and struggles, 
 
 The brass that seems to speak ; — 
 Such cunning they who dwell on high 
 
 Have given unto the Greek. 
 
 29. 
 
 " Hurrah ! for Manius Curius, 
 The bravest son of Rome, 
 
 Thrice in utmost need sent forth. 
 Thrice drawn in triumph home* 
 
190 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 Weave, weave, for Manius Curius 
 
 The third embroidered gown : 
 Make ready the third lofty car, 
 
 And twine the third green crown 
 And yoke the steeds of Rosea 
 
 With necks like a bended bow : 
 And deck the bull, Mevania's bull. 
 
 The bull as white as snow. 
 
 30. 
 
 " Blest and thrice blest the Roman 
 
 Who sees Rome's brightest day, 
 Who sees that long victorious pomp 
 
 Wind down the Sacred Way, 
 And through the bellowing Forum, 
 
 And round the Suppliant's Grove, 
 Up to the everlasting gates 
 
 Of Capitolian Jove. 
 
 31. 
 
 " Then where, o'er two bright havens, 
 The towers of Corinth frown ; 
 
 Where the gigantic King of Day 
 On his own Rhodes looks down ; 
 
THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 191 
 
 Where soft Orontes murmurs 
 
 Beneath the laurel shades ; 
 Where Nile reflects the endless length 
 
 Of dark-red colonnades ; 
 Where in the still deep water, 
 
 Sheltered from waves and blasts, 
 Bristles the dusky forest 
 
 Of Byrsa's thousand masts ; 
 Where fur-clad hunters wander 
 
 Amidst the northern ice ; 
 Where through the sand of morning-land 
 
 The camel bears the spice ; 
 Where Atlas flings his shadow 
 
 Far o'er the western foam, 
 Shall be great fear on all who hear 
 
 The mighty name of Rome." 
 
 THE END, 
 

 c 
 
 London : 
 
 Printed by A. Spotttswoode, 
 
 New- Street- Square.