For us Some pardon may be found: a host of ills Compelled submission, and the shame is less That to have done which could not be refused.
Yield, then, this wealth, the seeds of direful war.
A nation's anger is by losses stirred, When laws protect it; but the hungry slave Brings danger to his master, not himself." At this Metellus yielded from the path; And as the gates rolled backward, echoed loud The rock Tarpeian, and the temple's depths Gave up the treasure which for centuries No hand had touched: all that the Punic foe And Perses and Philippus conquered gave, And all the gold which Pyrrhus panic-struck Left when he fled: that gold (9), the price of Rome, Which yet Fabricius sold not, and the hoard Laid up by saving sires; the tribute sent By Asia's richest nations; and the wealth Which conquering Metellus brought from Crete, And Cato (10) bore from distant Cyprus home; And last, the riches torn from captive kings And borne before Pompeius when he came In frequent triumph.

Thus was robbed the shrine, And Caesar first brought poverty to Rome.
Meanwhile all nations of the earth were moved To share in Magnus' fortunes and the war, And in his fated ruin.

Graecia sent, Nearest of all, her succours to the host.
From Cirrha and Parnassus' double peak And from Amphissa, Phocis sent her youth: Boeotian leaders muster in the meads By Dirce laved, and where Cephisus rolls Gifted with fateful power his stream along: And where Alpheus, who beyond the sea (11) In fount Sicilian seeks the day again.
Pisa deserted stands, and Oeta, loved By Hercules of old; Dodona's oaks Are left to silence by the sacred train, And all Epirus rushes to the war.
And proud Athena, mistress of the seas, Sends three poor ships (alas! her all) to prove Her ancient victory o'er the Persian King.
Next seek the battle Creta's hundred tribes Beloved of Jove and rivalling the east In skill to wing the arrow from the bow.
The walls of Dardan Oricum, the woods Where Athamanians wander, and the banks Of swift Absyrtus foaming to the main Are left forsaken.

Enchelaean tribes Whose king was Cadmus, and whose name records His transformation (12), join the host; and those Who till Penean fields and turn the share Above Iolcos in Thessalian lands." There first men steeled their hearts to dare the waves (13) And 'gainst the rage of ocean and the storm To match their strength, when the rude Argo sailed Upon that distant quest, and spurned the shore, Joining remotest nations in her flight, And gave the fates another form of death.
Left too was Pholoe; pretended home Where dwelt the fabled race of double form (14); Arcadian Maenalus; the Thracian mount Named Haemus; Strymon whence, as autumn falls, Winged squadrons seek the banks of warmer Nile; And all the isles the mouths of Ister bathe Mixed with the tidal wave; the land through which The cooling eddies of Caicus flow Idalian; and Arisbe bare of glebe.
The hinds of Pitane, and those who till Celaenae's fields which mourned of yore the gift Of Pallas (15), and the vengeance of the god, All draw the sword; and those from Marsyas' flood First swift, then doubling backwards with the stream Of sinuous Meander: and from where Pactolus leaves his golden source and leaps From Earth permitting; and with rival wealth Rich Hermus parts the meads.

Nor stayed the bands Of Troy, but (doomed as in old time) they joined Pompeius' fated camp: nor held them back The fabled past, nor Caesar's claimed descent From their Iulus.