Then arose Immeasurable carnage: here the sword, There stood the victim, and the victor's arm Wearied of slaughter.

Oh, that to thy plains, Pharsalia, might suffice the crimson stream From hosts barbarian, nor other blood Pollute thy fountains' sources! these alone Shall clothe thy pastures with the bones of men! Or if thy fields must run with Roman blood Then spare the nations who in times to come Must be her peoples! Now the terror spread Through all the army, and the favouring fates Decreed for Caesar's triumph: and the war Ceased in the wider plain, though still ablaze Where stood the chosen of Pompeius' force, Upholding yet the fight.

Not here allies Begged from some distant king to wield the sword: Here were the Roman sons, the sires of Rome, Here the last frenzy and the last despair: Here, Caesar, was thy crime: and here shall stay My Muse repelled: no poesy of mine Shall tell the horrors of the final strife, Nor for the coming ages paint the deeds Which civil war permits.

Be all obscured In deepest darkness! Spare the useless tear And vain lament, and let the deeds that fell In that last fight of Rome remain unsung.
But Caesar adding fury to the breasts Already flaming with the rage of war, That each might bear his portion of the guilt Which stained the host, unflinching through the ranks Passed at his will.

He looked upon the brands, These reddened only at the point, and those Streaming with blood and gory, to the hilt: He marks the hand which trembling grasped the sword, Or held it idle, and the cheek that grew Pale at the blow, and that which at his words Glowed with the joy of battle: midst the dead He treads the plain and on each gaping wound Presses his hand to keep the life within.
Thus Caesar passed: and where his footsteps fell As when Bellona shakes her crimson lash, Or Mavors scourges on the Thracian mares (22) When shunning the dread face on Pallas' shield, He drives his chariot, there arose a night Dark with huge slaughter and with crime, and groans As of a voice immense, and sound of alms As fell the wearer, and of sword on sword Crashed into fragments.