But though men feared at first The victor's vengeance, now at length receive Thy Magnus' bones, if still the restless wave Hath not prevailed upon that hated shore.
Shall men have fear of tombs and dread to move The dust of those who should be with the gods?
O, may my country place the crime on me, If crime it be, to violate such a tomb Of such a hero, and to bear his dust Home to Ausonia.

Happy, happy he Who bears such holy office in his trust! (25) Haply when famine rages in the land Or burning southern winds, or fires abound And earthquake shocks, and Rome shall pray an end From angry heaven -- by the gods' command, In council given, shalt thou be transferred To thine own city, and the priest shall bear Thy sacred ashes to their last abode.
Who now may seek beneath the raging Crab Or hot Syene's waste, or Thebes athirst Under the rainy Pleiades, to gaze On Nile's broad stream; or whose may exchange On the Red Sea or in Arabian ports Some Eastern merchandise, shall turn in awe To view the venerable stone that marks Thy grave, Pompeius; and shall worship more Thy dust commingled with the arid sand, Thy shade though exiled, than the fane upreared (26) On Casius' mount to Jove! In temples shrined And gold, thy memory were viler deemed: Fortune lies with thee in thy lowly tomb And makes thee rival of Olympus' king.
More awful is that stone by Libyan seas Lashed, than are Conquerors' altars.

There in earth A deity rests to whom all men shall bow More than to gods Tarpeian: and his name Shall shine the brighter in the days to come For that no marble tomb about him stands Nor lofty monument.

That little dust Time shall soon scatter and the tomb shall fall And all the proofs shall perish of his death.
And happier days shall come when men shall gaze Upon the stone, nor yet believe the tale: And Egypt's fable, that she holds the grave Of great Pompeius, be believed no more Than Crete's which boasts the sepulchre of Jove.

(27) ENDNOTES: (1) Comp.