HKB
wearied eyes with the dying movement. They stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens, breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken them.
“What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, to hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed {on the earth}, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest[103] a lofty temple, opposite {thee}, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it {as his own}. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? how often did the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for his wife, {or} the father for his son, end his life at the altars without prevailing? in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found unconsumed! How often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while the priest was making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine between their horns, fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself was offering sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my three sons, the victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without any blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the diseased entrails, too, had lost {all} marks of truth, and the warnings of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. I have seen the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; before the very altars, {too}, that death might become more odious[104] {to the Gods}. Some finish their lives with the halter, and by death dispel the apprehension of death, and voluntarily invite approaching fate. The bodies of the dead are not borne out with any funeral rites, according to the custom; for the {city} gates cannot receive {the multitude of} the processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are laid on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on fires that belong to others. They who should weep are wanting; and the souls of sons, and of husbands, of old and of young, wander about unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for the fires.”
[Footnote 90: Oliaros.--Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades, in the Ægean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.]
[Footnote 91: Tenos.--Ver. 469. This island was famous for a temple there, sacred to Neptune.]
[Footnote 92: Andros.--Ver. 469. This was an island in the Ægean Sea, near Eubœa. It received its name from Andros, the son of Anius. The Andrian slave, who gives his name to one of the comedies of Terence, was supposed to be a native of this island.]
[Footnote 93: Gyaros.--Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among the Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal settlement for their criminals. The mice of this island were said to be able to gnaw iron; perhaps, because they were starved by reason of its unfruitfulness.]
[Footnote 94: Smooth olive.--Ver. 470. Clarke translates ‘nitidæ olivæ’ ‘the neat olive.’ ‘Nitidus’ here means ‘smooth and shining.’]
[Footnote 95: Œnopia.--Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of the isle of Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native place of the family of the Æacidæ. It obtained its later name from Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus, whom Jupiter carried thither.]
[Footnote 96: Telamon.--Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, were the three sons of Æacus.]
[Footnote 97: Lyctian.--Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of the cities of Crete.]
[Footnote 98: Pallas.--Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son of Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus. This Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by Theseus.]