Such were the godlike arts that led
Bright Pollux to the blest abodes;
Such did for great Alcides plead,
And gain'd a place among the gods;
Where now Auguftus, mixt with heroes, lies,
And to his lips the nectar bowl applies:
His ruddy lips the purple tincture show,
And with immortal stains divinely glow.
By arts like thefe did young Lyæus rife :
His tigers drew him to the skies;
Wild from the defert and unbroke,
In vain they foam'd, in vain they star'd,
In vain their eyes with fury glar'd ; ·
He tam'd them to the lash, and bent them to the yoke. Such were the paths that Rome's great founder trod, When in a whirlwind fnatch'd on high,
He shook off dull mortality,
And loft the monarch in the god.
Bright Juno then her awful filence broke,
And thus th' affembled deities bespoke.
Troy, fays the goddefs, perjur'd Troy has felt
The dire effects of her proud tyrant's guilt;
The towering pile, and foft abodes,
Wall'd by the hand of fervile gods,
Now spreads its ruins all around,
And lies inglorious on the ground.
An umpire, partial and unjust,
And a lewd woman's impious luft,
Lay heavy on her head, and funk her to the duft.
Since falfe Laomedon's tyrannic sway,
That durft defraud, th' immortals of their pay,
Her guardian gods renounc'd their patronage,
Nor would the fierce invading foe repel;
To my refentment, and Minerva's rage,
The guilty king and the whole people fell.
And now the long-protracted wars are o'er,
The foft adulterer fhines no more;
No more does Hector's force the Trojans fhield, That drove whole armies back, and fingly clear'd field.
My vengeance fated, I at length refign
To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line:
Advanc'd to godhead let him rife,
And take his ftation in the skies;
There entertain his ravish'd fight
With fcenes of glory, fields of light ;
Quaff with the gods immortal wine,
And fee adoring nations croud his fhrine:
The thin remains of Troy's afflicted hoft,
In diftant realms may feats unenvy'd find,
And flourish on a foreign coast;
But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd,
Remov'd by feas, from the difaftrous fhore,
May endless billows rife between, and storms unnumber
Still let the curft detested place
Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race,
Be cover'd o'er with weeds, and hid in grafs.
There let the wanton flocks unguarded stray;
Or, while the lonely fhepherd fings,
Amidst the mighty ruins play,
And frisk upon the tombs of kings.
May tigers there, and all the favage kind, Sad folitary haunts and filent deferts find; In gloomy vaults, and nooks of palaces, May th' unmolefted lionefs
Her brinded whelps fecurely lay,
Or, coucht, in dreadful flumbers waste the day.
While Troy in heaps of ruins lies,
Rome and the Roman capitol fhall rise;
Th' illuftrious exiles unconfin'd
Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind.
In vain the fea's intruding tide
Europe from Afric shall divide,
And part the fever'd world in two:
Through Afric's fands their triumphs they fall fpread,
And the long train of victories purfue
To Nile's yet undiscover'd head.
Riches the hardy foldiers fhall defpife, And look on gold with un-defiring eyes, Nor the disbowel'd earth explore
In fearch of the forbidden ore;
Thofe glittering ills, conceal'd within the mine,
Shall lie untouch'd, and innocently fhine.
To the laft bounds that nature fets,
The piercing colds and fultry heats,
The godlike race shall spread their arms,
Now fill the polar circle with alarms,
Till ftorms and tempefts their pursuits confine;
Now fweat for conquest underneath the line.
This only law the victor shall restrain,
On thefe conditions fhall he reign;
If none his guilty hand employ
To build again a fecond Troy,
If none the rash design pursue,
Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew.
A curfe there cleaves to the devoted place,
That fhall the new foundations rafe;
Greece fhall in mutual leagues conspire
To ftorm the rifing town with fire,
And at their armies head myself will show
What Juno, urg'd to all her rage, can do,
Thrice fhould Apollo's felf the city raise
And line it round with walls of brafs,
Thrice fhould my favourite Greeks his works confound,
And hew the fhining fabric to the ground:
Thrice fhould her captive dames to Greece return,
And their dead fons and flaughter'd husbands mourn.
But hold, my Mufe, forbear thy towering flight,
Nor bring the fecrets of the gods to light:
In vain would thy prefumptuous verse
Th' immortal rhetoric rehearse;
The mighty ftrains, in lyric numbers bound,
Forget their majefty, and lofe their found.
OVID DE FASTIS, LIB. III. EL. 1.
"Blanda quies victis furtim fubrepit ocellis, &c."
S the fair Veftal to the fountain came,
(Let none be startled at a Vestal's name :)
Tir'd with the walk, fhe laid her down to reft,
And to the winds expos'd her glowing breast,
To take the freshness of the morning-air,
And gather'd in a knot her flowing hair;
While thus the refted, on her arm reclin'd,
The hoary willows waving with the wind,
And feather'd choirs that warbled in the fhade,
And purling ftreams that through the meadow stray'd,
In drowsy murmurs lull'd the gentle maid.
The God of War beheld the virgin lie,
The God beheld her with a lover's eye;
And, by fo tempting an occafion prefs'd,
The beauteous maid, whom he beheld, possess'd:
Conceiving as she slept, her fruitful womb
Swell'd with the Founder of immortal Rome.
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