Book 12
1 But come now, hear of me the mournful time
2 Of sons of Latium; and first of all
3 After the kings of Egypt were destroyed,
4 And the like earth had downwards borne them all,
5 And after Pella’s townsman, under whom
6 The whole East and the rich West were cast down,
7 Whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out
8 For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,
9 Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),
10 And after that one of the race and blood
11 Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,
12 Even he who eleft the violence of fire,
13 And after many lords, and after men
14 To Arcs dear, and after the young babes,
15 The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,
16 And after the passing of six hundred years
17 And decades two of Rome’s dictatorship,
18 The very first lord, from the western sea,
19 Shall be of Rome the ruler, very strong
20 And warlike, the initial of whose name
21 Begins the letters, and fast binding thee,
22 O thou of goodly fruit, he shall be full
23 Of man-destroying Ares; thou shalt pay
24 The outrage which thou willing didst force on;
25 For he, great soul, shall be the best in wars;
26 Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,
27 With Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth
28 By reason of the wickedness of rulers
29 And of a woman unenslaved who falls
30 Under the spear. And laws will he ordain
31 For peoples and put all things under him;
32 Having great fame he shall wield scepter long;
33 For no short time shall be last nor shall ever
34 Be other greater scepter-bearing king
35 Than this one, o’er the Romans, not one hour,
36 For God did lavish all things upon him,
37 And also in the noble earth he showed
38 Great marvelous seasons, and with them showed signs.
39 But when a radiant star all like the sun
40 Shall shine forth out of heaven in the mid days,
41 Then shall the secret Word of the Most High
42 Come clothed in flesh like mortals; but with him
43 The might of Rome and of the illustrious Latins
44 Shall increase. But the mighty king himself
45 Shall under his appointed lot expire,
46 Transmitting to another royal power.
47 But after him a man, a warrior strong,
48 Wearing the purple mantle on his shoulders,
49 Shall bear rule, and with his initial he
50 Numbers three hundred, and he shall destroy
51 The Medes and arrow-hurling Parthians;
52 And he himself by his power shall subvert
53 The high-gate city; and again shall come
54 Evil to Egypt and the Assyrians,
55 And to the Colchian Heniochi,
56 And to those by the waters of the Rhine,
57 The Germans dwelling o’er the sandy shores.
58 And he himself shall ravage afterwards
59 The high-gate city near Eridanus
60 Which is devising evils. And then he
61 Shall forthwith fall down, struck by gleaming iron.
62 And afterwards shall rule another man
63 Weaving guile, and the initial of his name
64 Will show the number three; and he much gold
65 Shall gather; and with him there shall not be
66 Satiety of wealth, but plundering more
67 Recklessly he’ll put all things in the earth.
68 But peace shall come, and Ares shall desist
69 From wars; and he shall make known many things
70 In divination of the greatest things,
71 Inquiring for the sake of means of life;
72 Yet there shall be on him the greatest sign:
73 From heaven down on the king while perishing
74 There shall flow many little drops of blood.
75 And many lawless things will he perform,
76 And put around the neck of Romans pain
77 Trusting in divination; and the beads
78 Of the assembly he will also slay.
79 And famine shall seize Cappadocians,
80 And Thracians, Macedonians, and Italians.
81 And Egypt shall alone feed numerous tribes;
82 And the king himself beguiling secretly
83 Shall craftily destroy the virgin maid;
84 But her the citizens in tearful grief
85 Shall bury; and against the king they all
86 Holding wrath shall abuse him craftily.
87 While strong Rome blossoms the strong man shall perish.
88 And again there shall rule another lord
89 Of the number of twice ten; and then shall come
90 Unto the Sauromatians and to Thrace
91 And the Triballi, famed for hurling darts,
92 Wars and sad cares; and Roman Ares shall
93 Tear all in pieces. And a fearful sign
94 Shall there be when this man shall rule the land
95 Of the Italians and Pannonians;
96 And there shall be at the mid hour of day
97 Dark night around them and then from the heaven
98 A shower of stones; and thereupon the lord
99 And vigorous judge of the Italians
100 Shall go in Hades’ halls by his own fate.
101 Again another fearful man shall come
102 And dreadful, numbering fifty; and from all
103 The cities many noblest citizens
104 Born to wealth he shall utterly destroy,
105 A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,
106 Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make
107 An end of his own race and stir all things,
108 Acting the athlete, driving chariots,
109 Putting to death and daring countless things;
110 And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas,
111 And sprinkle it with gore. And out of sight.
112 Shall also vanish the destructive man;
113 Then making himself equal unto God
114 Shall he return, but God will prove him naught.
115 And while he rules there shall be peace profound
116 And not the fears of men; and from the ocean
117 Flowing, and cleaving by Ausonia,
118 Shall come untrodden water; and around
119 Looking with anxious care he will appoint
120 His very many contests for the people,
121 And he himself an actor will contend
122 With voice and cithara, and sing a song
123 Along with harp-string; later he will flee
124 And leave the royal power, and perishing
125 Illy will he repay the harm he wrought.
126 After him three shall rule and two of them
127 Shall have the number seventy by their names,
128 And in addition to these shall be one
129 Of the third letter; and one here, one there,
130 Shall perish by strong Ares’ sturdy hands.
131 Then shall a mighty ruler of men come,
132 Destroyer of the pious, strong-minded man,
133 Spear-wielding Ares, whom seven times the tenth
134 Shall point out clearly; he shall overthrow
135 Phœnicia and destroy Assyria.
136 A sword shall come upon the sacred land
137 Of Solyma even to the utmost bend
138 Of the Tiberian sea. Alas, alas,
139 Phoenicia, O how much shalt thou endure,
140 Grief-laden with thy trophies tightly bound,
141 And every nation shall upon thee tread.
142 Alas, alas, to the Assyrians
143 Shalt thou come and shalt see young children serve
144 Among unfriendly men and with the wives,
145 And every means of life and wealth shall perish;
146 For on thee God’s wrath causing grievous woe
147 Shall come, because they did not keep his law,
148 But served all idols with unseemly arts.
149 And many wars and fights and homicides,
150 Famines, and pestilences, and confusion
151 Of cities shall be. But the reverend king
152 Of mighty soul shall at the end of life.
153 Himself fall by a strong necessity.
154 Then shall two other chief men, cherishing
155 The memory of their father, great king, rule,
156 And in contending warriors glory much.
157 And (one) of these shall be a noble man
158 And lordly, whose name shall three hundred hold;
159 Yet he shall also fall by treachery,
160 Not in the warring companies stretched out,
161 But struck in Rome’s plain by the two-edged brass.
162 And after him a powerful warlike man
163 Of the letter four shall rule the mighty realm,
164 Whom all men on the boundless earth shall love,
165 And then shall there be over all the world
166 A rest from war. Yet all, from west to east,
167 Shall serve him willingly, not by constraint,
168 And cities shall be under his control
169 And of themselves be subject. For to him
170 Shall heavenly Sabaoth much glory bring,
171 The imperishable God who dwells on high.
172 And then shall famine waste Pannonia
173 And all the Celtic land, and shall destroy
174 One here, another there. And there shall be
175 For the Assyrians, whom Orontes laves,
176 Structures and ornament and what may seem
177 Yet greater anywhere. And the great king
178 Shall have a fondness for these and love them
179 Above the others far (and there are many);
180 But he himself shall in mid breast receive
181 A great wound, and seized at the end of life
182 Craftily, by a friend, in hallowed house
183 Of the great royal hall shall he fall down.
184 Wounded; and after him shall be a ruler
185 Numbering fifty, venerable man,
186 Who above measure shall destroy from Rome
187 Many inhabitants and citizens;
188 But he shall rule few; for in Hades’ halls
189 For a former king’s sake he shall wounded go.
190 But then another king, a warrior strong,
191 Who has three hundred for initial sign,
192 Shall bear rule and Jay waste the Thracians’ land
193 Which is much varied, and he shall destroy
194 The powerful Germans dwelling by the Rhine
195 And the Iberians that shoot the arrow.
196 Moreover, there shall be unto the Jews
197 Another greatest evil, and with them
198 Bedewed with murder shall Phœnicia drink;
199 And the walls of the Assyrians shall fall
200 By many warriors. And again a man
201 Destroying life shall waste them utterly.
202 And then shall threatenings of the mighty God,
203 Earthquakes, and great plagues be on every land,
204 Untimely snow-storms, and strong thunderbolts.
205 And then the great king, mountain-roaming Celt,
206 Shall for the toil of Ares not escape
207 A fate unseemly, hastening eagerly
208 After the strife of battle, but worn out
209 Shall he be; foreign dust shall hide his corpse,
210 But dust that of Nemea’s flower has name.
211 And after him another shall arise,
212 A silver-headed man, and of the sea
213 Shall be his name, and of four syllables,
214 Ares himself first of the alphabet
215 Presenting. Temples he shall dedicate
216 In all the cities, watching o’er the world
217 By his own foot, and bringing gifts away,
218 Both gold and amber much will he supply
219 For many; and magicians’ mysteries
220 All will he from the sanctuaries keep;
221 And what is much more excellent for men
222 Will he place .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}… ruling … thunderbolt;
223 And great peace shall be when he shall be lord;
224 And he shall be a minstrel of rieh voice
225 And a participant in lawful things,
226 And a just minister of what is right;
227 But he shall fall, unloosing his own fate.
228 After him three shall rule, and the third late
229 Shall rule, three decades keeping; yet again
230 Of the first unit shall another king
231 Bear the rule; and another after him
232 Shall be commander, of tens numbering seven;
233 And their names shall be honored; and they shall
234 Themselves destroy men marked by many a spot,
235 Britons and mighty Moors and Dacians
236 And the Arabians. But when the last
237 Of these shall perish, fearful Ares then,
238 He that before was wounded, shall again
239 Against the Parthians come, and utterly
240 Shall he destroy them. And then shall the king
241 Himself fall by a treacherous wild beast
242 Training his hands—excuse itself of death.
243 And after him another man shall rule,
244 In many wise things skilled, and he shall have
245 Himself the name of the first mighty king
246 Of the first unit; and he shall be good
247 And mighty; and for the illustrious Latins
248 Shall this strong one accomplish many things
249 In memory of his father; and forthwith
250 Shall he adorn the walls of Rome with gold
251 And silver and ivory; and he shall go
252 Within the market places and the temples
253 With a strong man. And sometime direst wound
254 Shall shoot up like ears in the Roman wars;
255 And he shall sack the whole land of the Germans,
256 When a great sign of God shall be displayed
257 From heaven, and shall for the king’s piety
258 Save men in brazen armor and distress;
259 For God who is in heaven and hears all things
260 Shall wet him with unseasonable rain
261 When he prays. But when these things are fulfilled
262 Of which I spoke, then with the rolling years
263 Shall also the renowned dominion cease
264 Of the great pious king; and at the end
265 Of his life, having then proclaimed his son
266 Succeeding to the kingdom, he shall die
267 By his own lot and leave the royal power
268 Unto the ruler with the golden hair,
269 Who with two tens in his name, born a king
270 From the race of his father, shall receive
271 Dominion. This man with superior powers
272 Of mind shall grasp all things; and he shall rival
273 Great-hearted overweening Hercules,
274 And be the best in mighty arms and have
275 The greatest fame in chase and horsemanship;
276 But he shall live in peril all alone.
277 And while this man is ruler there shall be
278 A fearful sign: there shall be a great mist
279 Then in the plain of Rome, so that a man
280 May not discern his neighbor. And then wars
281 Shall come to pass along with mournful cares,
282 When the king himself, exceeding mad with love,
283 And weakly, shall come in the marriage-bod
284 Shaming his youthful offspring, infamous
285 For inconsiderate wedding-songs impure.
286 And then, in helpless loneliness concealed,
287 The mighty baneful man held under wrath
288 Shall in a bath-room suffer evil plight,
289 Man-slaying Ares bound by treacherous fate.
290 Know then the fatal lot of Rome is near
291 Because of zeal for power; and by the hands
292 Of Ares many in Palladian halls
293 Shall perish. And then Rome shall be bereft
294 And shall repay all things, which she alone
295 Before accomplished by her many wars.
296 My heart laments, my heart within me mourns;
297 For from the time when thy first king, proud Rome,
298 Gave good law to thee and to men on earth,
299 And the Word of the great immortal God
300 Came to the earth, until the nineteenth reign
301 Shall have been finished Cronos shall complete
302 Two hundred years, twice twenty and twice two,
303 With six months added; then the twentieth king,
304 When smitten with sharp brass he with the sword
305 Shall in thy houses pour out blood, shall make
306 Thy race a widow, having in his name
307 The letter which the number eighty shows,
308 And burdened with old age; but he shall make
309 A widow of thee in a little time,
310 When many warriors, many overthrows,
311 And murders, homicides, and deadly feuds
312 And miseries of conquests there shall be,
313 And in confusion many a horse and man
314 Shall, cleft by force of hands, fall in the plain.
315 And then another man shall rule, and have
316 The sign of his name in the number ten;
317 And many sorrows shall he bring to pass,
318 And groans, and he shall plunder many men;
319 But he himself shall be short-lived and fall
320 By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.
321 Another, numbering fifty, then shall come,
322 A warrior roused up by the East for rule;
323 A warlike Ares he shall come to Thrace;
324 And he shall flee thereafter and shall come
325 Into the land of the Bithynians
326 And the Cilician plain; but brazen Ares
327 The life-destroyer shall with speedy stroke
328 Utterly spoil him in the Assyrian fields.
329 And then again there shall rule craftily
330 A man skilled in fraud, full of various wiles,
331 Roused up by the West, and his name shall have
332 The number of two hundred. And again
333 Another sign: he shall contrive a war
334 For royal power against Assyrian men,
335 Raise a whole army and subject all things.
336 And he shall rule the Romans with his might;
337 But there is much contrivance in his heart,
338 Impulse of baleful Ares; serpent dire,
339 And violent in war, who shall destroy
340 All high-born men upon the earth, and slay
341 The noble for their wealth, and, robber like,
342 Stripping all earth while men are perishing,
343 He shall go to the East; and all deceit
344 Shall be to him …
345 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….
346 Then shall a youthful Cæsar with him reign
347 Having the name of a puissant lord
348 Of Macedon, by the first letter known;
349 Bringing in broils around him he shall flee
350 The hard deception of the coming king
351 In the bosom of the army; but the one
352 Who rules by his barbaric usages,
353 A temple-guard, shall perish suddenly
354 Slain by strong Arcs with the gleaming iron;
355 Him even dead shall people tear in pieces.
356 And then the kings of Persia shall rise up;
357 And … Roman Ares Roman lord.
358 And Phrygia shall with earthquakes groan again
359 Wretched. Alas, alas, Laodicea;
360 Alas, alas, sad Hierapolis;
361 For you first once the yawning oarth received.
362 Of Rome … immense Aus …
363 All things as many …
364 Shall wail … while men are perishing
365 In the hands of Ares; and the lot of men
366 Shall be bad; but then by the eastern way
367 Hastening to look down upon Italy,
368 Stripped naked ho shall fall by gleaming iron,
369 Acquiring hatred for his mother’s sake,
370 For seasons are of all sorts; each holds back
371 The other … gleaming … and this not at once all know;
372 For all things shall not be (the lot) of all,
373 But only those shall be for happiness
374 Who honor God and shun idolatry.
375 And now, Lord of the world, of every realm.
376 Unfeigned immortal King—for thou didst put
377 Into my heart the oracle divine—
378 Make thou the word cease; for I do not know
379 What things I say; for thou art in me he
380 That speaketh all these things. Now let me rest
381 A little and put from my heart aside
382 The charming song; for weary is my heart
383 Foretelling with divine words royal power.