Book 13
1 Great word divine he bids me sing again—
2 The immortal holy God imperishable,
3 Who gives to kings their power and takes away,
4 And who determined for them time both ways,
5 Both that of life and that of baneful death.
6 And these the heavenly God enjoins on me
7 Unwilling to bring tidings unto kings
8 Concerning royal power.mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…
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10 ……
11 And spear impetuous Ares; and by him
12 All perish, child and the old man who gives
13 To the assemblies laws; and many wars
14 And battles there shall be, and homicides,
15 Famines and pestilences, earthquake-shocks
16 And mighty thunderbolts, and many ways
17 Of the Assyrians over all the world,
18 And pillaging and robbery of temples.
19 And then an insurrection there shall be
20 Of the industrious Persians, and with them
21 Indians, Armenians, and Arabians;
22 And unto these again a Roman king
23 Insatiate in war and leading on
24 His spearmen against the Assyrians
25 Shall draw near, a young Ares, and as far
26 As the deep-flowing silvery Euphrates
27 Shall warlike Ares stretch his deadly spear
28 Because of …
29 For by his friend betrayed he shall fall down
30 In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron.
31 And straightway eoming out of Syria
32 There shall a purple-loving warrior rule,
33 Terror of Ares, and also his son,
34 A Cæsar, shall even all the earth oppress;
35 And the one name is unto both of them:
36 On first and twentieth there are to be placed
37 Five hundred. But when these in wars shall rule,
38 And laws shall be enacted, there shall be
39 A little rest from war, not for long time;
40 But when a wolf shall to a flock of sheep
41 Pledge solemn oaths against the white-toothed dogs,
42 Then, having misled, he will tear in pieces
43 The woolly sheep, and cast his oaths aside;
44 And then shall there be an unlawful strife
45 Of haughty kings in wars, and Syrians
46 Shall perish terribly, and Indians
47 And the Armenians and Arabians,
48 The Persians and the Babylonians
49 Shall one another by hard fights destroy,
50 But when a Roman Ares shall destroy
51 A German Ares ruinous of life
52 Triumphing on the ocean, then is war
53 Of many years for haughty Persian men,
54 But for them there shall not be victory;
55 For as a fish swims not upon the point
56 Of a high many-ridged and windy rock
57 Precipitant, nor does a tortoise fly,
58 Nor does an eaglo into water come,
59 So also are the Persians in that day
60 Far off from victory, while the fond nurse
61 Of the Italians, in the plain of Nile
62 Reposing by the sacred water’s side,
63 Sends forth the appointed lot to seven-hilled Rome.
64 Now these things are; and while the name of Rome
65 Shall hold in numbers of revolving time,
66 So many years shall the great noble city
67 Of Macedon’s lord, willing, deal out corn.
68 Another much-distressing pain I’ll sing
69 For Alexandrians who are destroyed
70 By reason of the strife of shameful men.
71 Strong men who were aforetime terrible
72 Being then impotent shall pray for peace
73 By reason of the wickedness of chiefs.
74 And there shall come wrath of the mighty God
75 On the Assyrians and a mountain stream
76 Shall utterly destroy them, which shall come
77 To Cæsar’s city and harm Canaanites.
78 The Pyramus shall irrigate the city
79 Of Mopsus; then shall the Ægæans fall
80 Because of strife of very mighty men.
81 Thee, wretched Antioch, shall Ares strong
82 Leave not while round thee an Assyrian war
83 Is pressing, for a chief of men shall dwell
84 Within thy houses who shall fight with all
85 The arrow-burling Persians, he himself
86 Having obtained of Romans royal power.
87 Now, cities of Arabians, deck yourselves
88 With temples and with places for the race,
89 And with broad markets and with splendid wealth,
90 With images, gold, silver, ivory;
91 And thou who art of all most fond of learning,
92 Bostra and Philippopolis, that thou may’st come
93 Into great sorrow; and the laughing spheres
94 Of the zodiacal vault, Arics,
95 Taurus, and Gemini, and as many stars
96 Ruling hours as with them in heaven appear
97 Shall benefit thee not; thou, wretched one,
98 Hast trusted many, when that very man
99 Shall afterwards bring near that which is thine.
100 And now for Alexandrians loving war
101 Will I sing wars most dreadful; and much people
102 Shall perish while their cities are destroyed
103 By citizens against each other matched.
104 And fighting for the sake of hateful strife,
105 And round them horrid Ares, rushing on,
106 Shall cease from war. And then one of great soul
107 Along with his own mighty son shall fall
108 By treachery on the older king’s account.
109 And after him there shall rule powerfully
110 O’er fertile Rome another great-souled lord
111 Versed in war, coming from the Dacians
112 And numbering three hundred; he shall have
113 Also the letter of the number four,
114 And many shall he slay, and then the king
115 Shall all his brothers and his friends destroy
116 Even while the kings are cut off, and straightway
117 Shall there be fights and pillagings and murders
118 Suddenly on the older king’s account.
119 Then, when a wily man shall summoned come,
120 A robber and a Roman not well known
121 From Syria appearing, he by guile
122 Into a race of Cappadocian men
123 Shall drive through and, besieging, shall press hard,
124 Insatiate of war. And then for thee,
125 Tyana and Mazaka, there shall be
126 A capture; thou shalt be enslaved and put
127 Upon thy neck again a fearful yoke.
128 And Syria shall mourn for men destroyed
129 And then Selenian goddess shall not guard
130 Her holy city. But when he by flight
131 From Syria shall before the Romans come,
132 And shall pass over the Euphrates’ streams,
133 No longer like the Romans, but like fierce
134 Dart-shooting Persians, then, fulfilling fate,
135 Down shall the ruler of the Italians fall
136 In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron;
137 And close upon him shall his children perish.
138 But when another king of Rome shall reign,
139 Then also to the Romans there shall come
140 Unstable nations, on the walls of Rome
141 Destructive Ares with his bastard son;
142 Then also shall be famines, pestilence,
143 And mighty thunderbolts, and dreadful wars,
144 And anarchy in cities suddenly;
145 And the Syrians shall perish fearfully;
146 For there shall come upon them the great wrath
147 Of the Most High and straightway an uprising
148 Of the industrious Persians, and mixed up
149 With Persians shall the Syrians destroy
150 The Romans; but by the divine decree
151 They shall not make a conquest of their laws.
152 Alas, how many with their goods shall flee
153 From the East unto men of other tongues!
154 Alas, the dark blood of how many men
155 The land shall drink! For that shall be a time
156 In which the living uttering o’er the dead
157 A blessing shall by word of mouth pronounce
158 Death beautiful and death shall flee from them.
159 And now for thee, O wretched Syria,
160 I weep in sorrow; for to thee shall come
161 A dreadful blow from arrow-shooting men,
162 Which thou didst never think would come to thee.
163 Also the fugitive of Rome shall come
164 Bearing a great spear, crossing on his way
165 Euphrates with his many myriads,
166 And he shall burn thee, and dispose all things
167 In a bad way. O wretched Antioch,
168 And thee a city they shall never call,
169 When by thy lack of prudence thou shalt fall
170 Under the spears; and stripping off all things
171 And making naked he shall leave thee thus
172 Coverless, houseless; and when anyone
173 Sees he shall of a sudden weep for thee.
174 And thou shalt be, O Hierapolis,
175 A triumph, also thou, Berœa; weep
176 At Chalcis over lately wounded sons.
177 Alas, how many by the steep high mount
178 Of Casius shall dwell and by Amanus
179 How many, and how many Lycus laves,
180 And Marsyas as many and Pyramus
181 The silver-eddying; for even to the bounds
182 Of Asia they shall treasure up their spoils,
183 Make cities naked, and bear idols off
184 And cast down temples on much-nourishing earth.
185 And sometime to Gauls and Pannonians,
186 To Mysians and Bithynians there shall be
187 Great sorrow when a warrior shall have come.
188 O Lycians, Lycians, there shall come a wolf
189 To lick thy blood, when Sannians shall come
190 With city-wasting Ares and the Carpians
191 Shall draw near with Ausonians to fight.
192 And then by his own shameless recklessness
193 The bastard son shall put the king to death,
194 And he himself for his impiety
195 Shall straightway perish. And again shall rule
196 After him yet another whose name shows
197 First letter; but he too shall quickly fall
198 By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.
199 And yet again the world shall be confused,
200 Men perishing by pestilence and war.
201 And the Persians maddened by the Ausonians
202 Shall in the toil of Ares yet again
203 Force their way. And then there shall be a flight
204 Of Romans; and thereafter there shall come
205 The priest heard of all round, sent by the sun,
206 From Syria appearing, and by guile
207 Shall he accomplish all things. And then too
208 The city of the sun shall offer prayer;
209 And round about her shall the Persians dare
210 The fearful threatenings of the Phoenicians.
211 But when two chiefs, men swift in war, shall rule
212 The very mighty Romans, one of whom
213 Shall have the number seventy, and the other
214 The number three, even then the stately bull,
215 That digs the earth with his hoofs and stirs up
216 The dust with his two horns, shall many ills
217 Upon a dark-skinned reptile perpetrate—
218 Which draws a trail with his scales; and besides,
219 Himself shall perish. And yet after him
220 Again shall come another fair-horned stag,
221 Hungry upon the mountains, striving hard
222 To feed upon the venom-shedding beasts;
223 Then shall a dread and fearful lion come,
224 Sent from the sun, and breathing forth much flame.
225 And then too by his shameless recklessness
226 Shall he destroy the well-horned rapid stag,
227 And the most mighty venom-shedding beast
228 So dread, that sends forth many piping sounds,
229 And the he-goat that sideways moves along,
230 And after him fame follows; he himself
231 Sound, unhurt, unapproachable, shall rule.
232 The Romans, and the Persians shall be weak.
233 But, Lord, King of the world, O God, restrain
234 The song of our words, and give charming song.