Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/39

 Book I. And foaming frantic with impetuous sway

O'er all the plains swept herds and stalls away.

Nor did the fibres at that time forbear

In the slain victims menaces to wear:

The wells ran blood; and in the dead of night

Loud-howling wolves fill'd cities with affright.

Ne'er did more light'nings thro' a sky serene

Flash; nor so oft were blazing comets seen.

For this a second time with rival rage

Philippi saw the Roman hosts engage;

And twice Emathia, (nor the Gods withstood)

And Hæmus' fields were fatten'd with our blood.

The days will come, when in these tracts the swain,

As with his plough he drudges at the plain,

Shall find worn jav'lins, cank'ring in the ground,

Or, as he harrows, hear a tinkling sound

From the struck helms, and see with wond'ring eyes

Bones, dug from graves, of more than human size.

Ye guardian Gods! Indigetes! whose care

Tiber, and Rome's imperial grandeur share,

Check not this Youth, who labours to restore

A world degenerate; we request no more.

Our blood for past offences may suffice,

Too dear a price for royal perjuries. Long