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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
209
Huc
accedit
uti
non
omnia
,
quae
iaciuntur

corpora
cumque
ab
rebus
,
eodem
praedita
sensu

atque
eodem
pacto
rebus
sint
omnibus
apta
.
principio
terram
sol
excoquit
et
facit
are
,
at
glaciem
dissolvit
et
altis
montibus
altas

extructas
nives
radiis
tabescere
cogit
;
denique
cera
lique
fit
in
eius
posta
vapore
.
ignis
item
liquidum
facit
aes
aurumque
resolvit
,
at
coria
et
carnem
trahit
et
conducit
in
unum
.
umor
aquae
porro
ferrum
condurat
ab
igni
,
at
coria
et
carnem
mollit
durata
calore
.
barbigeras
oleaster
eo
iuvat
usque
capellas
,
effluat
ambrosias
quasi
vero
et
nectare
tinctus
;
qua
nihil
est
homini
quod
amarius
fronde
ac
extet
.
denique
amaracinum
fugitat
sus
et
timet
omne

unguentum
;
nam
saetigeris
subus
acre
venenumst
;
quod
nos
inter
dum
tam
quam
recreare
videtur
.
at
contra
nobis
caenum
taeterrima
cum
sit

spurcities
,
eadem
subus
haec
iucunda
videtur
,
insatiabiliter
toti
ut
volvantur
ibidem
.

Furthermore, not all
The particles which be from things thrown off
Are furnished with same qualities for sense,
Nor be for all things equally adapt.
A first ensample: the sun doth bake and parch
The earth; but ice he thaws, and with his beams
Compels the lofty snows, up-reared white
Upon the lofty hills, to waste away;
Then, wax, if set beneath the heat of him,
Melts to a liquid. And the fire, likewise,
Will melt the copper and will fuse the gold,
But hides and flesh it shrivels up and shrinks.
The water hardens the iron just off the fire,
But hides and flesh (made hard by heat) it softens.
The oleaster-tree as much delights
The bearded she-goats, verily as though
'Twere nectar-steeped and shed ambrosia;
Than which is naught that burgeons into leaf
More bitter food for man. A hog draws back
For marjoram oil, and every unguent fears
Fierce poison these unto the bristled hogs,
Yet unto us from time to time they seem,
As 'twere, to give new life. But, contrariwise,
Though unto us the mire be filth most foul,
To hogs that mire doth so delightsome seem
That they with wallowing from belly to back
Are never cloyed.
210
Hoc
etiam
super
est
,
ipsa
quam
dicere
de
re

adgredior
,
quod
dicendum
prius
esse
videtur
.
multa
foramina
cum
variis
sint
reddita
rebus
,
dissimili
inter
se
natura
praedita
debent

esse
et
habere
suam
naturam
quaeque
viasque
.
quippe
etenim
varii
sensus
animantibus
insunt
,
quorum
quisque
suam
proprie
rem
percipit
in
se
;
nam
penetrare
alio
sonitus
alioque
saporem

cernimus
e
sucis
,
alio
nidoris
odores
.
praeterea
manare
aliud
per
saxa
videtur
,
atque
aliud
lignis
,
aliud
transire
per
aurum
,
argentoque
foras
aliud
vitroque
meare
;
nam
fluere
hac
species
,
illac
calor
ire
videtur
,
atque
aliis
aliud
citius
transmittere
eadem
.
scilicet
id
fieri
cogit
natura
viarum

multimodis
varians
,
ut
paulo
ostendimus
ante
,
propter
dissimilem
naturam
textaque
rerum
.
Qua
propter
,
bene
ubi
haec
confirmata
atque
locata

omnia
constiterint
nobis
praeposta
parata
,
quod
super
est
,
facile
hinc
ratio
reddetur
et
omnis

causa
pate
fiet
,
quae
ferri
pelliciat
vim
.

A point remains, besides,
Which best it seems to tell of, ere I go
To telling of the fact at hand itself.
Since to the varied things assigned be
The many pores, those pores must be diverse
In nature one from other, and each have
Its very shape, its own direction fixed.
And so, indeed, in breathing creatures be
The several senses, of which each takes in
Unto itself, in its own fashion ever,
Its own peculiar object. For we mark
How sounds do into one place penetrate,
Into another flavours of all juice,
And savour of smell into a third. Moreover,
One sort through rocks we see to seep, and, lo,
One sort to pass through wood, another still
Through gold, and others to go out and off
Through silver and through glass. For we do see
Through some pores form-and-look of things to flow,
Through others heat to go, and some things still
To speedier pass than others through same pores.
Of verity, the nature of these same paths,
Varying in many modes (as aforesaid)
Because of unlike nature and warp and woof
Of cosmic things, constrains it so to be.
Wherefore, since all these matters now have been
Established and settled well for us
As premises prepared, for what remains
'Twill not be hard to render clear account
By means of these, and the whole cause reveal
Whereby the magnet lures the strength of iron.
211
Principio
fluere
e
lapide
hoc
permulta
necessest

semina
sive
aestum
,
qui
discutit
aeëra
plagis
,
inter
qui
lapidem
ferrumque
est
cumque
locatus
.
hoc
ubi
inanitur
spatium
multusque
vace
fit

in
medio
locus
,
extemplo
primordia
ferri

in
vacuum
prolapsa
cadunt
coniuncta
,
fit
utque

anulus
ipse
sequatur
eatque
ita
corpore
toto
.
nec
res
ulla
magis
primoribus
ex
elementis

indupedita
suis
arte
conexa
cohaeret

quam
validi
ferri
natura
et
frigidus
horror
.
quo
minus
est
mirum
,
quod
dicitur
esse
alienum
,
corpora
si
nequeunt
e
ferro
plura
coorta

in
vacuum
ferri
,
quin
anulus
ipse
sequatur
;
quod
facit
et
sequitur
,
donec
pervenit
ad
ipsum

iam
lapidem
caecisque
in
eo
compagibus
haesit
.
hoc
fit
idem
cunctas
in
partis
;
unde
vace
fit

cumque
locus
,
sive
e
transverso
sive
superne
,
corpora
continuo
in
vacuum
vicina
feruntur
;
quippe
agitantur
enim
plagis
aliunde
nec
ipsa

sponte
sua
sursum
possunt
consurgere
in
auras
.
huc
accedit
item
,
quare
queat
id
magis
esse
,
haec
quoque
res
adiumento
motuque
iuvatur
,
quod
,
simul
a
fronte
est
anelli
rarior
aeër

factus
inanitusque
locus
magis
ac
vacuatus
,
continuo
fit
uti
qui
post
est
cumque
locatus
aeër

a
tergo
quasi
provehat
atque
propellat
.
semper
enim
circum
positus
res
verberat
aeër
;
sed
tali
fit
uti
propellat
tempore
ferrum
,
parte
quod
ex
una
spatium
vacat
et
capit
in
se
.
hic
,
tibi
quem
memoro
,
per
crebra
foramina
ferri

parvas
ad
partis
subtiliter
insinuatus

trudit
et
inpellit
,
quasi
navem
velaque
ventus
.
denique
res
omnes
debent
in
corpore
habere
aeëra

,
quandoquidem
raro
sunt
corpore
et
aeër

omnibus
est
rebus
circum
datus
adpositusque
.
hic
igitur
,
penitus
qui
in
ferrost
abditus
aeër
,
sollicito
motu
semper
iactatur
eoque

verberat
anellum
dubio
procul
et
ciet
intus
,
scilicet
illo
eodem
fertur
,
quo
praecipitavit

iam
semel
et
partem
in
vacuam
conamina
sumpsit
.

First, stream there must from off the lode-stone seeds
Innumerable, a very tide, which smites
By blows that air asunder lying betwixt
The stone and iron. And when is emptied out
This space, and a large place between the two
Is made a void, forthwith the primal germs
Of iron, headlong slipping, fall conjoined
Into the vacuum, and the ring itself
By reason thereof doth follow after and go
Thuswise with all its body. And naught there is
That of its own primordial elements
More thoroughly knit or tighter linked coheres
Than nature and cold roughness of stout iron.
Wherefore, 'tis less a marvel what I said,
That from such elements no bodies can
From out the iron collect in larger throng
And be into the vacuum borne along,
Without the ring itself do follow after.
And this it does, and followeth on until
'Thath reached the stone itself and cleaved to it
By links invisible. Moreover, likewise,
The motion's assisted by a thing of aid
(Whereby the process easier becomes),-
Namely, by this: as soon as rarer grows
That air in front of the ring, and space between
Is emptied more and made a void, forthwith
It happens all the air that lies behind
Conveys it onward, pushing from the rear.
For ever doth the circumambient air
Drub things unmoved, but here it pushes forth
The iron, because upon one side the space
Lies void and thus receives the iron in.
This air, whereof I am reminding thee,
Winding athrough the iron's abundant pores
So subtly into the tiny parts thereof,
Shoves it and pushes, as wind the ship and sails.
The same doth happen in all directions forth:
From whatso side a space is made a void,
Whether from crosswise or above, forthwith
The neighbour particles are borne along
Into the vacuum; for of verity,
They're set a-going by poundings from elsewhere,
Nor by themselves of own accord can they
Rise upwards into the air. Again, all things
Must in their framework hold some air, because
They are of framework porous, and the air
Encompasses and borders on all things.
Thus, then, this air in iron so deeply stored
Is tossed evermore in vexed motion,
And therefore drubs upon the ring sans doubt
And shakes it up inside....
. . . . . .
In sooth, that ring is thither borne along
To where 'thas once plunged headlong- thither, lo,
Unto the void whereto it took its start.
212
Fit
quoque
ut
a
lapide
hoc
ferri
natura
recedat

inter
dum
,
fugere
atque
sequi
consueta
vicissim
.
exultare
etiam
Samothracia
ferrea
vidi

et
ramenta
simul
ferri
furere
intus
ahenis

in
scaphiis
,
lapis
hic
Magnes
cum
subditus
esset
;
usque
adeo
fugere
a
saxo
gestire
videtur
.
aere
interposito
discordia
tanta
creatur

propterea
quia
ni
mirum
prius
aestus
ubi
aeris

praecepit
ferrique
vias
possedit
apertas
,
posterior
lapidis
venit
aestus
et
omnia
plena

invenit
in
ferro
neque
habet
qua
tranet
ut
ante
;
cogitur
offensare
igitur
pulsareque
fluctu

ferrea
texta
suo
;
quo
pacto
respuit
ab
se

atque
per
aes
agitat
,
sine
eo
quod
saepe
resorbet
.
Illud
in
his
rebus
mirari
mitte
,
quod
aestus

non
valet
e
lapide
hoc
alias
impellere
item
res
.
pondere
enim
fretae
partim
stant
,
quod
genus
aurum
;
at
partim
raro
quia
sunt
cum
corpore
,
ut
aestus

pervolet
intactus
,
nequeunt
inpellier
usquam
,
lignea
materies
in
quo
genere
esse
videtur
.
interutrasque
igitur
ferri
natura
locata

aeris
ubi
accepit
quaedam
corpuscula
,
tum
fit
,
inpellant
ut
eo
Magnesia
flumine
saxa
.

It happens, too, at times that nature of iron
Shrinks from this stone away, accustomed
By turns to flee and follow. Yea, I've seen
Those Samothracian iron rings leap up,
And iron filings in the brazen bowls
Seethe furiously, when underneath was set
The magnet stone. So strongly iron seems
To crave to flee that rock. Such discord great
Is gendered by the interposed brass,
Because, forsooth, when first the tide of brass
Hath seized upon and held possession of
The iron's open passage-ways, thereafter
Cometh the tide of the stone, and in that iron
Findeth all spaces full, nor now hath holes
To swim through, as before. 'Tis thus constrained
With its own current 'gainst the iron's fabric
To dash and beat; by means whereof it spues
Forth from itself- and through the brass stirs up-
The things which otherwise without the brass
It sucks into itself. In these affairs
Marvel thou not that from this stone the tide
Prevails not likewise other things to move
With its own blows: for some stand firm by weight,
As gold; and some cannot be moved forever,
Because so porous in their framework they
That there the tide streams through without a break,
Of which sort stuff of wood is seen to be.
Therefore, when iron (which lies between the two)
Hath taken in some atoms of the brass,
Then do the streams of that Magnesian rock
Move iron by their smitings.
213
nec
tamen
haec
ita
sunt
aliarum
rerum
aliena
,
ut
mihi
multa
parum
genere
ex
hoc
suppeditentur
,
quae
memorare
queam
inter
se
singlariter
apta
.
saxa
vides
primum
sola
colescere
calce
.
glutine
materies
taurino
iungitur
una
,
ut
vitio
venae
tabularum
saepius
hiscant

quam
laxare
queant
compages
taurea
vincla
.
vitigeni
latices
aquai
fontibus
audent

misceri
,
cum
pix
nequeat
gravis
et
leve
olivom
.
purpureusque
colos
conchyli
iungitur
uno

corpore
cum
lanae
,
dirimi
qui
non
queat
usquam
,
non
si
Neptuni
fluctu
renovare
operam
des
,
non
mare
si
totum
velit
eluere
omnibus
undis
.
denique
res
auro
non
aurum
copulat
una
,
aerique
plumbo
fit
uti
iungatur
ab
albo
?
cetera
iam
quam
multa
licet
reperire
!
quid
ergo
?
nec
tibi
tam
longis
opus
est
ambagibus
usquam

nec
me
tam
multam
hic
operam
consumere
par
est
,
sed
breviter
paucis
praestat
comprendere
multa
.
quorum
ita
texturae
ceciderunt
mutua
contra
,
ut
cava
conveniant
plenis
haec
illius
illa

huiusque
inter
se
,
iunctura
haec
optima
constat
.
est
etiam
,
quasi
ut
anellis
hamisque
plicata

inter
se
quaedam
possint
coplata
teneri
;
quod
magis
in
lapide
hoc
fieri
ferroque
videtur
.

Yet these things
Are not so alien from others, that I
Of this same sort am ill prepared to name
Ensamples still of things exclusively
To one another adapt. Thou seest, first,
How lime alone cementeth stones: how wood
Only by glue-of-bull with wood is joined-
So firmly too that oftener the boards
Crack open along the weakness of the grain
Ere ever those taurine bonds will lax their hold.
The vine-born juices with the water-springs
Are bold to mix, though not the heavy pitch
With the light oil-of-olive. And purple dye
Of shell-fish so uniteth with the wool's
Body alone that it cannot be ta'en
Away forever- nay, though thou gavest toil
To restore the same with the Neptunian flood,
Nay, though all ocean willed to wash it out
With all its waves. Again, gold unto gold
Doth not one substance bind, and only one?
And is not brass by tin joined unto brass?
And other ensamples how many might one find!
What then? Nor is there unto thee a need
Of such long ways and roundabout, nor boots it
For me much toil on this to spend. More fit
It is in few words briefly to embrace
Things many: things whose textures fall together
So mutually adapt, that cavities
To solids correspond, these cavities
Of this thing to the solid parts of that,
And those of that to solid parts of this-
Such joinings are the best. Again, some things
Can be the one with other coupled and held,
Linked by hooks and eyes, as 'twere; and this
Seems more the fact with iron and this stone.
214
Nunc
ratio
quae
sit
morbis
aut
unde
repente

mortiferam
possit
cladem
conflare
coorta

morbida
vis
hominum
generi
pecudumque
catervis
,
expediam
,
primum
multarum
semina
rerum

esse
supra
docui
quae
sint
vitalia
nobis
,
et
contra
quae
sint
morbo
mortique
necessest

multa
volare
;
ea
cum
casu
sunt
forte
coorta

et
perturbarunt
caelum
,
fit
morbidus
aeër
.
atque
ea
vis
omnis
morborum
pestilitasque

aut
extrinsecus
ut
nubes
nebulaeque
superne

per
caelum
veniunt
aut
ipsa
saepe
coorta

de
terra
surgunt
,
ubi
putorem
umida
nactast

intempestivis
pluviisque
et
solibus
icta
.
nonne
vides
etiam
caeli
novitate
et
aquarum

temptari
procul
a
patria
qui
cumque
domoque

adveniunt
ideo
quia
longe
discrepitant
res
?
nam
quid
Brittannis
caelum
differre
putamus
,
et
quod
in
Aegypto
est
,
qua
mundi
claudicat
axis
,
quidve
quod
in
Ponto
est
differre
et
Gadibus
atque

usque
ad
nigra
virum
percocto
saecla
colore
?
quae
cum
quattuor
inter
se
diversa
videmus

quattuor
a
ventis
et
caeli
partibus
esse
,
tum
color
et
facies
hominum
distare
videntur

largiter
et
morbi
generatim
saecla
tenere
.
est
elephas
morbus
qui
propter
flumina
Nili

gignitur
Aegypto
in
media
neque
praeterea
usquam
.
Atthide
temptantur
gressus
oculique
in
Achaeis

finibus
.
inde
aliis
alius
locus
est
inimicus

partibus
ac
membris
;
varius
concinnat
id
aeër
.
proinde
ubi
se
caelum
,
quod
nobis
forte
alienum
,
commovet
atque
aeër
inimicus
serpere
coepit
,
ut
nebula
ac
nubes
paulatim
repit
et
omne

qua
graditur
conturbat
et
immutare
coactat
,
fit
quoque
ut
,
in
nostrum
cum
venit
denique
caelum
,
corrumpat
reddatque
sui
simile
atque
alienum
.
haec
igitur
subito
clades
nova
pestilitasque

aut
in
aquas
cadit
aut
fruges
persidit
in
ipsas

aut
alios
hominum
pastus
pecudumque
cibatus
,
aut
etiam
suspensa
manet
vis
aeëre
in
ipso

et
,
cum
spirantes
mixtas
hinc
ducimus
auras
,
illa
quoque
in
corpus
pariter
sorbere
necessest
.
consimili
ratione
venit
bubus
quoque
saepe

pestilitas
et
iam
pigris
balantibus
aegror
.
nec
refert
utrum
nos
in
loca
deveniamus

nobis
adversa
et
caeli
mutemus
amictum
,
an
caelum
nobis
ultro
natura
corumptum

deferat
aut
aliquid
quo
non
consuevimus
uti
,
quod
nos
adventu
possit
temptare
recenti
.

Now, of diseases what the law, and whence
The Influence of bane upgathering can
Upon the race of man and herds of cattle
Kindle a devastation fraught with death,
I will unfold. And, first, I've taught above
That seeds there be of many things to us
Life-giving, and that, contrariwise, there must
Fly many round bringing disease and death.
When these have, haply, chanced to collect
And to derange the atmosphere of earth,
The air becometh baneful. And, lo, all
That Influence of bane, that pestilence,
Or from Beyond down through our atmosphere,
Like clouds and mists, descends, or else collects
From earth herself and rises, when, a-soak
And beat by rains unseasonable and suns,
Our earth hath then contracted stench and rot.
Seest thou not, also, that whoso arrive
In region far from fatherland and home
Are by the strangeness of the clime and waters
Distempered?- since conditions vary much.
For in what else may we suppose the clime
Among the Britons to differ from Aegypt's own
(Where totters awry the axis of the world),
Or in what else to differ Pontic clime
From Gades' and from climes adown the south,
On to black generations of strong men
With sun-baked skins? Even as we thus do see
Four climes diverse under the four main-winds
And under the four main-regions of the sky,
So, too, are seen the colour and face of men
Vastly to disagree, and fixed diseases
To seize the generations, kind by kind:
There is the elephant-disease which down
In midmost Aegypt, hard by streams of Nile,
Engendered is- and never otherwhere.
In Attica the feet are oft attacked,
And in Achaean lands the eyes. And so
The divers spots to divers parts and limbs
Are noxious; 'tis a variable air
That causes this. Thus when an atmosphere,
Alien by chance to us, begins to heave,
And noxious airs begin to crawl along,
They creep and wind like unto mist and cloud,
Slowly, and everything upon their way
They disarrange and force to change its state.
It happens, too, that when they've come at last
Into this atmosphere of ours, they taint
And make it like themselves and alien.
Therefore, asudden this devastation strange,
This pestilence, upon the waters falls,
Or settles on the very crops of grain
Or other meat of men and feed of flocks.
Or it remains a subtle force, suspense
In the atmosphere itself; and when therefrom
We draw our inhalations of mixed air,
Into our body equally its bane
Also we must suck in. In manner like,
Oft comes the pestilence upon the kine,
And sickness, too, upon the sluggish sheep.
Nor aught it matters whether journey we
To regions adverse to ourselves and change
The atmospheric cloak, or whether nature
Herself import a tainted atmosphere
To us or something strange to our own use
Which can attack us soon as ever it come.
215
Haec
ratio
quondam
morborum
et
mortifer
aestus

finibus
in
Cecropis
funestos
reddidit
agros

vastavitque
vias
,
exhausit
civibus
urbem
.
nam
penitus
veniens
Aegypti
finibus
ortus
,
aeëra

permensus
multum
camposque
natantis
,
incubuit
tandem
populo
Pandionis
omni
.
inde
catervatim
morbo
mortique
dabantur
.
principio
caput
incensum
fervore
gerebant

et
duplicis
oculos
suffusa
luce
rubentes
.
sudabant
etiam
fauces
intrinsecus
atrae

sanguine
et
ulceribus
vocis
via
saepta
coibat

atque
animi
interpres
manabat
lingua
cruore

debilitata
malis
,
motu
gravis
,
aspera
tactu
.
inde
ubi
per
fauces
pectus
complerat
et
ipsum

morbida
vis
in
cor
maestum
confluxerat
aegris
,
omnia
tum
vero
vitai
claustra
lababant
.
spiritus
ore
foras
taetrum
volvebat
odorem
,
rancida
quo
perolent
proiecta
cadavera
ritu
.
atque
animi
prorsum
vires
totius
,
omne

languebat
corpus
leti
iam
limine
in
ipso
.
intolerabilibusque
malis
erat
anxius
angor

adsidue
comes
et
gemitu
commixta
querella
,
singultusque
frequens
noctem
per
saepe
diemque

corripere
adsidue
nervos
et
membra
coactans

dissoluebat
eos
,
defessos
ante
,
fatigans
.
nec
nimio
cuiquam
posses
ardore
tueri

corporis
in
summo
summam
fervescere
partem
,
sed
potius
tepidum
manibus
proponere
tactum

et
simul
ulceribus
quasi
inustis
omne
rubere

corpus
,
ut
est
per
membra
sacer
dum
diditur
ignis
.
intima
pars
hominum
vero
flagrabat
ad
ossa
,
flagrabat
stomacho
flamma
ut
fornacibus
intus
.
nil
adeo
posses
cuiquam
leve
tenveque
membris

vertere
in
utilitatem
,
at
ventum
et
frigora
semper
.
in
fluvios
partim
gelidos
ardentia
morbo

membra
dabant
nudum
iacientes
corpus
in
undas
.
THE PLAGUE ATHENS
'Twas such a manner of disease, 'twas such
Mortal miasma in Cecropian lands
Whilom reduced the plains to dead men's bones,
Unpeopled the highways, drained of citizens
The Athenian town. For coming from afar,
Rising in lands of Aegypt, traversing
Reaches of air and floating fields of foam,
At last on all Pandion's folk it swooped;
Whereat by troops unto disease and death
Were they o'er-given. At first, they'd bear about
A skull on fire with heat, and eyeballs twain
Red with suffusion of blank glare. Their throats,
Black on the inside, sweated oozy blood;
And the walled pathway of the voice of man
Was clogged with ulcers; and the very tongue,
The mind's interpreter, would trickle gore,
Weakened by torments, tardy, rough to touch.
Next when that Influence of bane had chocked,
Down through the throat, the breast, and streamed had
E'en into sullen heart of those sick folk,
Then, verily, all the fences of man's life
Began to topple. From the mouth the breath
Would roll a noisome stink, as stink to heaven
Rotting cadavers flung unburied out.
And, lo, thereafter, all the body's strength
And every power of mind would languish, now
In very doorway of destruction.
And anxious anguish and ululation (mixed
With many a groan) companioned alway
The intolerable torments. Night and day,
Recurrent spasms of vomiting would rack
Alway their thews and members, breaking down
With sheer exhaustion men already spent.
And yet on no one's body couldst thou mark
The skin with o'er-much heat to burn aglow,
But rather the body unto touch of hands
Would offer a warmish feeling, and thereby
Show red all over, with ulcers, so to say,
Inbranded, like the "sacred fires" o'erspread
Along the members. The inward parts of men,
In truth, would blaze unto the very bones;
A flame, like flame in furnaces, would blaze
Within the stomach. Nor couldst aught apply
Unto their members light enough and thin
For shift of aid- but coolness and a breeze
Ever and ever. Some would plunge those limbs
On fire with bane into the icy streams,
Hurling the body naked into the waves;
216
multi
praecipites
nymphis
putealibus
alte

inciderunt
ipso
venientes
ore
patente
:
insedabiliter
sitis
arida
corpora
mersans

aequabat
multum
parvis
umoribus
imbrem
.
nec
requies
erat
ulla
mali
:
defessa
iacebant

corpora
.
mussabat
tacito
medicina
timore
,
quippe
patentia
cum
totiens
ardentia
morbis

lumina
versarent
oculorum
expertia
somno
.
multaque
praeterea
mortis
tum
signa
dabantur
:
perturbata
animi
mens
in
maerore
metuque
,
triste
supercilium
,
furiosus
voltus
et
acer
,
sollicitae
porro
plenaeque
sonoribus
aures
,
creber
spiritus
aut
ingens
raroque
coortus
,
sudorisque
madens
per
collum
splendidus
umor
,
tenvia
sputa
minuta
,
croci
contacta
colore

salsaque
per
fauces
rauca
vix
edita
tussi
.
in
manibus
vero
nervi
trahere
et
tremere
artus

a
pedibusque
minutatim
succedere
frigus

non
dubitabat
.
item
ad
supremum
denique
tempus

conpressae
nares
,
nasi
primoris
acumen

tenve
,
cavati
oculi
,
cava
tempora
,
frigida
pellis

duraque
in
ore
,
iacens
rictu
,
frons
tenta
manebat
.
nec
nimio
rigida
post
artus
morte
iacebant
.
octavoque
fere
candenti
lumine
solis

aut
etiam
nona
reddebant
lampade
vitam
.
quorum
siquis
,
ut
est
,
vitarat
funera
leti
,
ulceribus
taetris
et
nigra
proluvie
alvi

posterius
tamen
hunc
tabes
letumque
manebat
,
aut
etiam
multus
capitis
cum
saepe
dolore

corruptus
sanguis
expletis
naribus
ibat
.
huc
hominis
totae
vires
corpusque
fluebat
.

Many would headlong fling them deeply down
The water-pits, tumbling with eager mouth
Already agape. The insatiable thirst
That whelmed their parched bodies, lo, would make
A goodly shower seem like to scanty drops.
Respite of torment was there none. Their frames
Forspent lay prone. With silent lips of fear
Would Medicine mumble low, the while she saw
So many a time men roll their eyeballs round,
Staring wide-open, unvisited of sleep,
The heralds of old death. And in those months
Was given many another sign of death:
The intellect of mind by sorrow and dread
Deranged, the sad brow, the countenance
Fierce and delirious, the tormented ears
Beset with ringings, the breath quick and short
Or huge and intermittent, soaking sweat
A-glisten on neck, the spittle in fine gouts
Tainted with colour of crocus and so salt,
The cough scarce wheezing through the rattling throat.
Aye, and the sinews in the fingered hands
Were sure to contract, and sure the jointed frame
To shiver, and up from feet the cold to mount
Inch after inch: and toward the supreme hour
At last the pinched nostrils, nose's tip
A very point, eyes sunken, temples hollow,
Skin cold and hard, the shuddering grimace,
The pulled and puffy flesh above the brows!-
O not long after would their frames lie prone
In rigid death. And by about the eighth
Resplendent light of sun, or at the most
On the ninth flaming of his flambeau, they
Would render up the life. If any then
Had 'scaped the doom of that destruction, yet
Him there awaited in the after days
A wasting and a death from ulcers vile
And black discharges of the belly, or else
Through the clogged nostrils would there ooze along
Much fouled blood, oft with an aching head:
Hither would stream a man's whole strength and flesh.