Silvae III.2 (Mozley): A Send-off Poem to Maecius Celer

Ye Gods whose delight it is to preserve adventurous ships, and to assuage the angry perils of the gusty sea, make the waters smooth and calm, and listen in peaceful council to my entreaties, and let the waves be gentle nor make uproar as I pray: “Great and rare, O Neptune, is the pledge I commit unto thy deep; young Maecius is entrusted to the doubtful main, and is about to take across the seas the dearer half of my soul. Bring forth your favouring stars, Oebalian brethren, and sit upon the twin horns of the yard-arm; let your light illumine sea and sky; drive far away, I pray, your Ilian sister’s tempestuous star, and banish her wholly from the heavens. And ye too, Nereids, sea-blue horde of ocean, to whom the glory and the fortune of the second realm have fallen by lot—suffer me to call you stars of the mighty deep!—arise from the glassy caverns of foam-encompassed Doris, and in peaceful rivalry swim round the bays of Baiae and the shores where the hot springs abound; seek out the lofty ship whereon Celer, noble offspring of Ausonia mighty in arms, rejoices to embark. Nor need ye long inquire, for lately came she across the seas, the first a her convoy, to the Dicarchean strand, laden with the Pharian harvest, and first was she to salute Capreae, and over her starboard side to pour libation of Mareotic wine to Tyrrhene Minerva. Circle gracefully about her on either side, and divide your duties: some stretch taut from the mast the hempen rigging, some set the topsails and spread the canvas to the Zephyrs; let others place the benches, or let down into the water the rudder that guides the curving bark; let there be some to make the heavy sounding-lead explore the depths, and others to fasten the skiff that will follow astern, and to dive down and drag the hooked anchor from the depths, and one to control the tides and make the sea flow eastward: let none of the sea-green sisterhood be without a task. Then let Proteus of manifold shape and twy-formed Triton swim before, and Glaucus whose loins vanished by sudden enchantment, and who, so oft as he glides up to his native shores, wistfully beats his fish-tail on Anthedon’s strand. But above all others thou, Palaemon, with thy goddess mother, be favourable, if ’tis thy desire that I should tell of thine own Thebes, and sing of Amphion, bard of Phoebus, with no unworthy quill. And may the father whose Aeolian prison constrains the winds, whom the various blasts obey, and every air that stirs on the world’s seas, and storms and cloudy tempests, keep the North wind and South and East in closer custody behind his wall of mountain; but may Zephyr alone have the freedom of the sky, alone drive vessels onward and skim unceasingly o’er the crests of the billows, until he bring without a storm thy glad sails safe to the Paraetonian haven.”

My prayer is heard. The West wind himself calls the ship and chides the laggard crew. Lo! already my heart sinks, chilled with fear, and I cannot, though the omen shocks me, hold back the tears that hover upon my eyelids’ verge. And already the sailor has loosed the rope and sundered the vessel from the land, and dropped the narrow gangway into the water. On the stern the ruthless master with long-drawn shout severs our embraces and parts loving lips, nor may one linger long upon the dear one’s breast. Yet last of all will I be to go on land, nor will I leave the ship until she is already under way.

Who made of the strange and sundered sea a highway for miserable men, and cast forth upon the waves the loyal children of the solid earth and hurled them into the jaws of ocean—daring of spirit? for not more adventurous was the valour that joined frozen Pelion to Ossa’s summit, and crushed panting Olympus beneath two mountains. So small a feat was it to traverse sluggish lakes and meres and fling bridges across the narrowed streams? Forth we go into sheer void, and are fled from the native lands about us, enclosed in nought but a few planks and the empty air. Therefore do the winds and angry tempests rage, the sky thunders and many a bolt is sped from the hand of Jove. Before ships were, the waters lay in a slumbrous calm, Thetis dared not foam nor the waves assault the clouds. But when they spied vessels, the billows swelled with rage, and the hurricane arose against man. Then the Pleiads and the Olenian goat grew dark with storm, and Orion was more wrathful than his wont. Not in vain is my complaint: lo! speeding over the pathless waters flies the ship, lessening by degrees and baffling the eyes that view her from afar; how many fears does she hold within her slender timbers! thee above all must she bear onward, Celer, object of my love! With what feelings can I endure night’s slumbers or the day? Who will tell me, a prey to every terror, whether the raging coast of the Lucanian sea has sped thee by on favouring waves, whether eddying Charybdis be heaving or the maid that ravages the Sicilian deep, how the furious Adriatic aids thy course, whether the Carpathian be at peace, and with what breeze the sea-nymph be wafting thee, that once smiled on the cunning of the Tyrian bull? But I have deserved to mourn: for why, when thou wert bound for the wars, went I not with thee, an unwearied traveller, to unknown India and Cimmerian gloom? By my patron’s warlike banner had I been standing, were it weapon or bridle thou wert holding, or whether thou wert giving laws to armed peoples, present if not to share, at least to admire thy deeds. If Phoenix whom great Achilles honoured came long ago to the Ilian shore and Thymbraean Troy, though not a warrior nor bound by oath to proud Atrides, why is my affection cowardly? But my loyal thoughts shall be ever with thee, and my prayers shall follow thy sails to distant lands.

Isis, once stalled in Phoroneus’ caves, now queen of Pharos and a deity of the breathless East, welcome with sound of many a sistrum the Mareotic bark, and gently with thine own hand lead the peerless youth, on whom the Latian prince hath bestowed the standards of the East and the bridling of the cohorts of Palestine, through festal gate and sacred haven and the cities of thy land. Under thy protection may he learn whence comes the fruitful licence of marshy Nile, why the waters abate and are hemmed within the banks that the Cecropian bird has coated with clay, why Memphis is jealous, why the shore of Therapnean Canopus makes wanton revel, why the warden of Lethe guards the Pharian shrines, why vile beasts are held equal to mighty gods; what altars the long-lived Phoenix prepares for his own death, what fields Apis, adored by trembling shepherds, deigns to graze, and in what waters of Nile he bathes. Lead him also to the Emathian tomb, where steeped in nectar of Hybla abides the warrior founder of the city, and to the serpent-haunted palace where, sunk in lulling poison, Cleopatra of Actian story escaped Ausonian chains. Escort the youth even to his Assyrian station and the appointed camp, O goddess, and deliver him to the Roman god of war. No stranger will he be there; as a boy he laboured in those fields, known as yet only by his gleaming laticlave, though already strong to outstrip the squadrons in nimble wheeling flight, and with his javelin to discredit the arrows of the East.

Therefore that day will come when Caesar, to give thee a nobler prize, shall bid thee return from the warfare thou hast ended, and I standing again upon this shore shall view the mighty waves and pray for other breezes. How proud then shall I be! How bravely shall I sound my votive lyre! when you lift me to your shoulders and I cling about your stalwart neck, and you, fresh from the ship, fall first upon my breast, and give me all your stored-up converse, and in turn we tell the story of the years between, you of rapid Euphrates and royal Bactra and the sacred wealth of ancient Babylon, and of Zeugma. the way of the Peace of Rome; how sweet is Idume’s luxuriant grove, with what dye costly Tyre glows scarlet, and the purple, twice plunged in Sidonian vats, is stained, where the fruitful sprays first exude the shining spikenard from the bud: while I relate what burial I have granted to the conquered Pelasgians, and rehearse the page that closes the laboured tale of Thebes.