Book IV

The Argument
To his imperiall Zamah Iuba flies,
And thence excluded, with Petreius dies
Amidst their banquets bleeding. Scipio slaine
By his owne hands, within the watery maine
Intombes himselfe: The death of Cato fames
Old Vtica; Caesar laments, and blames
His wilfull Fate; and from the Libyan coast
Is ship'd for Rome with his victorious host.

BVt all the wracke, that Thapsus fields had made,
The fields could not containe; nor could so sad,
And great a ruine in such narrow bounds
Be circumscrib'd: the high Imperiall wounds
Which there were giuen, in other regions bled:
And those great names, which from that battell fled,
As loth to mix with vulgar Funeralls,
Must beare the fame of their renowned falls
To other lands, lest this great losse should be
In story told as one calamitie.
With winged speed by nights obscuritie
From Thapsus Iuba and Petreius flie,
To reach strong Zamah the Imperiall seat
Of Iuba's Realme, a Citie faire and great;
In which, when first the warre began, he lay'd
His wealth, and dearest pledges had conuey'd:
But now the gates were shut; the men deny'd
Their King an entrance; and with scoffes deride
His threats and prayers, for his changed Fate
Now gaue them leaue freely to shew their hate;
And all too late is Iuba forc'd to see
The curs'd effects of former tyranny.
Oh wretched State of Tyrants that nere see,
Vntill their sight in vaine and bootlesse be,
Their iust esteeme: nor euer till too late,
Can know what men deserue their loue, or hate.
In wretched times your friends are onely knowne;
But when that knowledge comes, the power is gone.
Your State requitall, or reuenge denies,
And Fortune, but to grieue you, opes your eyes.
The King opprest with griefe, and fill'd with ire
Vnto a Countrie Palace doth retire,
Not farre from thence; with him Petreius goes,
And a small troope of Horse: there they repose
Their weary bodies and vex'd mindes, vntill
A great resolue their brests with comfort fill:
Then he commands his seruants to prepare
Forthwith a stately banquet, and with rare
And sumptuous cates a full repast they take;
When thus King Juba to Petreius spake;
Roman, thou seest how Fortunes vtmost spight
Pursues our actions, and has rest vs quite
Of any future hopes; nothing can be
Safetie to vs but Caesar's clemency.
But thou and I in all this Ciuill warre
'Gainst Caesar's side, haue beene engag'd too farre
To hope for mercy; which, if I might haue,
By all our gods I should disdaine to craue:
For loue of Pompey I was Caesar's foe,
And in the great'st extreme dare still be so.
Had he preuail'd, a welcome friend to Rome
With greatest honour Iuba might haue come:
Nor shall she now behold me captiue there,
And led as Syphax and Iugurtha were,
Like slaues through her proud streets, to grace the power
Of an insulting laurell'd Conquerour:
No, let Rome rather heare how Iuba dy'd,
Disdaining Caesar's pitie, or his pride.
I doe not want a Hand, a Heart, a Sword,
Or whatsoeuer else may death afford;
But doe inuite Petreius as my friend,
To share in this last act of fame, my end:
Our cause, our Fortunes are alike in all;
Then like our selues, braue Roman, let vs fall,
But vse each others helpe: vnsheath thy Sword,
And let our friendship striue who shall afford,
First freedome to his friend; loue shall ingage
My valour against thee, as much as rage
Against a foe. Petreius drawes his Sword,
And thus in short returnes: braue Libyan Lord,
Worthy whom Rome with honour still should name,
To whom Petreius gladly owes his fame;
Nor (though a Roman Generall) doe I
Blush to be taught by Iuba how to die:
It was the Roman genius prompted thee
To this, lest Rome should be inforc'd to see
That King a captiue, and in triumph brought,
That had for her, her lawes, and freedome fought,
That had with Scipio and the Senate stood;
And thy disgrace proue Caesar's conquest good
Against his Countrey: No, great King, of thee
Rome still shall hold a dearer memory;
With Massanissa shalt thou ranked stand,
When our sad Annalls Caesar's deeds shall brand,
And marke his partie with as blacke a staine
As Catiline, and his rebellious traine.
The rest my Sword shall speake for me, and proue
How much thy freedome, and mine owne I loue.
With that they both in equall fury meet,
And with such fierce assaults each other greet,
As who had seene the combat, might suppose
That so much valour had not fought to lose,
But guard by conquest a desired life:
At last to end this hot despairing strife,
Iuba a bootlesse conquest did obtaine;
Vnder whose force was weake Petreius slaine:
Keepe in (quoth Iuba) life a while, and see
A life let out to beare thine company:
If not, before thou crosse the Stygian lake,
My fleeting soule thy ghost shall ouertake.
Farewell you fading glories that attend
A kingly State, too feeble to defend
Your proud possessours from the stormes of Fate:
What rest vpon the slippery heights of State
Findes man? What stay on Fortunes restlesse wheele?
Oh treacherous Zamah, may thy false necke feele
Romes yoke as hard, as thou to thy true Lord
Disloyall prou'st: then falling on his Sword,
From forth his strugling brest his Spirit flies,
And night eternall closes vp his eyes.
But see, from Thapsus fatall ouerthrow
A nobler death drawes neere, Great Scipio
Romes Generall, that had so lately led
The Senats warre 'gainst Caesar's fortune, fled
From that sad battell in a poore disguise,
And one small barke, the Seas of Libya tries,
To finde from thence safe passage into Spaine,
Where Pompey's sonnes with all their strength remaine.
But by a storme was driuen into the Bay
Of Hippo, where the Ships of Sittius lay,
Left there in Caesar's name to guard the coast.
Scipio perceiues himselfe and Barke are lost,
The weather crosse cuts off all hope of flight;
The winds (quoth he) and Seas for Caesar fight:
Why did I scape the stormy maine? Oh why
From Thapsus fatall battell did I flie,
And not in height of all mine honour fall,
Fighting for Rome to die her Generall?
Oh would Pharsalia's battell had destroy'd,
This ill-kept life, before that here imploy'd,
The Senats warre with ill successe I led,
And Affrick saw a Scipio vanquished.
You noble Soules of my dead ancestours,
That hither oft haue led the Roman powers
With glorious fame, as Carthages great fall,
As captiue Syphax, vanquish'd Hannibal,
And saued Rome can witnesse, blush not now
At this your Nephews haplesse ouerthrow;
No Libyan forces, but the strength of Rome,
Has Rome it selfe, and Scipio ouercome;
By her owne strength subdu'd, with her I die,
To wait vpon expiring libertie.
By this occasion Fate with kinde intent,
To me necessitie of death has sent,
Lest I my freedome might perchance out-liue;
Nor could the gods a fitter bountie giue.
Let Pompey's sonnes now trie their Fate, and gaine
Our Lawes and State againe, or lose in Spaine
As much from Rome, as here in Affrick I,
Or their Great Father lost in Thessaly;
My course is runne; and, though this armed hand
Shall testifie I could haue dy'd by land,
The Ocean likes me best, within the maine
Vnknowne for euer Scipio shall remaine:
Oh let my floating carcasse neuer come
To land, lest Affrick should bestow a Tombe,
And to her sonnes in after-ages show
A monument of vanquish'd Scipio:
With that a Ponyard in his hand he tooke,
And with a strength and aime so certaine strooke
His willing brest, that thence the gushing blood,
Made on the Deckes a crimson pretious flood:
But he, while yet his vitall parts retaine
Some spirits, leaps into the curled maine;
And her blew waues with purple staining, dies:
Vnbury'd Scipio's noble body lies
Within the Seas deepe bosome; th' Oceans frie
Deuoure the flesh of that braue family,
In which great Rome may make her iustest boast;
If all her actions, all her fame were lost,
If all those seuerall vertues, pietie,
True fortitude, admired constancy,
Impartiall iustice, frugall temperance,
That through the World her honour did aduance,
In all names else had beene forgot and gone,
In this renowned family alone
All might be found; nor did the Roman fame
Ere shine, more bright than in a Scipio's name:
Why did thy Countrey want an vine for thee?
Ore which the peoples vntaught pietie
Might truly mourne, and pay the teares they owe
Vnto the ruin'd race of Scipio.
By this the flying companies, that were
From that sad battell scap'd, had euery where
Fill'd Libya's Townes with terrour and dismay:
At Vtica the noble Cato lay
In Garrison; who free from priuate feare,
Not for himselfe dismay'd at all, to heare
The fatall newes of Scipio ouerthrowne,
Exhorts his Souldiers to defend the Towne
'Gainst Caesar's entrie; but perceiuing then
Th' astonishment, and faintnesse of his men,
He with the same vnshaken constancy
Forgiues their feare, and counsells them to flie;
Prouides from all the neighbouring ports a fleet
Vsing his vtmost diligence to get
Them safely all aboord, and timely gone,
Carefull for euery safetie but his owne.
The Citizens of Vtica he cheeres
With hope of Caesar's clemency, and cleeres
All dismall clouds of feare and iealousies,
That might within their fainting brests arise:
And such to them with cheerefull lookes (although
Resolu'd to die) did Cato striue to show,
As if himselfe had not at all disdain'd,
To begge, or take a life at Caesar's hand.
He, whose austerer vertue nere before
Had giuen him leaue to hide, or colour ore
His least intention, whom no feare had taught
How to dissemble, or once swerue in ought
From his profest, and rigid path of right,
For loue of death now prayes the hypocrite.
Nights silent reigne had robb'd the World of light
To lend, in lieu, a greater benefit,
Repose and sleepe; when euery mortall brest
Whom care or griefe permitted, tooke their rest.
But Cato's brest was not alone set free,
From perturbation and anxietie,
By vertues constant vse, for soft repose
Or sleepe, the common end, but to compose
And raise it selfe vnto an act more high
The contemplation of eternitie.
In contemplation the vntroubled Soule
Parts from the bodies bonds, free from controule
Of fleshly passions, by no cares distracted,
(Not as in sleepe she does, to lie contracted
Within her selfe, and from all action cease)
But to imploy her purest faculties
At nobler distance, where no sense of sight,
Or outward organ can direct her flight:
There by her selfe the Soule can take suruey
Of those high glorious bodies, which display
(Obiects too bright for sense) in their owne light
Some beames and glimpses of that infinite
Eternall essence, from whose fulnesse they
Deriue their beauties: there the Soule would stay,
Or wishes that from lets corporeall free,
She might (what now she cannot) plainly see
Those formes; and does in that desire imply
Her owne vndoubted immortalitie.
But ere the minde of man can fitted be,
To search the depth of true Philosophy,
It must be purg'd by morall rules, and freed
From impious lusts, from vice of thought and deed.
And as a wise Physitian euer giues
Before his medicines, cleane preparatiues,
So let no Soule contemplate, till it be
Prepar'd, and purg'd by sound moralitie.
First let it practise vertue here, before
With contemplations wings it dare to soare
In search of that, which is the perfect'st good,
And height of all that can be vnderstood;
Lest, as in Physicke, th' vnpurg'd humours may
Distract the medicines working force; so they
Not purg'd from vices through false glasses see,
And oft deceiu'd in speculation be:
Vnto thy selfe first morall Physicke giue,
And then securely be contemplatiue.
So cleans'd was Cato's soule; and fit was he
For strictest precepts of Philosophy,
Since vertues paths, which rough to others seeme,
Long vse had made habituall to him.
To whom the Fates present, as now on high
His thoughts were soaring to eternitie,
An obiect fit; casting his eye aside
Diuinest Plato's Phaedon he espy'd.
Oh welcome Booke sent from the gods (quoth he)
To teach a dying man Philosophy;
And though thou canst not further, or controule
The resolution of my fixed soule,
Since Fate has doom'd my end, yet may'st thou giue
Comfort to those few houres I haue to liue.
Man's Soule immortall is; whilest here they liue
The purest mindes for perfect knowledge striue;
Which is the knowledge of that glorious God,
From whom all life proceeds: in this abode
Of flesh, the Soule can neuer reach so high;
So reason tells vs; if the Soule then die,
When from the bodies bonds she takes her flight,
Her vnfulfill'd desire is frustrate quite,
And so bestow'd in vaine: it followes then
The best desires vnto the best of men,
The great Creator did in vaine dispence;
Or else the Soule must liue when gone from hence:
And if it liue after the body fall,
What reason proues that it should die at all?
Since, not compounded as the body is,
And mixt of euer-fighting contraries,
But one pure substance, like it selfe, and may
(By reasons rules) subsist alone for aye.
And though we yeeld that God, who did create,
Can, if he please, againe annihilate
The Soule; and nothing in that sense can be
Indissoluble, saue the Deitie,
Yet Soules, which in their nature doe agree
So neare with that, shall nere dissolued be,
Till they at last their wished end attaine,
And so immortall by themselues remaine.
True grounds (quoth he) diuine Philosopher:
Else what were vertue, or true knowledge here
But waking dreames? Why, more than beasts, should we
Oblige our selues to Lawes of pietie,
Or curbe our lusts? Oh why should vertue be
Iudg'd, by the wisest, true felicitie
Before wealth, honour, pleasure? Vertue here
Does not (alas) so beautifull appeare,
But poore, and wretched rather; nor is she
(Vnlesse, which in this life we doe not see,
Some fairer substance or true forme she haue)
Ought but an emptie name, or Fortunes slaue.
The wisest men are glad to die; no feare
Of death, can touch a true Philosopher.
Death sets the Soule at libertie, to flie,
And search the depth of that Diuinitie;
Which, whilest imprison'd in the body here,
She cannot learne: a true Philosopher
Makes death his common practice, while he liues▪
And euery day by contemplation striues
To separate the soule, farre as he can,
From off the body: (what's the death of man
But separation of those two?) Should he,
That euery day did striue in some degree
To gaine this freedome, feare it at the time
When nature has allotted it to him?
Would birds incag'd, that with all motions trie,
And seeke all wayes to gaine their libertie,
The cage set ope, refuse to flie from thence?
Nay more, haue louers in impatience
Forc'd out their liues, and violently fled
Into the other World, to finde their dead
Deare loues? And should the Soule, which here below
Clos'd in the body, euery day did wooe,
And court that knowledge, which is perfect blisse,
Refuse to goe, and finde it where it is,
Then when the gods haue open'd her the way?
But here, till then, the Soule is bound to stay;
Nor must she leaue her station, till that God
Dee call her hence, that gaue her this abode.
Here Cato stopt and paws'd; is death (quoth he)
Vnlawfull then till rude necessitie
Inforce a man to taste it? And must I
Weare this loath'd life, till Caesar bid me die?
Is not the fatall ouerthrow so late
In Thapsus fields, and ruine of the State,
Necessitie of death enough for me?
May I not thinke the gods in that decree
The death of Cato? But must hold my hand
Expecting till the Conquerour command?
And giue more power to him, whose lawlesse might
Already has vsurp'd aboue his right?
Or begge for life, acknowledging him so
My Lord, whom iustly I adiudg'd Romes foe?
So saue my life by sinning, or else die
With one sinne more, if mercy he deny?
But this sure hand shall saue that hazard now▪
Plato, and all diuinest Lawes allow
Rather than act a crime, a man should die.
Should I take life from Caesar's clemencie,
It would be iudg'd by all (what ere were ment)
I did approue of Caesar's gouernment.
How great a crime might mine example proue?
How great a wrong to Rome, and all that loue
Her Lawes and liberties? Great Pompey's sonnes,
That now doe arme the Westerne regions,
And for their Countrie yet intend to fight,
Might thinke themselues excus'd if I submit,
And from their iustest resolution swerue
When old free Cato were content to serue.
Ile trie (since most assur'd the Soules doe liue)
What Lawes to vs the other World will giue:
For sure the gods, 'mongst Soules departed hence,
Twixt good and bad will put a difference.
Those happy Soules, that while they liued here,
By pure and perfect contemplation were
Abstracted from the body, that with true
Desires did oft the heauenly beauties view,
Shall thither goe, when they from hence are fled,
To haue their ioyes and knowledge perfected.
Within the Heauens shall they for euer be,
Since here with Heauen they made affinitie.
But those darke Soules, which drowned in the flesh
Did neuer dreame of future happinesse,
That, while they liued here, beleeu'd, or lou'd
Nothing but what the bodies taste approu'd,
When they depart from hence, shall feare the sight
Of Heauen, nor dare t' approach that glorious light;
But wander still in dismall darknesse, neere
Their bodies, whom alone they loued here.
Those sad, and ghastly visions, which to sight
Of frighted people doe appeare by night
About the Tombes and Graues, where dead men lie,
Are such darke Soules condemn'd t' accompany
Their bodies there; which Soules, because they be
Grosse and corporeall, men doe therefore see.
How different shall the Soules condition be,
If this (quoth he) be true Philosophy?
As true it is, nor doe I thinke it lesse;
If vertue be the way to happinesse:
And that be vertue, which we men haue thought,
What in-bred reason to our Soules has taught,
And Lawes commanded vs; if such thou be
Oh vertue, Cato still has follow'd thee;
And neuer from thy hardest precepts sweru'd;
Nere has this Soule the bodies pleasures seru'd.
What doubts can shake my long securitie?
But doubts, where frailtie is, will euer be:
Farewell, fraile World; what here we cannot see,
I goe to finde, cleare truth and certaintie:
Then with a fatall stroke he pierc'd his brest;
At noise of which his seruants vainely prest
In, to preuent the Fate; nor could they lend
Helpe to his life, but trouble to his end:
Who sadly shew'd, death could not be deny'd,
And rending wider his large wound, he dy'd:
The Citizens with honour did interre
That spotlesse mansion of a Soule so cleare.
Caesar from Thapsus, now secur'd from foes
By that full conquest, to Vzzita goes,
With ease possessing there all Scipio's store
Of corne and armes; and where the Sword before
Threaten'd his march, where horrid dangers lay
And ambushes, he now findes quiet way
To Adrumetum backe; where he bestowes
A cheerefull pardon on his yeelding foes,
Since now all Affricke from his feares was free,
And Fortune had secur'd his clemency.
Marching away to Vtica from thence,
Humbly receiu'd by all the Citizens,
Who then solemniz'd Cato's funerall;
He sigh'd, and thus complain'd; Why did'st thou fall
Oh enuious man? Rather than not depriue
Caesar of honour, Cato could not liue.
How sadly cruell hast thou beene to me,
Against thy selfe to wrong my clemency?
And shew thy death a greater enemy,
Than all thy liuing power or armes could be.
To kill my ioyes thou dy'st, choosing to be
Lamented rather than embrac'd by me:
It is my sorrow not my loue is sought.
What strange rewards haue all my mercies got,
That greatest Romans rather chose to flie
To death it selfe, than to my clemency?
So haplesse Pompey, while he fled from me,
Durst rather trust th' Aegyptian treachery,
And there to perish by ignoble hands,
Than liue with Caesar, thinking barbarous lands
Better than Rome with vs: but he againe
Hop'd to repaire his strength; thou in disdaine
Of Caesar dy'st; but yet my goodnesse shall
Orecome thy enuy, and quite frustrate all
Thy scope in death; Ile giue all dues to thee;
Thy sonne in honour shall remaine with me,
And to the World shall witnesse, thou didst die
By thine owne enuy, not my crueltie.
Then to his grace he takes th'inhabitants
Of Vtica, and for his armies wants
Commands prouision, and, while there he stayes
The Cities walls, and fortresses suruayes.
Walking not farre from off the Towne, he saw
Vpon the sandy banke of Bagrada,
Which slowly there his muddy waues doth moue▪
(Within that Countrey rare) a stately groue
Not wide in circuit, where an awfull shade
The meering boughs, exiling Phaebus, made:
That shady groue, whilest with a curious eye
Caesar suruey'd, he chanced to espy
Within, a deepe and vast descent of ground;
The iawes of Taenarus, that balefull bound
Twixt earth and hell, is not a blacker roome;
To which, they say, the ghosts infernall come.
A Caue there was, in which no cheering light
At all ere peep'd; but sad and drery night
A squallid filth, and mouldinesse had made,
From whence exhaled stinches did inuade
The vpper aire, Whilest Caesar in amaze,
Doth neerely view the horrour of the place
His longing thoughts a Libyan standing by
(Taught by tradition) thus doth satisfie.
This denne, Oh Caesar, which for many a yeare
Hath emptie stood, and freed the land from feare,
A monstrous Serpent, by Heauens vengeance bred
The plague of Affrick, once inhabited.
The earth a greater monster neuer bare;
Not Hydra might with this dire Snake compare,
Nor that great Dragon, whose still waking eyes
Medea charm'd, when Colcho's golden prize
The venturous Iason bore to Thessaly;
Nor that, as great and watchfull too as he,
Whom great Alcides conquer'd to possesse
The glittering orchard of th' Hesperides;
Nor, though the Sunne that mighty Python slew,
Did ere the Sunne a greater Serpent view.
The seuerall Snakes, that out of Libya's slime
Are bred, might all haue beene combin'd in him;
Nor could Medusa's head, had all the blood
At one place fall'n, produce a greater brood.
A hundred ells in length was his extent;
When he vpon this side the riuer went,
With his long necke stretch'd out, what ere he spy'd,
With ease he seized from the other side.
With Lions here he fill'd his hungry maw,
That came to drinke the streames of Bagrada,
And fiercest Tigers all besmear'd with blood
Of cattell slaine, became themselues his food.
When first the Roman armies sailing ore,
And threatning Carthage on the Libyan shore
Were led by Regulus, whose tragicke fall
Sadly renown'd the Spartan Generall,
Here then this hideous monster did remaine:
The army marching on you spatious plaine,
Three Roman Souldiers, by ill Fate, drew neere
To quench their fiery thirst, the riuer here,
And tempted by these shady trees, to shunne
A while the scorching fury of the Sunne,
Entring the wood, downe to the streame they stoope,
And take in helmets the coole liquour vp;
When suddenly surpris'd with chilling feare,
A horrid hissing through the aire they heare,
And from the den the Serpents head appeares,
At once amazing both their eyes and eares.
What should they doe? For helpe they could not call;
The Serpents hissing loud had filled all
The wood; nor strength, nor hearts had they to fight,
Nor scarce did any hope appeare by flight.
Nor could their trembling hands the helmets hold;
When straight the Serpent from his scaly fold
Shot forth, and seized one, who calling on
His fellowes names in vaine, was swallowed downe,
And buried in the Monsters hungry maw,
His horrid destiny when th' other saw,
They leapt into the streame to saue their liues:
But that (alas) to them no safetie giues;
For forth his long twin'd necke the Serpent stretch'd,
And swimming Hauens in the riuer reach'd;
Who, though too late he striued to be drown'd
In Bagrada, a fate more cruell found.
Marus at last, while Hauens death did stay
The Monsters speed, had time to scape away;
And to th' amazed Generall relates
The Serpents greatnesse, and his fellowes fates.
But ere his faultring tongue had fully told
The tragicke story, they from farre behold
The scaly Monster rowling on the sands
In spatious windings: Regulus commands
The army straight their piles and speares prepare
To charge, and march against it as a warre,
And ready all their battering engines make,
That strongest walls and bulwarkes vs'd to shake:
The Trumpets then, as to a battell, sound;
Which noise the Serpent hearing, from the ground
Where he in spatious rings infolded lay,
Aloft his head aduances to suruay
The Champion round, and to their eyes appeares,
Long as that Dragon twixt the heauenly Beares.
Fire from his threatning eyes, like lightning, shot,
And Stygian blasts exhal'd from his dire throat;
While he aduanc'd, you would suppose from farre
A mouing Castle made offensiue warre:
And shooting forth he in a moment flew
Vpon farre distant faces; at whose view
The starting Horses could no more be held
By bits, but snorting flew about the field;
Whilest this dire Serpent sad massacres makes
Among the men, some twixt his iawes he takes,
And crushes there, some into aire he flings,
Who falling die: and while his spatious rings
He does vnfold with fury, sweeping round
The sands, he beats whole cohorts to the ground.
The army now gaue ground, and gan retire,
When noble Regulus inflam'd with ire
To see that shame, cries out, Oh stand the field;
To Libyan Monsters shall Romes vertue yeeld?
If so, I singly will the combat trie,
And expiating Romes dishonour die:
Then all alone, deuoide of feare, he goes,
And his strong pile against the Serpent throwes
With well tane aime, whom not in vaine he strucke▪
In his tough forehead the steel'd Iauelin stucke.
The hideous Monster, whose long age before
Had nere felt steele, sent out a yelling rore,
And shooting forth, impatient of the wound;
With his long taile he lash'd the suffering ground.
A shout the Souldiers raise, incourag'd now,
And altogether stormes of Iauelins throw;
Some harmelesse lighting on his scaly backe
Such noise, as Haile on tiled houses, make;
Some pierce his brest, and softer belly wound;
Those parts alone they penetrable found.
Blacke gore from thence distaines the swarthy sand;
At last two Iauelins sent from lucky hands
In both his fiery threatning eyes did light,
Depriuing him, though not of strength, of sight:
Whose yet blinde rage drawes many a ruine on,
Vntill at last a huge, and massie stone,
Shot from a bulwarke-battring engine, stroke
His bowed backe with such great force, it broke
That many-ioynted bone; nor then could he
Lift, as before, his speckled crest on high;
But while he struggling lay vpon the plaine,
Another stone dash'd out his poisonous braine;
The sands discolour'd with blacke filth appeare,
And that so lately feared Serpent there,
Stretch'd out at length his balefull life expires;
His vast extent the Generall admires:
But straight a grone the mourning Riuer gaue,
A dolefull noise the Wood, and hollow Caue
Resounded forth; the Naiades, that kept
Slow Bagrada, for their dead seruant wept;
Nor did the augurs then forbeare to shew,
The Roman troops his death should dearely rew,
And Regulus become a captiue prey
To his insulting foes; on whom (said they)
The Nymphs, and wrathfull Naiades would take,
That dire reuenge for their slaine Serpents sake.
Caesar enough delighted to behold
The Caue, and pleas'd with what the Libyan told,
Returnes to Vtica; thence marching on
With speed through Iuba's lost dominion,
Arriues at wealthy Zamah, Libya's pride,
Where late a powerfull Monarch did reside▪
And hearing there of Iuba's wretched fate,
Laments the frailtie of mans highest state:
Then he commends the Citizens, and ore
The Countrey leaues Sallustius Gouernor,
Which from a Kingdomes State is now become,
A subiect Prouince to Imperiall Rome.
Then marches backe to Vtica againe,
And lanching forth his fleet into the maine
Sailing by Sardos, on th' Italian coast
He safe arriues with his victorious host.