Such universal desolation yield:

Her impious sons have her worst foes surpassed,
And Roman hauds have laid Hesperia waste.
Lucan. Tr. Nicholas Rowe.

THE ROMAN STANDARD.

BEHOLD how great a power has made it worthy

Of reverence, beginning from the hour When Pallas died to give it sovereignty. Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode

Three hundred years and upward, till at last The three to three fought for it yet again. Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong Down to Lucretia's sorrow, in seven kings

O'ercoming round about the neighboring nations; Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Romans Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, Against the other princes and confederates. Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii, Received the fame I willingly embalm; It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians, Who, following Hannibal, had passed across The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest; Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill

Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed; Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed To bring the whole world to its mood serene, Did Cæsar by the will of Rome assume it.

What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine,
Isère beheld and Saône, beheld the Seine,
And every valley whence the Rhone is filled;
What it achieved when it had left Ravenna,

And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight
That neither tongue nor pen could follow it.
Round toward Spain it wheeled its legions; then
Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote
That to the calid Nile was felt the pain.
Antandros and the Simois, whence it started,

It saw again, and there where Hector lies,
And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself.
From thence it came like lightning upon Juba;
Then wheeled itself again into your West,
Where the Pompeian clarion it heard.

From what it wrought with the next standard-bearer
Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together,
And Modena and Perugia dolent were;

Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep

Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it,
Took from the adder sudden and black death.
With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore;

With him it placed the world in so great peace,
That unto Janus was his temple closed.

But what the standard that has made me speak
Achieved before, and after should achieve
Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it,
Becometh in appearance mean and dim,

If in the hand of the third Cæsar seen With eye unclouded and affection pure, Because the living Justice that inspires me

Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of,
The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath.
Now here attend to what I answer thee;

Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance
Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin..
And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten
The Holy Church, then underneath its wings
Did Charlemagne victorious succor her.

Dante Alighieri. Tr. H. W. Longfellow.

ROME.

E brought our Saviour to the western side

might behold

Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,
Washed by the southern sea; and, on the north,

To equal length backed with a ridge of hills,
That screened the fruits of the earth, and seats of men,
From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst
Divided by a river, of whose banks
On each side an imperial city stood,
With towers and temples proudly elevate
On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,
Porches, and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
Statues, and trophies, and triumphal ares,
Gardens, and groves, presented to his eyes,
Above the height of mountains interposed:
(By what strange parallax, or optic skill
Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass
Of telescope, were curious to inquire,)

And now the Tempter thus his silence broke: —

"The city, which thou seest, no other deem Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched Of nations there the Capitol thou seest, Above the rest lifting his stately head On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine, The imperial palace, compass huge, and high The structure, skill of noblest architects, With gilded battlements conspicuous far, Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires: Many a fair edifice besides, more like Houses of gods, (so well I have disposed My aery microscope,) thou mayst behold, Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs, Carved work, the hand of famed artificers, In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.

Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see What conflux issuing forth, or entering in;

Prætors, proconsuls to their provinces

Hasting, or on return, in robes of state,

Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power,
Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings:
Or embassies from regions far remote,

In various habits, on the Appian road,

Or on the Emilian: some from farthest south,
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,
Meroe, Nilotick isle; and, more to west,
The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor sea;
From the Asian kings, and Parthian among these;
From India and the golden Chersonese,

And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,

Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed;
From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;
Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, north
Beyond Danubius to the Taurick pool.
All nations now to Rome obedience pay;
To Rome's great emperor, whose wide domain,
In ample territory, wealth, and power,
Civility of manners, arts, and arms,

And long renown, thou justly mayst prefer
Before the Parthian."

ROME.

John Milton.

IMMOR

[MMORTAL glories in my mind revive,
And in my soul a thousand passions strive,
When Rome's exalted beauties I descry
Magnificent in piles of ruin lie.

An amphitheatre's amazing height

Here fills my eye with terror and delight,
That on its public shows unpeopled Rome,
And held uncrowded nations in its womb:
Here pillars rough with sculpture pierce the skies:
And here the proud triumphal arches rise,
Where the old Romans deathless acts displayed,
Their base degenerate progeny upbraid:

Whole rivers here forsake the fields below,

And wondering at their height through airy channels flow.

Still to new scenes my wandering Muse retires,