CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.

CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.

 “The conquering Roman now held the whole world in his sway,

 The ocean, the land; where the sun shone by day or the moon

 Gleamed by night: but unsated was he.  And the seas

 Were roiled by the weight of his deep-laden keels; if a bay

 Lay hidden beyond, or a land which might yield yellow gold

 ‘Twas held as a foe.  While the struggle for treasure went on

 The fates were preparing the horrors and scourges of war.

 Amusements enjoyed by the vulgar no longer can charm

 Nor pleasures worn threadbare by use of the plebeian mob.

 The bronzes of Corinth are praised by the soldier at sea;

 And glittering gems sought in earth, vie with purple of Tyre;

 Numidia curses her here, there, the exquisite silks

 Of China; Arabia’s people have stripped their own fields.

 Behold other woes and calamities outraging peace!

 Wild beasts, in the forest are hunted, for gold; and remote

 African hammon is covered by beaters, for fear

 Some beast that slays men with his teeth shall escape, for by that

 His value to men is enhanced!  The vessels receive

 Strange ravening monsters; the tiger behind gilded bars

 And pacing his cage is transported to Rome, that his jaws

 May drip with the life blood of men to the plaudits of men

 Oh shame!  To point out our impending destruction; the crime

 Of Persia enacted anew; in his puberty’s bloom

 The man child is kidnapped; surrenders his powers to the knife,

 Is forced to the calling of Venus; delayed and hedged round

 The hurrying passage of life’s finest years is held back

 And Nature seeks Nature but finds herself not.  Everywhere

 These frail-limbed and mincing effeminates, flowing of locks,

 Bedecked with an infinite number of garments of silk

 Whose names ever change, the wantons and lechers to snare,

 Are eagerly welcomed!  From African soil now behold

 The citron-wood tables; their well-burnished surface reflects

 Our Tyrian purples and slaves by the horde, and whose spots

 Resemble the gold that is cheaper than they and ensnare

 Extravagance.  Sterile and ignobly prized is the wood

 But round it is gathered a company sodden with wine;

 And soldiers of fortune whose weapons have rusted, devour

 The spoils of the world.  Art caters to appetite.  Wrasse

 From Sicily brought to their table, alive in his own Sea water.

 The oysters from Lucrine’s shore torn, at the feast

 Are served to make famous the host; and the appetite, cloyed,

 To tempt by extravagance.  Phasis has now been despoiled

 Of birds, its littoral silent, no sound there is heard

 Save only the wind as it rustles among the last leaves.

 Corruption no less vile is seen in the campus of Mars,

 Our quirites are bribed; and for plunder and promise of gain

 Their votes they will alter.  The people is venal; corrupt

 The Senate; support has its price!  And the freedom and worth

 Of age is decayed, scattered largesse now governs their power;

 Corrupted by gold, even dignity lies in the dust.

 Cato defeated and hooted by mobs, but the victor

 Is sadder, ashamed to have taken the rods from a Cato:

 In this lay the shame of the nation and character’s downfall,

 ‘Twas not the defeat of a man!  No!  The power and the glory

 Of Rome were brought low; represented in him was the honor

 Of sturdy Republican Rome.  So, abandoned and wretched,

 The city has purchased dishonor: has purchased herself!

 Despoiled by herself, no avenger to wipe out the stigma

 Twin maelstroms of debt and of usury suck down the commons.

 No home with clear title, no citizen free from a mortgage,

 But as some slow wasting disease all unheralded fastens

 Its hold on the vitals, destroying the vigor of manhood,

 So, fear of the evils impending, impels them to madness.

 Despair turns to violence, luxury’s ravages needs must

 Repaired be by bloodshed, for indigence safely can venture.

 Can art or sane reason rouse wallowing Rome from the offal

 And break the voluptuous slumber in which she is sunken?

 Or must it be fury and war and the blood-lust of daggers?”