The Sibylline Oracles

The Sibylline Oracles

continued

Book IX (Book XI in the manuscripts)

1 O World of widely scattered men, long walls, / Insatiate cities, and unnumbered nations, / Of the east, and west, and south, and also north, / Divided into various languages And kingdoms, of you what is worst I speak. / For from the time when on the earlier men / The flood came, and a miserable race / Destroyed by many waters, he who rules / Over all things produced another race Of tireless men, who stood up against heaven / And built a tower of height unspeakable. / From others then came tongues, and upon them / Came hurled along the wrath of God most high, / And the huge tower fell. But against each other They stirred up bitter strife. Then the tenth race / Of mortal men lived when these things occurred, / And then the whole earth was distributed / Among strange men and various dialects, / Whose numbers I will mention and by name Celebrate in acrostics, and by means / Of the initial letter make them known. / First Egypt shall receive a royal power / And eminently just; but then in her / Shall many counsel-bearing men arise

2 And there shall reign a formidable man, / A very powerful warrior; he shall have / The letter of the acrostic for his name, / And against pious men will draw the sword. / And a great sign shall he have while he rules In the Egyptian land, which, famed afar / For great things, shall with plenteous corn provide / Souls perishing with hunger, and the judge, / Himself in bonds, child of Assyrian men, / The eastern land shall nourish, and his name Know as the measure of the number ten. / But when the ten plagues from bright heaven shall come / On Egypt, then again to thee I'll cry. / Woe, woe, thou Memphis, woe, thou mighty kingdom! / The Red Sea shall much people of thine slay. But when the twelve-tribe people, by command / Of the Immortal, leave the fertile plain / A wasted ruin, then unto mankind / Will God himself, sole ruler, give a law. / Then for the Hebrews shall a mighty king

3 Of lofty spirit over Egypt reign, / Whose name resembles sand, but falsely called / As to his fatherland a Theban man. / But Memphis he, dread serpent, will admire, / And many things will he protect in wars. And when twelve rolling decades of the kingdom / Shall have passed round, and in addition seven, / And also the tenth hundred in the East, / Of others all things being left behind, / Then shall the Persian domination come. And then shall darkness be upon the Jews, / Nor shall they famine in that day escape, / Nor pestilence most unendurable. / But when the Persian shall rule, and the son / Of his son's son shall lay the scepter by, And years roll round until they reach five fours, / A hundred add to these, and so complete / Nine hundred, and all things thou shalt repay. 4 / Then thou shalt to the Persians be a slave, / Given over to the Medes, by plagues destroyed And also by the impetuous battle-fray. / Then to the Persians and the Assyrians / Shall evil come, and to the whole of Egypt, / And unto Libya and the Ethiopians, / And the Pamphylians and all other men. And unto the Ionians shall be given / The royal power, and they again shall waste / The nations, plundering all the earth for spoil. / Sad dirges will the doleful Persians sing / Beside the Tigris; Egypt will shed tears Sufficient many a land to irrigate. / And then to thee, O Media, many evils / Will one in India born, a rich man, do, / Until thou hast made recompense for all / Which thou hast done before with shameful soul. Woe, woe to thee, O nation of the Medes, / Hereafter thou to Ethiopian men / Shalt be enslaved; beyond the meridian land / Shalt thou seven and a hundred years complete, / Wretched, and place thy neck beneath the yoke.

5 And then an Indian prince of sable skin, / Gray hair, and mighty soul, shall come to power, / Who shall lay many evils on the East / By reason of impetuous battle-frays. / And he shall injure thee and lay thee waste Much more than all. But when he shall have reigned / Twenty and ten years, yet seven more and ten, / Then shall each nation be in furious rage / Against the king's dominion, and make known / Their freedom, leaving for three single years Their slavish blood. But he will come again / And put their necks beneath the servile yoke, / Each nation of strong men, even as before / Serving the king, and willingly they'll yield. / And there shall be great peace through all the world. And then to the Assyrians there shall be / A mighty man for king, and he shall rule / And persuade all to speak what he desires, / Whatever things God in the law enjoined. / And then will all the long-haired kings fear him,

6 Timid, and mute, and strong, of lovely mien. / Him by the counsel of the mighty God / Will they serve, for he will persuade all things / By reason, and all things will he subdue. / And he a temple of the mighty God And lovely altar will himself erect / In his might, but will hurl the idols down. / But having gathered into one the tribes / And race of fathers, and the infant children, / He will include them as inhabitants. His name shall have two hundred for its number, / And of the eighteenth letter show the sign. / But when at the tenth revolving period / He shall wield power, and at an end of time / Come to the two and five, then shall the kings Be numerous as the plants of mortal men, / Even numerous as the tribes, cities, and isles, / Lands of the blessed, and the fruitful fields. / But one of these shall be a mighty king, / Leader of men, and many great-souled kings

7 Shall under him have rule, and unto him / And to his sons and grandsons opulent / Will parts be given because of royal power. / Decades of decades, eight ones add to these, / Of years of rule, and to the last they come. But when the strong beast with fierce war shall come, / Then, O ye noble kings, shall wrath spring forth. / Woe to thee, Persian land! How many streams / Outpoured of human blood shalt thou receive, / When that strong-minded man shall come to thee! Then to thee I again will cry these things. / But when the Italian land puts forth its growth, / Great wonder to men, shall a child-like moan / Be heard with unmixed stroke, in shadowy cave, / Offspring of the wild beast that feeds on sheep, Who, grown to manhood, on seven mighty hills, / Shall hurl down many with a shameless soul; / Both of them have the number of one hundred, / And their names will of things which are to come / Show forth a great sign. On the seven hills Will they build mighty walls, and around them / Will men wage heavy wars. And then again / Around thee will be rising up of men, / O thou great land that hast the beautiful corn, / Bold Egypt—but again I'll cry these things.

8 Against thee in thy house a mighty stroke / Shalt thou receive, and yet again to thee / Shall be a rising up of thine own men. / Now over thee, O wretched Phrygia, / I weep in pity, for to thee shall come Capture from Hellas, tamer of fleet steeds, / And fearful war through mighty battle fray. / Ilion, I pity thee, for on thy roofs / From Sparta shall the avenging Furies come, / Conjoined with evil star, and bring thee toils, Distresses, groans and sobs, when well-trained men, / By far the noblest heroes of the Greeks, / And dear to Ares, shall begin the fight. / Of these one shall be king, a spearman famed, / And with his brother plan the basest deeds. And they shall overthrow the famous walls / Of Phrygian Troy, and in ten rolling years / Complete the bloody work of the time of war. / But suddenly a wooden artifice / Shall cover men, and this upon thy knees

9 Thou wilt receive, not knowing it replete / With Grecian treachery and heavy woe. / Alas, alas, how many in one night / Will Hades gather in, and how much spoil / Of tearful old men will be led away! But in the generations that shall come / Fresh and undying shall the glory be. / And the great king, a hero sprung from Jove, / Of the first letter of the alphabet / Shall have a name; and homeward he will march, And then fall by a treacherous woman's hand. / But of Assaracus's race and blood / A child will reign, a hero of renown, / A strong and valiant man; and from this [race] / Made desolate by mighty fire, shall come A fugitive, by the dread toil of war / Without a fatherland; upon his shoulders / Bearing his aged sire, and in his hand / Holding his only son, a pious deed / Will he accomplish. Looking all around,

10 He put aside the onset of the fire / Of burning Troy, and hastening through the crowd. / In terror, crosses fearful land and sea. / And he shall have a trisyllabic name; / And the first letter of the alphabet Will not obscurely show this highest man. / Then the strong Latin city he will build, / And in the fifteenth year, by waters slain, / Come to his end in the depths of the sea. / But him, though dead, the nations of mankind Shall not forget, for his race over all / Hereafter shall rule, far as the Euphrates, / And to the middle of the Tigris stream, / The Assyrian land, and where the Parthian dwells. / This in the generations yet to come Shall be, when all these things shall come to pass. / But there shall be a certain wise old man, / A minstrel, whom all mortals call most wise, / By whose great understanding all the world / Shall be instructed; for with power and thought

11 Will he his chapters write, and clearly write / At times with beauty inexpressible, / Seizing my words, my measures, and my verse, / For he himself will first my books unfold, / And after these things hide them, and to men Show them no more till life and death shall end. / But when these things which I spoke are fulfilled, / The Greeks again will fight with one another; / Assyrians, Arabs, quiver-bearing Medes, / Persians, Sicilians, and the Lydians Will then revolt; Thrace and Bithynia, / And those that dwell along the streams of Nile, / Land of the beautiful corn—at once on all / Will God, the Eternal, set the din of war. / But terribly will an Assyrian man, A base-born Ethiopian, quickly come, / Having a wild beast's soul, and every isthmus / Will he cleave, prying timidly around, / Going to all and sailing through the sea. / And then, O faithless Greece, shall many things

12 Befall thee. Woe, woe to thee, wretched Greece; / How many things must thou aloud bewail! / For during seven and eighty rolling years / Thou shalt the miserable refuse be / Of fearful battle among all the tribes. And then again a Macedonian woe / Shall come on Greece and lay all Thracia waste, / And bring the toil of war upon the isles / And mainlands; with war-loving champions / Will he be foremost, and the name he bears Is by the sign of ten times fifty shown. / He shall be short-lived in his government, / But leave a mighty monarchy behind, / And a boundless land. But he himself shall fall / By an ill-minded spearman, while he lives In plenty as no other leader lived. / But after him a great-souled son of his / Shall reign, whose name begins the alphabet; / But he shall be the outgo of his race. / Not truly shall all call him son of Jove,

13 Or Ammon, nor yet Kronos' bastard son, / As they would feign. And he will plunder cities / Of many mortal men, and there will rise / In Europe sore distress; and he himself / With pestilence will ravage Babylon, And every land the sun looks down upon; / And he alone will sail the eastern world. / Alas, alas, for thee, O Babylon, / Being captive led in triumph, thou shalt serve— / Thou who of Asia wast the mistress called. And Mars shall come, shall surely come and slay / Thy many children. Then shalt thou send forth / Thy royal man, with name of the number four, / Wielding the spear and fearful with the bow; / Along with powerful warriors he will go. And then Cilicia's and Assyria's midst / Famine and war shall hold. But great-souled kings / Will arm for bitter strife a dreadful band. / But do thou flee and leave the former king; / Desire not thou to stay nor be a slave.

14 For a dread lion shall upon thee come, / Flesh-eating beast, ferocious, strange to law, / With mantle cast upon his shoulders round. / Flee thou that man of thunder; there shall come / On Asia a base yoke, and all the land Shall drink a shower of murder. But when Mars / Of Pella shall a great, rich city found / In Egypt, bearing his name, he shall meet, / Betrayed by treacherous comrades, fate and death. / For, leaving India, and to Babylon Returning, there around the festal board / Shall barbarous murder bring him to his fall. / Thereafter a few years shall other kings, / Cruel and insolent and faithless, rule / According to each tribe. And then shall rise A great souled, valiant hero, who shall glean / All Europe naked, and each land shall drink / The blood of every tribe. But having filled / Of life his portion, he shall disappear. / And other kings, twice four men, there shall be

15 Of this race, and the same name to them all. / And Egypt then shall be a regal bride, / And the great city of the Macedonian king, / Rare Alexandria, famous nourisher / Of cities, and in beauty radiant, Shall be the sole metropolis. / And then let Memphis blame those in command. / And peace profound shall be through all the world, / And more fruit will the black-soil land then have. / And then shall be disaster to the Jews, Nor shall they famine in that day escape, / Nor grievous pestilence; but wandering men / And many will the black-soil land receive, / Ambrosial land, of fine corn, the new world. / But eight kings of the Egyptian marshy soil Shall fill two hundred three and thirty years. / Yet of them all, the race shall perish not, / But there shall issue forth a female root, / A bane of men, betrayer of her kingdom. / But then they wickedness and evil deeds

16 Shall perpetrate, and one destroy another. / The son that wears the purple robe will smite / His warlike sire, and he by his son falls, / And ere he shall beget another child / He shall cease. But again the root shall sprout Spontaneous; of it is a neighboring race. / For of the land beside the streams of Nile / Which travel on by seven mouths to the sea / She shall be queen, and her beloved name / The number twenty tells. And she shall ask Ten thousand things, and gather up all goods / Of gold and silver; but from her own men / Shall treachery befall her. Then on thee, / O fair and happy land, again shall come / Battles and fights and slaughter of mankind. But after many shall o'er fertile Rome / Have borne rule, not indeed of happiness / Precursors, but despotic lords and chiefs / Of thousands and of countless myriads, / Then, overseers of the lawful assemblies,

17 Shall the most mighty Cæsars bear the rule, / And every day keep making their demands. / The last of these shall rule the number ten, / The highest Cæsar, who upon the earth / Shall stretch his limbs, cast down through fearful Mars By a hostile man; whom, bearing in their hands, / The sons of Rome shall bury piously, / And round about him heap a monument / For love of him, in memory of his grace. / But when there comes an end of passing time, And thou hast filled out twice two hundred years. / And also twice ten, from the time when ruled / Thy founder, child of the wild beast, no more / Shall there be a dictator of short rule, / But there shall be a king, a godlike man. And when the king is going into Egypt, / Against him horrid Mars shall surely come / With glittering helm, and then shall conquest dire / Come to thee; for around the walls of the land / Shall be foul works of dire and violent wars.

18 But suffering pitiable things in war / Over the freshly wounded she will flee / In wretched plight; and then unto the couch / Of that dread man will she come; and the end / Is but the nuptials and the marriage-bed. Woe, woe to thee, ill-wedded woman, thou / Shalt give the Roman king thy royal power; / And thou shalt make atonement for all things / Whatever thou hast done to men in wars. /... For all the land... unto a mighty man, As far as Libya and the dark-skinned men. / And thou no longer shalt a widow be, / But with a lion shalt thou live as wife, / A terrible devourer of mankind, / A furious warrior. Then shalt thou become, O hapless one, among all men at once / Invisible, for thou shalt disappear, / Having a shameless soul; and in its house / Shall the encircling tomb receive thy form / So stately, having once had life within,

19 Cunningly wrought and fit for many chiefs. / And many people will lament for thee / And over thee the king will sorely grieve. / And then shall an Egyptian servant toil, / Who many years against the Indians bore Her trophies; she shall serve disgracefully, / And mingle with the river Nile her tears, / For she acquired wealth, and of all good things / A great store. Nourisher of cities, she / Shall feed a race of sheep-devouring men. Alas, unto how many beasts shalt thou, / O happy Egypt, be a slave and prey! / But having given to the peoples laws, / Thou, who didst once exult o'er mighty kings, / Shalt to the peoples be a wretched slave, On account of that people, whom of old, / A pious race, thou didst lead to much woe / Of toils and sorrows, and upon their neck / Didst place a plow, and irrigate the fields / With human tears. Therefore shall God himself,

20 The king imperishable in the heaven, / Destroy thee utterly, and hurl thee down / Into deep grief; and thou shalt pay the price / Of what thou didst of old unjustly do, / And know at last that God's wrath came to thee. But I to Python and to Panopeus / Of goodly towers will go; and then will all / Declare that I am a true prophetess, / And a diviner, but insane in soul. / A messenger.... When to the books thou comest Be not afraid, and all things yet to be / And things that were ye shall know from my words. / Then will none longer call a prophetess / Inspired of God an augurer of woe. / But thou, O King, now end my much-loved strain, Driving off frenzy, and the voice divine, / And passion fierce, and give a charming song.

Book X (Book XII in the manuscripts)

1 But bring to me the lamentable time / Of the illustrious Latins, who were first / After the kings of Egypt were cut off, / And had all been borne down into the earth; And also after Pella's citizen, / Under whom all the East had been cast down, / And the rich West; whom Babylon disgraced / And gave a corpse to Philip; not of Jove / Nor Ammon truly boasted to have sprung; And after him, who, from the race and blood / Of great Assaracus, went forth from Troy, / Even he who cleft the violence of fire; / And after many kings, and warlike men, / And after the young children of the beast That feeds on sheep, and centuries six have passed, / And Rome two decades has dictator been, / Then shall arise a king pre-eminent / As from the western sea, and govern Rome, / Exceeding brave and warlike; and his name

2 Begins the letters of the alphabet; / And having bound thee he will hold thee fast / By man-destroying war, thou rich in fruit. / And thou shalt expiate the shameful deeds / To which thou once didst freely give thyself. For this great-souled one will excel in wars. / Him Thrace and Sicily and Memphis fear,— / Memphis, cast to the ground by wickedness / Of leaders, and a woman unsubdued, / Fallen by the spear; and he will institute Laws for the peoples, and subdue all things; / With mighty glory he will long hold sway. / For not a little time will he bear rule, / When yet another scepter-bearing king / Not one hour longer than this one shall rule The Romans, for to him God gave all things, / And showed forth seasons in the divine earth, / Great wonders unto them as signs he showed. / But when a lustrous star, all like the sun, / Appears from heaven in the midst of day,

3 Then shall the hidden Word of the Most High / Come bearing flesh like mortals. But with him / The might of Rome and of the famous Latins / Shall increase. But the mighty king himself / By his own predetermined fate shall die, And to another give the royal power. / But after this one will a certain man / Famed as a powerful warrior take the lead, / Bearing the purple mantle on his shoulders; / Three hundred numbers he with his first sign. The Medes and arrow-hurling Parthians / He will destroy, and by his mighty strength / Subvert the city of the lofty gates. / And upon Egypt will much evil come, / And on the Assyrians, and the Colchians, And the Heniochi, and Germans dwelling / By the Rhine's waves beyond the sandy shores. / And he himself will afterwards destroy / The city of the lofty gates beside / Eridanus, that evil things devised;

4 And then will he fall, struck by burning iron. / And after him another man will rule, / Deep versed in guile, and he will number three / And show it by the initial of his name. / And much gold he will gather, and of wealth There will not be a large sufficiency; / But without sense of shame, collecting more, / Under the earth he will deposit all. / And peace shall come, and Mars shall cease from war. / But he by divination many things Will make known, seeking things of greatest good / For life's support. Yet on him there shall be / A great sign: out of heaven small drops of blood / Shall issue, and the king shall be destroyed. / He will do many lawless things, and place Woes on the necks of Romans, putting trust / In divination. He will also slay / The heads of the assembly. And a plague / Shall seize Campanians, Thrace, and Macedon, / And the Italians; Egypt will alone

5 Feed numerous races. But the king himself / Will craftily destroy the virgin maid, / Deceiving her by means of mysteries. / But her the citizens in tearful grief / Will bury, but against the king they all Will cherish anger. Ruin then will come / By a strong hand to blooming powerful Rome. / Again another of wide sway shall reign, / Whose name the number twenty will denote. / And then shall wars and bitter sorrows come Upon the Sauromatians, and on Thrace, / And the Triballians that hurl the spear, / And all the Romans Mars will fiercely rend. / But while this one rules the Italian land / And the Pannonians, a dread sign shall be: Dark night will come at the mid hour of day / Around them, and a shower of stones from heaven. / Then shall the Italians' mighty prince and judge / By fate divine go into Hades' halls. / Again another dire and dreadful man

6 Whose name the number fifty shows, shall come. / And many of those in wealth noblest born / Out of all cities he will put to death, / By nature a dire serpent; few his words / Whenever he extends his guiding hands, Works ruin, and brings many things to pass. / Wrestling in contests, driving in the race, / Destroying many lives, and daring still / Ten thousand things. And he will cleave the mount / Of the two waters and with gore pollute. But also to the Italians he will be / Doubly destructive; making himself God / He will reproach the willing populace. / But while he rules there shall be peace profound / And fears among men. By the Ausonian shores The water, rushing from the ocean streams, / Shall come all out of place. Casting about / He will establish contests for the people / Many in number, and, himself presiding, / He will contend with voice and cithara,

7 Along with harp-string uttering a song. / But later, having left the royal power, / He will flee and be miserably destroyed, / Thus making expiation for his deeds. / And after him shall three reign, two of them Obtaining by their names the number seventy, / And after them one, of the letter three. / And one by one shall they all perish, slain / Under the army's hands by mighty Mars. / Thereafter shall a great destroyer come Of pious men, a ruler of strong heart, / A warlike Mars, and seven times ten will show / His number clearly. He will overthrow / Phenicia, and will ruin Lydia. / Also a sword will come upon the land Of Jerusalem, even to the utmost curve / Of the Tiberian sea. Woe, woe to thee, / Phenicia! O how many things will suffer / That sorrow-laden one, with trophies bound! / And every nation shall upon thee tread.

8 Woe on the Assyrians shall come, and babes / Shalt thou see serving among hostile men / Along with wives, and all their sustenance / And all their wealth shall perish. For the wrath, / The wrath of God that causes bitter woe, Shall come, because they did not keep his law, / But served all idols with unseemly arts. / And many wars and fights again shall be, / Slaughter of men, famines and pestilence, / And uproar in the cities. But the king Old and of great soul, and excelling all, / Shall at life's end fall by the army's need. / Then shall two other princes rule, and love / The memory of their father, the great king, / Glorying in warriors fighting hand to hand. And of these there shall be a noble man, / A ruler, whose name will three hundred show; / Yet he shall also fall by treachery / Even in the army, stretched upon the ground, / Struck in the plain of Rome by two-edged brass.

9 And after him a powerful warlike man, / Of the letter four, shall rule the mighty realm, / Whom all upon the boundless earth shall love, / And then shall war cease over all the world. / But him even from the West unto the East Will all serve willingly, not of constraint, / And cities of themselves will subject be. / For to him will the heavenly Sabaoth, / God the imperishable, who abides / Above the sky, abundant glory bring. And then will wasting famine much impair / Pannonia, and all the Celtic land, / And they will perish one upon another. / And it shall be with the Assyrians / As though Orontes with creations flowed, And splendor, and whatever better seems. / And these the great king will admire, and love / Some other things far more. But he'll receive / A great wound in the middle of his breast, / Being taken at the end of life in guile

10 By a friend in the sacred royal house, / And he shall fall pierced. After him shall be / A ruler and a venerable man, / Fifty his number, who withal shall slay / Great numbers of the citizens of Rome; But he shall briefly rule; for afterwards, / On account of the king that went before, / Shall he go wounded into Hades' halls. / Forthwith then shall another king arise, / A warrior, whose rule has the signal mark Three hundred. He shall reign and desolate / The Thracians' varied land, and those that dwell / On the far barbarous borders of the Rhine, / The Germans, and Iberians that hurl / The arrow. To the Jews shall also come Another great disaster, and with them / Phenicia shall a shower of murder drink. / And the walls of the Assyrians shall fall / By many warriors, and again shall these / Be by a life-destroying man cut off.

11 And then shall there be threatenings of God's rule, / Earthquakes and pestilence in every land, / And snow-storms out of season, and fierce lightnings. / And then a king, great in the toil of war, / A Celtic warrior, hastening to the strife Of battle, shameful fate shall not escape, / But he shall die, and foreign dust shall hide / His carcass, having for his name a flower. / And after him another man shall lead, / Of silver helmet; of the sea his name, And the beginning of the alphabet, / And of four syllables, a very Mars. / And priests and temples he will dedicate / In all the cities; traversing the world / With his own foot, and bringing gifts, he will Furnish gold and much amber unto many. / He also will withhold all mysteries / Of the magicians from the sacred temples, / And what is much more excellent for men / Will place... [ruling] [thunderbolt]...

12 And blessed peace shall be when this king comes, / And he shall also be a rich-voiced bard, / A law observer, and a righteous judge; / But he shall fall destroyed by fate divine. / After him three shall rule, but the third long Shall be in power, three decades holding on. / But known from the first unit yet again / Another king shall rule; and after him / Another ruler, numbering seven times ten; / Honored shall be their names. They shall destroy Men marked by many a brand, the mighty Moors, / The Britains, Dacians, and Arabians. / But when of these the youngest is destroyed, / Then shall dire war to Parthia come again; / And he who wounded them before at last Shall also plunder. Then the king himself / Shall fall, even by the treachery of a beast, / Baring his hands—a cause itself of death. / And after him another man shall rule / Famed for much wisdom, having for his name

13 The initial number of the first great king / Of the first unit; good and great is he. / And for the houses of the Latin people / Will this strong one accomplish many things / In memory of his father; and the walls Of Rome will he adorn with gold, and silver, / And ivory; and with a mighty man / Visit the market-places and the temples. / And then by Roman wars will he bring on / Most fearful wounds, and plunder all the land Of the Germans, when there shall appear from heaven / A mighty sign of God; and he will save / For the king's sake and for his piety / The brass-armed, wearied men; for in all things / The God of heaven will hear him when he prays, And out of season send the rain of heaven. / But when these things are finished which I said, / Then also with the rolling years shall cease / The kingdom of this great and pious king. / And at the end of life will he exhibit

14 Coming into the palace his young child, / And to that ruler with the golden hair / Leaving the royal power, he will expire / By his own fate. Twice ten shall note his name, / Who, having been born king from the royal race Of his own father, shall receive the power. / This man will with superior judgment hold / All things, and the great-hearted Hercules / Will emulate, and be the best in arms / Among the mighty, and have highest fame Both among huntsmen and in horsemanship. / But he will live in peril all alone. / But while he rules there shall appear to him / A fearful sign; within the plain of Rome / There shall be a great mist, so that a man Will not discern his neighbor. Then shall wars / And dismal sorrows be when the king himself, / Maddened by love and furious, shall come / Shaming the young race in the nuptial couch, / Shameful with hymeneal songs impure.

15 Then in desertion hidden shall the great man / Destructive, giving himself up to wrath, / Rage in a bath-room, bound by treacherous fate. / Know, then, that Rome's destructive time is near / Because of zeal for power, and by Mars' hands Shall many perish in Palladian homes. / And then shall Rome be desolate and make / Atonement for all things which she has done. / My heart laments, my heart within me mourns, / For from the time of thy first king, proud Rome, Who gave good law to men upon the earth, / And the Word of the great, immortal God / Came to the earth, until the ending up / Of the nineteenth kingdom, there shall be complete / Two hundred and twice twenty and four years. To these add six months more of other time. / Then to the widowed race comes the twentieth king, / When in thy houses, smitten by sharp brass / With sword he pours out blood. His name reveals / The number eighty, and he has old age.

16 And he will shortly make thee desolate / With many warriors, many overthrows, / And murders, homicides, and deadly feuds, / And sufferings for victorious leadership. / And in confusion many a horse and man, Pierced through, shall fall in battles on the plain. / And then another, with the number ten / As the sign of his name, will come and work / Much woe and grief, and plunder many men, / But short-lived he himself shall be, and fall By mighty Mars, struck by the burning iron. / Another, of the number fifty, comes, / A warrior, raised up in the East for rule. / As far as Thrace shall come the warlike Mars; / Then will he flee and come unto the land Of the Bithynians, and the Cicilian plain; / But him shall brazen, soul-destroying Mars / Quickly in the Assyrian plains destroy. / Then shall one become ruler by deceit, / A man of wiles and knowing what is fit,

17 Being raised up from the West, and he shall have / Two hundred as the number of his name, / A sign far above that of royal power. / He will begin war on Assyrian men, / Assemble all the army, and all things Put under him. The Romans he will rule / With mighty energy; but in his heart / Is much craft and the baleful wrath of Mars. / A dreadful serpent, terrible in war, / Who will destroy all lofty men on earth, Slaughtering the noble to obtain their wealth, / Despoiling all the land of ruined men, / He will betake him to the Orient. / And with them shall be every artifice. / Then shall a youthful Cæsar with him rule, Having the name of a puissant king / Of Macedon, by the first letter known. / Diverting broils about him, he will fly / The arduous cunning of the coming king / In the bosom of the army, and the one,

18 Who in barbarian usage rules the temple, / Shall suddenly by mighty Mars be slain, / Cut down by burning iron; and even when dead / The people will abuse his lifeless form. / And then the kings of Persia shall arise And Roman Mars [will smite] the Roman king. / And pastoral Phrygia shall with earthquakes groan. / Woe, woe, Laodicea; woe to thee, / Sad Hierapolis; for you the first / The yawning earth received... Of Rome, vast Aus[onia?] / All things as many... / Shall wail... men destroyed / By the hand of Mars; but when by eastern roads / He hastens forth to look on Italy, Smitten by burning iron, and all exposed / He will fall, hated for his mother's sake. / For horns... all things... restrains another,... / Burning... that all together do not know. / But not for all are all things; only those

19 Shall unto real felicity attain / Who honor God and shun idolatry. / And now, King of the world, of every realm / The monarch, pure, immortal, for thou hast / Into my heart set the ambrosial strain, Cease thou the word, for I am not aware / Of what I say; for all things thou to me / Dost ever speak. But give me a brief rest, / And place thou in my heart a charming song. / For weary has my heart within me grown Of words divine, foretelling royal power.

Book XI (Book XIII in the manuscripts)

1 He bids me sing again the mighty word, / Even the holy and immortal God / Imperishable, who gives kings their power / And then removes it, and ordains for them The tone of life and of destroying death; / Even things the heavenly God enjoins on me / Unwillingly to make known unto kings / Concerning royal power... / And Mars of the leaping spear; by him all perish, Youth and age, judging to the market-place. / For many wars, and fights, and homicides, / Families and pestilences, earthquake-shocks / And mighty thunder-bolts; and many paths / Of the Assyrians through the entire world, And gathering spoil and plundering of temples. / Then of the inventive Persians there shall be / An insurrection, and along with them / Indians, Armenians, and Arabians. / And for these to the Romans there will come 2 A soldier-king, insatiable in war. / Marching against the Assyrians, a new Mars, / Who will stretch out to the deep silver stream / Of the Euphrates, having thither sent / A little warlike force... [through ignorance] For, by his friend abandoned, he shall fall / Amid the ranks, struck by the burning iron. / Then will a purple-loving warrior rule, / Appearing out of Syria, fear of Mars, / And by his son, a Cæsar, will persuade The whole world. Both their names will be obtained / If upon one and twenty there are placed / Five hundred. But when these shall rule in war, / And enact laws, there shall be, but not long, / Respite from war. But when unto a flock A wolf makes oath against the white-toothed dogs, / Then will he spoil and hurt the woolly sheep, / And cast them down, in spite of all his oaths. / And then of lawless and perfidious kings / There shall be strife in wars, and terribly

3 Shall the Syrians be destroyed, and Indians, / Armenians, Arabs, Persians, Babylonians, / Through mighty conflict shall destroy each other. / But when a Roman Mars shall overthrow / The Germans, having in a dreadful war Triumphed upon the ocean, then will be / Among the Persian men of insolence / A war of many years; but victory / Shall not be theirs. For as a fish swims not / Upon the summit of a lofty rock Many ridged, windy, inaccessible, / Nor does a tortoise fly, nor eagle swim / In water, so the Persians in that day / From victory shall be far, while the fond nurse / Of the Italians in the plain of Nile Reposing, and beside the sacred wave, / Shall send the appointed lot to seven-hilled Rome. / These things shall pass, but while the name of Rome / Shall numbers hold of calculable time, / So many years by voluntary act

4 Will the great noble city of the king / Of Macedonia measure out the grain. / Another toilsome song will I now sing / Unto the Alexandrians, by the strife / Of shameful men destroyed. Those who were strong Aforetime, being then weak, will wish / For peace, because of leaders' wickedness. / And the wrath of the mighty God shall come / On the Assyrians, and a mountain stream / Shall utterly destroy them, as it comes And injures Cæsar's city of the moon. / The Pyramus will irrigate the city / Of Mopsus; then shall the Ægæans fall / Because of battle among mighty men. / O wretched Antioch, thee heavy war Will not leave; an Assyrian war shall press / Around thee, for within thy palaces / Shall dwell a chief of men, who will fight all / The arrow-hurling Persians, having been / Himself born of the Romans' royal power.

5 Now, cities of Arabia, deck yourselves / With temples and with stadia for the race, / And with broad markets, and with splendid wealth, / With images, gold, silver, ivory; / And of all thou, especially, O Bostra, City of Philip, that thou mayest come / Into great sorrow; for the laughing forms / Of the zodiacal circle, Ram, and Bull, / And Twins, will not assist thee; nor with these / Whatever stars are visible in heaven Determining the hours. O wretched one, / That, having trusted many, afterward / That very man should what is thine pollute! / Now to war-loving Alexandrians / Will I proceed to sing most dreadful wars. And surely many people will be slain / When cities perish, and opposing states / Wrangle and fight about an odious feud. / And around these will horrid Mars rush on / And stir up war. And then one of great soul Along with his own mighty son shall fall / By means of the treachery of the older king. / And after him another great-souled man / And skilled in war, shall rule strong verdant Rome, / Proceeding from the Dacians, of the number

6 Three hundred, also of the letter four. / Many will he destroy; and then all brothers / And friends will the king slay, even kings being killed. / Then also on the former king's account / Will thefts and murders suddenly occur. Then when a very crafty man shall come, / A robber, out of Syria appearing, / Ignoble Roman, also craftily / A race of Cappadocians will approach, / And fall in siege, insatiable of war. Then, Tyana and Mazaca, shall be / Thy conquest; thou shalt be in servitude / And bear a heavy yoke upon thy neck. / And Syria shall mourn for men destroyed; / Nor will the moon her holy city save, When he first out of Syria, sore beset, / Shall flee the Romans through Euphrates' streams, / No longer like the Romans, but the fierce / Dart-hurling Persians, then the Italian lord / Broken will fall, struck by the burning iron,

7 Having left his world; his children perish too. / But when a Gallic king shall govern Rome, / Then also to the Romans there shall come / Unstable nations,—to the walls of Rome / Mars the destroyer with his bastard son. Then also shall come famines, pestilence, / And wasting thunder-bolts, and dreadful wars, / And tumults of the cities suddenly, / And the Syrians shall be terribly destroyed, / For on them shall come wrath of the Most High. And straightway there shall be a rising up / Of the inventive Persians, and conjoined / With Persians shall the Syrians overthrow / The Romans; but, controlled by the decree / Of power divine, they shall not conquer laws. Alas! how many will flee from the East / With their goods unto men of other tongues! / Alas! the dark blood of how many men / The land shall drink! For this shall be the time / In which the living will with their own mouths

8 Call the dead happy. Beautiful to die, / They will exclaim, and it will flee from them. / Now over thee, O wretched Syria, / I weep in sorrow, for to thee shall come / A dreadful blow from arrow-hurling men, Which thou didst hope would never come to thee. / Also the fugitive of Rome shall come, / Lifting on high his spear, and, passing through / Euphrates with his many myriads, / He will burn thee, and all things ill-dispose. O wretched Antioch, thee they no more / Will call a city, when beneath the spears / Thou shalt fall down by thine own lack of sense; / And having spoiled and stripped thee of all things, / They leave thee coverless, without a house, And whoso sees thee will at once lament. / And thou, O Hierapolis, shalt be / A triumph; thou, Berœa, too; weep ye / At Chalcis for the children newly slain. / Alas, alas, how many shall abide

9 By high Mount Cassius, by Amanus, too; / As many also as the Lycus laves, / And Marsuas and silvery Pyramus. / For even to Asia's borders they will take / The spoil, strip cities, and all idols take away, And cast down temples to the nursing earth. / And then to Gallia and Pannonia, / To Mysians and Bithynians there shall be / A mighty sorrow, when the soldier comes. / O Lycians, Lycians, there will come a wolf To lick thy blood, whenever Sannians come / With city-wasting Mars, and Carpians / Draw near to fight with the Ausonians. / And then by his own shameless recklessness / A bastard son will put the king to death, And he himself for his impiety / Will straightway perish. After him again / Will yet another rule, whose name presents / The first of letters; quickly shall he fall / By mighty Mars, struck by the burning iron.

10 And yet again the world shall be confused, / Men perishing by pestilence and war. / And the Persians shall again force on the toil / Of warfare, maddened by the Ausonians. / And then there shall a flight of Romans be. But then shall come a priest, the last of all / Sent by the sun, from Syria appearing, / And he will all things by deceit effect. / And then shall be a city of the sun, / And around it [the Persians] will endure The fearful menaces of the Phenicians. / But when two leaders, warlike men, shall rule / The mighty Romans, one of whom shall have / The number seventy, one the number three, / Then the proud bull that digs the earth with hoofs, And raises up the dust with double horns, / Shall do the dark-skinned reptile many ills, / Which draws a trailing furrow with his scales, / And he himself shall perish. After him / Shall come another, beautiful-horned stag,

11 Hungry upon the mountains, craving strong / To feed upon the venom-shedding beasts. / Then shall a fierce and dreadful lion come, / Sent from the sun, and breathing plenteous flame. / And then with much and shameless recklessness Will he destroy the rapid, well-horned stag, / And the huge beast so venomous and dread / That sends forth many a cry, and the he-goat, / Bow-legged, and renown will follow him. / And he himself, obtaining all by lot, Uninjured and insatiable, shall rule / The Romans, and the Persians shall be weak. / But thou, O Prince, King of the world, God, end / The song of my words, and give charming song.

Book XII (Book XIV in the manuscripts)

1 Men, why in vain, as though ye were immortals, / And being in power but for a little time, / Do ye imagine such exalted things, / All of you wishing over men to reign? Not understanding that the lust of power / God himself hates, and most the insatiate kings, / Malevolent, ungodly, and on such / Brings darkness; for instead of noble deeds / And righteous thoughts, ye all choose purple robes. These, loving wars and miseries and murders, / Short-lived will be made by the immortal God, / Who dwells in heaven, and will exterminate, / And upon one another ruin them. / But when, fair-haired and terrible, shall come The bull-destroyer, trusting in his might, / He also will slay all, and tear the shepherds, / And they will have no strength, except the dogs, / With swift foot eagerly pursuing on, / Encounter in the strife, and then the dog

2 Will chase the lion that destroyed the shepherds. / Then shall there be a man, four-syllabled, / Trusting in might, made clearly known by one; / But quickly him will brazen Mars destroy / By battles of insatiable men. Then shall two other princely men bear rule, / Both of the number forty; and with these / Great peace shall be throughout the world, and right / And justice to all people; but even these / Will men with gleaming helmet, wanting gold, And for the sake of silver, basely slay, / Having taken them in their hands. And then shall reign / A terrible young warrior, ruler known / By the number seventy, hot with deadly wrath, / Who basely to the army shall betray The Roman people, slain by wickedness / Through wrath of kings, and shall hurl to the earth / Even every city of the illustrious Latins. / Rome is no longer to be seen or heard, / Such as of late the traveler's eye beheld,

3 For all those things shall in the ashes lie, / And of her works not any shall be spared. / For wrathful he will come, and out of heaven / Send lightnings from the sky, and thunderbolts, / Upon mankind—even God, the immortal One; And some he will destroy by burning blasts, / And others with his chilling thunder-bolts. / And then shall children of Rome, mighty Rome, / And the Latins slay the shameless ruler dire; / Nor on him, dead, shall the dust lightly lie, For he shall be a sport for dogs, and birds, / And wolves, for he destroyed a warlike tribe. / After him, numbering forty, there shall rule / Another, famous Parthian-destroyer, / German-destroyer, slayer of fierce beasts That kill men, who upon the ocean's streams / And the Euphrates press unceasing on. / And then again shall Rome be as before. / But when there comes a great wolf in thy plains, / A ruler from the West, then he shall die

4 By mighty Mars, pierced through with the sharp brass. / Then o'er the valiant Romans there shall rule / Another great-souled warrior, brought to light / Out of Assyria, and his name begins / The letters; in subjection he himself Will bring all things by wars, and he at once / Over the armies will exhibit power / And laws establish. But him brazen Mars / Will soon destroy, in treacherous armies fallen. / After him three of haughty soul shall reign, One having the first number, one three tens, / And the other king three hundred will partake. / Cruel, they gold and silver in much fire / Will melt, statues for temples made with hands, / And to the armies they, being armed, will give Money for victory, and costly things / Will they distribute, numerous and good, / Devising shameful things, so they shall harm / The arrow-hurling Parthians of the deep / And swift Euphrates, and the hostile Medes,

5 And fair-haired warriors the Massagetæ, / And the strong Persians, quiver-bearing men. / But when the king by his own fate shall fail, / Leaving the royal scepter to his sons / More valiant, urging them to what is right, Then they, unmindful of their father's prayers, / And girding on the implements of war, / Will rush in conflict for the royal power. / And then a king, known from [the number] three, / Shall rule alone, and, smitten by the spear, Shall quickly see his fate. And after him / Shall many perish at each other's hands, / Strong mortals, wrestling for the royal power. / And one of mighty soul shall then bear rule / Over the mighty Romans, an old king, Of the number four, and all things well dispose. / And then shall war unto Phenicia come / And conflict, when the nation shall approach / Of arrow-shooting Persians; and how many / Shall fall down under men of barbarous speech!

6 Sidon, and Tripolis, and Berytus / The loudly boasting, shall each other see / Covered with blood and bodies of the dead. / Wretched Laodicea, round thyself / Thou shalt a great and unsuccessful war Stir up through the impiety of men. / O hapless Tyrians, ye shall gather in / An evil harvest, when in the day-time / The sun that lighteth mortals shall retire, / And his disk not appear, and drops of blood, Thick and abundant, shall come down from heaven / Upon the earth. And then the king shall die, / Betrayed by his companions. After him / Shall many shameless leaders still promote / The wicked strife, and one another kill. And then shall be a venerable king / Sagacious, with a name that numbers five, / Confiding in great armies; him will men / Love for his royal power, and of a name / Illustrious, he shall do illustrious deeds.

7 While this king reigns there shall be a great sign: / 'Twixt Taurus and Amanus, clad with snow, / From the Cilician land shall be destroyed / A certain city, new and beautiful / And mighty, by a powerful-flowing stream. And in Propontis and in Phrygia / There shall be many earthquakes; and the king / Of great renown shall under his own fate / By wasting, deadly sickness end his life. / And after him shall rule two princely kings, One's name three hundred, and the other three. / So also he will utterly destroy / Many upon the seven-hilled city Rome, / That he the mighty kingdom may obtain. / And then unto the Senate there shall be A deep misfortune; it shall not escape / The angry king, against it holding wrath. / And furious rains and snow-storms shall there be, / And hail shall ruin fruits upon the earth, / And men shall fall in battles, overcome

8 By mighty Mars in the Italian wars. / And then another king, of many schemes, / Shall bear rule, all the army summoning, / And for the sake of war distributing / Treasures to those with brazen breastplate clad. The corn-abounding Nile beyond the shores / Of Libya shall for two years irrigate / The plain of Egypt and the fertile land. / But famine will on all things seize, and war, / Robberies, murders, slaughter of mankind. And many cities shall by warlike men / Be overthrown; and at the army's hands / Himself, betrayed, shall fall by burning iron. / After him one whose number is three hundred / Shall rule the Romans and the mighty men, And he will stretch a deadly javelin forth / Against the Armenians, and the Parthians, / The Assyrians, and the Persians, bold in fight. / And then a structure there shall be at Rome, / Magnificently built of gold and amber,

9 Silver and ivory and beauty rare. / And in it many people shall abide / From all the East, and from the prosperous West; / And for it other laws the king will make. / Him afterward upon a boundless isle Shall wasting death and mighty fate receive. / Another man, of ten times three, shall reign, / Like a wild beast, with mane, and terrible, / And from the Greeks shall he his lineage trace. / And then in fertile Phthia shall the city Of the Molossi fall, and also famed / Larissa, situate on Peneus' banks. / And then in horse-abounding Scythia / Shall there be insurrection, and dire war / Beside the waters of Mæotis' lake, At the outpourings of the utmost draught / Of Phasis' watery fountain on the meads / Of asphodel. And many then will fall / By powerful warriors. Ah, by fiery brass / How many Mars will seize! And then the king

10 Will utterly destroy the Scythian race, / And die in his own lot, releasing life. / Then shall another rule, made evident / By the number four, a fearful man, whom all / The Armenians, even as many as shall drink The thick ice of Araxes' flowing stream, / And the brave Persians shall much fear in war. / Between the Colchians and Pelasgi strong / Shall there be fearful wars and homicides, / And Phrygia's land and cities of the land Propontis, making bare their two-edged swords, / Shall smite each other in base wickedness. / Then a great sign with the revolving years / Will God from heaven display to mortal men, / A falcon, omen of pernicious war. The king will not escape the army's hands, / But die at their hands, cut by burning iron. / After him, numbering fifty, there shall reign / Another, out of Asia, terrible, / A fierce antagonist, and he will place

11 War even on the famous walls of Rome, / And on the Colchians, and the Henochians, / And the milk-drinking Agathyrsians, / The Euxine Sea and Thracia's sandy bay. / The king will not escape the army's hands, Whom, even dead, they will abuse his corpse. / And then, the king destroyed, illustrious Rome / Shall be a desert, and much people perish. / And then again one terrible and dread / From mighty Egypt will bear rule, and slay The great-souled Parthians, and the Medes, and Germans, / And Agathyrsians of the Bosporus, / Britons, Hibernians, and Iberians / That bear the quiver, crooked Massagetæ, / And Persians thinking themselves more than men. And then a famous man upon all Greece / Will turn his eye, and act the enemy / To Scythia and windy Caucasus. / And while he rules a potent sign shall be: / Crowns altogether like the beaming stars

12 From heaven will shine forth in the south and north. / Then he will leave unto his son, whose name / Begins the alphabet, the royal power, / And forthwith by his fate into the house / Of Hades will the noble king depart. And when his son rules in the land of Rome, / Known from one, there shall be on all the earth / Great peace much longed for, and the Latin people / Will love the king even for his father's worth. / Him, urgent to go to the East and West, The Romans will hold firmly fast at home / Against his will, and in command of Rome, / Because among all there is friendly soul / Felt for the royal and illustrious prince. / But ruinous death will snatch him out of life, Short-lived, given over to his destiny. / Other strong warriors afterward again / Shall smite each other, forwarding base strife, / Not exercising royal power of kings, / But that of tyrants. And in all the world

13 Will they accomplish many evil things, / But chiefly to the Romans, till the time / Of the third Dionysus, until Mars / With gleaming helmet shall from Egypt come, / Whom they Prince Dionysus then will call. But when a murderous lion and lioness / The famous purple royal robe shall rend, / They will upon the inmost vitals seize, / The kingdom being hard pressed; and then a holy king, / Whose name has the first letter, will exchange Hostile chiefs for the sake of victory, / And leave them as a prey for dogs and birds. / Woe, woe to thee, thou city burned with fire, / O powerful Rome! How many things for thee / To suffer when all these things come to pass! But afterward the great and famous king / With gold and amber, silver and ivory, / Will altogether raise thee up again, / And in the world thou shalt be first in goods, / And temples, markets, riches, stadia;

14 And thou again shalt be a light for all, / Even as thou hast been in the former time. / Woe, wretched Cecrops, and ye Argive Greeks, / Laconians, too, and those around Peneus, / And by Molossos' stream thick grown with reeds, Tricca, Dodona, Ithome cut on high, / Pierus' neck, and great Olympus' peak, / Ossa, Larissa, and high-gate Calydon. / But when for mortals God works a great sign / And day becomes dark twilight round the world, Even then to thee, O king, the end shall come, / Nor wilt thou find it possible to flee / A brother's piercing bow against thee thrown. / And then a life-destroying one shall reign, / Unspeakable, fierce, of the royal line. Who shall have Egypt's race, much heavier armed / And stronger than his brother; he obtains / The number eighty as initial mark. / Then all the world will in its bosom feel / The grievous wrath of the immortal God

15 For penalty. And there shall come on men / Famines, and plagues, and wars, and homicides, / And ceaseless darkness also on the earth, / Mother of peoples, and disordered times, / And wrath severe from heaven, and earthquake shocks, And flaming thunder-bolts, and stones, and storms, / And squalid drops. A quaking also moves / The lofty summits of the Phrygian land, / The bases of the Scythian mountains shake; / The city trembled, trembled all the earth, Along with those of the Hellenic land. / And many cities, God being very wroth, / Shall fall prone under flaming thunder-bolts / And lamentations; and to flee the wrath / And make escape is not even possible. Then at the army's hand the king shall fall, / Struck down, as no one, under his own men. / After him of the Latins many men / Will be raised up, and on their shoulders place / The purple mantle, longing to obtain

16 By lot the royal power. And then three kings / Shall be upon the famous walls of Rome, / Two having the first number, but the one / The name of victory as no other bears. / Concerned for men, they will have love for Rome And all the world, and there shall be for them / No relaxation. For not to the world / Has God been gracious, nor will he to men / Be kind, since they have many evils done. / Therefore made he for kings a shameful soul, Much worse than that of panthers and of wolves. / For them will men, in brazen helmets clad, / Seizing unsparingly with their own hands, / And for their seepters utterly destroy, / Even kings, like helpless women cleft for naught. Woe, wretched lofty men of glorious Rome, / Trusting in false oaths, ye shall be destroyed. / And many spearmen then upon the world, / Men rushing forward, will the offspring seize / From blood of first-born men....

17 Twice may not demon such a lot first lead; / And all men he will with their works destroy. / But God again those having shameless soul / Will bring into the judgment yet to come, / As many as are marked; these, sent away Into that condemnation of wickedness, / Are fenced in, striking one upon another. / And many stars, and brilliant comet, [sign] / Of much war and of battle-strife to come. / But when one gathers many oracles Concerning islands, planning with strange guests / War and fierce strife and harm to sacred things, / And in the Roman houses gathers wheat / And barley, pressing for abundance on, / For twelve months long, the city in those days Shall suffer hardship. But straightway again / It shall be prosperous not a little while; / And rest will come when ruling is destroyed. / And then the last race of the Latin kings / Shall come, the kingdom will again grow up,

18 And children and the children's race shall be / Unshaken, for it shall be known to them / When God himself shall be the ruling king. / There is a land, fond nourisher of men, / Situate in an open plain; the Nile Around it borders, wafting blessings on / All Libya and Ethiopia. / And short-lived Syrians, some here and some there, / Shall plunder all the substance of that land. / And it shall have a great and prudent king; Sending one of the children as a light, / And meditating dreadful things for such / As are exceeding dreadful unto all, / He will of all high-minded Italy / A mighty helper bring. And when he comes Unto Assyria's dark-colored sea, / He will spoil the Phenicians in their homes, / Unloosing foul war and dire battle-din. / Of the two rulers one shall rule the earth. / Now will I of the Alexandrians sing

19 The painful end. Barbarians shall dwell / In sacred Egypt, unharmed, quiet land, / Whenever envy shall from some place come. / Winter will become summer; then will all / The oracles to their fulfillment come. But when three youths in the Olympia / Shall conquer, and to them, while they take heed, / Thou speak the oracle invoked of God / To cleanse them first by blood of tender beasts, / Thrice then may the Highest move his awful neck. Whenever he the long and mournful spear / Shall stretch out upon all, much barbarous blood / Will flow amid the dust, when by strange guests / The city has been plundered utterly. / Happy is he who died, and happy he Who has no child. For under slavish yoke / Shall he be placed that formerly was free, / And famous once for plans himself revolved. / Such is the various slavery of kings. / And then of the Sicilians there shall come

20 A host ill-fated, carrying dire alarm, / When a barbarian nation shall approach. / When they grow fruit they will divide the land. / To them will God, the lofty thunderer, / Evil for evil give; continually Guest plundering guest of gold will go away. / But when all see the fearful lion's blood, / And when unto the body there shall come / The murderous lioness, then he will rend / Away from him the scepter from his head. As when in Egypt at the friendly feast / The people all eat, and complete great works, / One finds another, and there is among them / Much shouting, also thus alarm shall be / Among men, while the conflict rages round, And many perish, and they massacre / Each other in impetuous battle fray. / And then one covered with dark scales shall come. / Two others shall come hostile to each other; / With them a third, a great ram from Cyrene

21 Of whom I spoke before, who flees in battle / Along the streams of Nile. But yet not thus / Do all complete the unsuccessful way. / And then the lengths of the great rolling years / Shall be all tranquil. Yet a second war Shall then again on Egypt be imposed; / And they shall boast, but have no victory. / O wretched craftsmen of a noble city! / And in wars there shall not be booty long. / And then the neighboring men of a large land Shall flee in fear, and lead their fearful sires. / And then, obtaining a great victory, / Shall they upon the city light again; / They will destroy courageous Jewish men, / Slaughtering by war far as the hoary sea, Both shepherds for their fatherland and sires. / But to the dead there shall succeed a race / Of trophy-bearing men. Alas! how many men / Around the waves shall swim! For multitudes / Will lie exposed upon the sandy shores;

22 Heads covered with the golden hair shall fall / Under the swift Egyptians; then indeed / Shall follow the Arabians' mortal blood. / But when wolves pledge themselves by oaths to dogs / Upon a sea-girt isle, then shall there be A rising up of towers, and men will dwell / In the city that has suffered many things. / No more will treacherous gold and silver be, / Nor earthly wealth, nor toilsome servitude, / But one fast friendship and one mode of life Will be with the glad people, and all things / Will common be, and equal light of life. / And wickedness from earth in the vast sea / Shall sink away. And then the harvest-time / Of mortals is near. Strong necessity Is laid upon these things to be fulfilled. / Nor then will any other traveler say, / Recalling, that men's perishable race / Shall ever cease. And then o'er all the earth / A holy nation will the scepter hold

23 Unto all ages with their mighty sires.