Africa or Italy. The part that faces Africa is flat and affords good anchorage for ships; the northern shore is inhospitable, rock-bound, stormy, and loud with sudden gales. The sailor curses these wild cliffs. Here the pestilence falls on men and beasts, so plague-ridden and deadly is the air, so omnipotent the South wind and the North winds banished. When their much buffeted vessels had given a wide berth to these dangers, they came to land at different places on the broken coast-line. Some are beached at Sulci, a city founded by Carthage of old. The sea-wall of Olbia shelters others. The city of Caralis over against the coast of Libya, a colony of great Phoenician Carthage, juts out into the sea and extends into the waves, a little promontory that breaks the force of the opposing winds. Thus in the midst a harbour is found and in a huge bay the quiet waters lie safe from every wind. For this harbour they make with every effort, and reversing their vessels they await the favouring breezes of the west wind with fleet at anchor.[83] [83] This poem was never properly finished; see Introduction, p. xi. * * * * * Page 138 IN EUTROPIUM LIBER I (XVIII.) Semiferos partus metuendaque pignora matri moenibus et mediis auditum nocte luporum murmur et attonito pecudes pastore locutas et lapidum duras hiemes nimboque minacem sanguineo rubuisse Iovem puteosque cruore 5 mutatos visasque polo concurrere lunas et geminos soles mirari desinat orbis: omnia cesserunt eunucho consule monstra. heu terrae caelique pudor! trabeata per urbes ostentatur anus titulumque effeminat anni. 10 pandite pontifices Cumanae carmina vatis, fulmineos sollers Etruria consulat ignes inmersumque nefas fibris exploret haruspex, quae nova portendant superi. Nilusne meatu devius et nostri temptat iam transfuga mundi 15 se Rubro miscere mari? ruptone Niphate rursum barbaricis Oriens vastabitur armis? an morbi ventura lues? an nulla colono responsura seges? quae tantas expiet iras victima? quo diras iugulo placabimus aras? 20 * * * * * Page 139 AGAINST EUTROPIUS BOOK I (XVIII.)