“Quippe metus poenae. pridem mos ille vigebat, ut meritos colerent impacatisque rebelles urgerent odiis; at nunc, qui foedera rumpit, ditatur; qui servat, eget. vastator Achivae gentis et Epirum nuper populates inultam 215 praesidet Illyrico; iam, quos obsedit, amicos ingreditur muros illis responsa daturus, quorum coniugibus potitur natosque peremit. sic hostes punire solent, haec praemia solvunt excidiis. cunctaris adhuc numerumque tuorum 220 respicis exiguamque manum? tu rumpe quietem; bella dabunt socios. nec te tam prona monerem, si contra paterere viros: nunc alter in armis sexus et eunuchis se defensoribus orbis credidit; hos aquilae Romanaque signa sequuntur. incipe barbaricae tandem te reddere vitae, 226 te quoque iam timeant admirenturque nocentem, quem sprevere pium. spoliis praedaque repletus cum libeat Romanus eris.” Sic fata repente in diram se vertit avem rostroque recurvo 230 turpis et infernis tenebris obscurior alas auspicium veteri sedit ferale sepulcro. Ille, pavor postquam resoluto corde quievit * * * * * Page 201 Cowardice is called loyalty; fear, a sense of justice. Wilt thou submit to humiliating poverty though thou bearest arms? Wilt thou weep unavenged, though so many cities open to thee their undefended gates? “Dost thou fear the consequences? Rome’s old way was to reward merit and vent on rebels a hate that knew no bound. Now he who breaks a treaty wins riches, while he who observes one lives in want. The ravager of Achaea and recent devastator of defenceless Epirus is lord of Illyria[111]; he now enters as a friend within the walls to which he was laying siege, and administers justice to those whose wives he has seduced and whose children he has murdered. Such is the punishment meted out to an enemy, such the vengeance exacted for wholesale slaughter--and dost thou still hesitate? Hast thou regard to the small numbers of thy followers? Nay, have done with peace: war will give thee allies. Nor would I urge thee so instantly hadst thou to face men. It is another sex that is in arms against thee; the world has entrusted itself to the protection of eunuchs; ’tis such leaders the eagles and standards of Rome follow. Time it is thou didst return to a barbarian life; be thou in thy turn an object of terror, and let men marvel at thy crimes who despised thy virtues. Laden with booty and plunder thou shalt be a Roman when it pleases thee.” So saying she suddenly changed into an ill-omened bird, a loathsome sight with its hooked beak and plumage blacker than Hell’s darkness, and perched, a sinister augury, on an old tomb. So soon as repose from terror came to his freed [111] Alaric was made _magister militum_ in Illyricum: see Introduction, p. x.