* * * * * Page 43 Still grew Rufinus’ wicked greed, and his impious passion for new-won wealth blazed yet fiercer; no feeling of shame kept him from demanding and extorting money. He combines perjury with ceaseless cajolery, ratifying with a hand-clasp the bond he purposes to break. Should any dare to refuse his demand for one thing out of so many, his fierce heart would be stirred with swelling wrath. Was ever lioness wounded with a Gaetulian’s spear, or Hyrcan tiger pursuing the robber of her young, was ever bruisèd serpent so fierce? He swears by the majesty of the gods and tramples on his oath. He reverences not the laws of hospitality. To kill a wife and her husband with her and her children sates not his anger; ’tis not enough to slaughter relations and drive friends into exile; he strives to destroy every citizen of Rome and to blot out the very name of our race. Nor does he even slay with a swift death; ere that he enjoys the infliction of cruel torture; the rack, the chain, the lightless cell, these he sets before the final blow. Why, this remission is more savage, more madly cruel, than the sword--this grant of life that agony may accompany it! Is death not enough for him? With treacherous charges he attacks; dazed wretches find him at once accuser and judge. Slow to all else he is swift to crime and tireless to visit the ends of the earth in its pursuit. Neither the Dog-star’s heat nor the wintry blasts of the Thracian north wind detain him. Feverish anxiety torments his cruel heart lest any escape his sword, or an emperor’s pardon lose him an opportunity for injury. Neither age nor youth can move his pity: before their father’s eyes his bloody axe severs boys’ heads * * * * * Page 44 ibat grandaevus nato moriente superstes post trabeas exul. quis prodere tanta relatu funera, quis caedes possit deflere nefandas? 250 quid tale inmanes umquam gessisse feruntur vel Sinis Isthmiaca pinu vel rupe profunda Sciron vel Phalaris tauro vel carcere Sulla? o mites Diomedis equi! Busiridis arae clementes! iam Cinna pius, iam Spartace segnis 255 Rufino collatus eris! Deiecerat omnes occultis odiis terror tacitique sepultos suspirant gemitus indignarique verentur. at non magnanimi virtus Stilichonis eodem fracta metu; solus medio sed turbine rerum 260 contra letiferos rictus contraque rapacem movit tela feram, volucris non praepete cursu vectus equi, non Pegaseis adiutus habenis. hic cunctis optata quies, hic sola pericli turris erat clipeusque trucem porrectus in hostem, hic profugis sedes adversaque signa furori, 266 servandis hic castra bonis.