Undosa tum forte domo vitreisque sub antris rerum ignarus adhuc ingentes pectore curas volvebat pater Eridanus: quis bella maneret exitus? imperiumne Iovi legesque placerent et vitae Romana quies, an iura perosus 150 ad priscos pecudum damnaret saecula ritus? talia dum secum movet anxius, advolat una Naiadum resoluta comam, complexaque patrem “en Alaricus” ait “non qualem nuper ovantem vidimus; exangues, genitor, mirabere vultus. 155 percensere manum tantaque ex gente iuvabit relliquias numerasse breves. iam desine maesta fronte queri Nymphasque choris iam redde sorores.” Dixerat; ille caput placidis sublime fluentis extulit, et totis lucem spargentia ripis 160 * * * * * Page 85 disgrace; such was the complete reversal of his fortune.[28] As when a pirate ship, the terror of every sea, laden with the spoils of violence and the booty taken from many a captured merchantman, falls in with a great man-of-war and hopes to secure it for its prey as vessels heretofore, then indeed crippled by the slaughter of its oarsmen and the rending of its sails, deprived of its rudder and all but destroyed by the breaking of its yardarms, it is driven this way and that at the mercy of wind and wave and at last pays the penalty for its piracy; even so Alaric turned backwards his vain threatenings, fleeing from Italy that, once so easy for his advance, was now so difficult for his retreat. His fear makes him believe every road barred, and rivers, erstwhile left behind in scorn, fill him with alarm on his return. Meanwhile, as it fell out, father Eridanus in his watery home beneath the crystal caverns, ignorant as yet of what had happened, was pondering weighty cares. What, he wondered, would be the outcome of the war: would Jove approve empire and law and Rome’s days of peace, or would he, abhorring order, condemn future ages to the primal ways of brute beasts? As he anxiously ponders such things one of the Naiads with hair unbound came and embraced her sire and said, “Alaric is other now than once we saw him in his hour of triumph: thou wilt wonder at the pallor of his countenance. Joy it will be to reckon up his army and number the remains of so great a host. Frown no more nor complain; let my sister nymphs once more enjoy their dances.” So spake she and he lifted his gracious head above the gliding stream and on his dripping forehead [28] Claudian did not live to see the next “reversal of fortune,” Alaric’s capture of Rome six years later. * * * * * Page 86