Haec est in gremium victos quae sola recepit 150
Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit
Matris, non dominae ritu: civesque vocavit
Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit.
Huius pacificis debemus moribus omnes
Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes: 155
Quod sedem mutare licet: quod cernere Thulen
Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus:
Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Orontem;
Quod cuncti gens una sumus. Nec terminus unquam
Romanae dicionis erit. Nam cetera regna 160
Luxuries vitiis odiisque superbia vertit.
Sic male sublimes fregit Spartanus Athenas
Atque idem Thebas cecidit. Sic Medus ademit
Assyrio, Medoque tulit moderamina Perses:
Subiecit Macedo Persen, cessurus et ipse 165
Romanis. Haec auguriis firmata Sibyllae,
Haec sacris animata Numae: huic fulmina vibrat
Iuppiter: hanc tota Tritonia Gorgone velat.
Arcanas huc Vesta faces, huc orgia Bacchus
Transtulit, et Phrygios genetrix turrita leones. 170
Huc defensurus morbos Epidaurius hospes
Reptavit placido tractu, vectumque per undas
Insula Paeonium texit Tiberina draconem.
CLAUDIAN, _de Consulatu Stilichonis_, iii. 150-173.
[Linenotes:
153. +nexuque ... revinxit+ = _and has linked far places in a bond
of love_. --Jebb.
156. +Thulen:+ cf. Vergil’s _ultima Thule_, of the northernmost
island known, variously identified with the Shetlands, Iceland, or
Norway.
158. +Orontem+: the largest river of Syria, whence Juvenal, iii. 62,
uses it of the Syrian people--
_Iam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes._
159. +Quod cuncti ... sumus+ = _that the whole earth is one people_.
164. +moderamina+ = _the reins of power_; lit. _a means of
managing_.
168. +hanc tota ... velat+ = _she it is above whom Pallas spreads
the whole shadow of the aegis_ (+tota Gorgone+). Cf. Verg. _Aen._
viii. 435-8:
_Aegidaque horriferam, turbatae Palladis arma,
Certatim squamis serpentum auroque polibant,
Connexosque angues ipsamque in pectore divae
Gorgona, desecto vertentem lumina collo._
170. +genetrix turrita+, i.e. Cybele, the goddess of settled life.
171. +Epidaurius hospes+, i.e. Asclepius (Aesculapius), who had a
famous temple at Epidaurus (in Argolis), whence his worship was
introduced into Rome to avert a pestilence 293 B.C.
172. +reptavit placido tractu+ = _came gently gliding on his voyage_.
--Jebb. --For +reptavit+ cf. _repo_, ἕρπω, and our _creep_.
173. +Paeonium draconem+ = _the serpent of the healer_. Cf. Παιών.]
B73
‘QUOD CUNCTI GENS UNA SUMUS.’ --CLAUDIAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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