By Tullus' doom: the brambles drink his blood; And his torn limbs are left, the vulture's food. There, Porsena to Rome proud Tarquin brings, And would by force restore the banished kings. One tyrant for his fellow-tyrant fights: The Roman youth assert their native rights. Before the town the Tuscan army lies, To win by famine, or by fraud surprise. Their king, half threatening, half disdaining, stood, While Cocles broke the bridge, and stemmed the flood. The captive maids there tempt the raging tide, 'Scaped from their chains, with Clœlia for their guide. High on a rock heroic Manlius stood, To guard the temple, and the temple's god. Then Rome was poor; and there you might behold The palace thatched with straw, now roofed with gold. The silver goose before the shining gate There flew, and, by her cackle, saved the state. She told the Gauls' approach: the approaching Gauls, Obscure in night, ascend, and seize the walls. The gold dissembled well their yellow hair, And golden chains on their white necks they wear. Gold are their vests; long Alpine spears they wield, And their left arm sustains a length of shield. Hard by, the leaping Salian priests advance; And naked through the streets the mad Luperci dance: In caps of wool; the targets dropt from heaven. Here modest matrons, in soft litters driven, To pay their vows in solemn pomp appear, And odorous gums in their chaste hands they bear. Far hence removed, the Stygian seats are seen; Pains of the damned, and punished Catiline, Hung on a rock--the traitor; and, around, The Furies hissing from the nether ground. Apart from these, the happy souls he draws, And Cato's holy ghost dispensing laws. Betwixt the quarters flows a golden sea; But foaming surges there in silver play. The dancing dolphins with their tails divide The glittering waves, and cut the precious tide. Amid the main, two mighty fleets engage-- Their brazen beaks opposed with equal rage. Actium surveys the well-disputed prize: Leucate's watery plain with foamy billows fries. Young Cæsar, on the stern, in armour bright, Here leads the Romans and their gods to fight: His beamy temples shoot their flames afar, And o'er his head is hung the Julian star. Agrippa seconds him, with prosperous gales, And, with propitious gods, his foes assails. A naval crown, that binds his manly brows, The happy fortune of the fight foreshows. Ranged on the line opposed, Antonius brings Barbarian aids, and troops of eastern kings, The Arabians near, and Bactrians from afar, Of tongues discordant, and a mingled war: And, rich in gaudy robes, amidst the strife, His ill fate follows him--the Egyptian wife. Moving they fight: with oars and forky prows, The froth is gathered, and the water glows.