The Extreme Honour of Regulus

Caelo tonantem credidimus Iovem regnare: praesens divus habebitur      Augustus adiectis Britannis       imperio gravibusque Persis. Milesne Crassi coniuge barbara                turpis maritus vixit et hostium,      pro curia inuersique mores!       consenuit socerorum in armis sub rege Medo Marsus et Apulus anciliorum et nominis et togae                     oblitus aeternaeque Vestae,       incolumi Iove et urbe Roma? Hoc caverat mens provida Reguli dissentientis condicionibus      foedis et exemplo trahenti                      perniciem veniens in aevum, si non periret inmiserabilis captius pubes: 'Signa ego Punicis      adfixa delubris et arma       militibus sine caede' dixit                 'derepta vidi; vidi ego civium retorta tergo bracchia libero      portasque non clausas et arva       Marte coli populata nostro. Auro repensus scilicet acrior                miles redibit. Flagitio additis      damnum. Neque amissos colores       lana refert medicata fuco, nec vera virtus, cum semel excidit, curat reponi deterioribus.                     Si pugnat extricata densis       cerva plagis, erit ille fortis, qui perfidis se credidit hostibus, et Marte Poenos proteret altero,      qui lora restrictis lacertis                      sensit iners timuitque mortem. Hic, unde vitam sumeret inscius, pacem duello miscuit. O pudor!      o magna Carthago, probrosis       altior Italiae ruinis!'                 Fertur pudicae coniugis osculum parvosque natos ut capitis minor      ab se removisse et virilem       toruus humi posuisse voltum, donec labantis consilio patres                firmaret auctor nunquam alias dato      interque maerentis amicos      egregius properaret exul. Atqui sciebat quae sibi barbarus tortor pararet; non aliter tamen                     dimovit obstantis propinquos      et populum reditus morantem quam si clientum longa negotia diiudicata lite relinqueret,      tendens Venafranos in agros                     aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum.

When Jupiter has thundered We know that He is Lord; Britons and Persians conquered, Caesar shall reign adored. Did Crassus’ Roman soldiers Wed each his foreign wife, And make the foe their fathers And serve the Medes in strife, Heedless of court and custom, Sky-shields, the garb of home, Hearth-goddess everlasting, Inviolate Jove, and Rome? HE knew it was pernicious, Foresaw the precedent: To no such vile conditions Would Regulus consent. ‘Our men must die. No quarter For captives! I saw there Our eagles on strange altars, Uninjured men stripped bare, ‘Free Romans bound and pinioned, The Punic gates unbarred, Grain sprouting on the ploughland Where Rome had set her sword. ‘Weigh out your gold. More valiant Our gallants shall return! Add loss to shame! No treatment Gives wool a tint that’s gone: ‘True valour once abandoned Is lost to broken men. A doe that’s disentangled Will not give fight. Nor then ‘Will the poor gulls who yielded Fight Carthage by and by, Who let themselves be shackled, Slack-limbed, afraid to die, ‘Who desperate for safety Mixed war with peace. For shame! Great Carthage high and mighty, Rome ruined, Romans’ blame.’ They say he shunned his children, Refused his wife’s embrace; Distraught he glared, and downward He turned an outlaw’s face. The senate heard such counsel As never else was said. They hearkened; he sought exile, Torn from his friends dismayed: He knew the coming torture, And yet he thrust aside Those who delayed departure, The cousins and the crowd: As one whose task is over, A great case closed, may go At ease to green Venafrum Or Spartan Táranto.