DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0341
Ch. IX. THROUGH ITALY. 313
pere et inter horrendos fragores micare ignes.”
After repeated, but useless exertions, Annibal
returned to the plain, and Rome had time to arm
her youth and to call forth all her energies, to meet
the approaching tempest.
Lucan, in his description of the Apennines, in-
dulges as usual his vein of hyperbolical exagger-
ation; but as he is accurate in his representation
of the bearing of this immense ridge, and of the
rivers that roll from its sides, it may not be amiss
to insert his lines,
Mons inter geminas medius se porrigit undas
Inferni, superique maris : collesque coercent
Hine Tyrrhena vado frangentes aequora Pisae,
Illinc Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon.
Fontibus hie vastis immensos concipit amnes,
Fluminaque in gemini spargit divortia ponti.
In laevuna cecidere latus veloxque Metaurus,
Crustumiumque rapax, et junctus Isapis Isauro,
Semnaque, et Adriacas qui verberat Aufidus undas:
Quoque magis nullum tellus se solvit in amnem,
Eridanus, fractasque evolvit in aequora silvas....
Dexteriora petens mentis declivia Tybrim
Unda facit, Rutubamque cavum ; delabitur inde
Vulturnusque eeler, nocturnaeque editor aurae
Sarnus, etumbrosae Liris per regna Maricae
Vestinis impulsus aquis, radensque Salerni
Culta Siler, nullasque vado qui Macra moratus
Ainos, vicinae procurrit in aequora Lunae.
Longior educto qua surgit in aera dorso,
pere et inter horrendos fragores micare ignes.”
After repeated, but useless exertions, Annibal
returned to the plain, and Rome had time to arm
her youth and to call forth all her energies, to meet
the approaching tempest.
Lucan, in his description of the Apennines, in-
dulges as usual his vein of hyperbolical exagger-
ation; but as he is accurate in his representation
of the bearing of this immense ridge, and of the
rivers that roll from its sides, it may not be amiss
to insert his lines,
Mons inter geminas medius se porrigit undas
Inferni, superique maris : collesque coercent
Hine Tyrrhena vado frangentes aequora Pisae,
Illinc Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon.
Fontibus hie vastis immensos concipit amnes,
Fluminaque in gemini spargit divortia ponti.
In laevuna cecidere latus veloxque Metaurus,
Crustumiumque rapax, et junctus Isapis Isauro,
Semnaque, et Adriacas qui verberat Aufidus undas:
Quoque magis nullum tellus se solvit in amnem,
Eridanus, fractasque evolvit in aequora silvas....
Dexteriora petens mentis declivia Tybrim
Unda facit, Rutubamque cavum ; delabitur inde
Vulturnusque eeler, nocturnaeque editor aurae
Sarnus, etumbrosae Liris per regna Maricae
Vestinis impulsus aquis, radensque Salerni
Culta Siler, nullasque vado qui Macra moratus
Ainos, vicinae procurrit in aequora Lunae.
Longior educto qua surgit in aera dorso,