GREAT word divine he bids me sing again--
2The immortal holy God imperishable,
3Who gives to kings their power and takes away,
4And who determined for them time both ways,
5Both that of life and that of baneful death.
6And these the heavenly God enjoins on me
7Unwilling to bring tidings unto kings
8Concerning royal power. . . .
9. . . . . . .
10. . . . . . .
11And spear impetuous Ares; and by him
12All perish, child and the old man who gives
13To the assemblies laws; and many wars
14And battles there shall be, and homicides,
15Famines and pestilences, earthquake-shocks
16And mighty thunderbolts, and many ways
17Of the Assyrians over all the world,
18And pillaging and robbery of temples.
19And then an insurrection there shall be
20Of the industrious Persians, and with them
21Indians, Armenians, and Arabians;
22And unto these again a Roman king
23Insatiate in war and leading on
24His spearmen against the Assyrians
25Shall draw near, a young Ares, and as far
26As the deep-flowing silvery Euphrates
27Shall warlike Ares stretch his deadly spear
28Because of . . .
29For by his friend betrayed he shall fall down
30In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron.
31And straightway coming out of Syria
32There shall a purple-loving warrior rule,
33Terror of Ares, and also his son,
34A Cæsar, shall even all the earth oppress;
35And the one name is unto both of them:
36On first and twentieth there are to be placed
37Five hundred. But when these in wars shall rule,
38And laws shall be enacted, there shall be
39A little rest from war, not for long time;
40But when a wolf shall to a flock of sheep
41Pledge solemn oaths against the white-toothed dogs,
42Then, having misled, he will tear in pieces
43The woolly sheep, and cast his oaths aside;
44And then shall there be an unlawful strife
45Of haughty kings in wars, and Syrians
46Shall perish terribly, and Indians
47And the Armenians and Arabians,
48The Persians and the Babylonians
49Shall one another by hard fights destroy.
50But when a Roman Ares shall destroy
51A German Ares ruinous of life
52Triumphing on the ocean, then is war
53Of many years for haughty Persian men,
54But for them there shall not be victory;
55For as a fish swims not upon the point
56Of a high many-ridged and windy rock
57Precipitant, nor does a tortoise fly,
58Nor does an eagle into water come,
59So also are the Persians in that day
60Far off from victory, while the fond nurse
61Of the Italians, in the plain of Nile
62Reposing by the sacred water's side,
63Sends forth the appointed lot to seven-hilled Rome.
64Now these things are; and while the name of Rome
65Shall hold in numbers of revolving time,
66So many years shall the great noble city
67Of Macedon's lord, willing, deal out corn.
68Another much-distressing pain I'll sing
69For Alexandrians who are destroyed
70By reason of the strife of shameful men.
71Strong men who were aforetime terrible
72Being then impotent shall pray for peace
73By reason of the wickedness of chiefs.
74And there shall come wrath of the mighty God
75On the Assyrians and a mountain stream
76Shall utterly destroy them, which shall come
77To Cæsar's city and harm Canaanites.
78The Pyramus shall irrigate the city
79Of Mopsus; then shall the Ægæans fall
80Because of strife of very mighty men.
81Thee, wretched Antioch, shall Ares strong
82Leave not while round thee an Assyrian war
83Is pressing, for a chief of men shall dwell
84Within thy houses who shall fight with all
85The arrow-hurling Persians, he himself
86Having obtained of Romans royal power.
87Now, cities of Arabians, deck yourselves
88With temples and with places for the race,
89And with broad markets and with splendid wealth,
90With images, gold, silver, ivory;
91And thou who art of all most fond of learning,
92Bostra and Philippopolis, that thou may'st come
93Into great sorrow; and the laughing spheres
94Of the zodiacal vault, Aries,
95Taurus, and Gemini, and as many stars
96Ruling hours as with them in heaven appear
97Shall benefit thee not; thou, wretched one,
98Hast trusted many, when that very man
99Shall afterwards bring near that which is thine.
100And now for Alexandrians loving war
101Will I sing wars most dreadful; and much people
102Shall perish while their cities are destroyed
103By citizens against each other matched
104And fighting for the sake of hateful strife,
105And round them horrid Ares, rushing on,
106Shall cease from war. And then one of great soul
107Along with his own mighty son shall fall
108By treachery on the older king's account.
109And after him there shall rule powerfully
110O'er fertile Rome another great-souled lord
111Versed in war, coming from the Dacians
112And numbering three hundred; he shall have
113Also the letter of the number four,
114And many shall be slay, and then the king
115Shall all his brothers and his friends destroy
116Even while the kings are cut off, and straightway
117Shall there be fights and pillagings and murders
118Suddenly on the older king's account.
119Then, when a wily man shall summoned come,
120A robber and a Roman not well known
121From Syria appearing, he by guile
122Into a race of Cappadocian men
123Shall drive through and, besieging, shall press hard,
124Insatiate of war. And then for thee,
125Tyana and Mazaka, there shall be
126A capture; thou shalt be enslaved and put
127Upon thy neck again a fearful yoke.
128Arid Syria shall mourn for men destroyed
129And then Selenian goddess shall not guard
130Her holy city. But when he by flight
131From Syria shall before the Romans come,
132And shall pass over the Euphrates' streams,
133No longer like the Romans, but like fierce
134Dart-shooting Persians, then, fulfilling fate,
135Down shall the ruler of the Italians fall
136In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron;
137And close upon him shall his children perish.
138But when another king of Rome shall reign,
139Then also to the Romans there shall come
140Unstable nations, on the walls of Rome
141Destructive Ares with his bastard son;
142Then also shall be famines, pestilence,
143And mighty thunderbolts, and dreadful wars,
144And anarchy in cities suddenly;
145And the Syrians shall perish fearfully;
146For there shall come upon them the great wrath
147Of the Most High and straightway an uprising
148of the industrious Persians, and mixed up
149With Persians shall the Syrians destroy
150The Romans, but by the divine decree
151They shall not make a conquest of their laws.
152Alas, how many with their goods shall flee
153Front the East unto men of other tongues
154Alas, the dark blood of how many men
155The land shall drink! For that shall be a time
156In which the living uttering o'er the dead
157A blessing shall by word of mouth pronounce
158Death beautiful and death shall flee from them.
159And now for thee, O wretched Syria,
160I weep in sorrow; for to thee shall come
161A dreadful blow from arrow-shooting men,
162Which thou didst never think would come to thee.
163Also the fugitive of Rome shall come
164Bearing a great spear, Crossing on his way
165Euphrates with his many myriads,
166And he shall burn thee, and dispose all things
167In a bad way. O wretched Antioch,
168And thee a city they shall never call,
169When by thy lack of prudence thou shalt fall
170Under the spears; and stripping off all things
171And making naked he shall leave thee thus
172Coverless, houseless; and when anyone
173Sees he shall of a sudden weep for thee.
174And thou shalt be, O Hierapolis,
175A triumph, also thou, Berœa; weep
176At Chalcis over lately wounded sons.
177Alas, how many by the steep high mount
178Of Casius shall dwell and by Amanus
179How many, and how many Lycus laves,
180And Marsyas as many and Pyramus
181The silver-eddying; for even to the bounds
182Of Asia they shall treasure up their spoils,
183Make cities naked, and bear idols off
184And cast down temples on much-nourishing earth.
185And sometime to Gauls and Pannonians,
186To Mysians and Bithynians there shall be
187Great sorrow when a warrior shall have come.
188O Lycians, Lycians, there shall come a wolf
189To lick thy blood, when Sannians shall come
190With city-wasting Ares and the Carpians
191Shall draw near with Ausonians to fight.
192And then by his own shameless recklessness
193The bastard son shall put the king to death,
194And he himself for his impiety
195Shall straightway perish. And again shall rule
196After him yet another whose name shows
197First letter; but he too shall quickly fall
198By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.
199And yet again the world shall be confused,
200Men perishing by pestilence and war.
201And the Persians maddened by the Ausonians
202Shall in the toil of Ares yet again
203Force their way. And then there shall be a flight
204Of Romans; and thereafter there shall come
205The priest heard of all round, sent by the sun,
206From Syria appearing and by guile
207Shall he accomplish all things. And then too
208The city of the sun shall offer prayer;
209And round about her shall the Persians dare
210The fearful threatenings of the Phœnicians.
211But when two chiefs, men swift in war, shall rule
212The very mighty Romans, one of whom
213Shall have the number seventy, and the other
214The number three, even then the stately bull,
215That digs the earth with his hoofs and stirs up
216The dust with his two horns, shall many ills
217Upon a dark-skinned reptile perpetrate--
218Which draws a trail with his scales; and besides,
219Himself shall perish. And yet after him
220Again shall come another fair-horned stag,
221Hungry upon the mountains, striving hard
222To feed upon the venom-shedding beasts
223Then shall a dread and fearful lion come,
224Sent from the sun, and breathing forth much flame.
225And then too by his shameless recklessness
226Shall he destroy the well-horned rapid stag,
227And the most mighty venom-shedding beast
228So dread, that sends forth many piping sounds,
229And the he-goat that sideways moves along,
230And after him fame follows; he himself
231Sound, unhurt, unapproachable, shall rule
232The Romans, and the Persians shall be weak.
233But, Lord, King of the world, O God, restrain
234The song of our words, and give charming song.