Ovid. Metamorph. XV. Fab. X.

Scheme: Augustus, desiring to be deemed not only a god but the son of a god, fostered the report that Julius Caesar had been changed to a star by Venus, and ordained that divine honors should be paid to him.

This impious desire furnishes Ovid with an opportunity for venting his opinion regarding the dead Caesar and the living one, and leads up to his picture (the "advena" of the opening line) where "the Christian woman" (under guise of Venus) sees the "cross," "hammer" and "nails" prepared for Him, her High Priest, whose name she paints in five different combinations.

A list of signs attending the Crucifixion having been enumerated, the author points out the hidden anagram ("Christ Jesus is coming") in his picture, tells the hearer that Christ's coming is close at hand, preaches dogma as sound as it is universal, dwells at length upon the pictured Name, prophesies the object and results of our Saviour's mission, how He would inculcate peace and justice, establish his Church, and remain on earth until "He has made the figures of his years the same."

After ingeniously picturing one other combination of the Name, the poet concludes with a scathing denunciation of Augustus-a denunciation that extends even to the hereafter.

Hic tamen accessit delubris advena nostris.

Caesar in urbe sua deus est, quem marte togaque
Praecipuum non bella magis finita triumphis
Resque domi gestae properataque gloria rerum
5. In sidus vertere novum stellamque comantem,
Quam sua progenies; neque enim de Caesaris actis
Ullum majus opus, quam quod pater extitit hujus.
Scilicet aequoreos plus est domuisse Britannos,
Perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili
10. Victrices egisse rates, Numidasque rebelles

Yet did He come, a stranger to our shrines.
In his own city Caesar is a god,

The Caesar whom, renowned through sword and gown,
His battles finished with triumphal shows,

His deeds at home, and fortune's quick hurra,
Have no more changed to an abnormal sphere
And blazing star, than his descendant-for
No deed of all that Caesar did was more
Portentous than the fathering this man.
The sea-girt Britons to have tamed, and led
Victorious fleets through reedy, seven-sourced Nile;

Cinyphiumque Jubam, Mithridateisque tumentem
Nominibus Pontum populo adjecisse Quirini,
Et multos meruisse, aliquos egisse triumphos,
Quam tantum genuisse virum! Quo praeside rerum
15. Humano generi, superi, favistis abunde!

Ne foret hic igitur mortali semine cretus,
Ille deus faciendus erat. Quod ut aurea vidit
Aeneae genitrix, vidit quoque triste parari
Pontifici lethum et conjurata arma moveri.
20. Palluit et cunctis, ut cuique erat obvia, divis
"Aspice," dicebat, "quanta mihi mole parentur
Insidiae, quantaque caput cum fraude petatur
Quod de Dardanio solum mihi restat Iulo.
Solane semper ero duris exercita curis?

25. Quam modo Tydidae Calydonia vulneret hasta,
Nunc male defensae confundant moenia Troiae:

To have annexed unto the Roman state
Cinyphian Juba, the Numidian foes

And Pontus puffed with Mithridatic names;
Full many triumphs to have earned, and some
To have mapped out in thought: is each and all
Of those more vital in results, forsooth,
Than 'tis to have occasioned such a man!
With what a patron of the world, O gods,
Have ye humanity so richly helped!

So, lest he might from mortal seed be born,
The other was ordained to be a god.
Which when beheld by love (the ardent love
That gave Aeneas birth), she also saw
The horrid death for our High Priest prepared,
And weapons preordained to be employed.
Then ghastly pale she grew, and cried aloud
To all the gods, as each she met, "Behold!

With how much pains are snares prepared for me;
And with what craft the Life (which faces me
Alone from Dardan Julius) is sought.

Shall I, shall I with none for company

Be always hampered by those bitter cares?

I whom just now the son of Tydeus

. Can puncture with a Calydonian spear,

And whom Troy's ruined breastworks now amaze;

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ΙΟ

Quae videam natum longis erroribus actum, Jactarique freto, sedesque intrare silentum, Bellaque cum Turno gerere, aut, si vera fatemur, 30. Cum Junone magis. Quid nunc antiqua recordor

35.

Damna mei generis: timor hic meminisse priorum
Non sinit: in me acui sceleratos cernitis enses!
Quos prohibite, precor, facinusque repellite, neve
Caede sacerdotis flammas extinguite Vestae."

Talia nequicquam toto Venus anxia caelo

Verba jacit superosque movet, qui rumpere quamquam
Ferrea non possunt veterum decreta sororum,
Signa tamen luctus dant haud incerta futuri.
Arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia nubes
40. Terribilesque tubas auditaque cornua caelo

Praemonuisse nefas. Solis quoque tristis imago
Lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris.
Saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris:
Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae.
45. Caeruleus et vultum ferrugine Lucifer atra
Sparsus erat, sparsi lunares sanguine currus.

I who can fix my gaze upon the Son
Determined still through long continued faults,
The Son who's on the fretted torrent tossed,
Who penetrates the dead ones' resting spots,
Who wages war on war with Turnus (or
With Juno rather, if the truth we own).
Why mention now my kindred's wrongs of yore:
Dread of the ones before me here forbids
Relating them: you see those ruthless dirks,
And that they're pointed sharp for me-for me!
Oh! ward them off, prevent the savage deed,

II

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Nor Vesta's flames quench with the High Priest's blood."
In every quarter anxious love pours forth
Such words in vain; in vain she moves the gods
Who, though they cannot break fate's iron laws,
Give likely tokens of the woe to come.

The impious deed, they say, had been forewarned
By weapons clattering midst the darkling clouds,
By dreadful trumps and horns heard in heaven.
The louring image of the sun itself

Shed but a lurid light on frightened earth;
Oft midst the stars were meteors seen to blaze;
Oft midst the rain clouds trickled bloody specks;
And the pale morning star had dashed its face
In rusty black; the moon, its tracks in blood,