Meroe rich in soil And tilled by swarthy husbandmen divides Thy broad expanse, rejoicing in the leaves Of groves of ebony, which though spreading far Their branching foliage, by no breadth of shade Soften the summer sun -- whose rays direct Pass from the Lion to the fervid earth.

(20) Next dost thou journey onwards past the realm Of burning Phoebus, and the sterile sands, With equal volume; now with all thy strength Gathered in one, and now in devious streams Parting the bank that crumbles at thy touch.
Then by our kingdom's gates, where Philae parts Arabian peoples from Egyptian fields The sluggish bosom of thy flood recalls Try wandering currents, which through desert wastes Flow gently on to where the merchant track Divides the Red Sea waters from our own.
Who, gazing, Nile, upon thy tranquil flow, Could picture how in wild array of foam (Where shelves the earth) thy billows shall be plunged Down the steep cataracts, in fuming wrath That rocks should bar the passage of thy stream Free from its source?
For whirled on high the spray Aims at the stars, and trembles all the air With rush of waters; and with sounding roar The foaming mass down from the summit pours In hoary waves victorious.

Next an isle In all our ancient lore "untrodden" named Stems firm thy torrent; and the rocks we call Springs of the river, for that here are marked The earliest tokens of the coming flood.
With mountain shores now nature hems thee in And shuts thy waves from Libya; in the midst Hence do thy waters run, till Memphis first Forbids the barrier placed upon thy stream And gives thee access to the open fields." Thus did they pass, as though in peace profound, The nightly watches.

But Pothinus' mind, Once with accursed butchery imbued, Was frenzied still; since great Pompeius fell No deed to him was crime; his rabid soul Th' avenging goddesses and Magnus' shade Stirred to fresh horrors; and a Pharian hand No less was worthy, as he deemed, to shed That blood which Fortune purposed should bedew The conquered fathers: and the fell revenge Due to the senate for the civil war This hireling almost snatched.

Avert, ye fates, Far hence the shame that not by Brutus' hand This blow be struck! Shall thus the tyrant's fall Just at our hands, become a Pharian crime, Reft of example?
To prepare a plan (Fated to fail) he dares; nor veils in fraud A plot for murder, but with open war Attacks th' unconquered chieftain: from his crimes He gained such courage as to send command To lop the head of Caesar, and to join In death the kinsmen chiefs.
These words by night His faithful servants to Achillas bear, His foul associate, whom the boy had made Chief of his armies, and who ruled alone O'er Egypt's land and o'er himself her king: "Now lay thy limbs upon the sumptuous couch And sleep in luxury, for the Queen hath seized The palace; nor alone by her betrayed, But Caesar's gift, is Pharos.