Thence I'll pour On Caesar peoples from another earth And all the Orient ravished from its home.
But should the East and barbarous treaties fail, Fate, bear our shipwrecked fortunes past the bounds Of earth, as known to men.

The kings I made I supplicate not, but in death shall take To other spheres this solace: chief of all; His hands, my kinsman's, never shed my blood Nor soothed me dying.

Yet as my mind in turn The varying fortunes of my life recalls, How was I glorious in that Eastern world! How great my name by far Maeotis marsh And where swift Tanais flows! No other land Has so resounded with my conquests won, So sent me home triumphant.

Rome, do thou Approve my enterprise! What happier chance Could favouring gods afford thee?
Parthian hosts Shall fight the civil wars of Rome, and share Her ills, and fall enfeebled.

When the arms Of Caesar meet with Parthian in the fray, Then must kind Fortune vindicate my lot Or Crassus be avenged." But murmurs rose, And Magnus speaking knew his words condemned.
Then Lentulas (12) answered, with indignant soul, Foremost to rouse their valour, thus in words Worthy a Consul: "Have Thessalian woes Broken thy spirit so?
One day's defeat Condemned the world to ruin?
Is the cause Lost in one battle and beyond recall?
Find we no cure for wounds?
Does Fortune drive Thee, Magnus, to the Parthians' feet alone?
And dost thou, fugitive, spurn the lands and skies Known heretofore, and seek for other poles And constellations, and Chaldaean gods, And rites barbarian, servant of the realm Of Parthia?
But why then took we arms For love of liberty?
If thou canst slave Thou hast deceived the world! Shall Parthia see Thee at whose name, ruler of mighty Rome, She trembled, at whose feet she captive saw Hyrcanian kings and Indian princes kneel, Now humbly suppliant, victim of the fates; And at thy prayer her puny strength extol In mad contention with the Western world?
Nor think, Pompeius, thou shalt plead thy cause In that proud tongue unknown to Parthian ears Of which thy fame is worthy; sobs and tears He shall demand of thee.