“Wonderful but true! Shall future progeny of men believe, when crops grow again and this desert shall once more be green, that cities and peoples are buried below and that an ancestral countryside vanished in a common doom? Nor does the summit yet cease its deadly thrust.”
Mira fides! credetne virum ventura propago,
cum segetes iterum, cum iam haec deserta virebunt,
infra urbes populosque premi proavitaque tanto
rura abiisse mari? necdum letale minari
cessat apex.
iv, line 81
Silvae, Book IV
“So in the dark of night a dense crowd of shepherds wards off a wolf from the steer he has caught.”
Sic densa lupum jam nocte sub atra
arcet ab apprenso pastorum turba juvenco.
Source: Thebaid, Book VIII, Line 691
“Even so a crowd of nestlings, seeing their mother returning through the air afar, would fain go to meet her, and lean gaping from the edge of the nest, and would even now be falling, did she not spread all her motherly bosom to save them, and chide them with loving wings.”
Volucrum sic turba recentum,
cum reducem longo prospexit in aere matrem,
ire cupit contra summique e margine nidi
extat hians, iam iamque cadat, ni pectore toto
obstet aperta parens et amantibus increpat alis.
Source: Thebaid, Book X, Line 458 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
“That day was the day of Tydeus: from him they flee and tremble.”
Tydeos illa dies, illum fugiuntque tremuntque.
Source: Thebaid, Book VIII, Line 663 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
“Raise your half-buried countenance from the sudden shower of dust, Parthenope, and place your locks, singed by the mountains breath, on the tomb and body of your great foster son.”
Exsere semirutos subito de pulvere vultus,
Parthenope, crinemque adflato monte sepultum
pone super tumulos et magni funus alumni.
iii, line 104
Silvae, Book V
“Yet all does the sire himself ruthlessly condemn to the murky flames, and bid his own signs of rank be borne withal, if by their loss he may sate his devouring grief.”
Cuncta ignibus atris
damnat atrox suaque ipse parens gestamina ferri,
si damnis rabidum queat exaturare dolorem.
Source: Thebaid, Book VI, Line 81 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
“As a mariner caught in a winter sea, to whom neither lazy Wain nor Moon with friendly radiance shows directions, stands clueless in mid commotion of land and sea, expecting every moment rocks sunk in treacherous shallows, or foaming cliffs with spiky tops to run upon the rearing prow.”
Ac velut hiberno deprensus navita ponto,
cui neque Temo piger neque amico sidere monstrat
Luna vias, medio caeli pelagique tumultu
stat rationis inops, jam jamque aut saxa malignis
expectat summersa vadis aut vertice acuto
spumantes scopulos erectae incurrere prorae.
Source: Thebaid, Book I, Line 370
“They wonder in silence and turn pale for the dubious thunderbolt.”
Mirantur taciti et dubio pro fulmine pallent.
Source: Thebaid, Book X, Line 920
“For they say that Aegina was carried by force from her father's stream.”
Namque ferunt raptam patriis Aeginan ab undis.
Source: Thebaid, Book VII, Line 319 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
“The loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar's eye.”
Magni quod Caesaris ora...
unius amissi tetigit jactura leonis.
v, line 27 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
Silvae, Book II
“Reputation hidden in death.”
Titulique in morte latentes.
Source: Thebaid, Book X, Line 712
“The cruelty of war makes for peace.”
As quoted in Our Day of Empire (1954) by Louis Obed Renne, p. 180.
Attributed
“Adrastus is amazed thereat and slow to believe.”
Stupet haec et credere Adrastus
cunctatur.
Source: Thebaid, Book VIII, Line 150
“And snatched sweet grapes from the hills.”
Et dulces rapuit de collibus uvas.
ii, line 103
Silvae, Book II
“Tis noble to spare the vanquished.”
Pulchrum vitam donare minori.
Source: Thebaid, Book VI, Line 816 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
“Him did Galatia dare to provoke to war in lusty pride.”
Hunc Galatea vigens ausa est incessere bello.
iv, line 76 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
Silvae, Book I
“More stars fall from the loosened sky.”
Pluraque laxato ceciderunt sidera caelo.
Source: Thebaid, Book X, Line 145
“To stand still is torture; a thousand paces are wasted before the start, the heavy hoof strikes the absent flat.”
Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia mille
ante fugam, absentemque ferit grauis ungula campum.
Source: Thebaid, Book VI, Line 400
“Barren are the years behind me. This is the first day of my span, here is the threshold of my life.”
Steriles transmisimus annos:
haec aevi mihi prima dies, hic limina vitae.
ii, line 12
Silvae, Book IV
“Ah! what fury! alas! mankind, alas! dread Promethean skill!”
O furor, o homines diraeque Prometheos artes!
Source: Thebaid, Book XI, Line 468 (tr. J. H. Mozley)