to thy reins for guidance and Xanthus have scorned to bear golden-haired Achilles. Pegasus himself had lent thee his subject wings and been glad to carry thee and, now that a mightier rider bestrode him, had turned in proud disdain from Bellerophon’s bridle. Nay, Aethon, swift messenger of dawn, who routs the stars with his neigh and is driven by rosy Lucifer, seeing thee from heaven as thou ridest by, is filled with envy and would choose rather to hold thy bit in his foaming mouth.
What raiment, too, have we not seen, what miracles of splendour, when, girt with the robe of Italy, thou didst go, still more glorious than thou art wont, through the peoples of Liguria, borne aloft amid thy troops clad in triumphal white and carried upon the shoulders of chosen warriors who so proudly upheld their godlike burden! ’Tis thus that Egypt brings forth her gods to the public gaze. The image issues from its shrine; small it is, indeed, yet many a linen-clad priest pants beneath the pole, and by his sweat testifies that he bears a god; Nile’s banks resound to the holy rattles, and Egypt’s pipe drones its native measure; Apis abases his horns and lows in reply. All the nobles, all whom Tiber and Latium rear, throng thy festival; gathered in one are all the great ones of the earth that owe their rank either to thee or to thy sire. Many a consular surrounds thee, the consul whose good pleasure it is to associate the senate in thy triumph. The nobles of Spain, the wise men of Gaul, and the senators of Rome all throng round thee. On young men’s necks is borne thy golden throne, and new adorning adds weight to deity. Jewels of India stud thy vestment, rows of green emeralds enrich
ducta virent; amethystus inest et fulgor Hiberus temperat arcanis hyacinthi caerula flammis. nec rudis in tali suffecit gratia textu; auget acus meritum picturatumque metallis 590 vivit opus: multa remorantur iaspide cultus[164] et variis spirat Nereia baca figuris. quae tantum potuit digitis mollire rigorem ambitiosa colus? vel cuius pectinis arte traxerunt solidae gemmarum stamina telae? 595 invia quis calidi scrutatus stagna profundi Tethyos invasit gremium? quis divitis algae germina flagrantes inter quaesivit harenas? quis iunxit lapides ostro? quis miscuit ignes Sidonii Rubrique maris? tribuere colorem 600 Phoenices, Seres subtegmina, pondus Hydaspes. hoc si Maeonias cinctu graderere per urbes, in te pampineos transferret Lydia thyrsos, in te Nysa choros; dubitassent orgia Bacchi, cui furerent; irent blandae sub vincula tigres. 605 talis Erythraeis intextus nebrida gemmis Liber agit currus et Caspia flectit eburnis colla iugis: Satyri circum crinemque solutae Maenades adstringunt hederis victricibus Indos; ebrius hostili velatur palmite Ganges. 610 Auspice mox laetum sonuit clamore tribunal te fastos ineunte quater. sollemnia ludit omina libertas; deductum Vindice morem lex celebrat, famulusque iugo laxatus erili