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VI.
Your fathers' guilt you still must pay,
Till, Roman, you restore each shrine,
Each temple, mouldering in decay,
And smoke-grimed statue, scarce divine.
Revering Heaven, you rule below;
Be that your base, your coping still;
'Tis Heaven neglected bids o'erflow
The measure of Italian ill.
Now Pacorus and Montaeses twice
Have given our unblest arms the foil;
Their necklaces, of mean device,
Smiling they deck with Roman spoil.
Our city, torn by faction's throes,
Dacian and Ethiop well-nigh razed,
These with their dreadful navy, those
For archer-prowess rather praised.
An evil age erewhile debased
The marriage-bed, the race, the home;
Thence rose the flood whose waters waste
The nation and the name of Rome.
Not such their birth, who stain'd for us
The sea with Punic carnage red,
Smote Pyrrhus, smote Antiochus,
And Hannibal, the Roman's dread.
Theirs was a hardy soldier-brood,
Inured all day the land to till
With Sabine spade, then shoulder wood
Hewn at a stern old mother's will,
When sunset lengthen'd from each height
The shadows, and unyoked the steer,
Restoring in its westward flight
The hour to toilworn travail dear.
What has not cankering Time made worse?
Viler than grandsires, sires beget
Ourselves, yet baser, soon to curse
The world with offspring baser yet.
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Delicta Majorum.
Delicta maiorum inmeritus lues,
Romane, donec templa refeceris
aedisque labentis deorum et
foeda nigro simulacra fumo.
Dis te minorem quod geris, imperas: 5
hinc omne principium, huc refer exitum.
Di multa neglecti dederunt
Hesperiae mala luctuosae.
Iam bis Monaeses et Pacori manus
non auspicatos contudit impetus 10
nostros et adiecisse praedam
torquibus exiguis renidet.
Paene occupatam seditionibus
deleuit urbem Dacus et Aethiops,
hic classe formidatus, ille 15
missilibus melior sagittis.
Fecunda culpae saecula nuptias
primum inquinauere et genus et domos:
hoc fonte deriuata clades
in patriam populumque fluxit. 20
Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos
matura uirgo et fingitur artibus,
iam nunc et incestos amores
de tenero meditatur ungui.
Mox iuniores quaerit adulteros 25
inter mariti uina, neque eligit
cui donet inpermissa raptim
gaudia luminibus remotis,
sed iussa coram non sine conscio
surgit marito, seu uocat institor 30
seu nauis Hispanae magister,
dedecorum pretiosus emptor.
Non his iuuentus orta parentibus
infecit aequor sanguine Punico
Pyrrhumque et ingentem cecidit 35
Antiochum Hannibalemque dirum;
sed rusticorum mascula militum
proles, Sabellis docta ligonibus
uersare glaebas et seuerae
matris ad arbitrium recisos 40
portare fustis, sol ubi montium
mutaret umbras et iuga demeret
bobus fatigatis, amicum
tempus agens abeunte curru.
Damnosa quid non inminuit dies? 45
aetas parentum, peior auis, tulit
nos nequiores, mox daturos
progeniem uitiosiorem.
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