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SILIUS ITALICUS
hie passim exultant Numidae, gens inscia freni, 215
quis inter geminas per ludum mobilis aures
quadrupedem flectit non cedens virga lupatis.
altrix bellorum bellatorumque virorum
tellus, nee fidens nudo sine fraudibus ensi.
Altera complebant Hispanae castra cohortes, 220
auxilia Europae genitoris parta tropaeis.
Martius hinc campos sonipes hinnitibus implet,
hinc iuga cornipedes erecti bellica raptant
non Eleus eat campo ferventior axis,
prodiga gens animae et properare facillima mortem,
namque ubi transeendit florentes viribus annos, 226
impatiens aevi spernit novisse senectam,
et fati modus in dextra est. his omne metallum :
electri gemino pallent de semine venae,
atque atros chalybis fetus humus horrida nutrit. 230
sed scelerum causas operit deus : Astur avarus
visceribus lacerae telluris mergitur imis
et redit infelix efFosso concolor auro.
hinc certant, Pactole, tibi Duriusque Tagusque,
quique super Gravios lucentes volvit harenas, 235
infernae populis referens oblivia Lethes.
nee Cereri terra indocilis nee inhospita Baccho,
nullaque Palladia sese magis arbore tollit.
" This fact is asserted by Virgil and Lucan, and repeatedly
by Silius : see ii. 64, iii. 293, xvi. 200.
'' They
•^ At
poison their weapons.
the Olympic games.
** He puts an end to his own life.
* Electrum was a natural metal, called by the Greeks
** white gold " : it was partly gold and partly silver.
^ There was in Spain, in the land of the Gravii, a river
called
20
Oblivio and therefore said to recall Lethe, the river
;
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