Caesar's Mantra

Greetings, Earthlings,

I'm not even sure if I spelled Caesar right, but whatever. How many of you have seen the movie Gods and Generals (a Civil War movie)? A few? Well, in the movie, there's a scene where the Federal troops are marching up to attack the Confederate positions on Marye's Heights, a series of hills just outside of Fredericksburg. They are walking into the jaws of doom, and as the troops slowly move into position, an officer strarts reciting this poem. Just as he finishes, the Confederate artillery opens fire. Can you imagine it?

How swiftly Caesar had surmounted the icy Alps

And in his mind conceived immense upheavals, coming war.

When he reached the water of the little Rubicon,

Clearly to the leader through the murky night

Appeared a mighty image of his country in distress,

Grief in her face, her white hair streaming from her tower-crowned head,

With tresses torn and shoulders bare, she stood before him

and sighing said:

“Where further do you march?

Where do you take my standards, warriors?

If lawfully you come, if as citizens,

this far only is allowed.”

Then trembling struck the leader's limbs,

His hair grew stiff and weakness checked his progress,

Holding his feet at the river's edge.

At last he speaks.

“Oh thunderer,

Surveying great Rome's walls from the Tarpeian rock.

Oh Phrygian, house gods of Iulus,

clan and mysteries of Quirinus who was carried off to heaven.

Oh, Jupiter of Latium,

seated in lofty Alba and hearths of Vesta

Oh Rome, equal to the highest deity, favor my plans!

Not with impious weapons do I pursue you;

Here am I, Ceasar,

conqueror of land and sea, your own soldier everywhere

Now, too, if I am permitted.

The man who makes me your enemy

It is he who will be the guilty one.”

Then he broke the barriers of war

and through the swollen river swiftly took his standards.

When Caesar crossed the flood and reached the opposite bank

From Hesperia's forbidden fields he took his stand and said,

“Here, I abandoned peace and desecrated law.

Fortune, it is you I follow. Farewell to treaties; from now on, war is our judge.”

Hail, Caesar. We who are about to die salute you.