"NOW TURN YOUR EYES THIS WAY: LOOK AT THIS nation and your Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the descendants of Iulus who shall live beneath the mighty vault of heaven. This is the man, he is the one you have so often heard promised to you, Augustus Caesar, son of god, who shall re-establish a Golden Age in Latium, over the lands once ruled by Saturn. He shall increase the empire's bounds beyond the Garamantes and the Indians. There lies land beyond the stars, outside the annual orbit of the sun, where Atlas who supports the sky on his shoulders spins the dome of heaven studded with fiery stars. Already the kingdoms of the Caspian Sea and the land of Maeotis shudder at the gods' oracles that foretell his arrival, and the panic-stricken delta of the seven-branched Nile quakes.
Even Hercules did not cover so much of the earth, though he speared the brazen-hoofed deer and brought peace to the glens of Erymanthus and made Lerna tremble with his bow.
Nor did Bacchus, who steered his chariot to victory with vines for reins, driving his tigers from the high peak of Nysa.
And do we still hesitate to stretch our courage in action? Or does fear stop us taking our stand on Italian soil?
WHO IS HE IN THE DISTANCE, STANDING OUT with the olive branches, carrying the sacred emblems? I recognise the hair and grey-bearded chin of a Roman king: the one who will give the city a basis of laws - sent from little Cures and its poor countryside to a mighty responsibility. Next there will succeed him Tullus, who will shatter the peace of the fatherland and rouse to battle men grown used to leisure, and units who've already lost the taste for military triumphs. Behind him follows one more arrogant: Ancus, now already taking too much pleasure in popular approval.
Do you also want to see the Tarquins and the proud spirit of Brutus their avenger, and the fasces returned to the people? Brutus is the first who will receive the power of a consul and the cruel axes - a father who - in the name of liberty the beautiful - will call down punishment on his sons for plotting to renew the wars. Sad man! However posterity interprets those actions, love for his country and a boundless thirst for praise will prevail.
BUT NOW LOOK OVER THERE AT THE DECII AND Drusi, and stern Torquatus with his axe, and Camillus bringing back the standards.
Now those souls, whom you see shining in matching armour, like-minded now, and as long as they are shrouded in darkness - alas what a war there will be between them, if they ever reach the light above, what battles and carnage they will provoke! The father-in-law decending from the Alpine ramparts and the citadel of Monaco, the son-in-law equipped with eastern arms to match him! No, my children, do not make war on this scale seem normal, and do not turn your mighty strength against your own country's vitals. Before this happens, show restraint, you, who trace your descent from Olympus; drop the weapons from your hand, my blood kin...!
That man will drive his chariot to the high Capitol victorious after triumphing over Corinth, famed for the Greeks he has slaughtered.
That man will overthrow Argos and Agamemnon's Mycenae, and Perseus himself, descendant of all-conquering Achilles - avenging his Trojan ancestors, and the desecration of the temple of Minerva.
Who could leave you unmentioned, great Cato, or you, Cossus? Who could ignore the family of Gracchus, or the two Scipios, twin thunderbolts, the scourge of Africa, or Fabricius, powerful in his poverty, or you, Serranus, sowing seed in your furrow? Don't be impatient, wait for a tired old man, you Fabii! You are the famous Fabius Maximus, the one man who by holding back restores our fortunes.
OTHERS WILL BEAT OUT BRONZE MORE SUBTLY into breathing likenesses, will draw living portraits from marble, will plead causes better, and will mark out with a rod the movements of the sky and document the stars as they rise. You, man of Rome, study how to rule nations with your power. These will be your arts: to enforce the discipline of peace, to show mercy to the humbled, and battle the proud to death."