I had begun translating and commenting on Rutilius Namatianus' poetry while at university, though other commitments impeded the completion of this project (see prior parts here and here). Below is the next part, in praise of Rome's aqueducts, palaces and with renewed hopes that the city may rise again following the sack of 410 AD.
Lines 94-154
"The gleaming temples confound the wandering sights,
I should believe that the gods themselves thus live there. [1]
What am I to say of the streams hanging on the bronze vault,
where Iris might scarcely raise the rain-bearing waters? [2]
You may rather say that these mountains grew to the stars.
Such massive work does Greece praise. [3]
The intercepted rivers are hidden within your walls, [4]
The baths on high consume whole lakes.
And no less are the dewy meadows renowned for their own little streams,
And the all the walls resound with their native spring.
From here the cold wind tempers the summer air,
And purer water alleviates innocent thirst.
Verily did a torrent of hot waters burst forth for you,
As the enemy pressed on the Tarpeian ways. [5]
Were it for eternity, I would perhaps deem it a whim of chance:
It flowed forth to help you, for it was to recede.
What am I to say of the woods shut in amid the panelled ceilings, [6]
Where the local bird plays about with varied song?
In your spring the year never ceases to be pleasant,
And the conquered winter gazes with reverence upon your delights.
O Rome, raise up the laurels of hair and refashion the old age
Of your sacred head into flourishing tresses.
May the golden diadem beam forth on your tower-bearing helmet,
and may the golden boss of the shield spew forth perpetual fires!
May the vanquished injustice hide away the sad misfortune,
and may the despised pain clot the shut-in wounds!
It is your custom to hope for favourable turns amid your adversities.
By the example of heaven, you endure losses that enrich you.
By setting, the flames of the stars renew their rising.
That the moon wanes, you see, that it may wax again.
Allia did not put off the punishment of the victorious Brennus. [7]
The Samnite paid for the cruel treaty by slavery. [8]
Defeated after many disasters you put Pyrrhus to flight. [9]
Hannibal himself wept at his own withdrawals.
What cannot be submerged, rises with greater force,
And jumps out driven more deeply from the bottom of the depths.
And just as the bent torch takes up new strength,
So you seek the lofty sky more radiant from a lowly lot.
Spread forth the laws to be victorious for Roman centuries.
And alone you need not fear the distaffs of the Fates,
Though already the 1169th year is passing by for you. [10]
The time that remains is subject to no limits,
So long as the lands remain, and the sky bears the stars!
That which breaks other kingdoms repairs you.
The order of rebirth is to be able to rise up from evils.
So come, let the sacrificial victim of the sacrilegous people fall.
Let the trembling Goths yield their perfidious necks.
Let the pacified lands give rich taxes.
Let the barbarian booty fill your august lap.
Let the Rhine plow for you for eternity, let the Nile likewise flood for you. [11]
Let the fertile land feed its sustainer.
And indeed, let Africa bring together its fertile harvests for you, [12]
Rich as it is with its soil, but more so with your rain showers.
And meanwhile, let the granaries rise with their Latin furrows.
And let the rich wine-presses flow with Hesperian nectar.
Let the Tiber itself, adorned with triumphal reed,
Make its serving waters suitable for the needs of Romulus' people.
And let it bring rich income from trade along its pleasant banks to you
From here from the countryside, and from there from the sea.
Notes
[1]- As noted before, indicative of the poet's pagan outlook.
[2]- It may not seem immediately clear what Namatianus is getting at here, but the following two lines shows that the poet is praising the massive size of the aqueducts. Iris is the deity figure in Greek and Roman religion associated with rainbows, and so he means that the arches of the rainbows Iris creates do not match the scale of the arches of the aqueducts.
[3]- It is fair to say that the Romans had something of an inferiority complex vis-a-vis the Greeks, trying to counter the perception that they were mere imitators of Greek invention and innovation. E.g. cf. Cicero Pro Roscio Amerino 69-71, where Cicero is keen to extol the Romans for devising a punishment for parricide whereas Solon of Athens had devised no punishment because he did not think anyone would commit such a crime. "O singularem sapientiam!", Cicero remarks, in praise of Roman innovation.
[4]- Water from rivers diverted by aqueducts, most notably the Anio Vetus built in 272 BC that diverted water from the Aniene River in modern-day Lazio.
[5]- As previous commentators have noted, this refers to an incident early in Rome's history in which Sabine king Titus Tatius launched an assault on Rome after the rape of the Sabine women. When his forces reached the gates of Janus, boiling water arose from the earth.
[6]- i.e. The gardens amid the colonnades with ceilings.
[7]- The Battle of Allia was part of 4th century BC Gallic chieftain Brennus' invasion of central Italy, culminating in a Roman defeat and the subsequent sack of Rome, a feat that would not be repeated until the Visigoths' sack in AD 410.
[8]- Referring to the Samnites' compelling the Romans to undergo the humiliation of the yoke at the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, an incident related in Livy 9.2-6. The Samnites were eventually subjugated under Roman rule and became socii (allied Italic peoples of Rome with fewer rights than Roman citizens or Latins [e.g. no conubium rights with Roman citizens], but nonetheless having theoretical privileges of maintaining their own legal systems). Feelings of marginalization and humiliation eventually led to the Social War uprising of southern Italic peoples against Roman rule in 91 BC, with the formation of an independent "Italia" entity, contrasting with the Etruscan and Umbrian socii further north who generally did not rise up and were quickly granted citizenship by the lex Julia of 90 BC. Samnites, as an Oscan people, were among the most stubborn of the insurgency against Rome, and even as fighting had largely died down by 88-7 BC, there was still the Battle of the Colline Gate between Pontius Telesinus and Sulla's forces outside of Rome in 82 BC.
[9]- Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, fought a number of battles with the expanding Roman Republic in southern Italy in the early 3rd century BC.
[10]- By reckoning from the founding of Rome in legend at 753 BC, we are in 416 AD.
[11]- By this stage, of course, the Nile area was administered by the Eastern court in Constantinople.
[12]- As Tacitus had already noted in his Annals (writing in the early 2nd century AD), Rome's dependence on grain had shifted to the provinces, most notably Sicily and Africa (both the actual province of Africa that most notably included modern-day Tunisia, and Egypt). The loss of Africa to the Vandals later on in the 5th century AD marked a further key weakening of the western Empire's power.